This transcript has been formatted with speaker names based on the provided list of officials and the context of the meeting proceedings. [0:01] [Music] [0:48] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Good evening and welcome to the September 15th city council meeting. If you would join me for a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance [1:17] **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, [City Clerk] Orlofsky, roll call, please. [1:33] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Michelle Volk? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Luke Hellier? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** John Bermel? **Councilmember John Bermel:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Dan Wolter? **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Joshua Lee? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Here. [1:49] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, we'll move on to item three, citizens comments. This is an opportunity for those to address the council for up to three minutes. If you just state your name and address, you’re welcome to come on up. [1:55] **Jessica Saxon:** Thank you so much. My name is Jessica Saxon. I'm a civil rights advocate and litigator from Washington DC. I am here to provide notice. This is in accordance with USCS rules of civil procedure as well as rule 17 and rule 20 of the United States Supreme Court. The Constitution for the United States is the overarching requirement that every state must follow. I don't think that anyone here would disagree with that. States are not able to enact their own alternative legislation and substitute that for the guarantees of the Constitution. That would mean that your state laws are more powerful than the Constitution, and that would simply be unlawful. Clause one of amendment five to the United States Constitution says that no person should be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment by a grand jury. Unfortunately, the state of Minnesota has enacted in its inferior constitution a law that is permitting your public officials, your law enforcement officers, your police to charge by way of information as opposed to indictment required by law and that is simply unconstitutional. [2:57] An emolument violation is when you pay public officials to commit a crime. There are two areas in the constitution that reinforces the emolument violation. The first is article 1, section 10. And that's where it says that no state shall create any law that shall impair the obligation of a contract. So your contracts, your police officers, your prosecutors, your judges, they're all under a contract. That's a contract to perform based on the oath of affirmation that they took to support and defend the Constitution. So when you have your state that has enacted an inferior law that is permitting your public officials to go out and disobey the supreme law of this land that would be a violation of article 1 section 10. The second area regarding the reinforcement of the emolument violation and paying public officials to commit crimes is the 14th amendment and that's where it states that no state shall create or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of United States citizens. Privileges and immunities of United States citizens are at a very minimum those that are enumerated within the bill of rights and the first 10 amendments. These are not able to be impaired. And unfortunately, your state here in Minnesota has enacted a law, as I said before, in its inferior constitution that is permitting your public officials, law enforcement officers, police whom you all pay to violate the constitution. Unfortunately, because of this, we have an inordinate amount of people that are currently incarcerated here in this state because of these violations. So, Mr. Tan Wowing is preparing to litigate this at the United States Supreme Court on behalf of more than 700,000 people currently incarcerated across America illegally and unconstitutionally. I'm here to provide notice that you cannot continue to pay public officials to commit crimes against the constituents of this city. Criminal sanctions, unfortunately, can come from that. So, you've now been made aware. Um, please take a look at what I have mentioned to you tonight. Clause one, amendment five, regarding no person should be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment by a grand jury. And confirm what I'm saying to be true. Uh, continuing to pay these people is an emolument violation. It is illegal. It is unlawful and it is unconstitutional. I do have a notice that I would like uh to put on the record, please. And um [5:13] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** You can just leave it with our clerk. **Jessica Saxon:** Yeah, I I appreciate your time. Just please direct your public officials to act in a lawful constitutional manner that is consistent with the obligations codified in the constitution. Thank you so much. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thank you. Any other public comment? [5:37] **Tan Wowing:** Good evening. So, my name is Tan Wowing. I'm the civil rights litigator that Miss Saxon was just talking about. I need to step up here and just provide a little bit of clarification so we can understand what just happened, what was said, and what we're actually asking from all of you. Uh because I think that's pretty important here. So, I have approximately 22,000 criminal affidavits on behalf of victims that have been charged by way of information as opposed to indictment uh from here within the state of Minnesota. Many are from within this area itself. Now again, no state can create its own alternative legislation, substitute that for the guarantees constitution, then go out and enforce it as though that's constitutional. That would be very unconstitutional. I think we can all agree with that. So if your police are choosing to rely upon an inferior state statute that permits them or directs them to go out and charge by way of information for an infamous or capital crime, uh then that would be illegal. It would be a crime itself. So these affidavits, they identify two particular crimes. The first crime is title 18 USC subsection 242 which is deprivation of rights under color of law. What that statute says is that any person who under the color of any state, statute, ordinance, custom or regulation deprives any person of any right secured by the constitution commits that crime. Now the second crime is title 18 USC subsection 241 which is conspiracy to deprive of rights. What that statute says is that any when two or more persons conspire with the purpose of depriving any person of any rights secured by the constitution commits that crime. Now the laws of criminal conspiracy with regard to public officials, what that states is that any person who having knowledge of any of the wrongs conspired to be done and who have the power to prevent or aid in the prevention of the commission of the same neglects or refuses to do so may be joined to dispense the action. So upon having been provided with this notice letting you know that your agents whom you pay are going out and violating the Constitution United States of America, I would ask that you guys work with us, please, to fix this. We're not trying to get anybody into trouble. That's not what this is about. We're not even trying to get the police into trouble. [7:27] But we are saying that if we can't get resolution to this issue very very quickly and very very soon, then we're going to have to uh do this in a much more public and messy manner. And I don't want to have to do that. So please don't make me have to. Now, I know that you're going to go and you're going to ask the attorney as soon as we're done whether or not what I'm saying is true. That attorney is going to point you to a case from 1884 called Hurtado versus California. And before you choose to rely upon that as the foundation, I must remind you that the Constitution of the United States of America is the foundation, not a judge-made ruling. Supreme Court of United States has no constituted authority to be able to alter, amend, or destroy any of the provisions or guarantees constitution because that must be done by an authentic act of the people in accordance with the special procedure of article 5. Furthermore, judges cannot legislate. We know that because clause one, article one of the constitution says all legislative power is vested in Congress, United States. So, I pray that you guys will make the right decision here. I know that this is a very difficult decision that you're going to have to make, right? You're going to have to decide whether or not you're going to obey a judge made ruling or the supreme law of the land, the Constitution for United States of America, the object of which your fidelity is bound. But I'm going to pray that you guys make the right decision. [8:30] Now, I want to end with this though because I want to entice you a little bit to make the right decision here. The United States Circuit Court has identified an abuse of discretion. All right, there's a two-part test to determine abuse of discretion. The second part states that any erroneous view of the law is an automatic abuse of discretion. And let me tell you that an erroneous view of the law will be that in your legal contemplation that the lowest form of law, a judge-made ruling is in legal contemplation superior to the constitution for United States of America, that would be an obvious erroneous view of the law. Therefore, according to the United States Circuit Court, if you continue to pay these public officials to uh to commit these crimes, uh that will be an abuse of discretion uh by their very definition. So, thank you guys so much. God bless. Have a great rest of your day. [9:08] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Thank you. Any other public comment? Good evening, Mr. Schneider. How are you? [9:13] **Howard Schneider:** Yes, good evening. Uh, thank you, Mayor Hellier, and uh, council members. My name is Howard Schneider. I live on Jersey Avenue, and I think you all know why I'm here. It's no surprise. It's become a tradition, right? So, I wish to invite all of you, your friends, family, neighbors, staff, people as well to join us this Saturday for the 17th annual Tour of Lakeville Community Bike Ride. [9:41] Uh we leave from Pioneer Park as usual. We have a shorter route of about 8 miles uh with great views of uh Lake Marion and that's geared towards kids and families. And then we also have the longer route, a little bit more challenging, of about 20 miles and I know a couple of you will already join us, have committed to that. And uh on that route we ride across some bridges and we go through tunnels. Uh this year we add uh something we've not done before which is we will be heading out crossing Cedar Avenue actually and going over to East Lake Community Park. From there we will ride a few miles on the uh North Creek Greenway Trail. uh on part of the Lakeville section and always I want to remind you it's safe, scenic and social. It's not a race so you don't have to wear lycra if you don't want to. [10:26] Um so in addition to the invitation and update I mentioned the North Creek Trail. Well that trail completed by Dakota County largely now goes from Apple Valley through Lakeville and into Farmington through a few parks and ends near uh the downtown area. Uh we look forward to having the Lake Marion Greenway Trail, but that's I think more than several years out. Uh but one good update I want to mention is uh on the trail that goes from downtown over to Antlers Park. You may know this already. [11:06] Uh either next year or the year after uh the county will undertake uh a revision of how we cross that trail, which makes me very nervous, by the way, and I use that quite a lot. uh and there will be a tunnel there and that will contribute a lot to uh safety and uh de-stress all the bike riders uh in our city. [11:31] Um and then I want to wind up with some thank yous. First, I want to thank uh the council, uh the staff people such as the uh Police Chief [Paulson] uh and the Parks and Rec Director [Masiarchin] for bringing forth a new ordinance concerning safety on our trails, focusing on e-bikes and the motorized bicycles and so forth. In addition to the particulars, I think it's important that getting out through the newspaper, through TV appearances, that it heightens the issue of safety of all of us as pedestrians and as cyclists in the city, uh on the streets, on the bike lanes, and on the trails. Uh it didn't mention, however, one problem. If I can quickly mention, uh I've had two people in the last week coming towards me with their heads on their phones walking their dogs and not having full control of those dogs. But that's something else uh uh for the future to discuss. I also want to thank some staff from Parks and Rec, Mark Cruz to help us identify new trails that are available for us to use and uh kind of giving us a little preview of more that will be built in the coming year and also uh Casey Robinson who helps us in so many ways uh with practical things for outreach and for all the logistics to help make the day of uh uh the bike ride successful for all of the participants. [12:55] Um you know we have mentioned in the past that uh you know in the political world people often talk about reaching across the aisle. Uh this community bike ride is an opportunity uh for all of us to reach across the trail. So I do want to end uh with that note and uh thank you very much if you have any questions. [13:18] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** No, thanks for being here and thanks for your continued partnership with the Friends of the Environment in the city. **Howard Schneider:** Yeah. And and thank you all. Yes. Good evening. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any other citizens comments? Okay. Seeing none, uh any additional agenda information, Mr. Miller? [13:36] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** None tonight, mayor. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Uh now we'll go on to presentations, introductions, and I'm going to turn over to Councilmember Wolter to read our proclamation for manufacturing month. [13:46] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. uh 2025 manufacturing month. Whereas manufacturing is a dynamic and robust industry crucial to the health and strength of Minnesota's diverse economy. And whereas the manufacturing industry contributed 58.8 billion to Minnesota's economy in 2024, representing a 12% contribution to the state's gross domestic product. And whereas manufactured exports brought 24.6 billion into the Minnesota economy in 2024. And whereas workers took home 26.7 billion in wages from Minnesota manufacturing jobs in 2024, the second largest total payroll among private sector industries. And whereas manufacturing in Minnesota pays an average annual wage of just under 83,280, which is 10% higher than the state's overall average private sector wage. And whereas manufacturing provides 320,000 highly skilled, well-paying jobs, which significantly contribute to Minnesota's high standard of living and economic vitality. And whereas with more than 93,000 job openings for manufacturing production positions alone through 2032, manufacturing will remain one of the most reliable career pathways in Minnesota. And whereas manufacturing is one of the largest employment sectors in Lakeville and accounts for nearly 3,000 jobs and over 217.2 million in annual wages in our community. Now therefore, the Lakeville City Council does hereby proclaim that the month of October shall be observed as manufacturing month in the city of Lakeville. [15:13] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. We look forward to celebrating next month all of our manufacturers. Thanks for reading that. Uh moving on to item six, our consent agenda. Any uh items you wanted to highlight, Mr. Miller? **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Just one tonight, mayor. 6D is a resolution accepting a donation from the Lakeville Public Safety Foundation. They are graciously donating two AEDs to our fire department. [15:36] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** That's about $6,200. Very good. Thank you to them for their continued support. Um council, any items you wanted to further discuss or if not, I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Move approval of the consent agenda. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Is there a second? [15:52] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor say Aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? Consent agenda passes. We do not have any action items, unfinished business, new business, or our announcements. Our next work session is September 22nd in the Lake Marion conference room. Our next council meeting is October 6th right here in the council chambers. And now for that, I'll take a motion to adjourn to closed session for an update on a lawsuit. [16:25] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I uh move that we adjourn to a closed session. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** For the record, can we just state the case? [16:32] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Closed session to discuss legal strategy related to the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy versus the City of Lakeville and Olm Holdings One LLC lawsuit pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.05 subdivision 3B. [16:54] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Is there a second? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. All those in favor say Aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? Okay. We're going to now adjourn to closed session. Thank everybody for coming to our meeting and we'll have just our legal representatives and staff stay. [17:11] [Music]