This transcript has been formatted with the appropriate speaker names based on the city council roster and the context of the dialogue. **Note on Speaker Identification:** * **Councilmember Orin Kipp** is identified as the speaker referred to as "John" (likely his middle name or preferred name). * **Simon** is identified as the Public Works representative (likely a supervisor or lead), as specifically addressed by the Mayor. *** [0:28] (Silence/Static) [0:58] (Silence/Static) [1:28] (Silence/Static) [1:58] (Silence/Static) [2:28] (Silence/Static) [2:58] (Silence/Static) [3:28] (Silence/Static) [3:58] (Silence/Static) [4:28] (Silence/Static) [4:58] (Silence/Static) [5:28] (Silence/Static) [5:58] (Silence/Static) [6:47] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** ...to order the February 3rd 2025 meeting of the Bayport city council and we can all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. [All: Pledge of Allegiance] All right thanks. Matt will you uh call the roll please? [7:15] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Uh, council member Gilmore? **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore:** Here. **Matt Kline:** Council member Hill? **Councilmember Katie Hill:** Here. **Matt Kline:** Council member Kipp? **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Here. **Matt Kline:** Mayor Hanson? **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Here. [7:25] **Matt Kline:** Just note that uh council member Bliss is is not here tonight he didn't quit already he just had prior— [7:30] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** —plan we didn't scare him away one meeting yeah okay um do we have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? [7:37] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** I move to approve the agenda as presented. [7:39] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks Katie. Second? [7:41] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Second. [7:42] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks John. All in favor? [All: Aye] All right move forward with our agenda. Uh next is proclamations, accommodations, petitions and announcements. The January recycling award recipient is Aaron Carter on Prairie Way North. He'll be awarded for his recycling efforts with a grant from Washington County. And now we'll move on to our open forum. This is a portion of the meeting to address the city council on subjects that are not part of the agenda. The city council may take action or reply at the time of the statement or may give direction to staff regarding investigation of comments expressed. Total of 15 minutes is allotted for public comment during the open forum and we have two guests here that we know want to speak during the public forum so or the open forum so first we'll have Mary Goulette come up. She's no stranger to this building. [8:35] **Mary Goulette (BCA/Utility Billing):** No ma'am. Uh, Mary Goulette, 204 North F Street. I'm here to represent the BCAL tonight though. Okay? Okay. Madame Mayor, council members and staff, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you this evening. I would like to start by expressing my sincere appreciation for the dedication and hard work all of you put into supporting and enhancing our community. The BCAL is truly grateful for the ongoing support we receive from each of you, whether it's from the public works department, the police and fire departments or our wonderful library. Your collective contributions are essential to making Bayport such a great place to live. Tonight I'm here to extend a warm invitation for you to join us at the ice cream social which will be held on June 4th at Lakeside Park. The event provides a fantastic opportunity for neighbors to come together in a beautiful scenic setting. We would be truly honored to have your involvement this year. Specifically, we'd love for Madame Mayor and the council members to volunteer for a 30-minute ice cream scoop—scoopy shift. Glad I said that right, it's a ten times fast, I almost said something wrong. It's a fun and easy way to engage with residents, support the success of the event, and of course enjoy some ice cream—and let's just be honest, scooping ice cream is a lot more fun than building gingerbread houses. In addition to the social, we're also organizing a food drive to support families with children during the summer months. We're seeking donations of kid-friendly, non-perishable food items such as snacks, juice boxes and cereal. All donations will directly benefit the St. Croix United Food Pantry here in Bayport. This year we're excited to introduce a new children's activity where local kids will help assemble swag bags for other children in need. We've already reached out to the local churches to partner on this initiative and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We hope this will inspire the youth of our community to engage in giving back and foster a sense of generosity and involvement. Thank you again for your consideration. We're excited about your support and we hope to see you at the ice cream social. Thank you. May I—I wanted to say this my whole life—I stand for questions. [11:26] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Well, okay, I'll I'll I'll ask one then. Do you have any idea how much ice cream I can scoop into me in half an hour? Cuz that's a lot. [11:34] **Mary Goulette:** Yeah, it's very busy. It's very busy and yeah, I'm I'm excited. I hope you guys all I'll do it because I've done it for the last several years and it's a fun night. [11:41] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** So it's amazing how many people go down there. [11:44] **Mary Goulette:** Yeah, so it's a good draw so thank you for your time. [11:47] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you Mary. Thanks for the great idea and I'm super excited about the food drive option that you added to this. Um last year the Lions did a diaper drive so yeah this is—and we'll coordinate with the um Lions as well. Yeah, great work. Thank you. And BCAL stands for the Bayport Community Action League for those of you who are not aware and they're always looking for members right Mary? [12:18] **Mary Goulette:** Anyone can help. We're small but mighty. [12:20] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Small but mighty. They do a lot of great events in town so thank you. Thank you Mary. And next up Barbara High Camp is here from—she looked—I know goodness all right. [12:31] **Barbara High Camp (Water Resources Educator):** So I have a little presentation so Sarah and Matt asked me a very long time ago to come—well first tell us you're who you're where you're from. So my name is Barbara High Camp and I'm a water resources educator for the Lower St. Croix Watershed Partnership. Um, so I have a few slides. I also am a Bayport resident. If you look at the first slide on my presentation... they're switching it over. Okay, so here is my daughter, one of her best friends at Lakeside Park claiming victory. My screen isn't working—oh there—be nice if we could get... can we get it on the main one too Harrison? The one on the podium? Oh you can see it mine. Yeah, we have—there's a TV right there so we can pretend like we're looking at you but we're cool. [12:57] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** No that's fine. You can look at the TV screen and find it... that is it there... there it is. I love that picture that's so— [13:03] **Barbara High Camp:** Um, on the agenda it says my affiliation is the East Metro Water Resource Education Program. That is true, but I'm actually talking tonight about my source of funding that comes from um the other aspect of my job which was the Lower St. Croix Watershed Partnership. Um, but yes I am a Bayport resident. My husband and I and our children moved here in 2014. We live in the Inspiration development. Um, we love this community. Both my girls go to Anderson. One of them was there from preschool up through fifth grade now at Oakland. My youngest is now in second grade. Um, being able to be part of this community has been amazing. So thank you to all of the staff. Um, I work on the uh the foundation board at the library. Um, I co-lead two Girl Scout troops that are primarily Anderson girl troops. Um, my husband is part of the Inspiration Community Association as a president and is a thorn in that side many times. Um, but we we love this community. So the Lower St. Croix Watershed Partnership um is a uh regional watershed management scheme that the Board of Soil and Water Resources came up with um approximately 10 years ago, maybe a little bit more than 10 years ago. And the idea was is that we wanted to be able to better align uh water planning, we wanted to better align um initiatives that looked at being able to improve water quality uh throughout the state and we wanted to make sure that we were able to get money to portions of the state that truly needed it. A lot of our clean water funding is by grant, by competitive grant process, and so they wanted to create it's called "One Watershed, One Plan"—a way to be able to bring together different partners to be able to collaborate and talk about how can we make sure that resources are going to where they need to go and we can better improve our water resources. So in our corner of the world we have the Lower St. Croix Watershed and so it includes about 60% of Washington County, pretty much all of Chisago County and then portions of Anoka, Pine and Isanti. So this is my playground. This is the realm in which I work. So you might find me down in Hastings working one day or up here in Bayport. I could be up in North Branch or I could even be almost as far north as Pine City. They're just out of the Lower St. Croix. So we're kind of getting rid of some political boundaries but then we're establishing other boundaries that I have to work within. But I work with the partners from all of the agencies within this region which includes counties, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and because Washington County and Anoka County are part of the Metro, they also have that middle level of watershed management which is the Watershed Districts or the Watershed Management Organizations. But back in 2017, long before I took this job, you had all these partners get together and come up with the 10-year comprehensive watershed management plan. What are we going to do over the next 10 years to be able to help improve water quality outcomes, take care of our lakes, rivers and streams, enhance habitat and kind of maintain the quality of life that we've gotten used to here in this portion of the world. So since we started implementation in 2021, um every two years we get um a pot of implementation funding and that goes toward specifically toward projects that look to improve water quality in priority areas of the watershed um all for the benefit of the St. Croix River. And these projects can include everything from agricultural landscapes to just rural landscapes to looking at urban and developing landscapes. And some of the types of projects that we've done up to date look at stream restoration—so we've been working down at Afton Alps—water and sediment control basins in our agricultural landscapes, uh looking at even just something as simple as keeping cows out of the lake, having their hooves mash up the water and stir up sediment and nutrients, looking at uh wetland enhancements and restorations. Wetlands help create water storage as well as infiltration capacity and filtering capacity of the water. Something like enhanced street sweeping—I had a great time following Simon's team last fall as their street sweeper went out and did their thing, it was a lot of fun to watch. Um looking at ravine stabilization, being able to stop erosion, um storm water diversions, bio-retention basins... pretty much the sky's the limit. The biggest bang that we've got thus far though is working with our basin farmers. And so we have a lot of ag down in southern Washington County kind of intermixed here and there. As we go up the basin there's another large ag contingent in Chisago County. And working with those farmers to implement practices that really look to help reduce soil erosion and keeping the soil on the fields and not getting fertilizer to go off into our lakes or and streams. So being able to offer incentive programs like no-till, a conversion of farmland to prairie or pasture land, cover crops, reduced tillage... um it's been a really great way to be able to build up additional trust where we stop finger pointing between urban and rural landscapes and really just get people talking and being able to say, "Hey look, farmers are really doing their part too." So we have this education team and this is where this dovetails with the East Metro Water Resource Education Program, which I hope many of you are familiar with since Bayport is a member. Um, so I work with Angie Hong. I am co-housed at the Washington Conservation District and part of my funding comes from the EMWREP program and part of it comes from the state Lower St. Croix Watershed Partnership. And so we have four educators. There's Angie; we hired a new educator last spring, Jessica, if you haven't had the chance to meet her she is a bundle of energy, she's going to be working as our volunteer coordinator—she's fabulous; myself; and then we actually just hired a new uh agricultural outreach agronomist as well. And so all of us are together really just trying to make conservation cool, right? And so doing our part to help people understand that the way that we have used and managed our landscapes aren't necessarily leading to desirable outcomes, right? The way that we water our lawns or we fertilize our lawns or the fact that we have so many lawns, um how we live along our shorelines, how we handle getting around in the winter and how much salt we use—just kind of thinking through things of... we live our daily lives, but what are small things that everybody can do to best be able to continue living in a way that we enjoy living but yet still have the quality of the water resources that we're looking for. So some of the things that we are have been working on and will be continuing to work on over this next year—and I'm always looking for ideas and ways to be able to plug into Bayport, so do let me know—and all of these pictures come from um being up in Inspiration which is awesome. Um, so planting for pollinators: a lot of people are really concerned about the flights of the bees and the butterflies and the birds. Uh what's great about native plants is that they're also great for cleaner water as well. So if we are able to plant more native plants, they have these really deep roots which means they need less water, less fertilizer. Um, they infiltrate water better which means that you don't have to worry as much about storm water runoff. And a lot of people really are getting on board with this. So we always are trying to find a way to meet people where they're at and being able to ask them to do things that just make them feel good also about promoting best landscape management practices. Up in Inspiration we've done a few prescribed burns over the past few years. I love it—it's a huge plume of smoke and everybody's like, "Oh no this is awful," and you're like, "No actually it's kind of awesome." But doing it in a very safe methodological way. And we're seeing this practice being used more and more across Minnesota um because it does actually help manage fire risk as well. But being able to talk to people about the fact that these landscapes used to burn all the time and it's actually we who have stopped that from happening, but it rejuvenates the soil, rejuvenates the vegetation, rejuvenates uh the wildlife that have evolved to be here—is a very powerful story. Promoting more natural shorelines: in Minnesota we love our waters, we love living as close to them as possible. Um, but at the same time we eradicate the natural shorelines—we get rid of the trees and the shrubs, we have our gravel, we have our sand beaches, we use rip-rap when we're concerned about erosion. And we're really trying to help people find more of a balance, right? You're able to have your dock, you're able to have your little bit of of beach shoreline, but consider having a buffer too because that's going to be able to support the lake health, it's going to be able to minimize green algae, um and it's going to make sure that you still have frogs and turtles for your kids to catch or grandkids to catch. [22:45] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Barbara, I know you like to talk with your hands but I want to make sure people can hear you when they're listening online. [22:55] **Barbara High Camp:** Hey I'm so used to talking loud that I'm not used to people not— [22:58] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay I just want to make sure hearing me okay. [23:00] **Barbara High Camp:** Right. Uh one of the other things that we've been working on uh especially over this past year and looking into this year is really working with local leaders such as yourselves. So there are a lot of policies and um practices that are at your disposal that really are about being able to see how you want your community to develop, being able to look at the future of what your community is going to be. Um we've developed a few cool video series talking about given the fact that in the East Metro we're continuing to see this population surge. I'm part of that, right? We moved here from South Minneapolis. Um but being able just to do it in a very mindful way. And we're actually the partnership is putting out a request for proposals over the next couple weeks and we're actually going to be hiring an outside group to help us build materials and do outreach with communities. We're really focusing on the Chisago County communities. In many ways Washington County communities have such a leg up in thinking about this given the fact that we've had to develop so quickly and they're just really starting to see the push of this development up north. Um but even again I go back to Inspiration. The reason why we moved into Inspiration is because it is an example of a conservation development. It's a cluster development—all of these houses are on quarter-acre lots. You could have made it so they were 3/4 of an acre or larger—you would have had fewer houses—but by taking that away and doing quarter-acre lots, we have 150 acres of prairie around us. And that's the main reason why we moved to the neighborhood because I was like, "My HOA pays for the management of prairie? I'm in!" That was my selling point. So being able to... we've been hosting a lot of workshops in the past, traveling on the river, I know several of you have actually come to those in the past. Um we definitely are going to be uh continuing those but we're going to be doing some really focus-pointed outreach in the next couple years uh working with communities and helping them to think about how to manage storm water, thinking about minimal impact design standards um which Bayport has already adopted. Uh but being able to think through how can we help these communities develop in a way that they feel retains that uniqueness and quality of the community in which they're leading. Doing a lot of storm drain—and Matt gets on me about this a lot—um when we're talking about how people get so disconnected about what just goes down your storm drain, thinking that it goes to a water treatment system and it doesn't; it goes directly to our lakes, rivers and streams. And so being able to encourage people to kind of look out for their storm drains. There's the "Adopt a Storm Drain" program. Um, I've taken both of my girls' Girl Scout troops through it. Matt gets probably tired of requesting me being like, "Matt we need to clean storm drains, which ones do you need clean?" Um but then also talking about chloride as well. So that picture on the screen that you see of that salt—that's actually the Anderson Elementary driveway out front. And this was October 2023. And I was just going to pick up my girls from school and I saw that amount of salt. Uh chloride is an emerging pollutant in our communities. We're starting to see a lot of our lakes, rivers and streams become impaired for chloride. It is considered a permanent pollutant and so there's no economically feasible way to get that salt out once it's in. And it's a concern not only for surface water but our groundwater as well. So we've become a little loose in our salt diet when it comes to putting it on the ground and so just trying to help people understand that that's not something that we want um but getting into our lakes, rivers and streams. Um I know that Simon and the Public Works folks here at Bayport are all are all Smart Salt certified, which is awesome. Um but it's getting to the private [sector]. And so this was actually a vendor for the Stillwater School District and so we actually contacted them and asked them if they were Smart Salt certified and they were not. Um so hopefully they went through that program. But in the meantime now the janitorial and custodial staff at Anderson know that you know once they see just it sitting on the ground and the ground is dry, to go out and sweep it up so it doesn't get into the storm drains. So just cool little just little local impacts that we likely saved the St. Croix River from a bunch of chloride pollution just by sweeping that up. So the end results of all of this, the end goal is that we just want to continue to work with our communities. We want to continue to work with private landowners but also the community leaders and that includes obviously all of you. And so we are essentially—we are here and we're willing to come talk at any time if there's a particular topic that you're interested in hearing about um as it pertains to natural resources. Feel free to talk to me, talk to Angie, and we're more than willing to come and uh kind of discuss whatever you'd like to do. We want to be able to promote the Adopt-a-Drain program um when development comes to town, tools that we have for growing communities... but again if you're interested in what's going on with Perro Creek, what's going on with the St. Croix, what's going on you know upstream that we should be knowing about, we're always happy to come in and provide you just a snapshot of education and things that we can do. So there's my other daughter. Thanks. [28:24] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Hi Audrey, thank you. [To Barbara] Fire! I stand for questions. There's no sitting here everyone's standing for questions. [28:34] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** Okay so you mentioned that you're funded by a couple different things but how do they get funds? Is it taxpayer money that— [28:39] **Barbara High Camp:** So we—St. Croix Watershed Partnership, what funds me um and my education program and our ag outreach specialist—is funds from the Board of Soil and Water Resources. And so BWSR, the lovely acronym, but it comes from the Water Fund, the state Clean Water... [28:59] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** Oh kind of like how we got grant money for buying the land by the— [29:05] **Barbara High Camp:** Oh okay um and then the EMWREP program um is a locally funded program. And one of the reasons why my position got funded by the state is because of the success of the East Metro Water Resource Education Program. And so that program has a lot of overlap with a lot of the partners that are in the partnership um but it also includes municipalities as well like Bayport because we offer specific outreach assistance when it comes to talking about your MS4 permit. And so it's a state requirement to be able to speak to: why do we have storm water? How do we manage storm water? And being able to kind of provide that additional leg of education. But EMWREP has been ongoing since 2006 which is unheard of for a lot of programs just because most of the time when you have a grant, the grant runs out, what happens to the program? [29:56] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** You guys model... you do a great job. I just want to say that. Um I've been on those boat—two of I think of the boat things, maybe three—I know John's gone on it—where you take the officials out there and we learn a lot more about what we should be doing and what our residents should be doing etc. And yeah those are great. And I know you also came to our Night to Unite I believe and you had a really cool display with the long—our root pole display. Yeah, just to kind of give people an idea of how long those native plant roots really are. So your your common milkweed plant, the roots can extend anywhere from five to eight feet into the ground. Yeah I I just love that you guys are present and you're out there and you're trying to help people and and if there are other community events that you would like us to be at just let us know. [30:44] **Barbara High Camp:** All right you know you know my number. [30:46] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** We know how to reach you. Thank you so much. Yeah very informative and I'm glad you guys are there doing what you're doing and I hope the funding doesn't ever run out. [30:56] **Barbara High Camp:** Me too. [31:00] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right thank you. All right did anyone else have—I just sort of talked and I didn't [check] if anyone else had any questions for her. She just left. Okay. All right right here. You're done okay good. All right so we'll go move on to the consent agenda. We're going to consider resolution adopting items 1 through 8: the January 6th 2025 city council workshop and regular meeting minutes; the January payables and receipts; January building, plumbing, mechanical and zoning permits report; special event application from Kenny Croy Girl Scouts for Twilight Camp at Lakeside Park; special event application from Manger and Oasis for the Burr Crawl on February 22nd; special event application from Andersen Corporation for a picnic at Lakeside Park; and application for a tobacco license from Bayport Liquor. And that's it. Do I have a motion to approve? [31:59] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Oh yeah motion—I'll move to adopted resolution approving the consent agenda as presented. [32:04] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you John. Second? [32:06] **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore:** Second. [32:07] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks Ethan. Roll call vote. [32:08] **Matt Kline:** Uh, council member Gilmore? **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore:** Aye. **Matt Kline:** I sorry—council member Kipp? **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Aye. **Matt Kline:** Council member Hill? **Councilmember Katie Hill:** Aye. **Matt Kline:** Mayor Hanson? **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Aye. [32:23] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right that passes thank you. There's no public hearings. We do have some unfinished business business with the labor agreements. This one is for the police chief and sergeant and Matt is going to present item. [32:38] **Matt Kline:** Uh thank you Madam Mayor, members of the council. Uh this is a final contract for um of the three unions within the city. Um it's specifically for the police chief and the sergeant um so just two members of this union. Um we've been in negotiations since uh last fall sometime um and have come to an agreement to be approved tonight by the city council. Um as we've discussed in the past about uh any police associated wage, we've seen a drastic increase in that, not only in police officers um but also in Sergeant and Chief roles. Um and this uh contract is no different from the uh contract that was approved earlier—well last year—for the uh police officers. Um I'm not going to key in on any—there was no real drastic changes um to the amendments really except for the wage portion. And um I wanted to give a a um just a description on how we work through the Sergeant and Chief role. Um so the Sergeant—both these roles rather than giving them a specific increase we use the step schedule for the increase. Um so the Sergeant role—he is currently in a Grade Nine position and the proposal is to move that up to a Grade Ten position. Um I had it that he was at Step Eight but um he's actually at Step Six um and he will remain in that position, that step, moving into this year. So if you look at your sheet um I passed out the step schedule. So Grade Nine has the Sergeant at the very bottom and then he will move up to their—that person will move up to the Grade Ten level but not change steps for this year. But he's currently at the six level, Step Six. [34:43] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, so across the top step... oh Step Six. That's—I got to go the left side and then steps goes across. [34:52] **Matt Kline:** Step... yes, yes, yes. [34:55] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay and so he would move to 10? Okay. [35:00] **Matt Kline:** Okay so that is a 10.7% increase over what he—his 2024 wage. Um that also includes a normal cost of living raise that we give out on any time of year. Um the Sergeant role based on um a fair amount of analysis from the East Metro comparables, um even at that wage increase we are seeing that this uh that his role is still likely um underfunded or he's lower wages than what we tried to reach when we did the police officers. If you recall, the police officers reached about an average 50% or average scale for East Metro; the Sergeant role is still under that average. [36:03] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** You mean median? Like 50% median average? [36:07] **Matt Kline:** They're actually both the same. Okay they were both very close to the same um when we did the analysis. So for that position we—sometimes what happens in a union contract—we allow it to reopen for like a wage or for anything specific. In this one we did allow a 2026 and 2027 reopening because we had indicated that we'd be doing non-union staff looking at their wages also for a comparison so at the same time. Um and it gives us a wider range of—when we're looking at the League of Minnesota City study we'll be able to see a wider range and get a maybe better comparables for um that Sergeant position. So um then moving on to the Chief position um which based on East Metro comparables was actually also um very low for this side of the state, this side of the Metro. So currently the Chief is a Grade 11. Um you can see him listed there and that position is at a Step Eight currently so he can't—they can't go any higher um in our current scale. In 2025 we're proposing a move to [Grade] 12 and then a 2026 [Grade] 13 um and I do have—I won't get them out and show you—but um if anybody wants um I do have the comparable... [37:16] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** You mean Grade, right? [37:18] **Matt Kline:** Yes sorry did I say... confusing so I'm sorry. So in 2025 he'd move up to Grade 12 Step Eight—stay in Step Eight, you can't go any higher than Step Eight at least on our current scale—and then 2026 Grade 13. At that point he would not move up any further because he bumps up against the City Administrator um grade level. [38:00] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, we can't give you a raise. [38:05] **Matt Kline:** Yeah, so there are cities who have more grades than what we do. That's not a question for tonight on how we would handle that if we're interested in re-vamping that schedule. [38:13] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay definitely helped to have the step schedule thank you for bringing that. It was really confusing trying to follow it when it was just text and there was no reference. [38:22] **Matt Kline:** So again if anyone is interested in looking at the comparables for the East Metro I have them all here. Um I can pass them out after the meeting or—and we'll make them part of the record too so. [38:31] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** So the final takeaways... I mean we talked about how police positions were at about the median which was also the average. Did you say that these two are also following in that range now or are they even below that? [38:43] **Matt Kline:** No ma'am. Unfortunately if if we're only... and these are a little different than I would consider the East Metro police officers um because of the size of the um— [39:07] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** —yeah you could only choose a couple different cities that are the same size. [39:10] **Matt Kline:** Correct. That's why I think the League of Minnesota Cities might be a better case study for like the Chief and Sergeant. Now the Sergeant role—it could be argued that you're probably leading a group roughly the same size as the other East Metro communities um but so we'll take a look at that and do a larger comparison for both of these. [39:24] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Okay. Does anyone have any comments or questions? Um just just you know when I read through this I you know focus on the changes which are in red. Um what what is the "Me Too" Clause? [39:46] **Matt Kline:** So what that means is—it's referenced in 26 something and I think it's 18 something. 26.5. Let's just take the 18, it's number three on my memo. 18.3 Me Too Clause was added to the contract to mimic the Post-Employment Healthcare Savings Plan through MSRS. So essentially what they do is they see what the Police Officers Union received and a "Me Too" just copies what they got. [40:17] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Gotcha. That way you don't have to write it all out again in in this one. [40:22] **Matt Kline:** Perfect. [40:23] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** That answers my question. [40:24] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Good question John. All right anyone else want to make a motion instead? [40:27] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I move to approve the labor agreement with the Minnesota Public Employees Association for January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2027 the Police Chief and Sergeant. [40:40] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** You meant 2027? [40:41] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** 2027. Okay. [40:42] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Do we have a second? [40:43] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** I'll second. [40:44] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right thanks Katie and John. And uh all those in favor—really we're spending money somehow and we don't have to have a roll call huh? Okay all those in favor say Aye. [All: Aye] Anyone opposed? Okay the motion passes. Now we are moving on to... I believe it is Simon going to talk about some street lighting. [41:00] **Simon (Public Works):** Madame Mayor, members of the council. Um as you are hopefully all aware, we had a street light [pole] fall on Fifth Avenue and that's really sparked the conversation for street lighting along Fifth Avenue and replacement of those. Um they are mismatched; they're two different varieties up there. Um I don't know if any of you have been able to drive through town during the nighttime but it is not very well lit. Um the lights are yellow. Um it could use a a facelift. Um discussion had led all the way to complete replacement: adding new ones, reboring, adding conduit. Um fortunately we do have a upgraded cabinet in the area that we are able to use. Um our engineering firm SEH and uh their lighting specialist Ken Talon has been instrumental in putting something together for us that fits our budget. And we did—I believe it was the Mayor who actually let us or turn—uh got us onto Stillwater replacing the lights up there. They have a big project going through town. Um they are getting—they are willing to um give some of their poles to the city of Bayport. Um Ken and I uh went up there and looked at them. It was his opinion that they're in good shape. Um they're fiberglass, they should last 10-20 years. Um there's a little bit of work that needs to be done—painting, fiberglass work, Bondo things like that—but they should shape up nicely. Um so the poles were a significant expense and the savings are um enough to get it so that if we were to get luminaires, uh which would be something that we would have to purchase as well as insulation done by a professional contractor... um total estimated cost is down to around 21,100. Um drastically different compared to what we were looking at in the neighborhood of, I want to say 125,000 to 150,000 when we started this conversation. So um it's all very reasonable. Um we can take delivery of the poles when Stillwater is taking theirs down. Um that would allow us to take the delivery and fix the poles um as well as uh order luminaires um through Ken Talon and then coordinate the contractor to come in and install them. Um there's really no time constraints, um there's really no schedule. We could do it um pretty much anytime we wanted to this summer. Um I think the light poles—fixing those would be good good side work for a little bit—and then we can start figuring out putting them up. So I mean that's more than more than you need to know at this point in time but uh this is this is where we stand. Um and ultimately my recommendation is that um City Council authorizes staff to proceed with this proposal using the poles from Stillwater as outlined. [44:05] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks, of new luminaires thank you. Um I appreciate your reaching out to Stillwater upon my—what Matt thought was a crazy idea I think—but why not reuse those pole? I mean because they're not in bad shape right? They're not going to go in a landfill now we can use them. Unfortunately ours are probably going to end up in a landfill but at least two sets aren't. [44:45] **Simon:** Well they're metal they'll probably [go to the] scrapyard. [44:48] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay scrapyard good. That's what I was wondering if there's things we can recycle that would be wonderful. Um we had some discussions about the style of what they were going to look like when we were talking about redoing everything—conduit and everything. Um do we have the... because you're going to get new tops. When you say Luminaire, is that what that means? Like the top part is going to look different than the picture that's in the packet it's—or is it just the light part that's— [45:21] **Simon:** That's kind of up to us. I think that would be something once we're ready to purchase those that I think we would be smart to bring back to Council for [review]. [45:29] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay that's why I guess I'm wondering are the... what is a luminaire? [45:32] **Simon:** A light fixture. The top part. Yep. It's not just the light that's inside but it's the whole look of the top. [45:34] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay yep the housing and everything. So we can look at what we want for the top of it at some point? [45:41] **Simon:** Yes. We don't have to figure that out now in order to move forward with this. [45:45] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** But okay prices are are outlined on my memo. Okay great. And then we had talked about possibly doing fewer light posts than what we have had in the past on Fifth Avenue because we didn't know if we needed that many if we could get lights that were nowadays more downward facing and spreading the light further. Um so are we going to for sure have to put seven lights in? [46:18] **Simon:** I'd like to get as many as possible just so we have replacement posts too if we ever need them. But um just kind of wanted to know how many lights SEH is recommending that we put in for sure. Is it seven or did we end up being able—or was it going to be eight originally? It is... I believe it is seven. It says seven in the memo. Yes so it's seven. Um it would be simply replacing. [46:46] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay so we didn't talk about doing fewer, we were just going to redo the—right, okay. Which I guess makes sense otherwise you're going to have a hole kind of. [46:56] **Simon:** Um Ken Talon with SEH—it is Talon right John? Okay. Um with SEH said that um you know he was actually kind of pushing for an additional to stagger them: removal of one with the addition of another one on the other side just to have the lights offset so that you'd have even coverage. Um good time to do it. Probably going to wait though at this point because that would require [re-pouring] concrete where conduit [is], so we'll just literally just take the ones out, replace them with this and there's seven of them. [47:24] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yep okay. [47:26] **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore:** Makes I mean we were thinking of that not only just to save money but also just for light pollution reasons that we thought we could reduce it. But makes sense to... I think we should look at something that I had brought up in our Workshop. I had gone through—I go through that area very often in my daily travels and recently at night you know it was a Friday evening and the people moving from the restaurants and stuff... it's—it was dark through there and I I think we should maximize and in the interest of light pollution, maybe not something as aesthetically pleasing to to look at but let's get the light aimed down and you know really focus it. And I think that's going to be our best option. But I think this is a great you know 10 to 15 thousand dollar savings here for us and and we can work through those details but I don't think less light is a— [48:20] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** —we can always if we wanted to we could disconnect one and not have it on if we wanted to. But we also talked about wrapping the post with light so that there's some extra light and it looks kind of pretty, kind of like Stillwater has around the trees you know something like that kind of enhance it. So we will have further discussions about all that probably but right now you just want us—want to know if we're okay with you getting these used poles and moving forward with that plan right? [48:38] **Simon:** That's right. [48:40] **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore:** Okay I'm ready to make a motion. [48:41] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right great maybe go for it. [48:42] **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore:** I will move to proceed with the replacement of the street lights on Fifth Avenue North as we've discussed tonight. [48:51] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I'll second. [48:53] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks John and Ethan. All those in favor? [All: Aye] Doesn't sound like anyone's opposed right. New business. Thank you Simon that'll be great. Um consider resolution for a conditional use permit to conduct auto sales with outdoor storage and display at 397 Fifth Avenue North which is called Lenny's Garage. To get her attention—Lenny's here with us. So Sarah's going to present this item. [49:25] **Sara Taylor (City Planner):** If I could get the projector on please. So in the interest of time, I'll go through this pretty quickly, but this shouldn't be new to any of the members of the Council—we've held a couple meetings and workshops on this. So uh the subject property is zoned B2 Central Business and is surrounded by a mixture of commercial and residential land uses. Auto repair is a permitted use in the B2 district, but auto sales and display require a special use permit. In 2023, the City Council issued an interim use permit which provided an opportunity for the city to evaluate whether the use may be appropriate for the site long term. Due to the success of the interim use permit over the past year, the property owner is requesting the city consider a permanent conditional use permit for the site with conditions and operations consistent with the interim permit. Primarily the use will consist of auto sales and display with a focus on online advertising and sales by appointment. Hours of operation will be Monday through Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with exterior building lights to be deactivated by 10 p.m. and 16 stalls will be delineated for outdoor sales and display. As requested by the City Council at their workshop in December, the property owner has agreed to replace the gravel area along the west property line in front of the building with concrete or sod to comply with city ordinance, reduce sediment runoff and enhance the appearance of the site. During the interim period the property owner did complete some significant improvements which are summarized here and have enhanced the overall appearance of the site. Although clearly deficient in meeting many of the dimensional standards of the current zoning ordinance for auto sales, staff has outlined some of the items that the City Council may want to consider including as conditions of approval, such as replacing additional gravel with hard service or landscaping and implementing some on-site storm water treatment like a vegetated swale or rain garden. This slide outlines the findings of fact of which staff is basing a recommendation um of approval for the conditional use permit subject to the conditions listed in the staff report. Uh the Planning Commission did hold a public hearing on January 14th and no comments were heard. Uh the Planning Commission also is recommending approval of the CUP. At this time I'd be happy to take any questions and the property owners are also in the audience and available for questions. [51:48] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you Sarah. [51:49] **Sara Taylor:** You're welcome. [51:50] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Does anyone have any question? Uh one thing on the uh the resurfacing: uh we did in there—I don't know if it indicated here—but we were going to give them you know some time on that, like it wasn't like you have to do it in— [52:05] **Sara Taylor:** I think it was... yes the staff's original um report indicated um October 1st of 2025 and the Planning Commission um would like to extend that to 2026. So that's been updated in the report and resolution. [52:21] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Yeah and it says no later than October 1st 2026. [52:24] **Sara Taylor:** Oh I was looking at this part... oh just kind of the table under SE. [52:28] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Got it. I just wanted to make sure that was in there. [52:30] **Sara Taylor:** Yeah and it sounds like the owner... it finds that to be a reasonable time frame and is on board with making that update. Wanted to do it anyway kind of. [52:39] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** So um I think it'll look a lot better which is great and the site itself already looks better than it did so um so I'm glad that there's a business running out of there and it's it's nice to have. Barb—Barbara was just here telling us how important it is that we are making sure that runoff is is reduced and all of that. So um that's why we have to do these things right. Okay anyone have any other questions or comments? No? Okay motion is in order then. [53:18] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** All right I'll move to adopt a resolution proving a conditional use permit to conduct auto sales with outdoor storage and display at 397 Fifth Avenue North subject to findings of fact and conditions of approval. [53:35] **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore:** Second. [53:36] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you Ethan and John. Now we need a roll call. [53:38] **Matt Kline:** Council member Gilmore? **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore:** Aye. **Matt Kline:** Council member Kipp? **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Aye. **Matt Kline:** Council member Hill? **Councilmember Katie Hill:** Aye. **Matt Kline:** Mayor Hanson? **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Aye. [53:50] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Motion passes there you go congrats. Congratulations guys thank you. All right hope all goes well um you're you can leave if you'd like you're like okay got that over okay thanks. So we're going to move on to um we have a few minutes we can quick do city council liaison reports. Um Carl sent me one so I was going to... here it is. Um he of course apologized that he can't be here but he did have some um commitments before being elected so um but he had a chance to attend the Washington County Sheriff's training for elected officials on disaster and emergency response which is great. I went to it as well. If any—I don't know if there's still dates out there for that—but if anybody else wants to go, it is um very informative and I think it's worth your while. Um he found it uh valuable and he would encourage you to attend as well and you get to meet some other elected officials. Um in February he's also going to go to the foundational program for the League of Minnesota City's elected leaders Institute. It's a two-day workshop in Plymouth I believe. Um and he is going to his first meeting for Lake Elmo airport advisory commission soon—I can't [remember when] that is um but yeah and he had a chance to also meet with uh Matt and Sarah to talk through the proposal from from Pratt Homes about everything and we have some of his feedback on that later. So that was his update. Um did the cable commission— [55:27] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Yeah we did meet. Well I actually sat in on the planning commission as well look at—and it was for this very the Lenny's Garage thing so that was basically it. It was it was short but sweet. But um yes cable commission met. We've got a few new Commissioners um with uh Stillwater moved some people around so we have the new uh woman that was elected um joining us and then one other citizen that joined us as well. Um they did some updating of the bylaws and then we did—I know you guys probably don't really know too much about it—but this "Huddle" thing that they were worried that we weren't going to be able to get funding or get advertisement because they're putting these cameras in— [56:15] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** —oh for the sporting events. [56:16] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** —for the sporting events. But that's not true we can still as long as the coaches and everybody you know still get funding for it. The the Huddle cameras are there but we can still do it. [56:29] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Oh that's great news that's really good news. [56:32] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** And I think both of the ladies that were that joined us have some like... I don't know it seemed like they were very excited with them because they have some background and some things that maybe the two that are working there aren't super proficient in so it's kind of—it was good it was good. [56:49] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Great yeah awesome so Valley Access can still televise sporting events and get advertising from local businesses. Yeah that's great. That was a meeting before it was like everyone was like doom gloom yeah so it was good to good to figure that out. Well good yeah awesome thank you John. Watershed? [57:04] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Watershed... Middle St. Croix Watershed did not meet so I have nothing to report. [57:08] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay. Katie? [57:10] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** Yep I have went to BCAL um a couple things I'll go fast. Uh the First State Bank is wanting to do uh host a t-shirt contest for Derby Days. So they're—didn't have much info on it—but they do know they want it before— [57:33] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** —what does that mean? I mean it sounds hor—you mean like a design of a shirt? [57:38] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** Like a design of a shirt and then it would be sold at Derby Days. The shirt will so you're going to make a shirt and so they'll they want people to design yeah they don't know who's going to judge yet if it's going to be local people or people at the church or people at the bank that will be judging who's going to win but—and then it will be done months before Derby Days. [58:05] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** And who gets the money from selling the shirt? [58:10] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** BCAL will then take over the rights of the shirt, get it printed and sell them from what they're thinking. But all of it's still has in like the beginning stages. [58:20] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah I think it's a great idea to have shirts. I mean we have those "Talk Derby to Me" ones but yeah yeah that would be great. [58:29] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** Um there also is a grant that they're going to apply for that um I guess it's already closed now so hopefully they applied for it. Um the next thing is the Easter Egg Hunt—looking for a couple volunteers, the Boy Scouts will probably still volunteer. Um and then that Burr Crawl is the new thing that maybe they'll take over next year to do as one of their events. [58:54] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Oh awesome get a nice bar again kind of like do the same thing like our bar crawl but during the winter. [58:59] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** That's great yeah yeah okay. [59:02] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** I know it kind of came up at the last minute and yeah so the businesses are kind of handing it themselves but yeah— [59:08] **Councilmember Katie Hill:** —the next meeting: Thursday February 20th at 6:00 at the Legion. [59:15] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Wonderful and again members are encouraged to—you don't have to be a member to—and you can also volunteer. Volunteer exactly. All right um I uh didn't have too busy of a month because I was gone in Florida for a couple weeks but um Simon and I had uh are still working on the grant from the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors. I think that's what SPAR stands for. Um so it's kind of fun we have another call scheduled but we did speak to her I think on the 7th or something but we got the grant we just got to figure out exactly how it's all going to get used. Um the let's see—oh I went—Matt was also on this call—Minnesota Department of Health had an update on expansion of the special well and boring construction area. Didn't really affect Bayport, it was more um West Lake and Lake Elmo had a little bit of an expansion but it was helpful for me to understand what that even does and it's just like—it helps—Matt could probably explain it better but it's about how where you can drill wells if you have a new home and it doesn't really affect us that much so but still. Um let's see I did Leadership in the Valley again every month I do that and this was uh the health and wellness month so it was kind of fun because uh Cam from our Fire Department was there and he did a demonstration with some other Lakeview EMS people where they reenacted the incident that happened at the Marina where the guy had the heart attack and they came on the call so they could show us sort of the process of how it all happens and how they revived him and they had a you know a Resusci-Annie kind of person there and thing. Yeah so it was it was kind of cool. That was just one of many things we did that day. Uh Regional Council of Mayors and the Fire Relief Association were both on the 13th. Um nothing really to report for Fire Relief, the funds are performing very well like above the the standard uh which is good because we need that money to pay everybody out eventually. Um I did—I mentioned this at our workshop—I met with Dwight Cummins, the owner of the business, the building that is now half empty on Fifth Avenue. He was the—he's an attorney, he moved to Stillwater but chatted with him a little bit about the lighting on Fifth Avenue, how Lenny's Garage has been for them cuz that's right next door and everything is great um even though he's moved. And again I talked about the foundation with him cuz he's someone who started the—I believe it was the Stat Foundation. So I'm still pursuing all that. I think I'm mostly I'm leaning towards emphasizing the Bayport aspect of the Stillwater Foundation but have a couple more people to talk to. Um on the 16th we hosted Team Malta from the World Snow Sculpting Celebration, took them on a quick tour of Bayport and I was just so pleased with how the city came together to host them. So thank you Simon and public works staff for putting up the flags and the bank for just coordinating everything. The PD came and went on the tour with us and fire department drove us around in a fire truck and it was it was just really a fun fun time. I wish it was longer but we—it was pretty quick they ended up having getting an emergency call they had to get back and fix something with the sculpture or whatever so we stopped at Mabel's and had a Malto malt and everything. It was it was really fun so thank you all for um helping with that and let's see—Connie's farewell was really nice again thanks staff for that and I I was pleased at how many people came and it was really nice event. And then I also had a chance to meet the new executive director of Community Thread his name is um Derek Jagger and hopefully he stops in sometime and introduces himself here. I know we've had visits from Sally Anderson in the past but she's retired now so. And then I just wanted to invite everybody to the Burr Crawl on February 22nd. So it's going to be—that's our first winter bar crawl in Bayport and the summer one is always a lot of fun. So hopefully people um sign up for that. It's on Facebook, there's an event and um I think you can also just if you want to go to Oasis's website you could sign up for it through there—you got to scroll down on the page a little bit and you'll find it but it's on their reservation page. So it's $20 I think and there's going to be giveaways and there's deals on food and drink and so fun time. So that's it and we should probably just—does anyone have any questions for staff on their reports? Otherwise I think we'll just kind of since it's 7 o'clock and we have that other meeting. Okay. [1:03:32] **Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I'll move to adjourn then. [1:03:35] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right thank you John. Thanks Katie. All in favor? [All: Aye] All right we're adjourned. Thank you. [1:04:24] (Silence/Static)