good evening ladies and gentlemen it is now 5 30 and I will call this regular work session of the Burnsville city council to order um our work sessions are very informal and we go directly to the items that are on our agenda and all council members are present along with our staff and we have some guests who are presenting this evening and so we'll go directly to our agenda and the first item on our agenda is the brand Workshop how we tell our story and Carissa Larson is going to introduce our guests and it's good to see them uh because I've met them before when they were doing work and still do work for experience Burnsville so um Justin and Sherry welcome Carissa the floor is yours thank you madam mayor members of the council um I am very honored to introduce you tonight to our partners from Mercury Creative Group uh Sherry Quinn is our brand strategist Justin beganik is their CEO and founder and then Raquel strand is burnsville's Communications manager we are all partnering right now on a discovery process for the city's brand mayor as you said just figuring out how to tell our story better it's something we do every day but um over the course of the year it's it's something that leadership team Council and staff have really tried to hone in on how do we make sure we're all telling the correct story in the in the same story the story that resonates with not only our residents but our visitors our business community and making sure that um that we're telling something that is authentically Burnsville so um as we went through kind of phase one of our brand um process this summer we got together a team of probably 14 or 15 staff from across the city and had a lot of conversations about what is that story we were not focused on design elements at that time it's one of the reasons why I've really loved this process is we did not just focus on how to make things pretty Mercury took us through nope let's hone in on what is the story you want to tell first and staff did a lot of conversations about who who is Burnsville not only who we are as a staff and as an organization but who we are as a community we had a lot of great conversation and a lot of good pieces of the story came out of that process but as a part of that conversation staff said hey you know we we really like this process and helping us discover what our words words like you belong here what those things mean to us and staff said but it would be really helpful if we understood what the council's vision what those words mean as well and I think it was Sherry said sure we're happy to do that but you guys really should ask your Council and so that's what we're here to do tonight is to walk through a discussion with you all to determine you know how you feel about those words what is that emotional connection or those stories that that you feel out of that vision and all of that will be wrapped into the brand guide that we're working with Mercury to create so that when it's all said and done and when we do get into to the design elements we're able to wrap all of that together and have have council's Vision as a piece to our brand as well thank you but before we we get into all of that Justin if you would tell us the story about your name uh beganik and also Mercury creative I will do that thank you because I think that helps us all as you tell your story about your company we're going to tell our story about our organization through words and so share with us what that all is about I will um and it took me two times to get it right so uh um my last name is Polish and it's begonics so thank you for uh being able to pronounce it perfectly um uh when I rebranded the company the second time I really came back to the heart of of the name why I was doing it and putting my story out there and through the research of going back to some uh talking to my parents uh finding what that story and the meaning of begonic actually meant we found out that we were Runners and we ran messages from Village to Village which tied in very nicely to giving us inspiration to the name so working with Mercury which is the messaging the god of messaging it was kind of that aha moment that we have the perfect name that's tying back into me because the reason I changed the name of the company is I can't sell my company or evolve the company if it has my name on it so this was a really awesome way to align and carry on sort of the legacy of my family as well but also in a in a in a bigger stronger way so that is the the evolution solution of my company which has now been in business for 23 years and that's what we help organizations do is what is your story and really help you define and bring Clarity with your team on who it is you are and who you help the most and connect with that person that you help the most so you can build a bigger organization have better authentic genuine connection so hence part of what we're doing for the city of Burnsville so so thank you thank you so you are the messenger we are okay we're not here to change your name which one you would like to click sure so we do have a presentation so we're going to bring you kind of about the evolution of how we do our work how that is is is come out in words that it will actually translate into that creative so like Chris has said we start with the heart and soul and getting your story right and then aligning all of you and working from the inside out to distribute that that story and then package it in a creative way that is consistent so first we got to get your story right before we start building those brand elements so Sherry is our lead brand strategist and has led the team with your team through all of this so she's going to walk you through some of the key elements that we've done and the outcomes that have come from all of you and over 300 I think employees who responded to our survey as well so we're not doing this in a vacuum like we're we're reaching out and trying to get as much of the voices to be heard as possible so okay you can flip this side if you want we're going to start with a y brand project and why now um so part of this just as as Carissa and Justin have been setting this up is that we start with strategy first so the tagline for mercury is strategy first design second so instead of just jumping in and and like Chris said jumping in and making it pretty right away we wanted to set the strategy that's done with a lot of intention so working through Discovery the discovery process with your leadership group with the city staff then in inching into I've talked to some of you and met you over the phone or over Zoom we gathered insights from a number number of your partners as well and then layered all that information in together so we're not just taking the staff's word for it if you will we're looking for always looking for common threads that come through and come together in the discovery sessions the insights Gathering as well as the surveys that come through as a brand strategist I always say I'm a I'm a self-proclaimed word nerd so the more words you say the more I like it we're going to do an exercise in a little bit that gives you the opportunity to tell some stories as it relates to your vision as well and I just put my stake in the ground as I I love hearing your words that allows me to then pull out those common threads that really does tell your story why a brand project for the city of Burnsville the your infrastructure your resident population your leadership team even for the city has evolved over just a few years of time and it was important for your brand to evolve with it so that is that is why we were called in that is why we're partnering with you and why we're here um consistency was a driving Factor as well creating brand guidelines gives you those boundaries for consistency for how you show up in the world for when you show up in the world um we also uncovered and recognized that your brand messaging was largely focused on residents and being not that that is a bad thing of course you're going to focus on your residence that is a big audience of who you serve as a city but your brand is that emotional connection to all of your audiences so audiences including your residents including all of you in the room your city staff your team members and then out into visitors and guests that come to the city as well as businesses that come to the city and that are working here your partners throughout the community in addition to other communities that surround you and how they talk about you and perceive you so we want that consistency of messaging to flow from the inside out and to include all of those audiences and we realized that there was a gap there that the the previous messaging and brand largely focused on residents so we're expanding that to to include everyone um the brand overview this is about just a high level what we've done so far through the discovery process is uh that's just it started with Discovery we always start with Discovery first it helps us uncover that strategy and set that strategy we develop a brand guide so we've developed a brand guide for you that includes a number of different elements some of which we will we'll walk through today insights Gathering I talked about a little bit I talked to some of the city council members I was able to connect with your mayor as well as well as some of your partners from the Chamber of Commerce from experience Burnsville from some of those other leaders in other partnership areas that touch your brand police sent fire were involved so there was just a lot of involvement we want you all to know that this is a concerted effort from a lot of people many voices were heard to distill down to these very important messages okay and then Inside Out Communications is where we are now so that brand guide is set the insights report was written we started really from the inside from that committee that team that was involved in Discovery moved out into insights to bring that along you were the next layer of that internal communication as we continue to move this message out into the world we call you the brand Champions so we can't be successful into the community unless we get all of you together and having that consistency and boys consistency and message [Music] one of the elements will switch to the next slide which is your Manifesto one of the elements of your brand guide is the manifesto itself and the manifesto isn't it's it's your purpose it's that it's that big overarching statement that goes over everything including your vision so you the mayor the council you set the vision for the city we know we know what your what Your Vision is but writing in and your mission is what the city staff the activity that the city staff does every day to accomplish that vision the manifesto arches over both of those things and all of those things it isn't what you what you tell each other it isn't what you even tell your residents it's what you tell everybody it's what you believe in whether you're talking to a resident from Burnsville or whether you're being interviewed on a national podcast so that's how your how your purpose how you're Manifesto takes part in this work your Manifesto is we believe the variety Burnsville offers invites all people to be themselves I'll read that one more time we believe the variety Burnsville offers invites all people to be themselves each one of those words was chosen specifically and considered specifically and intentionally especially the word variety I'll talk a little bit about variety variety is the element of your brand that is that we call your essential value it identifies the authenticity of your city the people that work here the people that partner with you that utilize your services that live in Burnsville that visit Burnsville it is um it is really the authenticity of this city the word variety so as uh as brand strategists we want to distill your brand down to one word which is not a not for the faint of heart to pick all the words in the world and distill your brand your authenticity to one word that you carry forward one of the common words that kept coming through Discovery insights surveys the whole um just the whole Discovery process was the word diversity and I had a really amazing conversation um in one of the insights calls where we didn't get off topic but it kind of evolved our conversation evolved into really drilling down into the word diversity and what it meant and we realized that sometimes the word diversity especially in the society and culture that we are in today can have a negative kind of connotation to it almost as if it's a problem to solve there's diversity tasks for task forces within companies and organizations there's things that Dei approaches that are being created and that's not though how Burnsville approaches diversity so we spent some time just thinking about diversity is a word that keeps coming up but it's not quite hitting the mark as the authenticity of this community but what did hit the mark was that Burnsville approaches diversity as something to celebrate not as a problem to solve so we uh the next closest word that kept coming through is the word variety and variety the definition for it includes diversity so the definition is the quality or state of being diverse the absence of uniformity sameness or monotony and synonyms for a variety include collection mixture array and assortment variety is really that Essence that better captures the value of Burnsville but in a positive way and includes the diversity that that came through as that common thread and all right so we are going to walk through we're going to focus on the um this Vision exercise the vision that you all have set which is quite powerful and I have heard it over and over again from each level inside out that has uh that has contributed to this project so your Manifesto is your purpose is your purpose you believe it all the time we believe the variety Burnsville offers invites all people to be themselves your mission is captured captures the key messaging and your mission is what the team does every day to support that Vision to move that Vision forward your vision vibrant City boldly leading and welcoming to all that's your long-term goal even aspirational so we know when I was when I was talking to to the mayor you talk about mind and heart behavior intentional mind and heart behavior I thought that was such a powerful powerful statement because the intention comes from all of you it's captured in your vision but it might those words might mean different things to each of you we did an exercise that we'll share with you after we we do a little story time here and sharing stories well we did an exercise for the key message for the city staff and Greg and Krista thought let's break this apart and have the council and the mayor go through a similar similar exercise with the vision statement so we want to take a look at these words vibrant boldly and welcoming and we want to break them down so describing what the words mean to you and I'd love to hear from each of you how does it make you feel how do the words currently come to life in the city of Burnsville so give us an example and be specific and how do these words align with your aspirations for the city of Burnsville so let's start with the word vibrant we're looking for that emotional connection your brand is an emotional connection to your audiences so tell me about the word vibrant we'll call Justin's not afraid to call on people so if you don't volunteer neither is the mayor I'm just so council member Gustafson why don't you go first I'll do one of the things I've ever proof of me is growing another is uh use your word of a variety of activities to bring in all different people to for different events that we do what comes to mind first is there a specific activity or event that's offered here in Burnsville that comes to mind when you think of vibrant or a specific place or something that you participate in well we do several here I mean they have the fire Buster or knowledge Jazz International Festival our party on the plazas all of our pop-ups throughout the parks our parks department does a really good job of really staying on top of that and getting getting our citizens engaged in getting our businesses engaged with it and the other part when I talk about growth I'm talking about just the growth of the city the economic development of the city because we have we have been exploding the last few years with development and that's gets pretty exciting and yeah this is an evolving City an evolving community and we're providing a housing stock that we didn't used to have and that's been that's been good for us great thank you who else what does vibrant mean to you 10K our marketing person okay well we're an agency so vibrant to me is more specific you don't normally look at a 50 plus year old city and think Vibrance unless something is creating that and for me I think we created and what Dan talked about but also um under that growth word I mean vibrancy I think on a lot of people's mind could be measured a multitude of different ways festivals are vibrant they're maybe more festive than they are vibrant but when you think of vibrant as a word that is describing us I think I agreed with using it when we developed that because we were going through a rebirth or regrowth of Redevelopment and a lot of development new development on land that had been sitting as nature left it you know long ago right it was just vacant land that wasn't being developed and uh for a variety of reasons up until some years ago it stayed that way then when we took down the barriers and the building boom started I felt we had a vibrant City once again maybe it might have been vibrant in the 80s when it was growing we were building a lot in the 70s and 80s and then I think it went stale there wasn't a lot of growth a little bit each year but it was not not something that was really newsworthy per se until we started building again and when the cranes went in the air when we started putting in housing that we didn't have new options and gave a lot of people more options that they than they've had in Burnsville for the prior 20 plus years I think vibrancy returned to Burnsville in my mind that's my emotional connection to it is is I feel like we have uh finally unlocked growth and development and excitement and a reason for people to move here because we we were we had reasons for people to move here for you know good affordable housing nice neighborhoods a lot of reasons that every city can say but how many can say we have brand new apartment options with lots of amenities that we didn't have before because our apartment stock was built in the 70s and 80s so it was very old it was really it was really great back then but today it's maybe not as attractive as the these new products are please thank you that's great I love that you told that story about building and when building started um you touched on something as well that the uh the challenge in finding your brand finding your differentiator when you said a lot of cities can say that a lot of cities can't necessarily talk about the variety that exists in Burnsville and for a lot of the reasons that you both have talked about so thank you for sharing that um if I say the word opportunity to everyone is that summarize what Dan just said because I think there's something bigger that you've seen this vision for opportunity there's like that's what screamed screamed to me does that resonate a lot of new opportunities that can't exist before yeah okay I don't know how you I mean the the we do I mean you think back how many years ago before maybe when did uh art and all that jazz start I think 2004 it was about 12 years ago fire we had one festival for two or three decades and that Along Came they aren't all that jazz then the Burnsville International Festival and and then party on the Plaza a few years ago so we went from one Annual Festival to many um and you know when you hear some people start to say maybe you have too many festivals to me that's uh that's someone who's lived here for 30 or 40 years who was just used to the one a year and thought that was the norm and it's just adjusting to the fact that that really was pretty lean when it comes to reasons why people you know are brought together to celebrate where they live uh because I think that's a huge draw to people looking to move into a city because what does the city do is it just a place to live and work and and they don't ever get together and do anything or do they come together and celebrate and have lots of fun things for families uh you know to do right so I think we fill that quite well with everything that we're doing that has become a nice big draw that people are talking about to want to come to Burnsville because we're festive we have a lot of stuff going on throughout the summer we take advantage of our very limited good weather yeah and I think we've got to give our citizens a lot of credit if we do that night to unite that we failed to mention that is huge for our city every neighborhood in the city is engaged and it's it's an event that most neighborhoods look forward to in a big way in this city our whole staff shows up for that I mean we are in every neighborhood with trucks and cars and pumping you name it whatever we have it shows up in a neighborhood including for pretty much all the staff all the council police fire everyone is out there that one night a year and it does have an impact okay great Kara your thoughts what does vibrant mean to you all these thriving alive colorful do you have a story you can share with us what Springs to mind foreign we have a lot of locally owned stores they're not chains we also have chains because Gotta Have gotta have some love for chains they're chains for a reason um and that's not just in stores but that's also in restaurants and service industry and all all different things like that and they're not just what you had consider you know typical Suburban not in our retail and also not into our restaurants and for our entertainment as well um we have a lot especially for a city or size we have a ton of entertainment options not just in number but you know different types of entertainment that you could do as well that aren't offered or aren't offered in the same way as elsewhere and we also have our our parks that are very well utilized as well and yes we have aging Community but we're seeing the turnover in that and so we have a lot of young families that are moving and living here and it's it's to the point where we hear quite a few of our residents now say no point to go north of The River Why would you know just even bloomington's up there there's no need to go there we don't like them don't have to go there um so we are seeing people stay and shop and hit the entertainment and all that type of stuff for residents but also people around which was a big change during colbit we kept a lot of things open and functioning that nowhere else did and that was both on our private sector and the city and our staff worked really hard and had to get pretty dang creative to do that and so people started to get used to coming to Burnsville from the surrounding area for something exciting to do okay that's great we did here I was just gonna say we did here too that's a common theme that especially how hard this this staff this community worked during covid um to really serve residents but also just keep keep the community thriving during that time Vince um vibrant to me is more of a visual word than anything so I immediately kind of default to what I see so when I think about the word vibrant I think of things that are bright and eye-catching noticeable attractive well-organized desirable and exciting and as you ask care about you know a story I think about when I drive down 35 into Burnsville and you can see the entire community from one of the busiest freeways in the state and you see beautiful tall mature trees and architecture and um you know you see a beautiful city on a hill as you go into the river valley and then back out um so that's kind of where my brain defaults to is the aesthetic of Burnsville with vibrancy it's great I like that story Fair when I think of vibrant it's both a visual and an emotional connection so vibrant is about energy and spirited and um a visual appeal and the story around all of that is back in the um 80s and early 90s and Dan talked about the city becoming depressed and tired looking and especially the area that is now called The Heart of the City and it was crime infested so what Dan K talks about what happens in Burnsville with regard to entertainment and all of that all of that was very intentional because when we looked to Burnsville at the time back in the mid 90s is that we wanted to be aspirational about Burnsville we wanted the city to come alive again and we wanted the city to be energetic and to look at neighborhoods that there is pride in all of the neighborhoods and what happened during that process is people became energized when they started to think of the possibilities to dance word opportunity is the possibilities and today we see what has been born out of that and the reality of what can happen when a group of people come together with a focused intention and working together to achieving that goal and it becomes a reality with the different art in this community there's public art there's the Performing Arts there is the visual arts there is Arts of all kind but it touches the emotions of people when they go to a performance at the Ames Center or they're at Nicollet Commons park and they experience whether it's art and all that jazz the International Festival parties on the Plaza whatever that experiences it creates an emotional experience and that emotional experience manifests itself in the behavior of people volunteering because they want that vibrancy in a community they want that spirited um and excitement in a community because they not only experienced it but now they want more of it and uh and so vibrancy is is an emotion is mental and it's also behavioral and it comes out of an experience that you have and you want more of it and so you give up your time your talent and your Treasures to make that continue and that's what you see with everything I mean I look at what Dan and the folks did with the Burnsville Festival it grew out of the desire to do more to do more that would bring more people to do more um that because when you're you're in an environment where you're experiencing Music and Dance it touches a different part of your psyche it's good I am I when I hear words like similar words from the same you know in the same environment I star them a lot and in terms of Vibrance possibilities opportunity festivals engagement impact um are all kind of coming out art even that is something that more than one people said and housing stock I know that maybe doesn't when you think of vibrancy that's maybe not the first thing that jumps to mind but it does for you all because that equates to your city so thank you for sharing those I want to move to the word um boldly of the word boldly leading or the phrase don't you think that people don't because I notice it when I come into Burnsville from the north Mr Vince's remarks I'm always in awe of Burnsville when I come down 35 and I look up and I see that City that's on a hill people don't think about that but Burnsville is on a hill and whether you see it in the summertime or when you see it in the winter time there is an emotional connection um to this city all right so let's go to boldly leading here's what I want to know from this group from the mayor of the council leading where what does boldly mean to you the word boldly and leading where [Applause] ver um I just I've been sketching down words as we've been going through this so great um boldly means being brave risky I'm not afraid to try new things strengthen leadership inspirational you know Burnsville has done a lot of these things whether it be through the Performing Arts Center like Elizabeth mentioned earlier that was a risk you know we're going through some of these things right now with landfills where we need to exude leadership and strength while fighting Kurt kadelka and inspirational trying new things you know I think about our Juneteenth and our other community um events that we were you know the first communities to do a lot of these things um without fear of any type of repercussion for going first so um at least this group here has not had any hesitation about trying new things even if our comparable Market cities aren't doing them that's never stopped us from trying something but not for sure encapsulates bold who else can add to that okay I I agree with Vince uh I think this is a console that is open to trying new things and we do try different things and people know that we try different things in Burnsville a lot but I also believe that boldly is also uh sticking with some old things too sometimes that's hard to do as well and you have to kind of step up and say yeah I know you don't particularly like this but this really works well for our city and I think that's important to you know just throughout everything all the time sometimes you keep you keep what applies and then work with the rest something new and and I and I think that's a that's a bold way doing it and in particular this Council especially in our conversations in the chamber itself we have a lot of different ideas but we all Express those ideas and I think that's bold too just to be able to sit down and express those ideas with each other and I think that's important in leadership yeah talk about that who else what does boldly mean leading where well it for me this hit on what we historically have done Burnsville has a history of being the first to do something to lead in a way so when you say leading where I think it's more about but for me it um in the past it's been um we're not afraid to set a new precedent in a particular area and that could be anything it's not really one specific thing HR package uh HR package most recently um you know we we set a standard when we did a small business cares Grant everyone literally in the state all cities just followed a model that was already out there and we said why would we do that that doesn't make any sense this doesn't make sense right so we made it significantly better and then it caught the attention of other cities and they said oh yeah maybe we should follow that model right it was a lot better so um there's no fear in this group to blaze new trails where that leads us is just I I think all just says is we lead right that we we flat out just we don't take the status quo we don't mimic what others are doing we look at what others are doing to get sometimes just to get some frame of reference potentially some scale as to where it might be but we ultimately tend to blaze our own path in many in many cases because we're not afraid to speak up and say I think we got a better idea pretty good look here it's been covered I swear any other thoughts yeah boldly is being courageous you have a vision in uh to everything that people have been saying is uh what is that Vision where are we going and as Dan says um we can boldly lead to accomplish that vision and we may not do it the way other municipalities would do it we take a lot of information uh from what other people are doing but we also take information from the private sector and ask ourselves is this a better way to chart our course and then do something that is brazenly different from other municipalities uh I.E and Vince said it but uh but it's what we did with our benefit package that's boldly leading when other municipalities aren't doing that and we said that this was important for us if we care about the health and vitality of our employees then we do this because they then will do the best that they can do with excellence and service to the people that we serve and so boldly leading is doing something that is uh courageous embracingly different uh I'm gonna I'm gonna jump off of what you just said about about who who you're serving who you're doing this for when you say welcoming to all so this is the last the last phrase the last word we'll focus on in this exercise when we say welcoming to all we identified that Gap in this project about how the brand and the brand work was being considered just for residents and one of the things we did with the team and I want to do it here too is who does all mean so I'd just love to just popcorn out so we can capture it who do all what is the word all welcoming to all mean to you uh just just that welcome into all and I I really think that I haven't read what you've read uh I think we are very welcoming to business this we've uh we've done a lot of hard work over the years to create opportunities for businesses to be out here through relaxing of regulations and creating environments for them to to be able to survive in this area and thrive in this area and you know it's a good business depends on good strong neighborhoods and so they go hand in hand that's not one is not good and the other is bad it doesn't work for a city they both have to be thriving at the same time and and so I I in that respect as far as that I think we're very welcoming to business when I think of walking my there's it's just that I welcoming everybody no matter who they are I mean this city we're we're very uh I'll use the word blast we have uh we have a very strong faith community out here and we have all the faith communities out here I don't think of too many churches that aren't represented religions aren't represented in Burnsville any longer and and we all live together and and I think that's good and we all get together together with the different Faith communities which is very important and I really I enjoy that about our community sounds like a tagline we get together together what's that it sounds like a tagline we get together together yes we get together together that's great too late it's already been treatment already trademarked last time you said everybody said everything so I think part of that comes back to we're on a good feedback loop and because we're already developing and have so many different things for people it's it hasn't narrowed down the focus to we only want people with 2.5 kids who will live quietly in a suburb and do nothing else and drive far away to work and then pick up food somewhere else and bring it home and not leave their home right so because we already have that set up it's now starting to self-select for a much wider group of people to come in and enjoy our city which then encourages more of these different offerings which encourages again a wider group of people and you know I always think the um the thing you look at to see if your group is really welcoming amongst a wider group of people is are they there because if they're not there you're not welcoming to that wider group of people because they would be there and we do have that so you know when you're looking at about every demographic you can think of um you know we have that you know in in about any category that you can think of so that is showing that we are very welcoming and a wide variety of demographics feel that they are welcome or they would not be shopping here they would not be living here they would not have their businesses here that's great that makes me feel good about the manifesto Carrie you just summed it up you just told a story that really solidifies that Manifesto although every time you say Manifesto I'm picturing the Unabomber in a shop baby change the word handwriting a whole bunch of very sketchy stuff before mailing bombs Yeah a different word for this audience for our internal brand guy that is um that's the thing about words right they mean different things to different people which is why they evoke something it evokes something it all it always evokes something different um which is which is why messaging is so important um as well and why really getting to the heart of what you all mean when you set this vision and that you talk about it consistently is really encouraging as well because it helps with that Clarity and alignment for every other group and every other audience as you start to bring this brand out into your community and out into the world um so that's great anybody else have something to add for welcoming is there is there a group that really hits with you when you say welcoming to all I I think about people that aren't here yet um whether it be families or residents who you know are starting a family or are just looking to get out of maybe downtown um you know what is the message saying to those people when they're looking for a place to settle in what does it mean to uh you know a small business that's tucked away in a corner office somewhere that's looking to put into a brick and mortar um what are we what are we saying how are we welcoming people that aren't necessarily one of us yet one of us Dan K ay your thoughts um welcoming I think that was the easiest one of all of these because um and I I think that's part of why I really liked your Manifesto um is it it speaks in a different way to the strength of our diverse population and it says it in a more I think um not generic way but less controversial way right so because I think we've capitalized on celebrating the diversity of Burnsville it continues to grow and were I think we're on a great path and so to me that one was probably the easiest of those three keywords to to relate to what's going on in our city and I think people get it I think our new residents uh they see it in the communication the marketing you know everything we do is is revolving around these um these areas and welcoming is is one that is it's building a relationship with our community and it's building a relationship with new members of our community that are in that we're inviting in because we're a a safe clean heavy Park which is a good quality of life City and um with a lot of fun stuff to do we may not have you know we have Buck Hill which is fun in the summer and the winter we might not have an amusement park or Mall of America in Burnsville but they're really close right but we have great accessibility to things so we're I think we're just we're doing a lot of great things that makes Burnsville a much more attractive place to live uh and want to have a business here welcoming to all means that everyone of all different types are welcoming here it's like a beautiful piece of mosaic and every little Pebble that creates that picture has a meaning and a value that creates the importantness about community and so we need we welcome all and it's someone said earlier that you know those who are here and those who are coming because the picture continues to expand and that Mosaic continues to show the vibrancy of our community so if you see it in a in a sense of a mosaic that everyone is welcoming because each person creates the value and the thank you spiritedness of that Community or that picture and that's what makes our community what it is because everyone is welcome because you bring benefit and you bring value to make us even a better community and with everyone together we are vibrant and together we can be bold I love it that's a great summary for this exercise so as you have seen us typing and writing your words um we're going to use them we you'll see them showing up knowing that that vision is thoughtful and intentional that it relates back to your purpose and it relate it stands in the middle so the vision that this group has set relates to that up to that purpose and into the mission the action that is being said as well um I know the presentation went out that's okay um I'm just gonna yeah it's okay keep going um I will say this so the the next piece that we wanted to share with you and just to continue to share how this is coming to pass so as us as marketers as we're writing these things down um I had said before at Mercury we start with strategy first we've set that strategy we're moving into the design phase so any words that we can take and use and help structure what that design and that content design that look and feel will become um we're just capturing all of that to move into that we also did this I wanted to give you a little glimpse of this exercise that we did with the with the city staff and with the leadership about the phrase you belong here um somebody said Dan I believe you had mentioned about boldly means sometimes keeping things and taking a stand on that and the phrase you belong here that calendar that um that tagline or that message was a little controversial like why are we doing a brand project just to come back to you belong here but what we determined through this is we broke down the word similarly to the the exercise we just did with you all about the vision we broke down you belong here um because you belong here was part of that Gap largely seen as this is for residents this is a message for residents but so it was necessary to onboard that phrase what we realized was that phrase is a descriptor not something that can really stand on its own when it stands on its own it stumbles a little bit and it gets stuck in that residential environment but when we broke it out to what does the word you mean what does the word belong mean and what does the word hear mean we understood that yes this is a um this is a phrase that can still be applied and still utilized as a descriptor for a more powerful key messaging so um these descriptions in capu and they encapsulate the vision so if the vision is a vibrant City boldly leading and welcoming to all U applies to the ideal audiences residents visitors business owners city employees teammates and Beyond belong encourages that emotional connection of feeling like you are in the right place and here applies to aspects of the city in which the audience feels most comfortable and that might be different for each of those audiences but they can all feel like they belong Burnsville is a connected community you belong here come to Burnsville you belong here come and connect you belong here as a descriptor to those new key messages it starts to tie into all audiences so um so breaking that down was really helpful we also then did the Box grid the famous box grid which Greg really loved because it brought it you know dove into it just a little further so broke out those audiences in you residents visitors business owners city employees and teammates and then what are those emotional connections started filling in the blanks there for residents feel taken care of with excellent services they feel they are safe to be themselves they don't have to change who they are to feel comfortable in Burnsville visitors feel welcomed to find Burnsville a place they want to come back to business owners feel their position for success and can serve the community city employees and teammates feel their work is Meaningful their ideas are valued and they are part of a team they feel they have opportunities to grow and evolve in their career so that word belong takes on new meaning for every audience and the word here started to fill in what are those City aspects that mean here not just Burnsville as a whole but interactions with City departments real estate options events School involvement public and private events parks and City resources collaboration with City departments collaboration with joint venture partners this is just the start of where this box grid this explanation can evolve really to provide those guard rails of when the marketing team when The Branding team is writing content is developing something for a partner is posting a social media post that this is the guard rail that's used it doesn't fit within this environment is it capturing you belong here the way it was intended as a descriptor okay I think one of the things that I've probably mentioned to several of you in different conversations is when when you belong here rolled out I think there was some confusion amongst departments and Communications on we got to get those three words like those three words are our brand and if you don't have those three words you've missed the mark and I think what this will help staff do is remember that all we need is that emotion right there may be times where the words don't fit in the sentence those three exact words don't fit in a sentence but if we're keeping that emotion behind it we're okay like like it's okay the words are not our brand alone the words can help support the brand and that we can we can have deeper meaning to what those words are telling for our story [Music] long hair felt demanding you belong here I don't know I don't right it's not bossing me around but as a descriptor to those uh to those positive encouraging phrases that are inclusive welcoming to all it makes sense and it makes sense to keep it as it relates as Karissa said um so what's next we want to give you a little bit of the key messaging that has come out of this key messages will be more public facing and we'll give you an example of that as well do you want to click through to the next one Justin so the key message is the way that we think about these at Mercury is we we identify Who We Are what we do and then calls to action the how we do it so the who we are established and evolving you'll see that phrase come up in content Burnsville is a connected Community you belong here what we do providing a variety of services and experiences relates back to act relates back to your essential value and calls to action how we do it come to Burnsville you belong here which really is for audiences that aren't already here to Vince's Point come and connect you belong here which applies more deeply to current residents but both of those can apply in different in different places too okay I think to go back to what Krista said also we're giving you the tools also to use that are going to work so equipping you with with easy things to do to build that consistency and confidence over time we took here and we can put it up on the slide I'm going to read it to you you can read it on the screen or close your eyes we took your story that currently exists I believe it's a part of it's on your website we frankensteined it a little bit and then layered in that key messaging to give you an example of how this can start to come to life established and evolving Burnsville lies on a bluff overlooking the South Bank of the Minnesota River Upstream from its Confluence with the Mississippi River established in 1858 and Incorporated in 1964 Burnsville is now the ninth largest suburb in the metro area and a commuter's dream with easy access to Minneapolis and St Paul Burnsville is a connected Community providing a variety of services and experiences to more than 64 000 residents 2 700 businesses thousands of annual visitors and 290 City staff and teammates Burnsville is home to a section of Murphy Hanner and park reserve Buck Hill part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and the Ames Performing Arts Center in addition burnsville's downtown area is called Heart of the City with Urban style retail and Condominiums plus Burnsville transit station serves as the Hub and headquarters of the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority Burnsville is a community where residents feel safe and welcome to be themselves visitors find a place they want to come back to again and again businesses are positioned for success and City staff and team members find meaningful work and opportunities to grow and Evolve come to Burnsville you belong here so slight changes almost to that story that layers in that new messaging the last thing we'll share with you tonight this as a brand strategist was one of my most proud moments this is uh this is Greg's post on LinkedIn recently that you see here and how the messaging was layered into this post so this is something that's out in the world starting to describe your city with that new messaging for people who need a place that celebrates variety the city of Burnsville provides excellent services and engaging experiences that connect them to community that's why we did something different this year detailing how we serve the community in our first annual report on our service to the community more than an inventory it tells the story of all we do to meet the needs of our established and evolving community so loved that when I read that on LinkedIn just sod in my feed I'm like you did a little happy dance in my office that really starts to bring that messaging forward you will begin to see more of that from Chris and her team it was well done now that I see it okay yeah um any questions about anything that we went over anything I can describe further I like to rewrite on the uh the website I would avoid using specific numbers of employees because yeah it's changing and maybe nearly 300 or potentially next year we'll say a little over 300 but agreed coming from the marketing guy yeah you're right yeah but the rest of it sounds great good peace well thank you all for your time thank you for participating thank you for your words um we appreciate that and it really does help when again with this group being that next layer of inside out communication and alignment with your near Community when all of you are speaking the same way talking about the same things at the same time that just begins to resonate out and radiate out as this messaging comes out so Jerry and Justin thank you so much for helping us and taking us through this process and allowing us to hear each other because we don't usually get together to talk about um any of this a lot of our work is in the public and it's mostly on policy and when we're doing work that addresses the cerebral function as well as the emotional function um like this exercise I think allows each of us to hear one another but it also allows our residents to hear us because um this is on the air and it's also on YouTube so this session tonight anybody can go back and view it so I thank you for allowing us to go through this process that gives our residents and our businesses the opportunity to hear from us and what these words mean so that they can say Okay they've been thoughtful about this and that they're being intentional about their work so thank you very much thank you thank you truly we're grateful I will say if if you belong here alone was kind of demanding adding come to Burnsville really doubles down on them [Laughter] real close like that's that you belong here to like the Minnesota nice like maybe come to breakfast it's not too bad a place yeah it's about that bowl and worse this is about that boldness come to Burnsville you belong here it's about being bold one thing for all of you to walk away is a brand can only stand for one thing so when we bring it down to that essential value in a word or two and your word is variety and it is simple right it seems like oh it's just too simple it's too plain but it means a lot so if you can all walk away with that today and start bringing that into your your conversations and uh internal and external you're golden like that's and that's why we want to make it easy for you with that and reading the words and hearing your intention behind them um really the connection that people have especially in this day and age it's different than it was 10 even 10 years ago your residents your visitors people have more information about you about your community now than they ever have in the past before they ever come here or ever meet you so reading your words on a piece of paper or on a mailing that comes out is one thing to have the opportunity mayor like you said to hear the intention behind it helps people self-align that this is the place for them so it's pretty powerful to have that come together and that's how communication has evolved even within the past 10 years so I love that you were we thank you for your Open Hearts and open minds in sharing those stories too because it really does help your audiences hear you and hear the intention behind it thank you and thank you Greg Carissa Raquel for your good work I really appreciate that and for your leadership in moving this item in a way that brings us to really Define our story and to say okay who are we thank you okay with that we're going to take a break uh and then um would that be about 20 minutes uh we'll take a break for about 20 minutes and then we'll reconvene and uh Bethany is where is Bethany from C I believe yeah okay so um dinner is in uh conference from d okay thank you foreign thank you foreign foreign foreign foreign probably buying a ticket from BJ oh we're on air yeah I was like where'd that Echo come from the Burnsville City work session and the next item on our agenda is the 35W pavement and Bridge replacement visual quality advisory committee presentation uh presenting is our Public Works director Ryan Peterson Ryan good evening thanks for having me tonight uh as we stated we're going to be talking about a project that mendot is looking at for 2025 2026 in uh John 35W and there's a certain aspect to that regarding the Aesthetics and they are looking to get some input so I'll give a really high over high level overview we do not have the details but at least I can tell you what their what the different areas that they're working on and then they are looking for some representation from the city on something called a visual quality advisory committee so the project um right now they're planning on replacing the Pavements all the way from North of Cliff Road basically all the way down to the city border or you know somewhere between Southcross and 150th Street is this the Pavements on the bridge no this is the highway oh the highway so it's underneath not the bridge work on top because I can tell you Parkway needs help well it's both but the project limits are replacing the pavement on 35W from north of Cliff Road where they stopped on the bridge project all the way down basically to the city limits on the south end also they're replacing the bridges at uh Cliff Road trunk Highway 13 and Burnsville Parkway so we've done some talking with them about the importance of Burnsville Parkway and they may not to their credit is now showing that they will be replacing them they also be doing miscellaneous improvements replacing signs improving drainage guard rail improvements all those kinds of things that you would do on a project of this field um the website says 80 million dollars but I think it will be north of that uh when you start talking Three Bridges especially and this isn't just a resurfacing of the pavement this is like replacement so it's going to have a major Community impact for sure we're not here to talk about that tonight we will have MnDOT here at some point to get more into that but part of the project um is the Aesthetics of what they're doing so they do want to get out in front of this and once again um to mndot's credit they are looking for Community input and not just operating the vacuum so uh what does MnDOT provide for Aesthetics on projects like this and what don't they do I tell you it's it's governed by their cost particip cost participation policy and what they do on Bridges is there's three different levels of uh Bridges there's the high visual impact those are ones that are typically on a river crossing or on a one that is a border between two cities there's Urban Bridges which these for sure two out of three would fit into we could try to argue the Burnsville Parkway bridge would be the high visual but the other two likely would be for sure in the urban and then rural Bridges these would be out in the countryside where they're not getting as much attention so on those high impact Bridges MnDOT would they would pay it up to three million dollars in upgrades beyond the normal Urban Bridges would have up to three hundred thousand dollars of additional aesthetic improvements that the committee would provide guidance on and then the rurals is up to 200 000. what doesn't that pay for typically uh emblems logos on the bridges cities are responsible for those lighting really expensive railings if we want some really fancy um texture on the bridge or just something out of the normal then typically those would uh get paid for by the community so Burnsville Parkway bridge now clearly has some of those elements on it now that MnDOT would likely not be paying for it um so uh what they're doing is forming a visual quality advisory committee the time commitment for being on this committee would be five workshops and two hours per Workshop this likely would be during business hours uh City staff will definitely have a member or two on it the invitation is open uh they would like to have a city council member or two not three or more but uh one or two and then uh we have proactively reached out to the Burnsville Community Foundation we felt they would have a a good non-city staff Council um feel for the area and then clearly if you all have someone else that you think would be a good candidate I'm open to taking suggestions for that but really what we're looking forward as a city council want to provide a member or two who would have an interest in this subject okay um I think the Burnsville Community Community Foundation is a good partner but I also believe that we should have a business owner because uh you know Burnsville is a commercial corridor and so it's important I believe to have the business lens oh it could do with that suggestion is reach out to the Chamber of Commerce and see if they want to provide a business yeah or else you know invite some of the businesses who are in the area because not all of our businesses uh 2300 businesses belong to the chamber so I think we should look at who's uh that could be a struggle given they don't want more than like five total members so to try to figure out whom to invite could be a bit of a challenge without and how did how did we select you know what I'm saying yeah I would just go to the chamber I think that's a better idea and we can take a look and and ask the question you know we have um a lot of businesses who carry Freight I they might be interested yeah they're wondering if uh maybe Jack at the Burnsville historical society would be a somebody to consider that's a another good Community member and he knows a lot about birdsville and yeah he's got a lot of resources yeah but we can start and do that but there's a three million dollars track at the Historical Society as the representative of the I-35 Solutions Alliance Vice chair representing Burnsville I I think it makes sense for me to be on this particularly okay and and I would like to also be on it because they say you know two members or not okay so I'll be your alternate because it's during business hours and if you can't make it right during business hours when are these meetings held there would be they would be during business hours during business hours yeah I am very happy to let you both do that what I was thinking because everybody I I know what your work schedule is I know what Vince's work schedule is and all of that so and and I look at how difficult that was with 35W I mean uh the parkway but we had a lot of great we had you know um adamich was on that Ken slipka was on that committee you know these were people who had businesses in the area and well hopefully with this one I sat on the I-35 bridge replacement uh Aesthetics and I believe Ryan if you remember we had one meeting that we got to choose this Obelisk or that Obelisk it really wasn't a lot of input it was more we've pretty much made our decision it comes down to these two things what do you like I know and that was it we had one quick meeting and it felt um like we really weren't a stakeholder it was more just a a tip of the hat to to us to be there but it wasn't really involvement so five meetings to our workshops on these Bridges seems like we're going to have more material participation yeah well here's the other thing if you go back uh Ryan to how much yeah that slide Urban Bridge 300 000 for aesthetica upgrade it's not much it's gonna say that it feels like that's probably not that much I remember I remember what uh the Parkway bridge was but then we paid for a lot of that Hardware yep that was on the Parkway bridge all those arches and space extensions we paid for the lamps on the bridge coming in yep because uh theirs wasn't and I at the time I and talking to Ken slipka at the time I said heck they spend a lot more money on those bridges in Saint Paul and Minneapolis and they were spending down here but then you're saying that one is are we like Suburban rather than Urban it's a giant drop though three million thousand that's honestly I think the three million is more like the Hastings Bridge going between Wisconsin Minnesota those the new one they built in Stillwater I'm that's the general ones like the 35W bridge between Bloomington and Burnsville was in the urban level it did not have the three million dollar uh cap so we can work this try to get the Burnsville Parkway Woods there I just I can't sit here today and say that it's likely too I doubt it I doubt it well the other thing is that if we know ahead of time um if we wanted to light up the bridge we could raise funds for it we can once we understand and Synergy that used to be Phillips that put all the lighting in the Ames Center if they gave us a quote and we understand what it is and we could raise the money to put those lights in yeah if memory serves the capital Improvement plan does have some funding already identified for repair of those features which would have occurred if the bridge was going to stay in place now we'd want to take and use that money for any type of enhancement beyond the whatever level we'd get funded so there is some money yeah 350 yeah and it's 350 000. what was that Jen 350 000 and allocated for um in 2026 oh yeah 650 with their 300. yeah and then and depending on what because uh when we were doing the um 35W bridge and there was a much money for all of that and I talked to Ames about you know what we need to do if we wanted to light up the bridge and uh I said well MnDOT didn't have that in there plan so I asked if you would um put all the electrical in place so if in the future we raise the money and can light up 35W with that work and they said yes uh pedestrian level lighting they will never pay for that will not be considered so are you talking about like under the bridge like they did on uh you know have you seen like the 35W bridge in Minneapolis where are they like beautiful to whatever National Treasure that was it that was uh Synergy that put that in the same people who put in the lighting for the aim Center so the 35 bridge is equipped to do that now well I talked to them if they could put in the electricity for it and they said they could so if it's wired okay so the other thing is that um everybody's been to Green Bay right a lot unfortunately can you see the Green Bay Bridge the bridge in Green Bay where they look like well that was an old bridge and then they they wired it and put it in it it was the same people Ryan just said the Conduit on the 35 Minnesota River Bridge was put in so a wire could be pulled and lights can be so I think you've succeeded and yeah so from my perspective you know we've been wanting to light up these things but now that we know ahead of time because this is not going to happen until what 20 5 26. it's supposed to be a two year deal then we could put a lighting campaign once we understand what MnDOT would allow us to do if we understand how much it's going to cost well this is our Gateway of the Heart of the City I mean we should be using our Gateway our Heart of the City plans and that kind of thing to make sure this all fits in with yeah that district for sure that vibrant be vibrant aluminum exactly boldly vibrant in an illumination way yeah but I think it yeah so can I recap yeah um reach out to Jack I mean I don't want to speak for everyone but I just think it would be a good asset to have as somebody that has institutional knowledge about parental's history on the group well yeah I think that's a great idea okay yeah I and then I think the chamber the Historical Society whatever just one or two businesses depending on how many uh MnDOT would say we could how big that committee is going to be and then Burnsville Foundation yeah University at Council Foundation chamber historical and staff 100. sound good all right got it thank you for your time oh oh great that was easy all right well we'll see how easy it is now it's the um Corridor of Commerce Jen this is your item all right so um there's a good opportunity with tronk Highway 13 to get the rest of it built with the quarters of Commerce project this is an image from The Vision study that was completed a couple of years ago and in that Vision they established primary access points at Dakota which is under construction right now and then um Quentin and Lynn being a combination chowin being an interchange Washburn being an overpass and then the project we've been working really hard at trying to get funding for is 13 and Nikola grade separated if we were to complete all of these projects along the corridor you would have no traffic signals from 169 all the way to Nicollet there would be a traffic signal at Nicollet but it would be reduced um capacity we wouldn't have all movements at that signal like we do today so through traffic on Nicola would go through a roundabout and then go over and then there would be a signal on the North side so this would be a tremendous Improvement and the total dollar amount is gigantic so 254 million is the all-in cost for the construction the engineering and inflated to 26 and 27 has been construction years so Scott County and Savage approached us to see if we would like to collaborate on an application to the quarters of Commerce and they also approached Dakota County for Dakota County we did meet with them they had a meeting today I'm not sure the outcome of that they were going to support the staff was recommending support of the project of the corridor project but not willing to be an applicant with us they're going to be supporting another or applying for another project in the county so the question tonight is does brenzo want to be part of that collaborative group with Scott County and Savage to put forth an application to construct the rest of these some of them in Savage and Scott County and some of them in Burnsville and Dakota County so quarters of Commerce is a MnDOT program and it's all about economic growth and it's focused on quarters just like this where it's a heavy Freight Corridor they have 250 million dollars for to allocate for projects and half of that would be in the Metro so as you saw in the previous slide we far exceed what would be the maximum amount for our project and they probably are not going to want to give half of that you know 125 to just one project so we would be vying for it with others um the project has to start by 2027 and then like I mentioned Dakota County wants to submit for their uh 50 35W project so they don't want to submit to this project but only one one project per agency so the other funding options we already are really likely we haven't gotten an award letter yet but we're really likely to get 10 million dollars from the regional solicitation our project scored second highest in that category and so we're really likely to receive that and that's for 13 and Nicollet Scott County has a sales and use tax and they are willing to commit about 20 million dollars or two years of their sales really generous of them to give us uh two two years two years of their County sales tax so that's 20 million dollars to this project and they and they did say that say that towards the Burnsville projects because they find the benefit of having direct access to 35W for Scott County so it wouldn't be just for the Scott County project they were indicating that it because they're they're starting at it as a complete entity that takes on Chowan and um that's right that's in Burnsville um we have of an rcip program one million dollars as our start of a match for the 13 and Nicollet could be possible that we would want to in a future year add another million um but that's for another day to decide how we would break up that funding Dakota County has programmed 1.6 million for 13 and Nicollet and we could request additional funding from them there's a great opportunity for an infra Grant where the max is a hundred million dollars per project or quarter and we applied for 13 a Nicollet for an infograph for 25 million and we didn't get that Grant but in the feedback that we received they were looking for corridor projects with major free impacts which is more aligned with 13 as a whole uh so we can reapply but go apply through the partnership for the corridor of cons right yeah yeah so the quarter of Commerce would be one one funding source and then this collaborative group would work collectively on seeking other funding sources um we could request State bonding MnDOT would come to the table with more money likely if quarters of Commerce were this were selected project and then Savage they are meeting with their Council to talk about how they might contribute so there's all of these host the funding sources that are that we'd be putting together so the first step would be does the council want to collaborate with this group so we need to apply this whole Corridor towards the project alternatively we could go our own way and we could just apply for 13 and Nicollet but it's called quarters of Commerce and so it feels like the corridor makes sense so that's the question I have is if the council's supportive of this initiative with the other agencies and if so I will bring forward a resolution to your next meeting and then we'll apply Dan personally I would support the corridors because just doing our own Nicollet and 13 doesn't fix the problem the throughput throughout the whole quarter so I don't think we need to be selfish and just try and protect that and and get the funding for that I I do think we need a regionals you know viewpoint on this um and uh I'm not familiar with the infra Grant but I'm going to reach out to our NLC transportation uh liaison and um get some more information on it and when we're at NLC later this month uh get a little bit more details and see if there's any anything we can do to enhance that but there's eight billion it looks like available over a four year period uh for that particular and this is a perfect project for that funding so anyone object to going into partnership for the corridor of Commerce no I'm in Prescott county is willing to go with us over here pardon me I'm impressed Scott County is willing to put some money over in this area they did put for 13 and five I know so it's they were the first person and it wasn't even a Scott County it's not even in Scott County but they are looking at it in terms of um you know Transportation Corridor and it's Freight just a quick follow-up didn't we get awarded some funds some federal funds for Nicollet in 13 recently is that included in this that uh uh Angie Craig put in um two million or three million in her appropriation so it passed the house it's not past the Senate so it's still in yeah it's in process but it passed the house so that could potentially roll in yep to this as well so we we asked for that for preliminary engineering to get started so we have to spend that in fiscal year 2023. so it would be to our benefit to start looking at the whole Corridor if we get those funds and if she'll if it's allowed but we had asked for just for 13 and Nicollet to start preliminary engineering okay I would welcome this 100 and that's wonderful that Scott County is participating in a little disappointing that Dakota County's I'm not saying they're not participating but um we'll continue to continue to work and see where they have another project and they can't sign on the two I believe right here if they want same agency can't go after multiple right so they they're just protecting the one that they are doing but they will sign or they had the staff is recommending that they submit a resolution of support as a because they're supporting Apple Valley and they're supporting Egan but their project uh is in Lakeville 50 and 35 they want to make sure they can do and that's where they're also thinking of putting their um tax Transportation tax money so I ask if you can just get give us a sliver of that you know well we'll see we'll continue to to work it but the the thing is if we think back in our experience whether it's 13 and 5 or the uh the on-ramp and off ramp on um on Cliff that started in 1999. and it took a lot of cobbling of the money together the same thing with 13 and 5 it just takes time to Cobble the money together and so with this going into partnership we can get the money put together what was that just passed the Lions they killed everything yeah yeah and Amir did you make oh sorry I was just gonna say one other thing about Dakota county is that this quarters of Commerce announcement came kind of late in the game and so they weren't able to really react to updating their CIP so I think we have a better chance at requesting some funds next year when they're kind of fresh on the next CIA IP I didn't mean to slam Dakota company we need them we do were you referring to the wheelage tax the county wheelage tax uh funding yeah that's when you said can we just have a piece of the legislature gave them when they went into yeah and then they decided oh we don't want to be part of ckib we're taking up they're pretty flush with money yeah okay so there is no objection if I'm hearing no objection to um no objection for us to okay there's unanimous so a resolution um in November for us to form the partnership for the coroner of Commerce thank you good work thank you okay the next is the rental license and fee and um Jeff I think um this is yours and um Chris's item s okay you're gonna do this okay you know put your name on these things anymore bjones right he doesn't want a paper trail anyways exactly I'm plenty good with that you guys are quicker over there yep perfect all right good evening mayor members of the council uh thanks for the opportunity for uh us to present uh Chris Fortson is going to do the majority of the presenting but just to kind of set the stage um as we're moving through kind of the code review task force and updating a number of things around rental licensing uh one of the things Mr Forza brought to me uh in the last couple of months here was changing how we uh process or how we have our rental licensing fees and one to simplify them and really two to uh when we have some of those egregious uh violations particularly safety violations around smoke alarm CEO alarms things like that that there's a more significant penalty in what we've seen I know he'll get into it uh is that we've become their monitoring and maintenance at some of these properties so this is kind of really uh to uh to provide some penalties so that people do their own work and Chris can get into some of the details on that but it isn't it is in alignment with what we're bringing to the rental uh code review task force on rental licensing we have some other things in the code that we'll address with rental task force and this is really about a revenue neutral item so I'll kick it over to Chris he can get into the details and uh be here to answer any questions I can help with yeah just to get back to policy uh question that you're asking us to do is the simplification of the fees simplification of the fees and an additional fee and Chris will outline that but that has to do with with some of these uh what I would call egregious uh code violations so yeah so yeah and I the recommendation that you have here is to implement a flat theater building uh and a unit license fee okay I just want to understand policy question sounds good and then you can tell us about the details great council members and you know I always get nervous when I talk to you guys um we had an anniversary this year and uh I thought it was pretty important to mention that it's been 10 years since we started the rental program and when we think back those those of us who have been involved in from the beginning on a lot of this we've made a lot of changes we've made a lot of really cool things that I think have really made it a valuable program and one of those things uh you know whether it be through the adoption the property maintenance codes and the different tools that we put in the Ordinance one of the things we have not really taken a look at is our our fee structure and how we do things um look at the first part here this is this is quite often particularly from folks who are applying online for a license and this is going to sound kind of strange but it does happen is we get people that may call from Texas from a corporate rental and they don't know what type of home that they're licensing I know they just purchase product exactly and they rent it but they don't know what the product is the program was first started up this kind of predates me a little bit we did have some provision Provisions in there for the type of home whether it be a town home whether it be a town home and a cloud complex manufacturing homes are separated out into rentals as well as uh apartment units themselves and we look at the fee schedule there there are they're mixed up a little bit and what we like to do much like the chief said is we want to kind of align those fees um to make a standard dwelling unit uh rental fee uh of 175 and a per unit charge of 16 these fees are reflected in for 2023 so it's very slight change from what we're currently charging so what does this mean let's see if I get this right here and these are just some examples single family home we're charging 175 dollars now we're going to charge 175 next year duplex um we would charge this is my voice here 205 which would be 175 charge plus two fifteen dollars um next year a slight increase because we're going to 60 and you can you can get the math there the biggest change will be at the townhouses we're currently charging 100 to 100 and then switching it to 175 so on and so forth manufacturing home would not change we decided that's that's that covers our our expense is what we do there um so in essence what this charge would be was a is a flat dwelling unit charge 175 dollars in a per unit charge of 16 so it's pretty simple it's easy for people to calculate we can tell them exactly what they need to do and they can see it on our applications with no problem there's no confusion that makes it simpler for staff too um what is this intended to do I think some of this are probably just covered uh per unit charge it standardizes the process so everybody knows if they call me up or somebody asks you in the street well what's our what's a rental unit charge you can save 175 dollars and and you'd readily be able to know that information we still exempt occup owner occupied units they wouldn't be included on that manufacturing fees would remain unchanged and then one license per address which is essentially no different so this is pretty close to being budget neutral but it certainly simplifies the whole application process and I think it's consistent with how other cities are doing it too so that's part of that um in addition like the chief said we want to take a look at our reinspection fees and what we're proposing is a 20 unit charge per unit charge for serious violations at first inspection and this is because we're walking into places we find that a lot of them have inoperative smoke alarms all the things that Chiefs outline and I think everybody had to maybe witness when you looked at it if that violation remains upon the next re-inspection there'd be another fee and it would double so it's a progressive enforcement and anything beyond that that goes unre uncorrected well we might be talking to you guys at what action you want to take or talk to our leading team either through adverse license action a couple things I don't expect that to happen new licensees would not be affected because other inspection fees are covered under the conversion fee of 5 500 500 so those were not these are these are folks that were between routinely in spec so why would we consider this well currently we charge a flat reinspection fee of 185 dollars and it's unfair to the smaller operations um we do a single family home they're gonna get a a flat 185 dollars we go to a large complex we're going to get 185 dollars even though we spend more time there and this is I think really important to emphasize it rewards those rental properties with less serious violations and penalizes those with more violations it it helps our good players the folks have put in a time do their pre pre-inspections are prepared for us to come in and uh give give their tenants the best that they can give them it encourages active managerial control and routine maintenance they don't wait for us to show up and end up writing up 30 pages of inspection orders they'll be prepared when we come in there and I would suspect they prepare during the inspection if they correct something on site that wouldn't be a violation we want we want a way and I don't have to talk to BJ about this before I do not like to walk away from any dwelling unit that doesn't have working smoke alarms at that time and we encourage staff to really focus on that so um all here is it's going to encourage proper repairs we're going to focus on those items um and particularly life safety violations and I gave in the background I gave some examples of that it could be no obviously no work in smoke detection no safe way to get in or out um uh perhaps some fire barrier uh damage and things that create risk to the tenants and to the rest of the structure my voice here yeah um so I guess the question we would have now is you know does console desire to simplify this and uh support the reinspection fee per unit any questions any objections with what staff is proposing regarding a flat fee and a per unit fee and then the re-inspection fee events I like this I think with some units um it might not go far enough but I think we need to start okay somewhere speak a little louder I I like what was been has been presented um I I think with some of our rental units this might not go far enough but I think this is a good start um the only concern I have is and I don't even know if this is something we can regulate but I I would hope that this if if and if a apartment building gets dinged with several of these violations if there is a way to prevent them from then passing that down to the tenants in the building um because obviously it's not something that they have done to incur these violations I mean I can't say that universally but I would say for the most part um I know I know there's probably no way for us to regulate that um but I would hope that that wouldn't happen um and when we talk about life safety I just I think about the Parkview Flats yeah you know non-operating fire doors fire smoke alarms are certainly life safety but do things like you know busted hallway walls and leaking pipes and mold you know three inches of standing water in HVAC rooms I mean those all are considered Life Safety correct Council I they can be life safety we're talking about critical life systems so you know fire doors that don't operate smoke alarms things like that um to your point I appreciate the support and I would just kind of the first step of um of what we see as kind of an overhaul of the rental licensing ordinance we just didn't want to get ahead of the code review task force this became more of an issue around timing with the budget coming up and making sure that we addressed the fee schedule and really again this is about not penalizing those that are good operators and finding a way to increase the pressure on those that are not so desirable operators and and really by having that uh that's uh re-inspection fee per unit on the first re-inspection it keeps us from doing their maintenance work and that's what we're finding is they're not going around checking smoke alarms before we come so now our inspectors are waiting while they're checking smoke alarms or they don't have them and we're walking away without a working smoke alarm or a working fire door or any of those kinds of things so we wanted to bring this to you uh in all transparency to make sure everybody was good with it not just stick it in the budget and and like I said it's kind of a first step to what we see from from the issues that we've encountered in the past year and unfortunately that we know we're going to continue to encounter in the near future here so we think that this is a good Tool uh a to reduce ambiguity on the the licensing fee but number two really about those life safety features in the units uh change the fee structure to to penalize those that are not doing their work like I said when we come back with the rental licensing ordinance to the the code review task force some of those other things you're talking about we have a different different structure for and some different proposals that hopefully code review will respond favorably too so chief question has to do with the twenty dollars re-inspection cause I don't know whether that covers the cost um staff cost especially when we've been experiencing a great deal of these re-inspections with these operators that are not ethical I mean it's a great question but what I tell you is generally when we see these it's not just one unit so it's a 20 per unit so if you think about it this is only the items in the unit so in our experience it's never just a one unit issue it's usually widespread so if we go to a building and there's a hundred units and 33 of them have this issue now it's 20 times 33 and if they don't fix it by the second re-inspect now at 66 per uh or sorry it's 40 times 33. so so it's a per unit so this is why to your earlier remark that it's the same whether you're going into a single family dwelling or a multi-family dwelling correct it's the same uh charge okay Cara so on the twenty dollar fee per unit violation or per unit violation this is the interest if there are multiple violations in a unit is that 20 or is that per violation per unit so per unit so if they had a smoke alarm and Co it would still only be if it's apartment 201 for example it'd be one twenty dollar charge okay so next question is um so on the first violation it would be a charge because you have to come back and re-inspect right right okay so then and this is me just I'm puzzling through this out loud so don't if the resident is disabling their fire alarm and the penalty and re-inspection is going to the landlord or the building owner do we and this may be a question for Joel just like imposing this out I can't do this what is the what can the building owners do to prevent that from rehappening because because I'm looking at it both ways right so you have a landlord or a business or a building owner that's not taking care of their property their failing inspection because of actions they have taken or neglected to take which is understandable on the flip side of that we also hear from building owners and managers saying look they keep burning crap and you know you hit that sucker with a broom and I've done it so like I I get why they're doing it because you're like freaking out in the moment um and they're doing it repeatedly and I'm getting fined repeatedly so I'm and this is not something you can probably answer but what records do they have with someone renting from them that is causing unsafe for everyone because if if they have a fire like that affects their neighbors too you know that's what it is part of being in a shared living environment is there you know the community aspect of it which is you know both good and challenging yeah Madam mayor members of the council I I would definitely want Joel's guidance on this but yeah I'll tell you the way our ordinance is currently set up if the ownership can prove that the occupant disabled that alarm it's a strike against their lease right so if they're intentionally doing this and they get three of those then they can break their lease with them so okay so there there is a mechanism in our current ordinance which we look to keep that has some remedy if this continues to be an issue and the ownership can prove it now that gets a little tricky and that's where we need to schedule his guidance on on how do you prove that but we do have some process in place around that so okay I'm normally in favor with this I do I would like an answer to that question so if city manager can I ask Joel and then inform the rest of us if the tenant is the one that is disabling the alarm and I know that in my buildings if you're disabling the alarm you are causing your the community Jeopardy and now you are fined yeah now the tenant is uh or the owner is fine so my guess is in these apartment buildings they're being fined also but yeah to have Joel take a look at it yeah and to see because it they're causing Jeopardy for the health and safety of the rest of the community perhaps oversimplifying this that that owner's obligation certainly is to the city and the city's ordinance the the renter uh or or the occupant of that unit is obligated to the contract contractual agreement that they have between two private private parties the property owner and and the occupant or the renter yes but government interferes with that like we don't allow cart Blanc on whatever their contract is we don't allow that government does interfere in that like there are certain reasons why you cannot evict people there's a process you have to follow which is a legal process that you have to follow like all of these types of things whether you can find someone or not find someone is something that you know we meaning government at various levels impede upon in that contractual relationship so you know that's that's what I'm looking for totally get what you're saying agree with it in principle if we weren't interfering in that relationship so what I'm hearing from you is that you agree with what staff is proposing but you just want to get clarity on the legality of government interference one of the things that I'm hearing is that uh we're not interfering with the contractual agreement between the owner and the renter we're saying to the owner um this is cause for Jeopardy and the life and safety of your whole community so you have to deal with your renter if they continue to disable the smoke alarm system well we we may we may or may not be interfering with that and that's what I would like Clarity on I don't know it it sounds like from BJ's understanding but you know finding out for sure from Joel um that they do have a path of protection if they have a renter who is his you know placing a name Jeopardy yeah exactly um and then that's that's great we're covered um but if we find out oh well maybe we we do impede on that in some way maybe we need to alter it slightly so that we are very safety focused and we're not not impeding on that so that's all I'm looking for is a little bit of information but in general I um I'm in agreement with this and I like the simplified language that makes it very easy for people to understand and I also believe it makes it more fair as well so thank you very much for your work on this and the proposal so I appreciate that thank you Dan I'm in agreement with what our staff is proposing on this as I understand the inspection on our rental housing stock whether it's apartments or single family we don't just show up we set appointments we send them letters we send them letters of what we're looking for when we get there so it's not a surprise that we're going to be there on the third looking at that apartment and we expect that smoke alarm to be working and so these even if there are tenants knocking it down somebody should be checking at that and for what I understand even if you're an out-of-state owner you have to have a manager within 70 miles drive as a contact person to to get to those get to those buildings as well that's in our ordinance is that right PJ yeah that's some mileage okay so I mean we give them plenty of time to prepare for us to walk in the door and look at it and makes it so it's the ones that just don't take the time to do it and that's that's what's causing us the problem and we are discovering like we did with Country Village years ago even even when we work with them they're not they're not doing anything they're just like ignoring us well absolutely and I and I do get that I also if I remember correctly from when I rented um renters have to be given so much notice before their place can be entered I'm assuming you're giving like way good notice you know way good notice on that and it's well beyond that time so that the building owner could then themselves give notice because it's two different visits right it's your guys's visit that's being noticed to the renter and then it's the apartment manager's notice which is a different notice if they want to get in there beforehand to take a peek so some buildings managers are going through the department excellent see that's excellent so multiple dates and multiple times and far enough out that if they so choose they can give their second notice and say we need to take a peek ahead of time yeah yeah okay Dan K any objections to what's being proposed no I like it I'm we're recently been made aware of some apartment complexes that have some serious safety and yes quality of life um issues and I just I'm glad that we are spending our time on those uh we have we have some very good apartment owners and managers that keep good clean quality Living Spaces and buildings and we don't need to spend any time on them we need to go after these problem people because they're creating unhealthy environments for people living we don't want that in our city period in and it's fraudulent exactly because they're committing fraud when they're saying we're going to provide this for you luxury apartments you know yeah we're going to provide this for you for use for you pay us and if they're not upholding their end of their bargain that is fraudulent Behavior so yeah and the uh the complex that we all visited with our chief uh I can tell you I don't know about any of you but I had to ask our chief for us to exit because it was causing my throat and my respiratory function to be impacted now and that was an hour in that building now I don't know about anybody else it's a shame because it's beautiful architecture on the outside yeah I mean you look at the structure of the building and the architecture yeah when you look at it it's like that looks like a nice place it's I mean it is a it's beautiful it's it's somewhat historic you know but you go inside and it's a different story that's a shame and for me it's about the health and well-being of the tenants we say that we care about them and they belong here and we're their only safety net so Vince I'm just checking back with you any objections to what staff is proposing no not at all my only concern is that tenants don't get singled out because of mismanagement which again I don't know if that's even anything we can do yeah yeah Consulting and Consulting the city attorney's question we'll address that with him as well because I don't have a good answer to it I absolutely hear your point but the only thing that comes to mind is if we had a list of the units that were you know in violation and then the management company said well we want that list and then they were to go ahead and you know pass these fees on to the tenants I don't know if that's privileged information I don't know you gotta fix it anyway so we're going to get them the short answer to that is the unit numbers not privileged information because they need it to fix this units yeah to see manager Lindbergh's point we'll have to check in I don't know of anything but it's a good opportunity to check with the city attorney if there's anything we can do to protect them so but I obviously to Kara's point if you've got a tenant that's creating the problem then that's the information that you would want to have so okay so you have two things to uh get legal counsel comments on uh we will do that mayor Chief do you have Clarity on councilmember Schultz question we're good yes we want to make sure that we get the answers to you yeah I appreciate the discussion the support I know it's already a long night but and so you have um um complete we're good decision on to move forward with um with the changes to move forward with the changes and we'll follow up with legal counsel on the two questions okay and then you will bring something forward then for uh us to adoption the council this will this will go through the code review task force uh is part of their process and then yes we will coordinate those items so is this rental license coming up uh under code review task force November yeah in November so then it will be done we'll do something different because BJ's giving me a look like we're going to do something different already I'm sure we understand that this is going to move forward quickly so that uh if it's not being delayed if I can unwind this just for a second um the idea of bringing this forward was to incorporate in the 2023 fee schedule yeah yeah this doesn't have any any code change this is all about fee schedule and we wanted to check in case because it has to all be adopted with the with the budget yeah absolutely incorporating the 2023 fee schedule because we figured there were some policy implications of this particularly on the the re-inspect fee and that's why we wanted to check in with you before we just Incorporated in the 2023 fee schedule so sorry to not jump in sooner on that but the minutia is something we're going to come back to at a later date correct there will be plenty of discussion to be had about the entire rental licensing ordinance trust me um I don't know when we're starting back up with the code review task force the end of November I'm venturing to guess it won't get solidified the end of November so yeah after the first of the year I expect as well we'll get a final on it so um so so two so two things first I was totally wrong and thank you for correcting me uh second would be that we will we'll be talking with the code review task force starting in November we don't anticipate this being a one month conversation with them so like we're likely we're into December and frankly the first part of the year before we would come back to the council with a with a more robust discussion on some of the other issues when it comes to the rental housing questions about it already Greg so you're using November is already in our second month of talking about it okay so this is about the fee schedule that goes into the budget for that's going to be adopted in December it has nothing to do with the code review task force it'll go through its process and so uh it's unanimous that uh to proceed with the fee schedule we'll process it through the 23-3 free schedule and the other the the other part is being processed as it usually is this is only about the fee schedule okay and that is it so we'll move to round table thank you very much Chief thank you Chris thank you so much and then we'll go to Round Table um there's nothing uh on the round table discussion so we'll go to uh reports Vince you have anything I got nothing you said it we're doing the review at the end of the month so okay Cara not really there's going to be a little more sizable of a report coming on about the um dbb dbb yeah we saw all of that in a city manager's report exactly so yeah with two the one in the day in a week lease and then the other one was uh um our response to all of those questions that were given so exactly was very comprehensive yeah and and those those questions were done a little late thank you staff for scrambling it's so prompt on that yeah Hermes willing there will be a more thorough report on the on the next meeting so okay great Dan K just note it's going to be 74 degrees tomorrow and it's November 2nd whoa really nice yeah um just one thing from MBTA we got our third quarter uh ridership report and uh just some highlights um MBTA connect grew by 185 percent over last year and it was growing last year at at a large uh jumps so it's still growing dramatically that is MBTA connect is our on-demand service um call it for lack of a better term Uber bus for three dollars anywhere in mvta Connect service territory which extends from Savage all the way into Eagan Apple Valley Burnsville it's a fantastic service from point A to point B so you don't have to try and find your way to a bus stop you can have them come to your front door and pick you up weekday Minneapolis express service ask a question how many buses do you have on the connect service I don't know the answer to that but I'll find out I know they're we've added a lot yeah because yes and so I'm just wondering what your inventory is it is uh it's it's constantly growing because the server the service area expansion requires more buses and more drivers so it's the it's the growing piece it's the vibrant piece of of our business yeah because I see a whole lot more also of Metro Mobility of course you know the company that uh that is the vendor for Med Council from Metro Mobility is here in Burnsville yes and so that parking lot is packed the former Ames Construction Site yeah yeah um I'll find out um I know there's a lot because yeah you see more and more every day it's yeah it's it's a great a great service uh weekday Minneapolis Express is up 180 from last year um that continues to grow as more employers are requesting employees return to work I just read a an opinion article based on some Labor Department that productivity is dropping as more people are forced to go back to the office I found that very interesting um uh weekdays St Paul Express is up 154 percent uh so that's growing as well very similar to Minneapolis just a little bit less um and then weekend is weekend never really dropped off that bad so it's actually just up nine percent um but uh the state fair uh our numbers were almost back to the peak record year um and so very very robust State Fair bus activity um so anyway uh great positive report Still The One lagging service that is struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels is that downtown express service even though it is grown quite a bit since 2021 we're still we have not gotten quite to that 50 percent point and we're actually doing a little better than some of the other Suburban Transit provider systems that are seeing more like 35 to 40 percent return so that is the big challenge for us that's it don't you have more news in Minnesota Valley Transit didn't I see an email from you recently yeah congratulations your your Vice chair your Vice chair of the group yeah I think big deal yeah congratulations thank you yeah no big deal so um I want to thank uh staff by the yellow ribbon uh got information from the county that uh during veterans week that they wanted us the county knew about this a year ago but they just let us know last Friday or last week that the green light for veterans week is November 7th for the 13th and I shared this with a city manager and asked if we can be can we have green light at the aim Center at the pillars and um he talked with Brian and that's going to happen as well as Nicolette Commons park and also perhaps here at City Hall and so we will shine uh green lights from November 7th to the 13th in honor of the veterans in support of them we met with the city of savage which is a collaboration that we have with Savage and we meet every other month and we talked about the corridor of Commerce and uh they're very good partners on all of this we updated them on the landfill and also our water agreement and they're all in favor of just continuing the partnership that we have and then they were interested in our rental licensing and so we shared that with them and they were also interested in the Chamber of Commerce well they wanted to talk to us about their Chamber of Commerce and we shared our relationship with our Chamber of Commerce but that was it is there anything that I forgot from you Hugo nope okay uh other than that um I think we are very reported Hugo and I attended the um um Metropolitan um the mlc yeah that is because we just had a meeting today so we reported on that okay because that all meets quarterly and that's all I have anything else Greg no matter any stat okay with that we're adjourned by acclimation and thank you very much everyone