okay testing oh it works all right um it is 7 o'clock so I'm going to call the meeting to order this is the regular city council meeting from minat Trista November 13th 2023 first order of business I'd like to remind you please to turn off your cell phones are on silent mode airplane mode so they don't disrupt the meeting and then second would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation God indivisible withy and justice for all so welcome everyone that's here this evening we have some special presentations later on so glad to see all of you here uh first order I'd like to do some introductions for those of you that don't know us up here I'm Lisa Wayan I'm the mayor and next to me our Council members Kathleen rekin an McGregor Peter vicory tonight Claudia Lacy is absent and then on the end we have our city engineer Alison fski with WSB and then we have our Public Works director Gary Peters and then our director of administration Alie palu she's on the back she's going to be taking pictures and then we have our new city clerk an meerhoff and then next to me on my right we have our city administrator Jasper kral Brian Grim is our finance director and then David Abel our community development director and then sitting in for Sarah Sans Salo this evening our City attorney is Pete Michaels thank you and welcome and then on the end we have our chief of police Paul Falls with that we have a couple of changes to our agenda so we will not be seeing Senator uh Morrison this evening she will have to come back some other time she had some um things come up uh so we'll remove that and then we're going to add an item it's going to be 6B as a resolution to approve the city administrator and mayor here to authorize officials to uh as the authorized officials to execute State Grant applications we're going to add that as 6B so with that um are there any additional and then um also we're going to be accepting the donations under our consent agenda items and there's an additional item that was not in our packet but it came in today I'm glad to say we have an additional $1,200 received from midco for our tree lighting um holiday event so we have um a total of $4,800 so far that we have received and donations for the event so thank you to all of our sponsors and we'll be listing you later on and with that I don't have any other changes any other changes all right with that then a motion to approve the agenda with those changes is there a motion to that effect so thank you Mr vicory is there a second second thank you Miss McGregor any further questions discussion hearing none all those in favor signify with i i I all those opposed motion passes for o so we're going to start with our special presentations this evening we have like I said two special presentations recognizing outgoing uh Laura sandholm who has been on our uh Planning Commission for 16 years 16 years um so I just want to say a few things we um unfortunately at my mistake we didn't start recognizing our outgoing planning Commissioners soon enough but now the last couple years we started to recognize those that are no longer going to be on the Planning Commission for various reasons moving or decided not to re up and Laura U Miss Sanol has been on the Planning Commission for 16 years and I've had the pleasure of knowing her because of that and and uh also serving um as the leaz on on the Planning Commission Miss sandol has also served as the uh chair for the Planning Commission for quite a few years and we want to really recognize her for her um time of course it takes a lot of time to be on um these volunteer and this is completely voluntary volunteer um time and it does take a lot of time and the city council I want to say we really rely on our planning Commissioners and our Park Commissioners to do all of the vetting and kind of The Upfront work and and the hard work and when it comes to us we know it's been vetted we know that you've thoroughly discussed it so we really really appreciate um your contributions not only to the city council to us as a um organization but to our community as a whole so with that I'm going to ask that uh Laura come to the podium I'm going to find my resolution here somewhere all [Music] right you do not need to state your name and address we already have that all right so U with that um this is a resolution recognizing Laura sandholm for her contribution to Minista um a through membership on the Planning Commission whereas Laura sandome served at Minista Planning Commission from 2008 through 2023 serving as the Planning Commission chair from 2016 through 2023 and whereas Laura sandol participated in in the 2007 public facilities task force and whereas Laura sandome participated in the 2030 comprehensive plan steering committee now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Minista that we are forever thankful for Laura sandholes contribution to the city of Minista and for her service to the residents of the city of Minista do I have a motion to adopt this resolution so moved thank you Miss rekin is there a second second thank you Mr vickory all those in favor signify I I all those oppos motion passes for again I want to thank you for your service and this take it on [Applause] W so next we have another um resolution and um we would like to recognize Gary Pettis Gary Pettis uh this is actually uously I'm very unfortunate and very sad to say that uh Mr pet has passed away September 28th I believe 29th thank you um however I I knew Gary too for many years being on the park commission first and then also being on the Planning Commission and as when he was on the park commission he served as a chair and then later on he was on the Planning Commission and he was a great asset again to both commissions and we greatly appreciate his contributions to to our city to our commissions and the advice and um things that he gave to the city council as well as to our city and his wife Sue is here this evening thank you so much for coming and again thank you for your dedication allowing him to serve we know it's um days and nights away from family and and um that so I'm going to read this resolution it's a resolution recognizing Gary Pettis for his contributions to the Minista me uh through his membership on the par parks and planning commissions whereas Gary Pettis was a very active member of the Minista Community being appointed to the Parks Commission from 2000 through 2016 where he served as a vice chair from 2003 through 2004 he served as chair from 2005 through 2009 and again as Vice chair from 2009 through 2013 whereas Gary Pettis was a member of the Minista Planning Commission from 2016 through 202 2 and whereas Gary Pettis participated in guiding the direction long-term vision of the city of Minnetrista by being a member of the 2040 comprehensive plan steering committee and whereas Gary Pettis participated in the 2002 citizens advisory committee for green infrastructure so now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Minnetrista that we are forever thankful for Gary Pet's contribution to the city of Minista and for his service to the residents of the city of Minista do I have a motion to accept this or to make this res resolution so Mo thank you Miss McGregor do I have a second second thank you Mr vicory any further questions comments all those in favor signify with i i i all those opposed thank you motion passes and misses for your [Applause] you [Music] so now you all are welcome to stay but if you don't want to stay for the fun part you're welcome to leave as well I know you probably have a bar somewhere that you're going to and thank you all for [Laughter] [Music] coming [Music] so with that that concludes our special presentations for this evening we don't have anybody signed up under persons to be heard so we will move on to our consent agenda items uh they consist of a through J so first item is approve our work session meeting meting minutes from October 16th 2023 B is approve our city council regular meeting minutes from October 16th 2023 C is approve a conditional offer of employment to Tyler Anderson for police officer position yay um D is approve our city of Minista not to wave the monetary limits on Municipal tort liability e is approve the new offsale intoxicating liquor license for the Cove Wine and Spirits Incorporated f is approved a2s task order number 06 for the bonding Bill engineering support G is a resolution to approve claims H is a resolution to accept the donations for the holiday Tree Lighting Event and like I said the additional uh $1,200 from midco as well and then I is a resolution to approve the agreement with Advantage Property Maintenance Incorporated for lawn lawn mowing services and J is approve agreement with True Green for ferti ization and weed control services any questions hearing none then is a motion um to approve consent agenda items a through J some move thank you Miss rkin is there a second second thank you Miss McGregor any further questions hearing none all those in favor signify with i i i all those opposed motion passes 40 so next are our business items uh we have two items one approving our counting our counting right in votes for elective offices who's are you taking that actually uh Mr pus will do that oh there we go kind of gets keep getting handed off okay okay so as you can see in your memo um during the 2023 legislative sessions there were several election Administration laws that were changed one of them is allowing um cities to adopt a resolution to only count W in votes of persons that are registered with the city um this is basically just a time-saving thing um because if the way we do it now you have to go through every single ballot and you have to write down every single name and then put tally marks so this makes it just a lot streamlines it a lot easier you have a list if anybody if they do register and that's all you're looking for when you still have to look at every the ballot but it just makes it go a little faster so I did talk to hennipen County and as of now there are seven cities so far that they KN knew of that had um adopted this resolution I know Carver County most of those cities have also done that so that's what this item is okay thank you um Council questions comments what happens if someone doesn't know they have to register they won't get counted and they have to register what 7 days in advance well it ends seven days you they can start after like the filing period yeah and then up until seven days before the election the election right that's that's what I meant so if someone mounts a right in campaign for someone and nobody knew they had to file their votes wouldn't be counted correct and I do not agree with this yeah that sounds like I just franchise people I mean I I don't care when or the other I think if you're going to run on a right in vote you want to know more than seven days that you're going to do that but you're right if they don't know they have to register so that would be we don't we don't have to do anything they she would just count all the right in votes I knew but couldn't we keep this and and be able to announce it some way that they have to register I mean isn't there a way to fix this because it makes more sense it actually would help the candidate out if they knew in advance right right and it's like it helps the election judges at the end of the night because it's a long day and then you know so is there something we can put into place that says that we will announce something or publish something or yeah we would if this was into effect we publish it on our website Facebook um it would be known but it' be up to the person to to know it to know like water I mean you could you could put it in your newsletter you could put it yeah you could put good point um you could put it in your newsletter you could put it on your Facebook you could put it on emails you could um I mean there's a lot of different you could post it at City Hall um not that a lot of people see that but you could do that you could send out a notice to all the HOAs um yeah because the the example given if people want to write in Batman or some other name right it's taking up all their time to have to vet that I understand I'm not saying it's not a waste of time I just think in an effort for transparency for residents if they take the time to write in people's names they should be counted because the last thing you want is a bunch of residents saying well I wrote in so and so why didn't their votes count and then you go well they had you had to register seven days in advance well I didn't know that so you didn't count X many votes that this person allegedly got because you didn't count them because they didn't know the only other flip side to that is if people were to write in somebody else's name let's just say Kathleen you write in Tom Sawyer name and then you know 30 other people writing Tom s's name but what if Tom S doesn't want to run that's that's that's the other issue I think that's what this also kind of addresses it would only allow people that really want to run to have their names you know on the ballot or to be be a write it and I'll clarify this doesn't have to be approved tonight just has to be approved obviously before the election you'd want it approved sometime maybe I mean i' say bying if there research you want to do I'm just saying it's not you don't have yes or no tonight because this is just for the local offices this is already done for federal and state right you have to register what is the time frame for registering for state and local do you know I I believe it's the same the seven days prior to okay okay well maybe do some more research find out um how many more cities between now and then um change it or make bring it spring yeah well how much of a problem that really is you know how much time it really takes to to catch all those it you know it just depends yeah you have to write because the different like I said the difference is it's you have to go through every ballot which we would have to do anyways but if you know say there's only one person that registered for write in it's quicker to go through because you're just looking for that one name whereas if there's multiple people that are getting written in you have to literally write down their name names and put tally marks next to them you know to yeah and then combine it all together is that like three people or 30 people to do it or it's been kind of the history or how many write in how many how many tend to write in on these election for cities small cities I don't know as far as men atrica goes yeah because the school board election had 110 ratings total really yeah that's a lot not when you consider there are 5,000 votes cast I still think that's a lot of writings yeah that's a lot of writings that's a ton of writings I wouldn't have expected any more than but now what if all aund of those were the same for the same person and that person didn't know they had to register they still wouldn't have won they went to one but it'd be good to know like you know this person got 110 votes maybe next time they will register if someone if people like them that much and they didn't know I I just don't like the idea of saying no your votes won't be counted because whoever you voted for didn't know they need to register I'm not saying it's likely to ever happen it's just for transparency reasons I don't like it okay well I don't want to step on freedoms and so that's what you're proposing that's what you're saying so that's what you're saying so unless I guess unless we can be convinced that we're not stepping on freedoms we kind of have to pull back so yeah bring it up again we're not trying to convince you either way it's an option that we could or could do can do or don't have to do so we'll bring it back in um in the spring and I think yeah number one how many other cities are going to do it number two how many riding votes do we generally get besides Mickey Mouse or let's even count Mickey Mouse because a lot of times that no seriously that has happened in the past um we have had Mickey Mouse Batman I mean you you name it um and then also is it a problem if somebody so let's say Kathleen writes in Tom Sawyer but Tom Sawyer doesn't want the position is that and what if i' I've heard of that where where somebody was written in not not not knowing that they were written in and they actually won it's this this happens in really small communities a lot of times not in big communities so um and then they're like no I I didn't want to and here's a here's an example Marv Johnson that happened to him Mayor Johnson you know and in Independence anyhow um that actually happened to him it was over 40 years ago but anyhow um so it's possible it is possible it is yeah it is so let's say let's say somebody gets elected that didn't know they were on the ballot um they would win yeah they would have the choice to either serve or to resign if they would serve then they'd just be like a normal council member or mayor or whatever if they would resign um there would be a temporary appointment and then whenever we can hold the um another election uh special election then we would do that and then there would be another election so but I think this the special election has to be is there a time frame do you know um Mr Michaels is that you have to have a special election mayor council I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head there is a time frame what it is I I can't tell off the top of my I so if this were to happen for instance the next general election would be two years out and I think that time frame is too long I think it has to be within six months is that correct the formula do you know right I I think I do know I well I think I do know so like if if it's the first if they resign right away yeah um they would be on the next regular special election so that could be within that could be two years the next year or the the year after that if they resign let's say and they only have they have less than two years left of their term then you disappoint somebody until the regular um if that answer I didn't think you could wait two years yeah okay I think it's two years is is if that's the window um that's kind of the cut off she resigned before the two years so she had two years and six months or something or eight months and so therefore their head she her special election was in uh November of that year months later yep if that's the time frame if they would do it right away then there would be I think the next yeah general election so anyhow we can just have those um answered because that it it's interesting anyway it probably would never happen here but it would be interesting you never know yeah all right so we'll bring this back in the spring um next we have approve uh let's see sorry um approve the city administrator and mayor as authorized officials to execute State Grant applications yes uh Madame mayor members of council um I had received this uh note from a2s today that um they had thought that we had another meeting this month in uh on the 27th and um there's some Grant applications I I handed out a little packet to everybody that kind of shows deadlines and kind of our strategy for Grants related to our water infrastructure projects what this resolution does is it authorized the city administrator and mayor to sign these Grant applications so we can get them out in time so there's a series of them um for the for the State Side um if we need one of these for a Federal grant we will then get a resolution for that too so this essentially allows us to um get the first uh Grant out in time so we can apply for these water infrastructure projects so that's what this is um kind of last minute I apologize for that but if there are any questions please uh please let me know would this involve expense for writing these grants we have some outside for so are we giving authority to then spend that money to write the grants so I can if if I may address that um we already have um some task orders that are kind of associated with that piece of grant writing it's very minimal um a lot of these are just uh pretty small couple pages of just answering questions and then if you get to the next level there might be some additional expenses and if we get to that then we would come to council again if there are additional engineering you know things like that a lot of that goes um in parallel with the project that you're applying for so it's project costs as opposed to grant writing cost so a lot of these are pretty simple like even one page the federal ones are very short surprisingly um but once you get into that then they get a little bit more involved so I I don't anticipate additional costs for this um outside of um just some minimal things that we already have budgeted okay thank you it's basically just being able to put our signatures on it I minor Jaspers that's what we need but good question any other questions all right so then is there a motion to approve the city administrator and mayor as authorized officials to execute State Grant well it should say State and or Federal grant applications this one I I clarify just this is just state if we uh do federal if we need something uh we'll bring that forward okay they have a specific one just for the state grants so thank you Mr vickory is there second second thank thank you Miss McGregor any further questions okay hearing none then all those in favor signify with i i all those opposed motion passes and that concludes our business items so we will move on to administrative staff reports we'll start with this fski thank you Miss mayor members of council a quick update on the street project uh the contractor is finishing up with seed and sod um they should be done in the in the next day or two here uh they've also there's also another subcontractor out there preparing the driveways they will'll have two crews out Paving the um binous driveways um starting tomorrow the concrete and paper ones are already complete and then um the the plan is to get the final lift to Pavement on Thursday um it might take two days so that might spill over into Friday but um so we're looking at wrapping that up here this week and then there will be some some additional items as there always are with projects of this magnitude that will be addressed in the spring but the the bulk of the project is is winding down and ready to be completed this week congratulations thank you a real project so um I have a question on the seating and sing obviously I mean it's getting so late in the season and what if the sod doesn't take I mean are they going to have time to get the sod take it to take what about the seed is that going to germinate and survive or will they come back in the spring again that's a good question thank you for bringing that up so um we are okay I did I did consult with um a a specialist at mot just to make sure when when we got that cold snap in October um and we were looking at what we would need to do to Pivot so I was Consulting with an expert because I'm not an expert in that in that uh realm um but we are in an in an area where we can we can get sod um placed up until freeze up um and then we've we've got a seed Matrix that um we still have some warmer the soil temp temperatures are warm enough that it can start to germinate they'll go dormant over the winter now to answer your question about you know what happens in the spring so there's a warranty on the sod 30 days that the contractor has to maintain it so what will happen is the sod will is has been going in we haven't started that clock for the project we'll start that in the spring when the temperatures warm up and we know that that s can start to grow they'll maintain it after that 30 days The Sod will be inspected anything that doesn't pass inspection would be replaced 30-day clock starts again um seed is a little bit different because um just the way it grow it takes a little bit longer but basically um in order for seed to be considered acceptable it has to be at least 4 in of height um there's there's different seeds in the mix we use some as temporary to get that stabilization immediately Rass and then yes and then we have Kentucky Bluegrass mix comes up afterwards and so there has to be um adequate coverage 4 in High um through for the seed to be acceptable so it's the same kind of deal we'll just keep an eye on that um and foreing areas that aren't coming up next uh you know when we have some good weather next year um it would be covered under punch list items that they would have to come back and correct okay all right great anything else any questions um then we'll move on to yes or yes thank you Madame mayor members of council I just have a a short update obviously we we've been planning for this holiday Tree Lighting Event um on November 30th that is coming up um all things are all we're firing on all cylinders Gary and his crew are really stepping up to kind of do some last minute kind of tweaks or finish some things that they've been working on so um you start seeing a little bit of activity over there U maybe some lights going on the tree and some other things happening so um that is that's that's happening it looks like the weather I mean it's warm right now it's looks like it's going to start cooling off maybe around Thanksgiving but we'll see um I don't really trust it much uh so hopefully it's nice weather when we can do that so um and tomorrow I don't know uh um might steal some Thunder from from the mayor but she can talk about it a little bit we're going on this uh the bonding Bill tour um event that we we've been invited to in excels year so we're going to be presenting and by we it's the mayor whan's going to be presenting uh we've had a nice little gift bag we got some maple syrup from our local vendor here uh donated which is great I think we got 38 ooun bottle so that's a pretty significant amount of maple syrup um and then we got some uh cookies and some uh jerky just some little snacks for the representatives to kind of get them through their long day so um hopefully that will will go well I think at the next meeting we can give a little feedback um see how we think it went and I don't know what the next steps will be um you know likely hurry up and wait until they actually start entertaining some of these bonding Bill ideas um also tomorrow mayor and I are going to be going to the Highway 7 Corridor Coalition meeting the first one um that the kind of the the cities on on Highway 7 um are going to participate in city of minaka is kind of taking the lead on this I believe it's over in minona so more to come on that uh I think it's really looking at the the corridor itself and how it can be improved to to serve the the communities better working hand inand with mot and and hopefully come up with a a study or something that can um kind of guide the the direction of that course into the future so that's all I have okay any other staff reports David there's no um Planning Commission meeting correct as of right now we do not have a scheduled Planning Commission we do have an application that's in but it's been deemed incomplete so there's a slight possibility if it that does become complete we might need to have one so I will be at the ready in case of that but as of right now it um like I said it's deemed incomplete so we would not be having a meeting okay and if if you did have a meeting it's at 27th correct okay let me know then okay okay we'll do unless somebody else wants to attend okay um I didn't think so all right um so yeah I'll just do a quick update as well so um as um Mr kral said we got an invitation the mayor and administrator got an invitation from Min tanka to participate in this um Highway 7 Corridor Coalition uh it it was sent out to myself and I believe it's going to be Mayors and administrators from different cities along the corridor so we'll keep you posted I know some of you are very interested in that and we invite you but they only invited us so that's okay going yeah all right and of course um I'll be there tomorrow for the bonding tour as well I've been practicing my presentation all right um then I was at the Northwest league and our um speaker was um Kelly Grim right from from three Rs Park District that's her name right yeah gr Grom thank you um not Grim I was looking at Grim gr and um so and here's the thing when we were talking about um Grant applications before and she was saying it is really hard for the cities out here to get these grants the reason is not a couple of reasons one because we have higher incomes and then the other reason is um because of our population densities and such so there's a lot of things that they look at so a lot of times we don't qualify which is really bad and what we really are up against so I do know how how that goes with Grant applications but she was just kind of telling us the um the way that these Trails become come to fruition can take sometimes 10 and 15 years so we've been waiting for the trail connection between kingspoint Road and then going across six M Marsh um connecting with a Dakota rail trail here and uh that's going to take a long time because they only work with willing Sellers and there's a couple prop properties that they would need to acquire and so far they they haven't been interested in selling so that was Northwest league and then um also later on this week I'll be attending with uh council member rkin a Personnel committee meeting and then I'll also be doing a um all staff mayor's meeting on Wednesday and then we're also meeting with the Lions Club to go kind of go over some of the um uh intricacies or the details of the wine and beer tent the other thing I was going to ask uh do you have a list of the um uh sponsors for the event if we could just uh give them some recognition here this evening I know it's um Kennedy and Graven WSB a2s um midco now as well uh let's see it was um C curbside D Doran Exel okay so we want to thank all of our um sponsors and participants in that I also want to say a big thank you to our staff Gary and your crew thank you very much for all the extra time that you've put into it and to um Ally and to Jasper as well um for supporting this and for moving forward with it I I've talked to a lot of people in the community and they're excited about it so hopefully um we'll have a good turnout for that with that I'll pass it on to miss rkin I will be attending the personnel communting with you on Wednesday and then St Bonnie fire meeting that was supposed to be this week is getting moved to the 20th and mire supposed to be last week and get moved to the 21st so I'll be at both of those next week next meeting oh you'll be at them but you give us an update on the thank you in December both those thanks and they should Mound should have their truck oh okay hopefully I know I okay uh let's see on the Pioneer s Creek Watershed which engineering reports are really EXP expensive by the way that's why I asked about this or you making presentation um but we're moving ahead on some projects for the dance hall Creek uh which would help on the water quality of Lake Sarah which is impaired like most of the lakes and um and apparently we we have to kind of clean up the Creeks first before we can get money to do things like the Alum treatment here at whale ta so so that's a a big step forward to get that Creek started and then hopefully we can get some money for uh taking care of L Ser El treatment there but that's probably a few years off yeah work in decades y I know I know that goes so so that's about it the next meeting is Thursday night all right great anything else all right and with that if there's a motion to adjourn we can adjourn so moved thank you is there a second second thank you an for the second all those in favor signify with i i all those opposed motion passes 40 and we will see you on 30th right