This transcript features **Mayor Matt Montgomery** presiding over the meeting, with significant input from **Neil** (likely a finance official or consultant, though not on the provided list, he leads the budget discussion), **Laura Qualey** (Community Development), **Bill Angerman** (City Engineer), **Jed Petersen** (Public Works), and **Jeff McCormick** (Police Chief). [38:57] **Council Member**: The other one, yes, exactly, yeah. [39:13] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Call to order the City Council meeting for Tuesday, September 5th, 2023. If I could get a roll call, please? **City Clerk Sara Peer**: Gesme? Here. Grote? Here. Jeppesen? Gone. Johnson? Here. Kronenberger? Absent. Lindell? Yep. And Montgomery? Here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. If I could get a motion to approve tonight's agenda? [39:59] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Lisa, second by Diane. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. That gets us to public input. Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the City Council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length and each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak. Speakers may address topics relevant to the governance of the city. Speakers must sign up in advance and must provide their name, address, and the topic they intend to address. Comments must be on topic, respectful, pertinent to City business, and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down and if the speaker refuses to comply, they may be removed from the meeting. Speakers shall not address topics that are the subject of a public hearing. All such comments shall be made at the public hearing. The City Council will not generally act on issues raised by the public input but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda. Becky Youngmark to talk about minutes corrections. [40:45] **Becky Youngmark**: Good evening. Um, I just wanted to bring your attention to something that needs to be corrected on the minutes for tonight. So if you look on page two, it's talking about the public hearing for Sandstone Ridge property sale. The second sentence... it's talking about Neil; he noted that the Planning Commission and the Park Board have recommended approval of the property sale. Park Board did not recommend the property sale. We can only recommend the parks. And if you look at the draft minutes that we'll be approving Thursday night, you can see the motion, and the motion was to recommend the City Council approve the Towering Bluffs Parkland designation. So we did not approve or suggest the approval of the property sale; we only did the Parkland. And also, I noticed in there with Council Member Johnson bringing up the location of the parks and stuff, I also brought that up. I am concerned that they're not centrally located. I am concerned about children getting hurt and going through other people's property to try and get to the parks. Laura assured me that all those trails would connect and there would be a safe way for them to get back and forth to the parks, but that was a concern we did discuss just so you know. I don't know if it got brought up or not, but um, so the Park Board only recommended the parks, not the approval of the sale. So thank you. [42:19] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Thank you. April Gorman, may I give you some information? [42:53] **April Gorman**: After the last meeting, three weeks ago or whenever it was, I got an interesting email from a CF Insider. Don't know who it is; it's anonymous. "Cannon Falls Insiders," I guess it must be. Talks about: "Here's the truth: everyone on the Council except Diane knows about Project Tulip." Well, I know that is not true; I did ask a couple other Council Members that know nothing about it. It goes on to say that "you'll be kicking yourself for all the time and money you've spent on this." I have spent very little time and absolutely no money on this. This is costing the city money, and for the life of me, I don't know why we couldn't just come up with the public information and it be shared by the City Administrator with you folks. It's beyond me. Uh, at any rate, I also have an email attached there that's quite lengthy, and I am challenging the completeness of the data that I received. I didn't even get the City Engineer's bill, which should be absolutely ready and available at any time. It's public information, but it's not, and I don't have a copy of it even though I inquired. If I do not get the public information that I know is out there and available, I will take this a step further. Now, you people are not aware that I have contacted the state other than I've told you, but I'm sure that the Administrator has not shared with you the information that the state sent to the City of Cannon Falls. That also is public information, but you folks probably don't have any of it. Thank you for your time. [44:25] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Thank you. All right, that moves us forward to the consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. I'll go through these real quick. Item A: Justin Correct claims for the accounting period that ended August 30th. Item B: Meeting minutes for the August 15th City Council meeting. Item C: Second reading and adoption of Ordinance 395, summary of publication and ordinance, the City of Cannon Falls to amend zoning ordinance. Item D: Second reading and adoption of Ordinance 396, summary publication ordinance of the City of Cannon Falls, Minnesota to amend the Cannon Falls zoning ordinance. Item E: Resolution 2696 accepting the Department of Economic Development's appropriation for John Birch Park wall rehabilitation project. Item F: Approve the body-worn camera audits. Item G: Approve disposal of provision body-worn camera hardware. Item H: Approve hire of police officer Nathaniel Fox. Item I: Approve hire of unscheduled part-time EMT Anthony Rink. Item J: Approve full-time ambulance employees' callback pay. And Item K: Approve Cannon Cruisers Car Club use of Minnieska Park for the VFW event. Is there anything that the Council would like to pull down? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Dan [Diane]... um, A. No, and B because of the correction of the minutes. Does it need to be pulled down because of the correction? Yeah. [45:56] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Unless we can just do that. Pull it down, make it a separate item? Absolutely. Okay, Item B pull down, and then K? The Car Cruisers? All right. Any others? Hearing none, I would take a motion to approve the consent agenda. **Council Member Lindell**: Motion. **Council Member Chad Johnson**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Lindell, second from Johnson. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. That gets us to Council business, Item A: Resolution 2697 adopting the preliminary tax levy and budget that's collectible in 2024 and setting the public meeting date. Neil? [46:42] **Neil (City Staff)**: Well, we've had a couple work sessions discussing the preliminary budget for 2024. Um, unless you guys want additional information, I'll just hit the highlights. Otherwise, we'll maybe just do some question and answer if you have any. Some of the highlights that we have this year is we kept it under the four percent, or at four percent as you guys requested. The tax levy increase is about $128,646. In Venergy, we receive a fee from them every year; that went up $62,914. We did get a nice increase in local government aid of $109,621. And with CD rates going up, as everybody has been maybe watching, things like bond interest and CD rates are going up. We did have an increase, and we did talk about this at the work sessions how some of those CDs are callable. I don't have faith in keeping them all for 2024, so we did cut back on the amount that would be available to us, so we set that at $90,000. [48:27] **Neil (City Staff)**: Some of the expenses that we will incur in 2024: we did the pay study, the salary increases for the full-time—well, the people that were on the pay study, there was a couple of part-timers on there too—it was $156,000. Capital equipment increase of about $60,000, and then again, the overall general increase of four percent. What are we going to do in 2024? Well, we're going to finish up our reconstruction project just north of the river over by Third Street. We'll be bidding that out in a month or so, right Bill? **City Engineer Bill Angerman**: It will be at the next Council meeting asking for approval to go out to bid for that second half. We approved the lift station and the boring, and now we'll be doing the second half. [49:15] **Neil (City Staff)**: Equipment purchasing for 2024 is a little light in the Public Works. We're looking to buy a new mower and our yearly trade-in for the John Deere skid steer. We don't know where the police squad situation sits; they keep trying to get squads, but we'll see if we can get one in the fleet maybe next year. We hope so. With that, the proposed levy for 2024 is $3,435,602, which is a 3.89 percent increase from 2023. The date for the public hearing is scheduled for November 21st, and the adoption will be on December 19th, each at 6:30. Is there anything else that you would like me to go over? [50:00] **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Any questions? Of course. I noticed that in the library budget, it still had building rent. I thought we had decided that that would be a transfer to the library capital account. **Neil (City Staff)**: I'll change that when I hit the final. Okay. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Um, and then I also noticed that there were no expenditures listed for Hardwood Estates, and I'm assuming that there should be some. **Neil (City Staff)**: There should be, but we don't know what that answer is yet. When we make the transfers, it'll be all internal. So when the bids come out... well, you're going to advertise for bids tonight maybe if you approve it, then we'll be able to put some numbers together. But it'll all be internal transfers from the general fund to a Hardwood Estate 500 number. [50:46] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Any other questions from the Council? Hearing none, I'd entertain a motion to approve Resolution 2697 adopting the preliminary tax levy and budget collectible for 2024. [51:32] **Council Member Lindell**: So moved. **Council Member Grote**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Lindell, second from Grote. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. On to Item B: Hardwood Estates. Laura, if you would like to take this? **Laura Qualey (Community Development)**: Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tonight we have the final plat and PUD for your review and approval. We are in our final stage of this process. We've done the Planning Commission, we had the preliminary plat and PUD presented on August 15th to all of you, and now we've had the final plat and PUD, as I said, presented to you last week in your packet. So we're just looking for your approval. Um, we did have one suggestion, or we had an email that actually came out from MnDOT that came out after your packet was sent out to you. So they are requiring a right turn lane—not a bypass lane, but a right turn lane—on Highway 19. So that will have to be adjusted. So your approval tonight would be conditional upon that being added to that particular plat. But otherwise, with the approval this evening, then we would also be looking for the approval of the other resolution, 2699, to go ahead and advertise the project for bids. But I would entertain any questions if you had any. [53:04] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Otherwise, due to the pre-plat, there weren't any suggested edits or modifications to the plat? Was... wasn't that right turn lane kind of bounced around? **Laura Qualey (Community Development)**: At first they had said that we wouldn't need it for the first phase of the first 29 lots, but after review, they'd said that they are requiring it. But I believe that they were saying that—correct me if I'm wrong, Bill—but they'd said that initially it was going to be a bypass lane, but now they're just saying a right turn lane? **City Engineer Bill Angerman**: Correct. Right. Think of a full left turn lane, you have a full intersection. So one way to look at this is this is actually less than we thought was going to be needed, but sooner than we thought it was going to be needed. So Neil and I talked a little bit this afternoon and we think sooner is not ideal, but less is definitely better, you know, not having to do as much. So we viewed that as a positive. [53:50] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Well, that's the only thing that's changed from what you... **Laura Qualey (Community Development)**: Correct. Yeah. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman**: Just on that: does the Highway Department pay for that or do we have to pay for that? And is this on Highway 19 or 25? **Laura Qualey (Community Development)**: 19. It would be on 19, yep. **City Engineer Bill Angerman**: It is up to the developer, in this case the city, to pay for that. And so it will be kind of like they did across from Saint Anne's. I'm not familiar with that, but basically on that south side right now there's a right turn lane; it'll just be continued. So cost-wise, we just got this requirement as well, so we haven't put pencil to paper. Neil asked me at ballpark and I'm always nervous about throwing out a number because you guys are going to hold me to it, but I told him less than $50,000. If I was guessing, it's probably in that $35,000–$40,000 range. But, you know, we were just made aware of it, so I'm going to be a little cautious on telling you a number. [54:36] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman**: Does it intrude into the property at all or is there room for this on the highway? **City Engineer Bill Angerman**: It's all in the state highway right of way. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Any other questions from the Council or discussion? Not hearing any, I'd entertain a motion to approve Resolution 2698 approving the final plat and the final PUD plan for Hardwood Estates. [55:21] **Council Member Diane Johnson**: So moved. **Council Member Grote**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Diane, second from Grote. Any further discussion? Those in favor? Aye. Opposed? No. That passes three to one. That brings us to Item 2 [C]: Resolution 2699 approving the plans and specifications and ordering the advertisements for bids. Laura, if you'd like to... do you want to touch that again or just discussion? **Laura Qualey (Community Development)**: Basically, it would just be the formal request and approval from the Council to put the project out for bid. Then we could, as of tomorrow, post it. It would... I don't believe that it's actually going to run in the paper in tomorrow or Thursday's issue, but it can be posted online. That way it'll have enough time for the bids to be opened on the 27th of September with your approval. [56:08] **Council Member Diane Johnson**: So this is for the bid lead, right? **Laura Qualey (Community Development)**: We will put the project out for bid, yes. So that anyone that's interested, any contractors interested in moving the dirt for us. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: I'm sure Bill's pretty much got it all put together, but now we've got to put that right turn lane in before the specs go out then? [56:54] **City Engineer Bill Angerman**: So what we've talked about—we were just made aware, Neil hadn't heard this until today—so our tentative plan is we will advertise for bids. Up until generally about three days before the bids, you can do what's called an addendum to the plans. So we will add this in in the next week or so. I will add that to the plan and then the bids are received on the 27th. Ideally, you know, we wouldn't take it right to the last minute three days, but you get it out there a week ahead of time so the contractors have time to adjust. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Thank you. Diane, you have a question? Yeah, and maybe it's more for Neil. And there again, I am trying to understand the budget and funds and everything else. Where is the money for this project going to be taken from? Is this relevant to asking for bids? [57:40] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Well, we've got to pay for them if we go out for bid for the advertisements. Well, they're going to come back with the figure which if we accept the bid, that means we've got to pay for it. So this is one step at a time. This is just asking for approval to advertise for bids. But if you want to answer the question, go ahead. **Neil (City Staff)**: We've said all along that we're going to take care of this internally, pending really, really outrageous costs. I think we can do it internally. Sara and I and Michelle will sit down and we'll talk it over and we'll have a discussion on where we're going to get the funds from, and we'll get back to you on that. [58:27] **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Thank you. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Any other questions? Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to approve Resolution 2699 improving the plans and specs and ordering advertisements for bids. **Council Member Lindell**: So moved. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Lindell, second by Diane. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? No. Carries three to one. That brings us to what will be listed as Item C [now D] for Council business. What was Item B in the consent agenda? The meeting minutes. Dan [Diane], do you want to talk about it or just what Becky had said? [59:12] **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Yeah, if we just remove that Park thing, it should be fine, I assume. Correct. I move to approve with that correction. **Council Member Steve Nordin**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Diane, second by Steve. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That carries. Brings us to Item D [now E] for Council business, which was Item K. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Oh shoot, you had a two, didn't you? Yeah, I thought she was... I had one question on... let's do K first and then we'll go back to A. [1:00:00] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay, so what was Item K is now Council business D: Approve the Cannon Falls Cruisers Car Club and their use of Minnieska Park. Diane, you brought that down. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Yeah, and I 100 percent support the Vets Club. Cannon Cruisers is great. When I looked at Minnieska Park to refresh my memory, I keep thinking: how are they going to get cars down there? Are they going to park on the grass? I mean, it is in by the swans. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Have you ever heard of "full send"? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: What? "Full send"? **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: You'll make it. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: I need to know if they're going to drive them down there on the bike path or if they're going to park on the grass, because right now we are in such a drought. Jed, do you know how they're planning on that for sure? [1:00:46] **Public Works Director Jed Petersen**: I don't know for sure, but I know that we drive our trucks down the bike path and into the grass down there when we service the park, so it shouldn't be an issue. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Okay. And it's not going to be bad on the grass or the cars to be parked down there? **Public Works Director Jed Petersen**: It's already dead. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: This is true. I would think they'd come off of Fourth Street? Third Street there, where the bike path kind of goes by those houses and then under the bridge there. That's the way I would do it anyway. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Yeah, right. Yeah. No, and that was my only concern. I just kept looking at it and thinking, yeah, there's no parking lot in that park. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: It could happen. There we go. [1:01:33] **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Then I have no problem with it. That's a motion to approve. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Diane. Do I have a second? **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: I got a second from Lisa. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That carries. So then, out of order, but we'll pull down Item A: the Justin Correct claims accounting period, and that'll be Item E for Council business. Diane, you also pulled that down. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Yeah, and there again, it's a question on page four. We have under the lawyer fees, basically, you know, July development... I figured out "Monitoring Towering Reimer Andrus," and then the top one didn't have a project kind of listed. That was the only thing I didn't know. It just has $2,872.50, but it didn't have a dash after it. [1:02:18] **Neil (City Staff)**: You said page four? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Yeah, right here. Yeah, just the July development. It says "July Development," it's got it charged. Most of them have a little dash that indicates what project they go to. **Neil (City Staff)**: I see what you're saying. 235 Planning and Economic, $2,872.50, July development. I'll have to look at the invoice and get back to you on that. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Like I said, I could figure out all the others and I thought, hmm, maybe it's invisible ink. Thank you, Neil. Then I moved to approve. [1:03:08] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion to approve from Diane. Do I have a second? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Second from Yasmi [Gesme]. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That carries. That gets us to our reports. I don't see Maggie here for Chamber. Joint Trail Board meeting was canceled for lack of anything to talk about. EDA, Laura? **Laura Qualey (Community Development)**: Mostly items that were on tonight's agenda. [1:03:55] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: So, department heads. Jed, do you have anything for us? **Public Works Director Jed Petersen**: Actually, I do. Back in May of 2022, Council approved the purchase of a new plow truck. Due to issues with supply chain, we finally were able to get the cab and chassis. It actually got delivered to Boyer today. But because the dump bed and the plow and everything that goes on it... because it's been so long, we had to get a new bid for that through TBEI. The original quote was for $136,157 for all that, and our new quote is $161,134. I just wanted to inform the Council—still back in '22 you had two bids from Crysteel and TBEI. Crysteel was $177,000, so we're still below Crysteel, but that's $25,000 we weren't planning on, so it's just cutting into our future bucket. And then the other item of business I have is that they broke ground on the Third Street lift station today. Boom! Cool. That's all I have. [1:05:29] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Thank you, Jed. Bill? **City Engineer Bill Angerman**: Well, I'll just segue right off of that. Neil mentioned earlier, you know, there was a Phase Two to the 2023 street project, so that will be coming on the 19th to the Council for approval to go out to advertisement for bids. That'll also start the final assessment process, so we'll be setting that in motion. We're kind of in the middle of the process there; we've already had the preliminary hearing, so now we'll open bids and we'll have the final hearing later this fall. And then the other one, 72nd Avenue way in connection with Hardwood Estates: that's the existing gravel road we'll be entering the new subdivision on, so that assessment process will be beginning as well. We'll be talking about that at the next Council meeting also. [1:06:15] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Anything on John Birch Park? **City Engineer Bill Angerman**: John Birch Park—which part? First base or third base? **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Either. I've got people that are saying nothing's going to happen with football. I said, "Nope, all the projects... football season is going to be just fine." I'll let Jed talk third if you'd like. **Public Works Director Jed Petersen**: Our Public Works did most of the demolition of the building with the help of Doug's Backhoe Service. Right now, today, they just placed the pour of cement for the pillars for the lights. I think that's all that's going to happen; we're going to fence everything off to try to keep people out of the construction zone. But as far as I know, football's a go. The bleachers are there. So now we're just waiting for the John Birch Park bears or whoever it is to get their contractors in there to start working on that. [1:07:01] **City Engineer Bill Angerman**: Wonderful. The first base... I might be stealing Laura's thunder because she's been working on the grant agreement from the state for the bonding request. I'll let Laura cover that, but the engineering side tentatively will be coming to the Council on the 19th with an agreement to begin that design process. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Thank you. Zach, I don't think I have anything tonight? All right. Laura? [1:07:47] **Laura Qualey (Community Development)**: Well, since Bill said something, I suppose I should fill you in on it. Yeah, so we have the contract agreement from DEED for the appropriation application for the John Birch Park funds for the $469,000. So I'm just wrapping that up. Once I get everything plugged in, we'll review it internally. I don't know if it has to come to Council to review; I think it's just a matter of us just submitting it to them. Then it's kind of in their hands to release the funds and get the project bid and scheduled for next year. [1:08:33] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Thank you. Chief? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Thank you, Mayor. So this past year, the legislative session legalized marijuana. If you recall, the previous legislative session legalized edibles, and the Police Commission did a bunch of work on ordinances related to edibles. The Council decided not to move forward on it. With the changes in the law for legalized marijuana, it was part of a very large bill. I've been going through it, the League [of Cities] has been going through it, but the League is giving some recommendations for direction to cities. The easiest way to think about it is: treat it the same way you treat liquor. Before I embark on having a discussion with my Police Commission and trying to put together proposed ordinances, I just wanted to find out the feelings of Council if you wanted to move forward with what the League is recommending. The Police Commission is made up primarily of volunteers; I don't want to have a bunch of work put into it to have the Council say, "Yeah, we don't want to do anything." [1:09:20] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Essentially what the League is suggesting is that you look at regulating it in public areas like parks, prohibiting it. It's not supposed to be utilized or smoked around persons under 21, but that makes it very hard from an enforcement standpoint. You know, if you take your family to the park and somebody's standing around smoking marijuana, you complain, the officers show up, and they say, "I wasn't doing that." Just having it in the park would in and of itself be prohibited, much like we do with liquor. They're recommending implementing licenses for retail, for wholesale—essentially anything that the state is going to regulate a license on, they're recommending overlaying a local license on. We still have no idea what the Office of Cannabis Management—I can't even remember what the new title is—but we have no idea what their enforcement section is going to be like. With the edibles, it was essentially two people for the entire state, so they weren't putting a lot of effort into complaints. The League is recommending that you implement local licenses so if there are problems with someone not following the rules, you would sanction them just like you do with your liquor licenses now, giving the city some control over it rather than waiting for the state to do something. [1:10:52] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: And then the third thing that they were recommending is implementing a moratorium. You've probably seen a lot of cities have started taking some of these actions already. The moratorium would not apply to the existing edible business, but it would apply to the legalized marijuana side that the state is creating the office to oversee. So those are the three things that the League is recommending, and I'm just kind of curious—I don't need a vote or anything—I'm just looking for kind of a consensus if it was something we should move forward in trying to prepare some information for you guys as far as proposals or not. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Is this something that you'd like to have a discussion with the Police Commission first, or you want to go straight through a discussion? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: I'm not asking for your recommendations on it yet, just if you would want to follow the League's recommendations. Then I'll go to work with the Police Commission on trying to do the research and implement what we think would be appropriate for our community. [1:11:38] **Council Member**: And this would not affect our local business—industrial mini grow? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: No, because they're not operating a legal marijuana grow; they're doing hemp. So we would... and of course, they're going to end up being licensed as part of this anyway, as are all of our edible retailers. It's coming up, I think in October, they're going to have to register their license and stuff with the state. **Council Member Derek**: I thought I heard it'll still be close to a year and a half or so for the state to get their stuff? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Yep. **Council Member Derek**: Wouldn't that moratorium be kind of redundant since nobody can really...? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Well, we have no idea when the state is going to throw open the doors and say "Go." And what the League is recommending is you put a moratorium in place so that you don't have somebody just open up a business in the dark waiting for them to throw the lights on. Because the licenses could become very competitive; you're allowed a minimum of one per 12,500 people. We're obviously not that big, but we will fall into regulations as to the number that are allowed within the entire county. So if the county sets a limit based on our population, retailers are going to try to figure out where they think they're going to do the most business. If they open four of them in Red Wing and the county has said our moratorium is four, then you won't get any other ones opened. But if the county says, "You know what? You can have 20 of them," then maybe we would see five here in Cannon Falls. No idea. Nobody knows what the ground rules are going to be. The earliest the state is projected to have some of that information available is likely mid-2024. [1:13:39] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman**: So when you're talking about a license, are you referring to like having a dispensary or...? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: So dispensary, edibles, grows, processing... basically anything related to the marijuana industry, the state is going to require a license for. My recommendation would be that at a local level, we just layer on top of that much like we do with liquor: on-sale, off-sale, 3.2, etc. **Council Member Derek**: I'm very comfortable with going with what the League recommends and having you guys look at that. I like the idea of everything that was said except... I'm almost with Derek with the moratorium. Like, I'm all for treating it like liquor, protecting our parks, protecting the public. So that, I mean, people consuming on their own legal, that's great. But treating it like, as you said, liquor: the licensing at a local level, a little bit of control. I understand that. Moratorium seems a little—I don't know if I'd say redundant—but it just seems like... is the county going to be weighing in on this as you were saying? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: I have no idea what they're doing. I'm watching what cities are doing. We're seeing a lot of cities place moratoriums in effect. The longest you can put a moratorium in place is January 1st of 2025, so it can't extend beyond that. What cities are putting in place are moratoriums so they understand the rules that the state is going to implement. Because remember: you can be more restrictive, you just can't be less restrictive. So if the state doesn't regulate the fact that you can't put a dispensary across the street from an elementary school and somebody does, and you have no regulations on it, you can't stop them. Kind of like a residential treatment center: if you don't have the restrictions on it, you're stuck with what you get. [1:15:39] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: If we put a moratorium—or if you recommend that we do—we could lift that. It's not an absolute forever. It's just... it either expires or you lift it earlier. If the state were to come out, say in September, and say "Here's the published rules, they're approved," and we now know what that impact has on us, you could say, "You know what? We're ready to lift our moratorium." If there are four businesses that want to come to town, here are the rules you play by. Essentially, by putting a moratorium in place, one of the things that you have the advantage of is that you don't have somebody that essentially, as I said, opens up a business in the dark and then throws the light on and you don't have any ability to control it. **Council Member Derek**: If someone did randomly open up a dispensary in town and they're not licensed because we don't have licensing yet... **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Well, nobody could open one at the moment, because the state requires a license and they haven't put those in place. But you'd want to get a license first; we just don't know what those components are going to be. Nobody knows what they're going to propagate as their rules. The body isn't even in existence. They've assigned the creation of the new office within an existing division of the state, but they're talking about probably March before they have the director and staff hired. [1:17:11] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Could we get an opinion from our City Attorney, Shelley? **Council Member Steve Nordin**: Just wonder if we should get an opinion from our city attorney? **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Yes, we could certainly get an opinion from the City Attorney. I'm guessing their firm is probably working on these for other cities that they represent. There've been quite a few that have already implemented. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: But you're just asking us tonight? **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: I'm not asking for action; I'm just saying: should we start having the Police Commission moving forward researching this and bringing you guys some proposals? Yeah, I think go ahead. Absolutely. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: I appreciate your time. Thank you. [1:17:47] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Sara. Neil? **Neil (City Staff)**: Talk about moratoriums: we do have one in effect that we're going to start working on now that we've gotten three developments almost complete. We've been kind of spending most of our time on that, but we put a moratorium on about several months ago—I don't even remember. We've got a year that we can take care of it, but we're going to start working on that now and be talking to the Planning Commission and see what their thoughts are, and we'll bring it back to the Council and see where it lands. [1:18:42] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: All right. Lisa, anything you'd like to bring up tonight? **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman**: Nope, nothing. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: All right. Derek? **Council Member Derek**: I know I've talked about this with Neil before about: is there anything we can do about the eyesore on Dow Street with the tarp that's torn to shreds, the plants and weeds that are out of control, and the broken windows? Referring to the old nursing home for those that don't know. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Yeah, so it is one of the sites that we're working on. The biggest problem is that's more of a commercial site, so it's a little different animal. Previously, when we had our own City Attorney's office that handled prosecutions, we would just move through the steps, issue a citation, and we usually gained compliance about 95 percent of the time. But with switching to the County Attorney's office, we followed our normal protocols and they dismissed the citations. They feel that that's something that should be handled by our city civil attorney rather than through the criminal process. So I've worked with the City Attorney beginning part of this year. We've implemented steps that we're marching through, so to speak, on our problem properties, but there is not a fast process. I don't believe anybody was on this Council the last time we had to move through one of these; it took about 28 months to get to the point where we could get a court order for the civil cleanup. So they are not fast. I expect that the EDA and the Administrator will be working on that property and trying to find a permanent use for it that will resolve much faster than we would through that process. **Council Member Derek**: Okay, thank you. [1:20:15] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Diane? Steve? **Council Member Steve Nordin**: School first day today. A lot of kids out there. Just ask drivers to be careful, pay attention to the pedestrians. Glad to see the kids back to school; summer is done, but drivers need to be safe too and watch out for those young drivers, too, every morning at the parking lot. So that's all I've got. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: With that, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman**: Motion. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Lisa, second by Diane, and we are adjourned.