[0:00] [Music] [1:05] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Good evening everyone and welcome to the July 13, 2023, Apple Valley City Council meeting. I would like to welcome everyone this evening. Just a little bit of logistics this evening: for members who are in the audience and have signed in to speak, when your name is called, we ask you to come forward to the podium to address the council. That way we can pick it up on the microphones and everyone can hear. And with that, the first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance; I would ask all to rise and join us in the pledge. [1:44] [Music] [1:51] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you everyone. The second item on our agenda is to approve the agenda. Tom, I know we've got at least one change this evening. [2:00] **Tom Lawell (City Administrator):** Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. We have just one suggested revision to your agenda tonight. It's on the consent agenda, it's item 4Y, a final payment for the interim or training room furniture for the police department. That item is not quite ready for action. That item will be removed from the agenda tonight; we'll bring it back at your next meeting. [2:25] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Perfect. I know we have a couple items to pull from consent and discuss separately, and we'll deal with those as we get to the consent agenda section of this evening. So with that, do we have a motion to approve the agenda removing item 4Y? [2:33] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** So moved. [2:34] **Councilmember John Bergman:** Second. [2:35] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** We have a motion from Councilmember Grendahl and a second from Councilmember Bergman. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. [2:39] **City Council:** Aye. [2:40] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** And opposed? The agenda passes. The next item on our agenda is our audience participation portion. This is for items that are not on the regular agenda. We do have a total of 10 minutes total for this item. We have a number of folks who wish to speak on Redwood Pool, which we’ve basically been talking about, so we'll take them—and I'm just going to take them in the order that they were received. We have a fair number of people who want to speak, so that we just ask that we keep it short so we can hear from everybody and we'll make that happen. So with that, I have Diana Larson who has signed up first. Would you like to come forward? Welcome. [3:25] **Diana Larson:** Hello, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I am grateful to be here tonight. My name is Deanna Larson, I'm with Save Redwood Pool, and we worked very diligently over the last three and a half, four weeks to get signatures in support of Redwood Pool. I just have to give you a little history: I moved to Apple Valley about 11 years ago. My husband worked in Eagan at the time and we wanted to be closer to his work, and we have just really loved the area of Apple Valley. We love the school district because it's excellent, the music program is great—which we appreciate as musicians—and just the community. Everything is accessible through the corridor of 42; I mean, just everything is right at our fingertips. Our church is just right around the corner. It's been a beautiful, beautiful, wonderful place to live. And so in talking to people about the Redwood Pool, so many of them were just shocked to find out that Redwood Pool was in danger of being removed. Some people were already aware of the issue, but many people were not, and were just shocked that the Redwood Pool would be taken away because it served so many generations. We have such a diverse population that come to Redwood Pool. I talked to grandparents bringing their grandkids because they had swum there when they were young and they brought their grandkids. I had teenagers coming to swim with friends, school-aged kids coming to swim with their friends, and parents with very young children because of the wading pool there, and then single adults just coming for an afternoon swim. And so so many people I talked to had no interest in a splash pad versus a pool. They said, "We already have a splash pad at Kelly Park." I said, "Yes, that's correct." And we have splash pads in all the cities around us, but we don't have a municipal pool like this close around. Of our results of over a thousand signatures, we did have many of those from non-residents, and as we were totaling that, it was about neck-and-neck of resident versus non-resident that were coming to use our pool, which I thought was very [telling]. I didn't anticipate that, but I think it gives the possibility to just consider that we have people coming from out of town to use the pool, and so there could be a possibility to work in with corporate sponsorships or whatever it may be to help improve revenue if it's something that we decide to rebuild. Also, I thought it very telling to note that of the over a thousand signatures, 969 of them came from Dakota County—that did include Apple Valley, of course, 600 of those, almost 600 were Apple Valley—but many people from Dakota County coming to use this pool because of its uniqueness. And so I thought there could be a possibility too to perhaps work with the county in establishing a new pool if that's the decision or the direction we want to go. Anyway, I love Redwood Pool, my kids learned to swim there. We live just down the street; my kids just biked down the road and it's so nice that they can be self-sufficient, get themselves to the pool. I saw kids walking to school for the residences nearby, biking to the pool from residences nearby, coming with parents, coming without parents, grandparents bringing their grandkids—just a variety of people coming because it's an affordable option, because it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the Aquatic Park, which is wonderful, but you also pay for it. And so sometimes it's just nice to have that alternative. I love Redwood Pool, I think it's a wonderful option for our community and it's just a hidden treasure that we have here in our own midst that is worth saving. Thank you. [6:44] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. I just—and you and I chatted the other night, so thank you for that time the other evening as well. In formal [session] earlier this evening, we talked a little bit about the question and, honestly, thanks to the feedback—and the reason we do the feedback is it gives us some chance to adjust—and so that's what we're working toward now, is how do we look at including a question regarding keeping the pool in the future Bond referendum. So I appreciate the opportunity to have that conversation. Thank you. Next, I have Mary Riddell Ruiz. Did I pronounce that correctly? Thank you. [7:30] **Mary Riddell Ruiz:** Good evening. My name is Mary Riddell Ruiz. I've lived in Apple Valley for 20 years. I'm married and I have four kids. One thing that's been very important to me is having each of my kids learn how to swim. Keeping Redwood Pool would mean more access to affordable swim lessons. My two older kids learned how to swim through community swim lessons; my five-year-old is currently in community lessons. I consider myself lucky right now that she is in lessons—the previous session that I tried to get her into, it was only a day after the enrollment started and I tried to sign her up and it was already completely full. Redwood Pool also fills up their sessions and waitlists kids. Removing Redwood Pool would mean taking away affordable lessons through the community and making other locations harder to get into. Private swim schools are out of my budget for my family and for many others. Between swim lessons, Redwood Pool is safe, affordable, and a fun place for kids to practice their swimming skills. Also, I like how Redwood Pool is family-friendly and enjoyed by all ages, and only five dollars per person or four dollars with a punch card is an affordable option for our community. And just to kind of reiterate what Deanna said: when talking to people in our community, they wanted to know what was going on in place of a pool. After learning a splash pad would be going in there, I also had numerous people comment that Apple Valley already has a splash pad and there are many others close by. We don't really want or need another splash pad. The people that I've talked to—the all-inclusive playground is a good idea and I still like that, but it can be built in another location; I think Alimagnet would be a great location for that. A new pool could serve our community even more and with the right marketing it could be a great source of revenue for our city. Many people refer to Redwood Pool as a staple to Apple Valley. I agree; let's work together and figure out a solution to keep this wonderful pool. Thank you. [9:32] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thanks, Mary. I would just mention as well, just so everyone's clear, there is not a decision made to remove the pool. This was part of the research into what might go into a future Park and Bond referendum, just so we're all on the same page of why we're here tonight and why we're taking the feedback. Next up, I have... and I'm struggling here with the handwriting... Jamie Lennon? Thank you. [9:46] **Jamie Lennon:** My name is Jamie Lennon and I am here tonight again for Redwood Pool, but as a non-resident. I live in the city of Burnsville, very close to Apple Valley, and my daughter attends District 196 schools, so that Apple Valley Parks system is very important to us. We enjoy it and attend lots of sporting events at all the variety of parks around town. But just in an effort to not be repetitive as to what my friends have already said, I just wanted to reiterate the fact that people in Burnsville, Savage, Lakeville, Eagan, Farmington—we had names from Plymouth, Roseville—people travel to come to this pool and it is an asset. I really hope that we can work together to try to find a path to potentially keep it. Thanks. [10:48] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thanks, Jamie. I have Tracy McCreary. Thank you. [11:01] **Tracy McCreary:** I'm Tracy McCrory. Thank you for hearing us today. We're all here, I think, really just to reinforce our desire to see the option to keep Redwood Pool on the ballot in consideration. I'm an Apple Valley resident for 21 years and I just want to tell you a little bit about one of the things that makes Redwood Pool so special. In 1965, Oren Thompson gifted Redwood Pool and Country Club to the citizens of Apple Valley. In the 58 years since this generous gift was given, three generations have grown up enjoying warm summer days splashing in the pool. Grandparents who learned to swim at Redwood Pool are now bringing their grandkids to enjoy the same classic summer time fun they were able to enjoy, and they're still enjoying it today almost six decades later. Because people of all ages can enjoy this pool, as Jamie mentioned, our pool serves a need that other cities just aren't providing; people consider it a destination worth driving to. I talked to a lot of people when we were gathering petitions and we have people coming as far as Downtown Minneapolis and Eden Prairie because there simply wasn't a pool in their community. With a little creativity, surely we can find the funding to keep what we have and maintain what we already have or restore it to its former glory. With a little planning and strong marketing, our pool has the potential to drive some revenue for the city. So again, while I was gathering petitions, I was really curious to understand why people were coming to the pool instead of going to other aquatic facilities, and some other drivers were that their child has sensory issues and the water park was overwhelming to them; the pool was a quiet place, it was calming. For grandparents, the pool was a place they could actively participate in instead of just being a passive observer; they could actually get in the water and play with their grandkids. It's also a safe and affordable place for middle schoolers and teenagers to hang out during the day. Some parents saw their kids slip at the splash pads—you know, the temptation to just run around and have a good time is just too overwhelming—and so they like to bring them to the pool where it's a little less tempting to run and just get in the pool. And for kids I talked to, they just love the experience of jumping into the pool, doing cannonballs, and floating around—there's nothing better. So again, Redwood Pool is providing an experience that people are not getting anywhere else. It was a gift to our generation; let us return that gift to the other future children of Apple Valley. We need to invest in keeping our pool, and if we do it right, we'll be able to enjoy the pool with our grandkids too. [13:40] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** A few minutes left here... a couple minutes left. We have Caitlin McCrary. Related, I'm assuming? Thanks for coming up. [14:01] **Caitlin McCrary:** Thank you. I think we should definitely keep the pool because I always have my birthday parties there and me and my friends like to go there a lot. Squish [the toy] likes the pool too, so I think we should keep it. Thank you. [14:18] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. And finally I've got Kelly Colossal coming up. Kelly? [14:35] **Kelly Colossal:** Mr. Mayor and City Council Members, my name is Kelly Colossal. I've lived in Apple Valley since 2012. And I do support the Redwood community pool and hopefully the upgrades. A little background: my son who's now 14 has autism. We go to some parks—the pool is fenced in, the Aquatic Center is fenced in. I've brought my son once to Kelly Park and it was a disaster because he just ran away. So a splash pad versus a pool are two different things, and for inclusiveness and diversity, I support the pool, you know, with the fence and all that, because a splash pad does not work for all families. The second thing I want to say is I would really like to see maybe next summer if the city council or the Parks and Rec come water walking; have a water walking session from 7:30 to 8:30 and talk to community members about who is using the Aquatic Center, who is using the Redwood pool, and why they're using it or why they like it. I was part of [the meeting about] where the inclusive part was going to go and it was Redwood. I just would really like to see more time for engagement with City Council and the Park and Rec to talk to people like me. And it was a suggestion by a fellow water walker, like, "Kelly, if you're going to the City Council meeting, why don't you suggest they go and be part of the conversation?" Because water walking and the pool, they're both popular summer things. And lastly, I just want to say: family bathrooms with adult changing stations that we can use year-round. We have many people that are complaining there is no bathrooms, and people walk our city in our parks and that's really important to me—that we have family bathrooms with adult changing stations. No blow dryers, no automatic toilets in the family bathroom. Thank you, that's all I have to say. [17:15] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Kelly, I can't believe your son's 14 already. Wow. Thank you. Thank you everybody, I appreciate the time this evening. Councilmember Grendahl would like to make a few comments. [17:28] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** I mean, first of all, this has been a very inclusive process. It's been going on for years and we just spent—we've had two surveys done; in fact, we just went through the survey, I saw Deanna was there. We have hard decisions at 6.6 million dollars to redo Redwood Pool for 125 people that go there a day. So we definitely have some hard decisions in front of us. And only 39 percent of the city’s over 40,000 [voters] have [voted for] one pool. Burnsville has no pools, and so if they're coming to use our pool and you live in Burnsville, I would encourage you to go to Burnsville and ask them to build one pool at least. Anyway, so a lot of facts came out from the survey and what people will support, but like I say, 6.6 million for 125 people a day—we have a hard decision in front of us. [18:18] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Yep. And that survey, as Eric [Carlson] informed me today, is online currently. All right, thank you all. We'll go ahead and move on to our consent agenda. Thank you everybody for coming to comment too, I really appreciate it. Consent agenda: Councilmember Melander has already informed me he would like to pull 4I and 4J. Is that correct? [18:40] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Thank you, Mayor. I would like to pull 4I and 4J. Those are the two consent agendas—now, people should understand a consent agenda item is something for just consideration. There's going to be a lot more going on with this whole issue, but they have to do with the moratorium on the cannabis sales, regulating cannabis use... and let's... I suggest we pull it. I've also talked to some people over the phone the last few weeks that thought it'd be nice to be able to talk about it in a public meeting, and I've said to them on the phone, this meeting we can talk about it. So anyway, that's what I want to pull. Thank you very much, Mayor. [19:25] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. So we'll move 4I and J and we'll make them 5C and D. Does that work, Tom and Christina? That way we can get to our oath of office and other things ahead of time. [19:38] **Tom Lawell (City Administrator):** Yeah, perfect. [19:39] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. No question. Are any other items, Councilmembers, that you would like to pull? Citizens, any other items to pull other than I and J? So if there are not, I would take a motion to approve the remainder of the consent agenda. [19:48] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Motion. [19:50] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** Second. [19:51] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** I have a motion from Councilmember Melander, a second from Councilmember Grendahl. All in favor indicate by saying aye. [19:55] **City Council:** Aye. [19:56] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? The consent agenda is passed. We will move on to our regular agenda starting with item 5A, and I would like to invite Chief Francis up for introductions and oaths of office for police officers Amanda St. George and Tyler Greaves. Actually, before Nick gets started here: family members, anybody wants to sneak back here and get good pictures, please feel free to come on back and get a good shot. [20:19] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. On another exciting night for the Police Department as we officially introduce a couple more new members to you and have them sworn in and have their badges pinned on. With me tonight, I have Officer Amanda St. George and Officer Tyler Greaves. Amanda—we’ll start with her—just by way of introduction: she grew up in the St. Paul Falcon Heights area, attended high school at Cretin-Derham Hall. She went to Drake University in Iowa and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Biology. After that, she went to Metro State and got her Law Enforcement certificate. She started her law enforcement career in West Des Moines, Iowa—so we have a Hawkeye region, as I call them, very supportive—and that was in 2011. She started down there and has really had an interest in the medical side of it; was a CPR instructor, use of force instructor. She worked down there for five years, came up to Minnesota and began work at Metro Transit PD. So you'll see a few of her Metro Transit colleagues here that I'm sure are just really thankful that we stole her away and [she is] now here. Great to see them here in support. And so since 2016, working at Metro Transit, she continued as a CPR [instructor] and was a leader there as a field training officer. Outside of law enforcement, she likes to practice martial arts, play board games, she likes spending time on the lake, and recently taught herself to crochet, which maybe you'll take orders from different department members. And Amanda, if you just want to step up and just introduce anybody that's with you tonight. [22:04] **Officer Amanda St. George:** Tonight I have several members of my family; my mom and my brother are hanging out back there, my son James, and then my girlfriend back there, and several members of Metro Transit unit. [22:25] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Welcome everybody. [22:30] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** And next we have Tyler Greaves. Officer Greaves grew up in Belle Plaine, attended Belle Plaine High School. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology and Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where he also played football—so we are up on our football game for the Police versus Fire football game. We're not going to our roster yet, we're getting there. And he's been with us as a Community Service Officer. So on one hand you have someone that's worked somewhere else and came to us as a lateral hire; Officer Greaves started here as a Community Service Officer and worked with us as he continued the schooling, which we've got a number—well into the double digits—of officers that have started as Community Service Officers and became police officers here. So he's been with us—he's probably a familiar face delivering Council packets or other things here for the past three years—and now he's with us in a dark blue shirt as a police officer. Outside of law enforcement, he has a cat; he's trying to work on getting our first, instead of canine, a "cat-nine" program—I'm not sure how far the proposal is on that—but a big cat fan. Loves being outdoors, motorsports, and working on cars. And Tyler, I'll let you introduce anyone that's here with you tonight. [23:46] **Officer Tyler Greaves:** I just got my mom and my brother. [23:51] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** Very good. Excellent. Well, I'll invite them both over so the City Clerk can give them their oath of office. Couple people move around a little bit. [24:19] **Christina Scipioni (City Clerk):** Please raise your right hand. I, [Tyler Greaves / Amanda St. George], swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and that of the State of Minnesota, and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of police officer of the City of Apple Valley and County of Dakota in the State of Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability. [24:56] [Applause] [25:05] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. Just trying to get another picture, so if you want to come back over here we'll have your selected guest pin your badges on. [25:42] [Music/Background Noise] [26:01] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** All right, well congratulations to our two newest officers. And also just want to thank the family and especially our staff for coming out; some folks come in religiously on their night off to welcome our new family members to the Police Department here. We're so happy to have these two out and patrolling independently on their own, done with training, and we look forward to coming to you every chance we get to introduce new people to our ranks. Thanks Amanda and Tyler. [26:24] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Congratulations. You're joining a pretty incredible group of people as you know by now. So welcome, we're proud of this whole department and not just what you do, but how you do it every day. So thank you guys for showing up and welcome and stay safe. [26:38] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Mayor? I just want you to know how supportive this community is of their Police Department. Very, very supportive. Thank you. [26:49] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. Can I escort them? Absolutely. We'll give everybody a few seconds to a few minutes to kind of make their way out... for a few seconds, whatever it takes. [27:42] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, we will move on to item 5B, which is to receive a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for 2021. Finance Director Ron Hedberg. [27:54] **Ron Hedberg (Finance Director):** Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. Council have been very supportive of the City of Apple Valley participating in a program through the Government Finance Officers Association for the past number of years. We do have with us this evening Joel Mary, who is the representative of the Minnesota Government Finance Officers Association, on behalf here of the National Association to present the Certificate of Achievement for the annual financial report and the popular annual financial report. So with that, I'll let Joel step forward. Come on forward. [28:39] **Joel Mary:** Mr. Mayor, Council, happy to be here tonight. As Ron mentioned, I'm here on behalf of the Minnesota Government Finance Officers Association to officially present the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the City of Apple Valley for their 2021 financial report. Earlier this evening, you reviewed the results of the 2022 annual financial report and audit and, as presented, the City staff expects to also receive this award for '22, but due to the timing there's always that lag. So this is the award for 2021. The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by government and its management. The report has been judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program, which includes demonstrating a constructive spirit of full disclosure to clearly and transparently communicate the City's financial story. There's over 600 checklist items that are required to be met, so there's a lot to it. So I want to recognize Ron and his finance team for all the hard work. I believe the 2021 report will be Apple Valley's 11th consecutive year. And also the Popular Annual Financial Report, which goes through a little different process—it's basically a summarized version of the annual financial report, not audited, but it does put it in layman's terms a little bit, a little easier to understand if you don't want to read the giant 200-page annual financial report and all the details. But yeah, congratulations. [30:45] [Applause] [30:48] **Ron Hedberg (Finance Director):** I want to point out we're not clapping for ourselves, we're clapping for Ron. Yes, exactly. Ron, we do have to thank the City Council for their ongoing support; everything in the Finance Department and everything that everybody does on the team and the citywide staff. [30:57] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thanks, Ron. It was mentioned at the informal [session] and Joel just mentioned it as well, but the traditional financial report is 75-ish pages long and it's written in a format that it has to be written in because it has to comply with certain things. Your staff has taken that and boiled it down to six pages that is much more understandable and approachable. So thank you for doing that. I think it's important to show our residents and our citizens where we're spending their money, and this does a good job of that. Councilmember Melander. [31:28] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** I just want to congratulate the City and especially our Finance Director. I just want to state: we have an excellent Finance Director and an excellent staff, and we're so grateful he's here and we hope he stays a number of years. You know something, Ron? Thank you. [31:47] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you again and congratulations. Do we need to officially receive this, Christina, or is this just information? Okay, thank you. So with that, then, we will move on to the two items that we pulled from the consent agenda, which were I and J. And just as Tom comes up, a bit of background: the state legislature this year passed the recreational use of marijuana and kind of left it to all of us to figure out what's next. And so this is part of the figuring out what's next. And so Tom, why don't you—I know you put a few slides together for this. [32:28] **Tom Lawell (City Administrator):** Yes, good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Happy to walk you through these two items that we have included. They were basically items that would start us down a road—ultimately not tonight to make final decisions, but let me just walk through what is happening here with the state-authorized adult-use cannabis legislation and some proposed implementation steps that we would have for you tonight. The background, as the Mayor indicated: the State of Minnesota has now approved the legalization of adult use happening during this 2023 legislative session. It legalizes the possession, use, manufacturing, and sale of certain cannabis products within the state. The Governor signed the legislation on May the 30th and we become, as the State of Minnesota, the 23rd state to legalize cannabis. The implementation process will be not instantaneous. It is going to take us a bit of time to get this up and going, and that is clearly the case—there's a lot of work to do given the wide-encompassing nature of the bill, which runs about 300 pages worth of legislation. Part of that does create what's called the Office of Cannabis Management at the state level, and they're still in the process of making that. So there will be, once it is up and running, over a dozen categories of licenses that will be available from the state once it is up and running. The legislation proposes that retail sales for adult use will begin probably the first quarter of 2025. So no one believes that this is going to be an immediate thing or a store is going to open in our city selling cannabis; there's a lot of work to do at the state level before we would have that happen. But one thing that will happen sooner is that the possession, use, and home cultivation of cannabis under the law will begin, will be legal starting August the 1st, 2023. So that is immediate. So tonight, what we have on the two items on your agenda: one relates to retail sales and getting ready for something that's going to happen down the road, and the other is to prepare us for cannabis use, which will happen sooner than the other one. First, let's talk about retail sales. The role of cities under the legislation is limited. We may not prohibit the possession, transportation, or use of cannabis flower and all the other descriptions that are even including hemp edibles under the new law. So cities do not have the opportunity to operate cannabis retail sales. The state will actually issue the licenses. When they receive an application, they will then share that application with the city and they will ask us to certify whether or not there's any reason that the city should not approve it under a very tight criteria. We will have to say that it does comply with our zoning and be able to tell them whether or not we will permit that and provide a register—we'd have to register that. But at the end of the day, the license is issued by the state. So we really have to have very precise reasons why we would not allow that to take place in our city. The registrations by ordinance: we do have the ability to limit it. It is limited in the state legislation to one retail establishment for every 12,500 residents. So that would actually naturally put a cap on the number of retail establishments that could open in our city at four. If we're at a 56,000 population, that would be four retailers. We'd have to get to 62,500 in order to have the fifth retailer. So that is the scope of the potential retailers operating in our city. A few other things worth noting is that the cities are allowed to adopt reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of the operations of a cannabis business, provided that such restrictions do not prohibit that establishment. So we have a role, but we have a limited role. A few things that were specifically called out in the legislation is that cities may prohibit the operation of a cannabis business within a thousand feet of a school, within 500 feet of a daycare or residential treatment facility, or an attraction within a public park that's regularly used by minors, including playgrounds and athletic fields. So there are things that are provided for in the statute, but in order to make that happen, it has to become part of our ordinances—our code of ordinances, our zoning ordinance, and our land-use guidance. Cities need adequate time to study the land-use impacts and to make the changes necessary in our ordinances, and that is provided for in the state statute. And so the action that we have tonight, one of the actions, is to direct staff and the City Attorney's office to prepare an ordinance to enact a moratorium for the study of cannabis sales and to set a public hearing for the Council on July 27th. So the interim ordinance—the moratorium—would be in effect while we do the study. We'll do the study, we'll establish what those reasonable restrictions are on time, place, and manner and bring that forward as a new ordinance of the City. By state law, the interim ordinance can actually be in effect up to January 1st of 2025. So that's quite a length of time to conduct the study. It may not take that long to get through that, but if the state is not in a position to issue licenses anyway, we are glad that we have the time that we need to review our ordinances and make certain that we're capturing the time, place, and manner restrictions as we can in our ordinances. The second item is to prepare for cannabis use, which is now more immediate, starting August the 1st. So the role of cities in cannabis use restrictions: beginning August 1st, legislation will allow people who are 21 or older to possess and use certain amounts of cannabis and cannabis products. A City may adopt an ordinance establishing a petty misdemeanor offense for a person who unlawfully uses cannabis flower, cannabis products, lower-potency hemp edibles, and hemp-derived consumer products in a public place other than the following. So basically the state statute says these are areas where it is legal: It is legal in a private residence, including a person's curtilage or yard—basically means in essence their backyard. Private property: this is where it would be allowed—private property not generally accessible by the public unless the person is explicitly prohibited from consuming cannabis flower and those other items by the property owner. So that is still private property; you would be able to use it unless the owner of that property tells you you cannot. And then the third category that is permitted is on-premises of an establishment or event licensed to permit on-site consumption. So those are called out specifically in the statute as places where the use of cannabis is allowed. The law does not grant an individual the right to use cannabis on public property. That is where the action that we are looking for tonight is to direct staff and the City Attorney's office to prepare an ordinance regulating cannabis use within public property and public places. The plan would be to prepare that quickly given the August 1st deadline; we would bring that to you here on July 27th for your consideration. Of course, the ordinance would then be effective August 1st; it cannot apply to any offenses committed prior to that. So the summary of the action tonight: direct the staff and the City Attorney's office to draft that moratorium for the study of cannabis sales and set that for a public hearing on July 27th. This one actually requires a public hearing under the legislation that says that you must conduct a public hearing, and so that's why this one is set up the way it is. The second one is to direct the staff and the City Attorney to prepare the ordinance for cannabis use on public property and private places for July 27th. That does not require a public hearing; it is your standard procedure for adopting ordinances which would require you to read the ordinance, consider the second reading if you wish to waive the second reading, and then to take action. Given the importance of moving forward on both of these, we would suggest that we take the action, do the work, bring those two documents forward to you at your next meeting. Happy to answer any questions. [41:00] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Well, I have so many questions, I can't even—I don't even know where to begin. I'm just glad that we have an outstanding City Administrator and an outstanding legal staff to help us. But I mean, I'm sorry, there's so many things. One of the things that bothers me the most is the whole question of now our police... the police don't have enough trouble these days. Our police are going to be put under the burden of trying to regulate people who are driving impeded by marijuana. Now, this is going to be the—I'll just give you a little bit of the difference between alcohol and marijuana. Now, if you drink alcohol and you get pulled over, they bring us downtown and you have a machine that tells you if you're blowing 0.08. So we know, you have a law that says over a certain level, we can then enforce a law. Under this thing, first of all, there's all sorts of things we have to do that we can do—I shouldn't say we have to do, if we so choose—but even when we bring the person in for tests and all that kind of thing, there's no law that says there's a certain level at which you can say a person is intoxicated. And that scares me. It scares me as someone who drives in Apple Valley. I choose not to use cannabis, I never will, and I'll tell you: this just bothers me very much that this wasn't part of a law. It just bothers me a lot. This thing bothers me—growing it in your backyard bothers me. I mean, it says you can grow it in a closed area. I don't know what that means. I've been told—I don't know, I've never smelled cannabis growing—but I've had good friends tell me it stinks like anything. So what if we have a complaint from a neighbor? What kind of ordinance are we going to write? You can grow it, but what if it stinks so bad you get a complaint from a neighbor? I mean, there's just so many—this thing is so open-ended. I think this is the most—I've been on this Council for years and I'll tell you: the legislature should have done more work on this. It's that simple. They're leaving a lot of the burden on city administrators, city attorneys, and city police. And I'm not happy about any of that. Thank you, Mayor. [44:03] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you, Councilmember. Any other questions or comments for Tom? Let's take the two items and get them approved so that we can bring these back, and we'll have more time to talk about this in two weeks because we'll come back for discussion in two weeks as well. Yes? Come on forward. Sorry about that, I could not see you through Tom there. [44:46] **Brock Dombrowski:** My name is Brock Dombrowski, 7141 France Avenue, Edina. It’s... this has been coming for a long time. I think we thought it was going to pass in the '60s, that's what my parents told me, and now here we are. Obviously, we're the 23rd state to legalize it and most of the states before Minnesota kind of had a department of cannabis in place, kind of rolling, and so when it was legalized there were a lot more questions that had been answered. And obviously, as we know, they just sort of dropped it on each city. My background is: I have 17 dispensaries in Michigan, five grow facilities, 150,000 square feet, and we operate a very safe and high-quality business. I'm offering consulting if you need any help moving forward. I hate to break it to you, but there's already dispensaries here, right in the city [selling] Delta-9, hemp-derived. And to let you know that the way you see it being a negative—that you don't know when it's in someone's system being tested—actually is the exact opposite. Right now, someone could get drunk at night, get hung over in the morning, get in an accident, and they have no alcohol in their system even though they were impaired to drive. Whereas if someone ingests it or smokes it, and it could be a week out—they're actually sober, they get into an accident, they get tested, they have THC in their system—they're still going to get a DUI. [46:18] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** We don't know. [46:19] **Brock Dombrowski:** No, that's the way it works. Anyway, we will have time to further discuss all of this in two weeks. I emailed you, so if you've got any questions—I'm pretty much better one-on-one—but feel free to reach out and I can definitely answer some questions, I think. [46:40] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, thank you. [46:44] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** I wish you'd make your services available to the state legislature, that's where... [46:48] **Brock Dombrowski:** Oh, I wish I could have too. I did watch the whole thing. [46:51] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Oh, this is terrible. I mean, you're right: the other states already had a cannabis office. In fact, the faculty needed to interview with us right now, she was in a coat closet in Saint Paul the whole month of June before she was allocated funds. Kind of speaks highly of where they're at. [47:05] **Brock Dombrowski:** Exactly. Yeah, thank you. [47:08] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, thank you. So let's start with the first item, which is to direct staff and the City Attorney's office to prepare an ordinance to enact a moratorium for the study of cannabis sales and set a public hearing for consideration of the ordinance on July 27th, 2023. [47:20] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Motion. [47:22] **Councilmember John Bergman:** Second. [47:23] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Melander, a second from Councilmember Bergman. Any other discussion? If not, all in favor indicate by saying aye. [47:31] **City Council:** Aye. [47:32] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? That carries unanimously. Our second action item is to direct staff in the City Attorney's office to prepare an ordinance regulating cannabis use within public property and public places. [47:45] **Councilmember Lisa Hiebert:** I'll make the motion. [47:46] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** Second. [47:47] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Hiebert, a second from Councilmember Grendahl. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. [47:51] **City Council:** Aye. [47:52] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? That carries unanimously as well. Tom talked a little bit about the legislation, but I just want to pause for a second. The other things nobody saw behind the scenes, Tom, were the time you spent back and forth with our legislative contingent as we learned different things. And I was only in some of those meetings; I'm fairly confident without your work we would not have had some of the controls we did get in this ordinance today. So thank you. You watched this... the original—it was a hard fight to get zoning into this. Truly, in the original [draft], this could have been opened in the home next door to you without us having any ability to control it. And that's just one of the many things. And so again, Tom, thank you for the efforts and others as well, but I know there's a lot of time spent to get us to where we are even though it's far from perfect. [48:47] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Well, we should also realize that every city is in this same mess. I'll call that a "mess," guys. I think it's a terrible mess we're in and we're going to have to work—we're going to have the staff, the attorneys, with the League of Minnesota Cities helping us out here too. Because what we want to do—one of the things we wanted to do is we want to see what the people around us are doing. We don't want to set up some system and have some neighboring city set up some [different one]. I obviously am not happy with this law and I just want to thank again our staff and our attorney; they're going to be busy. And thank you. [49:40] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, we'll move on to item 6, which is Staff and Council Communications. Tom, anything else? [49:46] **Tom Lawell (City Administrator):** Mr. Mayor, we do have one. We would like to invite up our Police Chief, Nick Francis, to talk to us a little bit about Night to Unite. [49:50] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** Good evening again. Back when Councilmember Melander talked about how supportive this community is of the Police Department: my favorite night to work every year—I would do it for free, work all day, work all night—is Night to Unite. Every year, it's just fantastic to go around to the community and meet with people, get to see some kids, get to see some happy faces, and stand for questions. And sometimes people ask us difficult questions, whether it's about the police department or the Parks Bond referendum or something else going on with their streetlights or whatever. But that's what makes a good community, is when the elected officials, the police department, fire department, everybody else goes out and has those conversations. So Night to Unite this year is August 1st. It's kind of odd that the first Tuesday in August is on the 1st, but it's only a few short weeks away. We're going to have a 5:00 PM briefing and we're going to do it over at the Regent Room right next door here. Our training room—our formal training room upstairs—has been morphed now into office space, so we're going to have our briefing right down here next door, a place you're familiar with. And then we're going to go hit some neighborhood parties. We're taking online registrations—the City's website is where the residents should go that have not registered. But as of right now, we already have 86 parties, so we are on pace to have well over 100 registered parties. And so Council, Police, Fire, department heads, anybody else is welcome to come out and enjoy with us. A couple things we're doing we have done the past few years: one is a school supply drive. So the neighborhoods are encouraged to collect supplies; they get this information when they register for a party and get their party materials. We've had great success partnering with ISD 196 to get school supplies into the schools prior to the start of school. Supplies will be collected for all grade levels. Everybody who collects supplies will have the dates and times where they're able to bring those into the Falcon Ridge Middle School to drop them off. As you can see the pictures there, the community does a great job supporting students and teachers and faculty who need those supplies to keep their classrooms running. The other thing is the chalk art contest. We've been doing this for a few years and, fortunately, have—knock on wood—avoided any rainstorms on Night to Unite so stuff doesn't melt into the abyss. As part of this, families and neighborhoods can participate in our chalk art; they basically submit—there's a little QR code there—they submit their photos by Friday. And I know last year Councilmember Bergman and I went to one neighborhood where each kid wanted to show us what they did—"this square the sidewalk, this kid painted that, and the next square someone else"—and we spent 20 minutes looking at all the different chalk art. But there was a very nice "Support the Police" piece down there that some neighborhood kids had done. So that's always fun. It's fun for us to drive around and see that at these parties. That's all I had for you; I just want to get on your radar and make sure the public knew that we're still accepting registrations and we'll see you August 1st. Thank you. [53:14] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Mayor, I just wanted to tell you what a coincidence: we're having National Night Out on the same first night it's legal to smoke marijuana. I would imagine there’d probably be some questions about it. I just want to let you know I'm going to be doing National Night Out but I will not be smoking marijuana. [53:33] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Bring a new theme to some of the parties... what a mess. I think that's it; we probably should move on. [Laughter] Any other staff communications? Council? No? You got it. Wonderful. Thank you to everybody, lots of hours and lots of time. All right, so with that, we have the calendar of upcoming events. Our next informal City Council meeting is Thursday, July 27th at 5:30. Our next regular City Council meeting is Thursday, July 27th at 7:00 PM. With that, do we have a motion to approve the calendar of upcoming events? [54:14] **Councilmember John Bergman:** Motion. [54:16] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Second. [54:17] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All in favor indicate by saying aye. [54:18] **City Council:** Aye. [54:19] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? And a motion to adjourn? [54:19] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** So moved. [54:21] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Second. [54:23] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Grendahl, second from Councilmember Melander. All in favor indicate by saying aye. [54:24] **City Council:** Aye. [54:25] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, we're adjourned. Thanks everybody, have a great weekend. [Music]