This transcript has been formatted with speaker names based on the provided city official list and the context of the dialogue (including references to "Acting Mayor," specific department responsibilities, and previous committee roles). **Note:** The name **Jason Stoopa** and **Miss Sala** were identified from the dialogue as staff members (likely Community Development and City Attorney respectively), though they were not in the initial provided list. *** **[07:07 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Doing. It is 7:07 on May 20th. This is a meeting of the Lake Elmo City Council and I would ask that we do 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. Thank you. And next item is the approval of the agenda. And I'm just going to do a friendly amendment right now that before council reports, we have a discussion on the parks commission interviews. **[07:08 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** Second. **[07:08 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Any other additions or changes to the agenda? Seeing none, all those in favor of the agenda as now discussed, please signify by saying I. **[07:08 PM] Council Members:** I. I. I. **[07:08 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** No opposed. Next up is approval of minutes. So, we have minutes from May 6th, 2025. Does anyone have any things they'd like to see changed or are we good to go? **[07:08 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Motion to approve the minutes uh from May to 6, 2025. **[07:08 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Second. **[07:09 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** All those in favor, please signify by saying I. **[07:09 PM] Council Members:** I. I. I. **[07:09 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Motion passes. Public comments and inquiries. Guessing not. But we have something even better. We have a fantastic, highly awaited presentation from Mr. Kevin Magnuson, who is our Washington County attorney. So, thank you number one for coming here to speak with us and for those who are watching. Uh, Mr. Magnuson is our county attorney here in Washington County and it is a great relationship that we do have with county attorney's office and uh, look forward to hearing what you have to say. **[07:10 PM] Kevin Magnuson:** Well, thank you very much, council members. As you said, my name is Kevin Magnuson. I am the county attorney in Washington County and we do have a good relationship. Matter of fact, I was um I grew up in Lake Elmo and um for those of you who know anything about Lake Elmo history, there was Dr. Stevens who had the um the hospital down in the lake. Well, it wasn't really a hospital. It's more like a clinic and that's where I live. Um 1898 actually. I grew up there. My dad sold it to me as is. And uh it's held together by spackle and wallpaper. You know, for those of you who do it yourself, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Um, you know, I'm not even going to get into that, but um, but it is a nice spot on the lake that I was able to um, get from my folks and I grew up there, so fond memories. Um, and my wife uh, Lindsay and I have a 5-year-old boy who's at Lake Elmo here. And then, uh, Clara, who's 13 at Woodbury Middle School actually. She's a big swimmer. So, really proud of them. And we have a dog, Hazel. Um, and a cat, Maggie. and they're pretty cool, too. Um, so, um, I practiced the law for 20 years in, uh, Minneapolis, mostly complex business litigation. Did a little bit of criminal defense work, white collar criminal defense, but was mostly a civil litigator. And Pete Orp, but many of you probably know Pete, remember Pete, we miss him dearly, love him very much. Um, he recruited me to come to the county attorney's office and then two years later, he asked me to succeed him when he retired and unfortunately he passed away suddenly. But uh here I am and uh he didn't leave a instruction manual or anything. So I'm just trying not to burn the place down, you know. Um but there is something special about this office and that's that Pete had phenomenal values. That's what you know attracted me to him. But everybody hired he hired shared those values with him. And so as a result you've kind of got the wheel spoke hub sort of thing where you know Pete's values radiated out to all the people he hired and then we all have those values in common even though he's not here. and I've been hiring along those lines trying to cultivate that same approach. Um so in the criminal division um we have uh well first of all let me talk a little bit about so there's 60 people in the office 60 and a half we got one person who's halftime right now um it's about half lawyers and and half staff and our criminal division you know we first of all just say a little bit about my philosophy is that public safety is the number one thing I'm looking at there's a lot of other competing interest, you know, diversion is important, rehabilitation is important, um, you know, deterrence, all these kind of things are important, but the thing I look at that I think is for me the single most important quality that we have is, um, is public safety. And I think, you know, there's some people who feel like um, well, let me put it this way. I don't believe that our attempt to work with people to to get on the right path and which we should be doing, but I don't think the risk of that needs to be borne by their neighbors. So, you're really careful about that kind that kind of thing. Um, kind of rehabilitation, um, diversion kind of stuff, which is a big part of what we do, but I'm always looking at it through the lens of of what keeps, you know, our community safe. The criminal division prosecutes um, all felonies and they do some gross misdemeanor and misdemeanor, as you know, um, the sheriff here, Dan and I are good friends. um anything that in his policing area, law enforcement area, comes to our office. But there are cities that have city attorneys um and uh their own police force and and they'll handle those. And of course, misdemeanors and some gross misdemeanors go to um your uh esteemed council here. All right. Not me. No, you're not. You're not doing it. Okay. We do prosecution. Yeah. I wasn't sure who did it, but uh in any case, uh you know the deal. So we get about um 1500 referrals um a year and you know the vast majority of those in the in the high 90s um you know come out as convictions often their plea arrangements that's just the way most cases go. Um, but you know, we try the ones we have to try and um, uh, we feel like, you know, the victim's voice really needs to be heard. And sometimes there's cases that we're not entirely sure how it's going to go, but we believe we have enough evidence to take it to trial and we believe that that's what we need to do because it's the right thing to do. And sometimes we have to do it because, you know, the victim needs to see that happen. So, I was just going to show you a little bit about the complaints. Um, you know, this nothing that really stands out here. You can see it's higher through um you know 2017 18. Um it's you know the overall number of complaints didn't wasn't really affected by COVID. You'll see some other stats that are um you know I think when you start to see it drop a little bit I like to think that's because the law enforcement is doing you know a a really good job of deterring and and then you know um there's less that come to us but more that we end up charging. Let's talk a little bit about auto theft. Um, some of people have heard about the, you know, the Kia Challenge it's called, but also this is one of these cars. It was stolen in St. Paul and we recovered it out here. You know, um, the gateway crime used to be smoking dope and shoplifting and now it's joy riding. Someone steals a car, usually a kid. They get their friends in there who have no necessarily um any interaction with u with real street crime. Pretty soon, you know, the people who steal the cars are using them to commit crimes and the other kids get involved and next thing you know, they're driving the car and they're stealing their own car. And that's um you know, that's a pattern that we've seen. So, auto thefts are something that we um track, you know, pretty closely. And by auto theft, this means all the related. So sometimes we'll charge people with um you know receiving stolen property um because you can't necessarily prove which one you know actually stole the car but they're in possession of a stolen car. And the penalties for theft um in along these lines are are the same whether it's you know you actual theft or receiving stolen property. Um, though you will see that when you get to the um and these are adults these aren't juveniles but when you start to look at the COVID effect you can really see the bubble in 2020 and 21 and it starts to drop a little bit in 2022. So, we're back down, I think, to 47 which is still too high, but I think we're back down to the kind of numbers we had before COVID. This stat, this graph always gets me and it just I think tells you a lot about our society because the number of people who are willing to just run from the cops is incredible. And that tells you something about the mentality. Either they're just feeling really lucky or they don't respect law enforcement and they're not thinking about the consequences or maybe they're thinking they can get away with it. And you will see that the the numbers do um kind of coincide with the COVID. You know a lot of people were in their houses and cars were getting stolen but fleeing from police is a really it's a tough thing. I get to see. Come on. Um, let me do it this way. There you go. That kind of stuff you saw the chart. I mean, that's happening too often. Way too often. And uh, and that's not it poses a serious danger. We see law enforcement being dragged, you know, by cars when they're taking off. They'll get the door partly open and then the, you know, the driver will put it into drive and just take off. And I've seen officers being dragged until they ran into a light post. You know, I mean, it's just um I think this is a serious issue and I think we're seeing um particularly with juveniles um a much lower boiling temperature than maybe we used to see in the past. I'm not sure that people are really able to, you know, comprehend the consequences. They're just not thinking through what they're doing or or they don't seem to care about the consequences. You know, as Pete used to say, some people are just absolutely determined to do, you know, life in prison on the installment plan. And, you know, we're seeing some of those folks. Now, I think people have probably heard about the East Metro um human trafficking task force. Something that was started again by Pete. It is a very successful local sex trafficking task force. It has done, I think, a great job of keeping that element out of Washington County. It's one of those things where you're not going to know how successful it is until it's gone. and getting funding for it in this particular time is really difficult. The grant was cut, you know, from the from the from the Department of um public safety and um you know, we're but we're but we're we're still going strong. Um you know the I might have our focus has been on just under I've tried to reorient us a little bit to still do the stings in the recovery opts and they're really important but the recovery and particularly runaway kids is where I think you know our our effort is best spent because you know the these kids um the the you say you know they get solicited with sex for the first 48 hours and being a runaway or homeless is the number two contributor to um being sex trafficked. And the number one is um chemical dependency or mental health. And uh and we have the tools, the technology, the skill to be able to um investigate and prosecute those. There was a case in Cottage Grove. Um here, let me run through the listing first. Okay. So, these are uh just some of the people that have been prosecuted who have been arrested um as sex trafficking um operatives in in in Washington County. I had to blur out the faces because I've been in a presentation where someone said that was my ex-husband. And uh that was not fun. But I mean, they're out there. I mean, this is this this affects our community. And I think that story illustrates it. So, this is one person. Now, this is taken from a publication. This is not local and it's it's a little bit dated, but this is one individual and the number of times that she was um arrested and um and photographed. And it's just I mean to me it's heartbreaking to see, you know, how this you know this um this horrible crime can can break someone and and and destroy them. Now, we don't do a lot of arresting and should say particularly prosecuting of the victims of sex trafficking. You know, we're really trying to recover those that we can. And it's really difficult to get folks who have, you know, been victimized here to get out of the lifestyle. And when people ask, you know, what sort of thing can I do? You know, I think that the it's the recovery part of this that's where we need the most help. And that is, you know, there are some halfway houses that are just starting. A Kun's house or Corin's house in Oakdale, I think that just started where they it's a nice environment for women. Typically women, I think it's open to everybody, but you know, typically women who come in there. There's some places in St. Paul and Minneapolis that are like homeless shelters that you can go and and there's some it's a place to be out of the weather, but it's not a real home. And it's hard to get somebody when they're coming off of uh you know, their addiction and and they're going through um all that to to ask them to, you know, step out with with all the willpower that it needs. And of course, then the the the um the sex trafficker is still trying is in their life, you know, um even after we've arrested them and they're sitting in jail, they're still they're what they're trying to do is reach out to that person to make sure that they don't testify and that they keep control over them. Um, so I was going to talk about a um uh a girl from Cottage Grove whose grandmother reported her missing and um the law enforcement called um our task force and we were able to crack the phone right away and through some location um through some search warrants that showed location we're able to indicate that she was in a motel in Newport. And when law enforcement showed up there, she was sitting on the bed in lingerie having been assaulted for 37 hours um and um you know 14 years old and you know it just gets worse. And so the fact that we were able to be that quick meant that at least we were able to get to this girl before you know this pattern happened. Juvenile crime is something everybody, you know, pays a lot of attention to. Um, we try to use the right size hammer for the right size nail. And that means we do a lot of diversion. There's a lot of kids that just, you know, they do stupid things. It happens to be an offense. They go through, you know, some programming, get some anger management, get um a little bit of help, and they complete diversion. We never see them again. And that's the vast majority of kids that we encounter. And that's good news. The bad news is that there's about 10 cases a year with people who have multiple crimes, wrap sheets as long as you're armed, going back to when they are 10, you know, in Ramsey County, Hennepin County, all over the place. And this level crimes they're committing are very serious. And those um we often end up petitioning and certifying them for um to be tried as an adult or um being put into what we call extended juvenile jurisdiction, which means they're held in a locked um facility um you know for for kids until they're 20. So looking again at the looking at motor vehicle thefts, you can see in COVID what happens when kids are not in school. And it's I know for my my daughter was nine at the time. It took three adults to get one kid to do remote learning, you know, and she'd flop all over the floor and be like, "Ah, I can't do it." You know, and they grandma working on it, I'm working on it, mom's working on it, and you know, it's it's tough, right? And so if you don't have that kind of structure, if you don't have a teacher or a coach or, you know, a counselor, somebody a church leader, somebody in your that you're interacting with who has that kind of structure if you don't have it at home or at least a hint of it, you know, you're really set up to fail in a lot of ways. And then taking a kid like that, giving them a $700 iPhone, and just, you know, nothing to do, you know, bad things happen. And we're seeing an entire generation are going through the school system that are being affected by that. and you can see by the um the um motor vehicle theft numbers that that's the case. So this is a carjacked car that was um um stolen in Hennepin County and um stopped here Washington County. You will see that's a gun in his hand. Can you I guess can you that doesn't show up there? It's a gun in his right hand. Um and he's running from law enforcement there. So, we have not had a carjacking in 2023 or 2024 or only 2025. Um, and we never did have a lot of numbers, but the fact that we haven't seen that kind of crime that's still really kind of limited to the the bigger cities. Um, you know, tells you something about Washington County, something about law enforcement. We actually heard a jail call from someone telling his friends, "Don't come out here. These guys are really serious." And yeah, I want to put that on bulletin board and come out of 94. Um, so I'm just going to wrap up here real quick. The civil division does everything. It's the legal council of the county, but all your civil commitments, all your um contract review, that sort of thing, tax appeals, that kind of stuff comes through the office. So, um, so there's been a couple things that have happened in Lake Elmo and I think you probably know about. This is 36 and Lake Elmo Avenue and crash. It's coming up right here. It's coming up. Here we go. It's a 5-year-old girl in the back of a Ford Focus that is stopped in the left lane and um was rear ended at full speed at 62 miles an hour by someone driving a Nissan. Um so his name is her name was Morgan and Jeffrey Alexander 42 was going 62 miles an hour and rear ended this the Ford focus. The girl died in the hospital not too long after this. Um he has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide. He has he was .005 at the time of blood draw. So that's few hours after the accident. And um we don't have to watch this. Um and he was um prescribed clonazepam but the mix didn't help. So there's one count of recklessness and then one count of under the influence. And um we just went through some of the pre-trial motions and you know he's looking at um um you know 8 and a half 10 years um under these counts. Well, I just tried to hit a few things. I know we're kind of um limited on time. I didn't want to take up too much of your time, but I've been going around talking to some of the city councils. It's something that I feel really it's important for our office to be out in the community talking to people and and the work that you all do is really important. So, I wanted to get this communication going. I think it's my second time here in this chamber. It's good to be back. So, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer else we just move on with the agenda. **[07:25 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** I don't have questions per se, but I I do thank you for the work that you do. I I hate the fact that I know the East Metro has that human trafficking workforce. I wish we didn't because I wish we didn't have a need for it, but I also know it it's had success and that it's I appreciate that it exists because it does matter. Um I Yeah, I don't I don't have any specific questions for you, but I I was actually very curious to know so that they are being charged with CVH on that. **[07:25 PM] Kevin Magnuson:** Yep. First and second two counts. **[07:25 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Any other questions for Mr. Magnuson? **[07:26 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** No questions here. **[07:26 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** All right. Thank you very much. **[07:26 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Thank you. Thank you for your work. I think that was very informative and the folks will be watching the meeting tonight, they've learned a little bit more about the county attorney's office. It's oftentimes, you know, something on the ballot and for vast majority of citizens, they never have an interaction. **[07:26 PM] Kevin Magnuson:** Yeah, thank you. It's true. And uh you know after COVID everybody sort of hunkered down trying to get as nice as me. It's some of the other lawyers in the office are out doing involvement in the community and and um you know it's just it's just really important that we have that communication. **[07:27 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Well, and I would wager most residents like the county attorney's office is up here on this pillar. Like it's it's a very established, informed—elite is not the right word—but it's they look up to this place of highly qualified people. I most people don't want to ever have an interaction with a county attorney's office because if you do, maybe not a good thing. But it's also good to have conversations like these so they know that you're a member of the community as well with the same priorities. **[07:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I think the other thing helpful is the statistics because again I wasn't aware of any of these statistics and I think people seeing the activity and and the change over time um helps them get a much better idea of the state of the county. **[07:27 PM] Kevin Magnuson:** Yep. Thank you very much. **[07:28 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Thank you Mr. Magnuson. Hopefully that previous house is holding up well in the rain right now with um being held up by gum and plaster. On the consent agenda for tonight, we have approved payments and disbursements. Approved pay request number seven for Stillwater Boulevard Cass 14 trunk water main improvements. Approved pay request number two for the well number two PFAS removal equipment. Approve geotechnical services contract for the village parkway UPRR crossing improvements and accept park bench donation 2025-041. That is the consent agenda. Uh absent of any motions to amend. All those in favor of approving the agenda as written say I. **[07:28 PM] Council Members:** I. I. I. **[07:28 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** None opposed. That brings us to the regular agenda. Approving the ULI TAP for the 180 acres. So, we're trying to get the presentation set up. Clicked on it. Confirm and continue to go. Easy enough. **[07:29 PM] Jason Stoopa (Community Development Director):** Well, we have Meg Flanigan here from ULI to present the technical assistance panel. She's done this presentation a few times to the EDA and uh at the last EDA meeting they recommended um going with a two and a half day session for the 180 acre site. So she has a presentation here today and we can answer any questions that you may have um about the... **[07:30 PM] Meg Flanigan (ULI Minnesota):** Hi, thank you for having me back. It's nice to be here again. I always enjoy talking about the work we do at ULI Minnesota. Um, ULI stands for Urban Land Institute and we are a global nonprofit with a mission to shape the built environment for positive impact on communities worldwide. So, we are a multi-disciplinary membership organization worldwide. We have 48,000 plus members. Here locally, we have 550 in the state of Minnesota. and we do a lot of work including research, sharing best practices, publishing reports and publications, um, organizing events, and then what I'm here to talk about today is our advisory services work, which happens as a technical assistance panel (TAP), which is when it's done locally, or an advisory services panel, which is when it's done on with out of our national office. So, we're going to talk about a TAP here. And a technical assistance panel is essentially where a community comes to us with a land use challenge or a policy question and we put together a panel of cross-sectoral experts who are willing to spend you know a significant amount of time both ahead of the tap and during the tap really investigating that question in order to come up with recommendations that are neutral that are market-based and are actionable. So, and this happens through three key areas. Engagement with the sponsor, which is the city or the other entity that brings us in, engagement with the community, which is part of our fact-finding, and then also the expert deliberative process. And so, ULI Minnesota locally has conducted more than 20 TAPs over the past 15 years. And so, we've had more than 120 of our members who um have participated. And um I will say globally, you know, we do dozens, ULI globally does dozens of these every year. This is something that is really key to what we do as an organization is this idea of giving back to the community by leveraging our members expertise to make positive impact. And that's something that's really unique about ULI is, you know, like many other professional organizations, we of course focus on professional education and professional development and we focus on networking. But the TAPs are a really unique opportunity for our members to work together and to work with other really dedicated and passionate cross-sectoral professionals that they don't usually get to work with to really make an impact on our communities. And that's really meaningful to our members. So, a little bit about what goes into a TAP is the first step is a sponsor will engage us again with a land use or a policy challenge and then um the ULI staff which in this case is me will recruit some chairs from our membership and usually when I'm looking for a panel chair and usually I like to do co-chairs is I'll go to people who have done a tap before because I don't want you know I want my chairs to be people who are experienced and I'll find people who have that right expertise and then we form a steering committee which includes the sponsor, the ULI staff and the chairs and occasionally we'll bring in other key stakeholders to be part of that steering committee and we'll start and the first step is to really finalize the three to four key questions for the panelists to consider and that's really important—getting the right what's the what what's the why—so getting the questions right is an important first step. Then the sponsor's responsibility is to really work um as part of the steering committee, provide the meeting facilities and a lot of it's about providing the background information that our panel needs in order to be successful. So, I'll work with the sponsor to put together what we call a briefing book, which is a wide variety of documents. And again, what that looks like depends on the scope of the TAP. But a lot of times, you know, it'll include your comp plan, your zoning information, might include a housing study if it's a housing focused question, might include some um historical documents. Again, we have a whole long list of things that could go into a briefing book. And then what we do is we work to determine what's the best information for the panel to use. Um, another key part that we ask the sponsor to do is to really help us identify and connect with the key stakeholders that need to be part of the the process that we're going to be interviewing and talking to. Then, of course, we want you to um, you know, review and comment on the draft report before we finalize it. The steering committee as I mentioned is made up of um the sponsor, the ULI staff, the chairs and other key people and their job is really to identify the scope of work and the questions to vet the potential panelists making sure we have the right diverse range of perspectives and expertise um to provide recommendations on the materials for the briefing book to um help with the recommendations for stakeholders planning and logistics and then of course being part of the presentation and our chairs have, you know, key part is getting the right chairs in place because they have a lot of work to do. Their job is really to lead the whole process to help um make sure we have the right people in place to keep the TAP on track to keep our panelists from you know going down rabbit holes and things keeping things moving and then really being key parts of the creating the TAP report and leading the presentations. And then of course our panelists we ask them they have to be fully committed to the process to the panel. So to read all the briefing materials, come with questions, be really active. You know, we say don't take meetings in the middle of a TAP report or TAP panel. We really want you there in the room being part of it um to participate in the deliberations to help with recommendations. Um it's really fun. Um always love having the architects, our landscape architects because they just sit down and whip out drawings which is really incredible to see that talent and work. Um they also you know again are part of putting together the um report and also making presentations as the chair requests. So, and then for you know this the staff responsibility it's mostly logistics things and also generally supporting the members and the steering committee. Um so a process really as again the panel will review the briefing materials in advance and once we're starting the TAP we always like to start with a tour of the site. It's really important to see it on the ground because you see things better when you're on your feet than in a car driving by. And that's you can start seeing their minds get to work when we're walking. A TAP I did a couple weeks ago. I had people climbing down into ditches and looking at water pipes and seeing where things were water was coming out. So, it was really fun to watch them do that. Um then we have um we usually do a reception to kick things off and that's a really nice opportunity to have informal conversations with potential stakeholders where they're not feeling like they're being interviewed but it's more of just like what does this mean to you? Or we always like to ask um what is you know what do you like best about your community or what do you think is really special and unique about the place where you live and what would you like to see emphasized. We do ask the sponsor to do a formal presentation to the panel. We do stakeholder interviews. So again, trying to interview as many people as possible. The panel deliberates, makes recommendations, and then we do a presentation and written report. And so I want to just share just to kind of show a little bit about what a what goes into a TAP. This is an example from a TAP we did last year in Little Canada just to kind of give you a sense. Again, every TAP is different. I want to be very clear, right? Every TAP is different. Every panel is different. the the questions, you know, that we're going to answer, what the slides are going to look like will be different, but this does show the process. And so, the first qu that we always do as a panel once we've gotten through the background and the briefings and the interviews is to establish guiding principles. And that's really important. Those guiding principles are what's going to um inform the work going forward. So, in this case, these were the guiding principles that the panel put together for that TAP we did last year. Um, one of the questions that came up is, um, on this tap was questions about housing, um, market rate versus affordable housing. And this is a, you know, one of our um panelists who's a real estate developer. He sat down and whipped up these numbers to basically say, "Look, the only kind of housing that's going to be able to work um financially would be affordable housing because in this area that where the median income is, where median rents are, that's what you're going to be looking at." So, it was really interesting just to see him dig into his expertise and just lay the numbers out. and he noted here that town homes and income-restricted units funded by bonds were really the most viable options. We also love to do illustrative images. So let's say you know our panelists might have seen something you know at another location that they think could be an example or a guidepost for the area we're studying. So, in this case, we were looking at a um an empty lot downtown Little Canada, and one of the ideas was to do pop-up activations in order to test out some concepts, you know, um looking ahead to long-term use. And so, we the panelists found some illustrative images from other um areas that were very similar just to show what could be. And then this is another location where we were looking at a area where they wanted to suggest adding at outdoor seating. So they use the example of Texatona um just to show again what can happen and what's what are some ideas. And then the other as I mentioned we also love to get those architects working on drawings. So here they um did just some really—I mean and this was done in an afternoon—where they really sat down and said these are a couple options for using this space. the bottom row is they were presenting two different concepts for the same location. So one is a town home community and the other is an incubator space with some green space. So again it's just important the visualization is really helpful and then of course we like to share our key takeaways. So again, this is a key takeaway for the lot at 2828 Rice Street where we basically recommended that the city hold that lot for now, wait for the Rice Street to be reconstructed and then in the meantime, you know, maybe try to get into a use agreement with the next door building and then after 5 to 10 years look to sell and try to get higher and better use of the liquor store site. So, and that we noted that the future development for that area is likely going to be focused on commercial. And then here's another here's another one of the priorities from that TAC was prioritizing placemaking and walkability and some recommendations on a um design workbook. And then we also gave them some actionable next steps. So again, this is you know that's not to say that you know a tap for your tap would look the same—recommendations, same you know every tap's different—but we would definitely be giving you the guiding principles. We would be giving some site concepts. We would be giving next next steps and you know and getting a lot more in depth especially when we get to the written report. The investment for a tap starts at 17,500. That's the shorter end. I believe the EDA has recommended the longer version the 2 and a half day which is $35,000. And again it's the um your um investment varies by the the length of the tap as well as the number of panelists and the size of the deliverable. So the two and a half day TAP will have more panelists and we do have an option to bring in up to two panelists from outside the Minneapolis area. So if there's a certain expertise we really want to tap into that we don't have locally, it's a great chance to tap into ULI's national network and find those experts who are really going to bring the value. And then um yeah, so as I I think so the EDA has proposed the two and a half day, which as I mentioned is $35,000. That would get get us the larger panel up to two um outside panelists. Your report is going to be um longer probably about 40 pages um including all the appendixes a little more in depth and it's just again a really in-depth chance we'll be able to talk to more stakeholders and really dig deeper into the question. Any questions? **[07:45 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Thank you for that. Um when we—I don't remember if we asked it during the EDA meeting—but um as an example you'd mentioned sometimes it could be four days or five days. What would be some of those? Obviously, it wasn't recommended in this case, but what what would be a project that's in that four or five day realm? **[07:45 PM] Meg Flanigan:** Yep. So, um, a lot of times that's if we're looking at multiple sites. So, for example, we did one—and this was before I've been with ULI almost two years. So, before I was with ULI, they did a project for MnDOT that really involved looking at the ABC ramps and some of the other areas around and that was a longer term. There was also um a there was a project done in Rondo, the Rondo neighborhood um back again in the late 2010s that was actually done with out it was an advisory services panel done out of um ULI national and that was a five-day process. **[07:45 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Thank you. **[07:46 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** So, on page two you talk about why host a TAP and one of the third bullet—"city may find it easier to secure regulatory approvals and attract capital as we'll have the TAP report as reference"—maybe just talk to that a little bit and I guess maybe just kind of all those as far as... it seems like those are you're saying some of like the key values that come out of it. **[07:46 PM] Meg Flanigan:** Yeah. Well, I think, you know, part of it is just having a a document in your library to um bolster some of the questions that might be asked, you know, when you're applying for grants or other fundings or regulatory approval to say you've had this neutral third party come in and make these recommendations. Specific, you know, again going to the Rondo example, the reconnect Rondo movement actually came out of that TAP that ASP that happened um with ULI and that was actually part of a three um three there were three projects that went into that series. There was a um built out of a building healthy places TAP initiative. So really looking at our community structure. Second part of that was the um was talking was looking at the feasibility of a land bridge and the third was actually a follow-up during COVID that was done via Zoom on um how on the 4P um model. So again, but for Reconnect Rondo to have that document when they've been talking to the state house and to the federal um funders as um a backup document has been really helpful for them in when they've been getting their um their funding. Minneapolis warehouse district, we just did a TAP there about a year and a half ago and as a result of that TAP, one of the things that did go through is that the city has um kind of they've changed some of their processes for a conversions, residential conversions to streamline the process to make it more affordable for developers. **[07:48 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Okay and then could you maybe talk a little bit as well? So obviously the the two and a half day um was the proposed um option. What would be missed if we went with the one day option? What would we be missing out on? What's the benefit of going with the two and a half from your perspective? **[07:48 PM] Meg Flanigan:** That's a great question. I think one thing is um missing out on the opportunity for national expertise. Not to say we don't have great members here in Minnesota who bring phenomenal, you know, backgrounds and expertise, but there is something nice about being able to tap into someone, you know, maybe in a city that's undergone some similar challenges to get that expertise. I think the other thing is you get we get to talk to more stakeholders when it's a longer TAP because, you know, and it gives us an extra day. So part of that extra day is getting more conversations and being able to get more insight from people. And it also lets us give our our initial recommendations are more finely honed. You know, as you can imagine, trying to put together a whole presentation in one day, it's a little uh you know, we we do great work, but there's always some some cleanup and some polishing that has to happen. We can be a little more polished with that extra time. **[07:50 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Okay. Is there a lot is there oftentimes follow-up? I mean, even two and a half days is a very short time for this. Is there follow-up after? What does that process look like? **[07:50 PM] Meg Flanigan:** Yeah, so this, you know, obviously we don't get the report written in two and a half days. **[07:50 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Okay, you guys aren't even human. **[07:50 PM] Meg Flanigan:** I know. No, we do usually what we do at the end of the um of the full day is we are able to do a presentation right away. In some cases, that can be a full public presentation, you know, to anyone who's interested. It could be a closed presentation to um Council Members or it could even be just to staff. And we'll come back, you know, to a regular council meeting. So, that's very flexible. But, um, what we do need to go back afterwards. It takes us a couple months to get the report finalized. Um, I try to get the first draft done within a month and then there's always, you know, the first draft goes to the chairs for review. Um, second draft goes to the sponsor as well as the full panel. So, there's still work and obviously there could even be some, you know, the architects are still going to draw afterwards. They're going to clean up their sketches a little bit, make them a little nicer. Um, numbers, the people crunching numbers will um, you know might refine them a little more and say, "Okay, I'm going to clean up this proposed pro forma and get a couple um, more specific numbers in there." So, there's still, yeah, I don't, you know, leave the day and be done. We still have work to do. And then often there's questions about presenting to community groups, presenting to other organizations who might have an interest in hearing from it, keeping the um dialogue going. And then another thing we like to do is um check in. So we'll check in with the with the sponsor, you know, pretty regularly afterwards—6 months, 12 months, ongoing—and say, "You know, how'd that work for you? Are you using any of the recommendations?" In fact, we even did um about a year ago, we did a breakfast program for ULI members and friends where we put together a panel of people who either worked on TAPs or had been part of a city that sponsored the TAP just to again do that—"What was it like to work on this?" For the panelists, you know, what were your aha moments? And then for the sponsors, it was like, "Okay, what have you done with this?" And it was really interesting to hear, you know, Golden Valley where we did—again, this was well before my time—2016, did a study of their downtown that they really did point to having been been a catalyst to get some really real development done there. And then there was another city who I won't mention, but the staff member said, "Yeah, we took that to council, and they weren't interested." **[07:53 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Why do you think that—I mean that would be my next question is like it doesn't go well—like that would be probably the worst-case scenario. Exactly what what what happens there? How did that go wrong do you think? **[07:53 PM] Meg Flanigan:** Well I think and that was a case where it was a policy-focused TAP so and it was also being run out of ULI's national organization, so from the Terwilliger Housing Center. So I think it was you know it wasn't might not have been as actionable as some of the ones that I've done in the last couple years where it's really where we really are getting into next steps. This was more policy. So I think it was probably not as tangible and it also could be that just you know the council, the current council, had different thoughts. Um, you know, I'll also talk e—um we did one again before I started with ULI there was a TAP for the Kmart site in Minneapolis and that um that one I know that the staff member working on that site said, "Yes I consult this you know on a weekly basis." So that was nice to hear it wasn't honest. I will say the Warehouse District TAP, one of my panelists was um he has holds a position in Philadelphia called the Night Mayor. Other cities call this position the Director of the Nighttime Economy or something similar. And um one of his recommendations was that Minneapolis needed a Night Mayor. I like Mayor Frey did not like that idea because he is the mayor day and night. Yeah. So again, I will, you know, I I can't guarantee that you're going to like every recommendation that our panel comes up with. I mean, that's part of the process. What I can say is that our members are some of the smartest minds in land use and the built environment out there. And the fact that our membership is cross-sectoral. So, you know, any panel I put together is going to have developers, it's going to have architects, designers, might have a finance person, might have a placemaker, might have a planner. You know, again, looking at the needs, and these are some of the smartest minds. They're gonna—I'm not going to put anyone on a panel who is currently or looking to propose a project in the community we're serving. It's really important to us. So, I want to absolutely make sure that it's a neutral, it's, you know, best practice, is um market-based, and that we're giving you the, you know, the best expertise that our members can give. **[07:56 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** And how are you ensuring there's no conflict of interest with those panel members? **[07:56 PM] Meg Flanigan:** Yeah. Well, we ask them to sign a form. So, essentially, we'll ask them like, "Do you have a project or are you—" I guess they you know, I've never had issues with someone not being honest on that. But no, that's really important because we want you to trust that they're coming in it with truly that neutral perspective. **[07:56 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Okay. **[07:57 PM] Jason Stoopa:** One thing I would want to add just so you know we've been talking to the county CDA and there is a grant for this project that covers 50%. So we've already started on that application. **[07:57 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Okay. So where would the other 50% come from? What budget was that? **[07:57 PM] Jason Stoopa:** This would come from it's in the community development budget. **[07:57 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Okay. So we have funds available in the community development budget. That was my only question because I think it's a really great idea, having read through it and studied before I came here this evening. **[07:58 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** You have more? **[07:58 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yes. So, and maybe this will be a little bit more for discussion too. I don't... I feel like last time that the council kind of talked about this and at the goal planning meeting... Oh, maybe last time we brought this up and we were trying to sell the property, I thought we were more under the impression that the city wasn't necessarily developing. And I I don't think that that's what this is saying—that the city's planning to develop it. So, if that is kind of still the route we're going—which maybe it's not—but if we're looking more for a developer to purchase the land and they make those decisions, I think I'm I'm kind of hearing how this could be helpful for that situation of maybe it helps us bring a developer in and that's kind of the return on investment of us, you know, spending $35,000. It's going to hopefully get us a a buyer more efficiently. Am I thinking of that right or maybe how do you see absolutely and knowing in that situation? **[07:59 PM] Meg Flanigan:** Yeah. And if we're hearing that as your goal, right, is to not is to find that developer. I think that can be part of the questions—how do you set up the space for the best possible developer experience and return for the city? And I think part of that is, you know, really getting clear on what your goals are for the space. you know, not not saying that we're going to develop it with this many houses or this many, you know, offices, but more like what, you know, highest and best use. What do you—sorry, I keep hitting the mic. Um, what do you—I talk with my hands—um, what, you know, what are your goal as... you know, this is your chance to really think about your your vision for that site and how you want it to, you know, is it a catalyst for other development? Is it a chance to do something? You know, I think that came up when I was at the EDA last. This is kind of a one chance thing, right? And you really want to put put the work into getting into getting a good place for it. I will say one recommendation that I thought was great that came out of a recent TAP, the one in Little Canada, was one of the sites. They said, "You know what, start working on the storm water because that's something they don't have to worry about." So they can even give you kind of those again those actionable items that you can do to set the stage for a developer to come in. **[08:00 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** And Jason maybe you can comment that too a little bit how you see this playing into that process as far—and again maybe some of those conversations with the EDA has kind of shifted where we were previously and obviously the last one didn't work out so maybe that led to some of this too? **[08:00 PM] Jason Stoopa:** We have a list of questions too. So some of it is like what's the highest and best use for this site. I know that it's mostly business park zoning. Looking at that, looking at what's most financially feasible, how are the current market conditions going to affect this? Like is this the right time to go out to the market? Should we do an RFP? Should we just actively work with a broker? Should we subdivide the site or try to sell it in phases? What does a phasing plan look like? And these are questions that you'd want to be asking the panelists. That's something we've already sent and we're going to build more and people that are involved including the council would also kind of flesh that out. So, it sounds like it's a lot of like—how do we make this as appealing as possible to a developer to purchase now, like in the next year or so, right? So, that's kind of what we've been tasked with is trying to get this sold basically in 2026. **[08:02 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I think the other thing that this enables you to do once you have some ideas what's the highest and best use what's possible in the site is to actively pursue a developer. Um, you know that's probably foreign here in the metro area but in the outside the metro area when you're a city trying to attract a development you actually actively go out and meet with developers and potential businesses and try and tell them, "We have a site for you and this site works for this reason," and you convince them to come in and look at it and try and you know encourage them to develop in your community. And I think that by having this TAP panel and getting some ideas like that, if we could either actively pursue it or someone comes in and say, "I'm looking for a site." We say, "We have just a perfect site for you. We've already considered these things." And it makes it much more attractive and and and better. And, you know, I think Jason would just, you know, love to fly to New York and meet with developers and, you know, we we could get a competition for the Trump Tower on this thing. **[08:03 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Do you have a question? **[08:03 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** No. **[08:03 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Are there additional questions at this time for either perspective at this point? Otherwise, I will fully entertain a motion. **[08:04 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** One more question for Jason. Um, going through the conversations with the the one day versus the two and a half day... from the staff perspective being able to get your questions answered... because I think that's going to be a heavy portion of this. Does staff have thoughts, you know, when you've talked to the staff and yourself like as far as—I mean it is double the price? **[08:04 PM] Jason Stoopa:** If we think we can get what we need in that one day, I'd prefer to do that. And but if we're not going to get the information in that one day, you know, we recommended the 2.5 day just because the site's so large and it's such an important site for the city. That the cost, you know, the budget's there, we can proceed with it. Um, I think it's the right right approach for us. **[08:04 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Okay. Cool. Thank you. **[08:05 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** All right. Thank you. **[08:05 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Motion to approve the two and a half day proposal from ULI for a tap for the city owned 180 acres. **[08:05 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** Second. **[08:05 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve with a two and a half day. Any discussion? **[08:06 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** I just the um the comment that Council Member Dragisich had about the seeking out developer actively... that that is interesting because yeah, I suppose that really hasn't been um something that we've had to do. Um it's been more more the opposite where we feel like we almost have to sometimes uh interview—not interview them but like kind of siphon through what what's a good developer who's the right developer for this city. Um and I you know talking through this is helpful. I think um having the information that Jason—those questions that Jason was talking about—if we don't have the answers to those who do we seek out right now give us some guidance on it? So I think that will be really helpful. Um, again, you know, I I I don't know if the process or kind of the thought the yeah, the thought process on it has changed. Um, if we're planning to be a little bit more active as a city in the development versus not, it still sounds like a little bit more so like we don't want to be involved. We just really want to make sure we're um setting it up in an appropriate way for the developers, the right developers to come in. And if that's the way we're going with this, I that's the way I'd prefer to go versus versus the other route where the the city's doing more of the developing. I think leave it to a developer who's the expert. Let's use this process to get those answers that Jason was talking about. **[08:07 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I think, you know, we have a chance and a unique and interesting opportunity here. And I want to thank Jason for bringing this you know to the forefront because you know my conversations with you outside the council you you have an understanding and a desire to evolve in good development for the city and good development means the right site and the right type of development that we when we need—that we you know we make a return on investment for the private sector so they want to come here. And I want to thank you for looking at this effort and carrying through all the things that you've we've talked about. Um very good step forward and it's a sign, you know, good sign of your leadership in this area. **[08:07 PM] Jason Stoopa:** Thank you. **[08:07 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** And I would echo that as well. Um and I agree with Council Member Hirn's comments. This 180 acres is is not something that many cities have a chance to—and I won't even say development—utilize to be able to set forth and say what is the outcome that we want to see. What is the pacing? We've already had the discussion and the previous council we did as well for land use and it didn't work and it didn't work twice and there's a reason it didn't work and so we're going down a different route. So I I appreciate that as a council we had this as a one of our two-year priorities and that staff has gotten us to this point to have these discussions with ULI which I I have full confidence with two and a half days that well I expect that the product will be something that meets our needs and is something that aligns with the history of the products that you have produced before. Um, I guess the the thing for me is these 180 acres are a result of a lawsuit. A lawsuit that's from 3M because our water will be polluted for centuries to come. And so to me, this is not all that different from the 70 acres for the sports site in that this is a site which we have an opportunity to do right and we need to do it right the first time. You we don't—we're not going to be in the business of redeveloping things over and over again. I want to do this right the first time on behalf of the city and our residents. Um we've previously said you know tax base expand it there's a chance that we might be on the hook for some of our pollution costs so I to me this is a win-win for the city and our residents and I want to see this get done right. The two and a half day is to me the next step and with that I will call the question. All those in favor of the motion for two and a half days please signify by saying I. **[08:08 PM] Council Members:** I. **[08:08 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Motion passes that. Thank you. **[08:08 PM] Meg Flanigan:** We are good to go. Thank you. I look forward to working with you and thank you for the comment. I think that's really important to note where that came from. I will say the Amara of Amara's Law, I used to sing in church choir with her. **[08:08 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** So, it's um that's awesome. Yeah, I've met with her family many times and it's the issue hits home for us. **[08:08 PM] Meg Flanigan:** It does. Yeah. So, thank you. **[08:08 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Thank you. And thank you for knowing her. **[08:08 PM] Meg Flanigan:** Yeah, her mom's my priest. So, have a good one. **[08:08 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Thank you. That brings us to accept bids and award contract for the Stillwater Area School District Utility Improvements Resolution Resolution 2025-040. Mr. Stanley. **[08:09 PM] Nate Stanley (City Engineer):** Yes. Thank you very much. Oh yeah. Apologies for... **[08:10 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** It's okay. **[08:10 PM] Nate Stanley:** My computer says it's 78 and sunny. Like that's just me... **[08:10 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Is your computer still in Texas? **[08:10 PM] Nate Stanley:** And then here it says 44. St. Paul defaults like Washington DC. Is that what it is? **[08:10 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** I don't. It might be. It shows the right one here. The wrong one down here. And it's showing the location right? Trying to take me short to Roseville. Where am I going? **[08:11 PM] Nate Stanley:** They were talking about Little Canada. Heard him talking question. How many staff members does it take to get a PowerPoint up? Oh, there we go. Look at it long enough. It looks right on this screen. **[08:11 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** And then while that's happening, uh, Mr. Stoopa, timeline-wise, then next steps, how far out are we looking for that? **[08:11 PM] Jason Stoopa:** Usually takes her about 90 days. She's going to start assembling the panel, but we should hear from her in the next couple weeks in terms of questions and right kind of framing it up and who wants to be involved on our side. **[08:12 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** So 90 days to that phase and then potentially another month or two for that planning I presume before the actual Super Bowl, right? I mean this I think I believe she said like August, September is when it's going to start. **[08:12 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** So follow when it starts plugging it... the only the only flaw in the presentation was we talked about architecture and talk about engineers on the panel. I know it's dangerous. **[08:12 PM] Nate Stanley:** Leave them out. **[08:12 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** We ain't talk about lawyers either. They belong in jail. **[08:13 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** To all members of the public, that is Mr. Dragisich. Thank you for your endorsement. **[08:13 PM] Nate Stanley:** Maybe we can get by without the PowerPoint. Got on here all huddled together. No, it doesn't anymore. They say heard us talking the bridge into the ocean. It must be the mayor's here, too. We got everyone on number three of us. We got too many of them. That's why I don't have any on the panel. I'm getting the same thing. We are good to go. The fourth the final time. Mr. Stanley. **[08:13 PM] Nate Stanley:** Okay. What an what an intro. Uh well, thank you. uh um Acting Mayor and Council. Uh here I have an item uh to uh discuss the Stillwater area school district utility improvements. um recommending uh awarding construction contract tonight, but I'll have a little uh recap of the project. So, uh this project is the um extension of municipal utilities to Oakland Junior High School and then down to uh the new elementary school site and then eventually um a force main that discharges to a gravity line at Fifth Street. So um there's been some um a number of actions here. This is an assessable project. Uh the school district will be paying um the line share of that assessment with one private property. But um you can see tonight May 20th, we are uh at the accept bids and award contract stage. This map is kind of kind of maybe a little hard to read, so I'll just maybe kind of step through. And there's a lot of colors up there. So you can see where Oakland Middle School is there on the the right side of the screen. We're extending a water main and gravity sanitary sewer to the site. uh the that will tie in with the Royal Oaks um development. The um the gravity sewer actually connects to the existing lift station. A new force main will be extended from that lift station down to Lake Elmo Avenue and 10th Street where it will then uh connect with a new force main coming out of the the new elementary school and we'll be extending a new force main to the south uh to the eventual discharge point. There is an existing 6-inch um sanitary force main that extends from uh the Royal Oaks um or the the Royal Golf um lift station to an existing force main that runs down Lake Elmo Avenue right now. That force main will be uh disconnected and abandoned in place. And I've just kind of told you everything that I've got on this one right here. So, uh just to recap some of the assessment information, this is the assessment was based on the um the REC units. Um so there was a SAC determination done by Met Council earlier. There is one private property that does benefit from the project. Uh house that fronts 10th Street North, um 11817 10th Street North to be exact with the address. You can see um the the way the assessment's broken up here. Lake Elmo Elementary School and Oakland Middle School are paying um very very close to the amount um as they have the same number of sanitary RECs for the most part. The water main from the elementary school is actually connecting to an existing water main in Lake Elmo Avenue. So that's where that um that's why that assessment reads zero right now. And the new water main that will serve Oakland is is what's being assessed there. In addition to the assessment, there are connection charges—SAC and WAC. So um those fees are are listed here. Um I'm I'm not going to go through any of those in detail, but these are in addition to the assessment. So we received seven bids uh last month, the uh April 29th. Um GM Contracting uh is the low uh responsible bidder at um just a little over a million dollars. Um the estimated project cost so include that includes engineering and administration uh is about 1.46 million; and that's uh down from about 1.75 million that was initially estimated in the feasibility report. Final assessments will actually be based on final costs. uh so that calculation will come back uh this um fall. So again tonight, um I'm asking council to award a con—uh, accept bids and and award a contract for $1,044,814 for the Stillwater area uh school district utility improvements and also recommending that council authorize the city administrator to enter into a material testing contract for the project in a not to exceed amount of $30,000. Questions for Mr. Stanley and I can jump back to any slides if anybody wants to. **[08:18 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** So, as this moves forward, I just I'm trying to be cognizant on my end. Um, the district's paying for it. We obviously did our part to help with the designs. Um, but they're paying for it. It's on a county road for the most part. There's one private property. As it moves forward, what are some of the steps that on our end that we are still responsible for as it moves along versus the things that we are not responsible for to make sure that the project is done on time for their needs? Because I know there's a distinct line, but what are the things that are are on our end, but what are the things that are not our responsibility? **[08:18 PM] Nate Stanley:** Sure. I'm going to jump back uh to this slide that's a little hard to read. Um, but you'll notice—I'm going to I'm going to start with uh Oakland again on the right side of the screen. You'll notice that there's a note that shows an extension into the middle school property of utilities. So, we're providing service stubs to the property line. So, um and we've specified a a date of I think we have a substantial completion date near the end of September to have um this ready. So it's the school's responsibility to hook to that once it's available for them. Similarly, if you look at the other side of the page, um it's again, it's not a perfect uh uh picture here, but the elementary school is responsible for constructing their private lift station and their extension that will connect to the um the 10-inch uh force main that we'll be constructing down Lake Elmo Avenue. Now, we'll be coordinating with them and I mean, we've been coordinating with the district—obviously, council knows that—for quite some time now and so as part of the construction administration that will continue and we'll be um you know a connection or timing a some sort of road closure. We'll be working very closely with the district to make sure everything gets um constructed uh in a timely and tidy manner. **[08:20 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Thank you for that. **[08:20 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Question. So, I don't see any new pumps for the lift station. So, existing pumps will be have capacity to serve the current Royal Golf Club development and this load? **[08:20 PM] Nate Stanley:** Council Member Dragisich, yes. The current pumps are going to be able to function to serve everything that's shown here. **[08:20 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Seeing no further questions, I will entertain a motion. **[08:21 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Motion to approve resolution number 2025-040 accepting bids and awarding a contract to GM Contracting Inc. for the bid amount of $1,044,814 for Stillwater Area School District Utility Improvements. **[08:21 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** Second. **[08:21 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** There's a motion. There's been a second. Any discussion? Well, thank you for the work on this. Um, while it's not our project inherently, it does impact our residents. So, it impacts a large portion, not all, but a large portion. So, and I appreciate the answer you provide for my question and um I assume everything will continue to have those conversations. They're ongoing. They'll be documented to make sure that everyone's on the on the same page. **[08:22 PM] Nate Stanley:** Absolutely. Thank you. **[08:22 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Call in the question. All those in favor of the motion for 2025-040, please signify by saying I. **[08:22 PM] Council Members:** I. I. I. **[08:22 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Motion authorizes city administrator to enter into a material testing contract for the project construction phase services and the not to exceed amount of 30,000 for the Stillwater area school district utility improvements. **[08:23 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** Second and third. **[08:23 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** There's been a motion and a second from Council Member Kragness. The previous motion passed. uh there's a second for this motion. Any discussion? I presume not. Calling the question. All those in favor of the second motion for the material testing contract, please signify by saying I. **[08:23 PM] Council Members:** I. **[08:23 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** And that motion passes. And that brings us to item number 8.5, parks commission discussion. So, we had two residents interview tonight for the one open parks commission spots. Ms. Peterson and Mr. Bler. Thoughts. And how long is this term open for? **[08:24 PM] Julie Johnson (City Clerk):** I am not sure. I believe this was the remainder of Mr. Elim's. **[08:24 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** So, it's definitely not for a full four, but it's the remainder of what he had. **[08:24 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Thoughts? **[08:24 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** Was he—was he leaving early? **[08:24 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Mr. Elim left early because kids' sports are insane. **[08:24 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Okay. And I can attest to that. Yes. **[08:24 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** I hear you. **[08:25 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Well, I think they're both great candidates and I, you know, if they're watching, you know, both really appreciative of—appreciative of anybody who wants to volunteer their time to do this. So, um, I think both could be great candidates. Um, I think just with with Tracy's experience on that park advisory commission, I think that's something that speaks a lot. Um, you know, she's already done some work there. She has some—in—she's gone through that process of seeing the parks plan. Um, I think that's a pretty valuable asset. Um, that's a long document. Um, and even if you read it, sometimes you just might not know all that went into it. Um, so I think that fact really is kind of the the deciding factor for me is from that the parks advisory commission board that she was on. Um, you know, I'd hope that Giovanni would—um, if—I mean if he does get—um, doesn't get the the role here, you know, that would would continue to stay involved and provide his feedback and you know when the role opens up in the future again um throw his name in the hat. But um I I I think from hearing from them and the experience that Tracy has, that's kind of more the uh the direction I would prefer to go. **[08:26 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** Yeah, I agree with that. I think Tracy has some really great experience. Um, and I concur that, you know, Giovanni, I mean, great candidate. I think that just needs more experience and time working with the community, but I think it's pretty invaluable what Tracy brings to the table. **[08:26 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I would concur with comments, my fellow council members. Um, Giovanni was an impressive young man. His his energy and his vigor and his willingness to serve, you know, were really impressive to me. Um, but Tracy has a little bit stronger background in park and recreation uh at this point. It's too bad we don't have two openings because I think both make excellent members. **[08:26 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** It is unfortunate. I think his especially his being with the a little bit of the younger generation having that input I think is so valuable. Um, I think they're heavy users of the parks and um, you know, I think a lot of times as we're building the parks, that's who we're thinking about as well. So, um, yeah, it is tough. I I think he'd be great at it and hopefully if it doesn't go that way, you know, hopefully he would still be willing to share his input at at meetings and, you know, be heard as a resident as well. **[08:26 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Do I hear a motion? **[08:27 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Motion uh to appoint Tracy Peterson um for the four-year—two-year—two-year—the remainder—the open position—the yeah—for the open parks commission position. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** Second. **[08:27 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** There has been a motion by Council Member Hirn and a second by Council Member Kragness and I guess I didn't say anything on that during that initial discussion. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Well, and went out of order there. **[08:27 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** No, it's all good. Um, I would just say to Mr. Bler that the fact that you are obviously far younger than any of us and you're willing to offer your time and your services for the city says a lot. And do not take this to be a negative or a pushback to stop you. Spots will open again. That happens for various reasons. There's also a planning commission spot open. But yeah, you will you will find opportunities to serve when when you are so willing. So please continue that. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** I I just want to add to that too like if it is unfortunate that there was only one spot because if there had not been I would not have hesitated to appoint him as well. **[08:27 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Call in the question. All those in favor of Ms. Peterson for the Open Parks Commission spot, please signify by saying I. **[08:27 PM] Council Members:** I. I. I. **[08:27 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Motion passes and staff will connect with Ms. Peterson to let her know. I look forward to her service for the city. And others—council reports. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Just one—at our workshop last week, at the end, I talked a little bit about um having on a future agenda for a workshop discussion of our storm water fees and our credits and I didn't see that on the future agenda items and it was just last week. So, I just wanted to remind the staff that we try and get that on one of them um so that we can get going on that before budget time and see what we need to do. **[08:27 PM] Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** I can answer that. Um I did reach out to our finance director, but she's out of the country. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yes, but she's got it on her radar and she's going to schedule it for later this year. **[08:27 PM] Nicole Miller:** So, she's... **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** So, we're waiting for her to get back. **[08:27 PM] Nicole Miller:** Yep. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yep. I knew she was on board because I'd had some discussion with her about it. Um, but I just didn't see it. So, I thought I would just give a reminder, please. **[08:27 PM] Nicole Miller:** Yeah. I said it's only been a week, so it's not a criticism. It was just in my mind. We got it. It's coming. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** That's all. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I look forward to Mayor Cadenhead returning to Lake Elmo. You did a great job. **[08:27 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** Oh, thank you. I look forward to him returning to Lake Elmo. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Matt Hirn:** I do too. No report. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Kragness:** No report. **[08:27 PM] Nicole Miller:** No report. **[08:27 PM] Jason Stoopa:** So, we received the phase one back for the fire station and Stantech is recommending to do a phase two which they—the county—is paying for. We discussed with their consultants and also with Sarah about moving forward and they feel like the right approach is to just move forward with the RFP. So we're looking at a June release date and we're just working on the timeline. So the fire station that site will be opening soon. I know people have been asking about it. And then what will happen from that point since it's been discussed about the environmental is depending on what comes back, we would select whoever to go forward with the project. And if there is any cleanup, we would work with the county on a response action plan that would be with that applicant and and the city and the county working together on a cleanup if necessary. But as of now, we need the phase two to determine if the site actually needs to be cleaned up. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** So there hypothetically depending upon the time frame there might not be results from the phase two by the time the RFP is done. **[08:27 PM] Jason Stoopa:** It will line up very closely. But they will be aware that a phase two is occurring. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yes. **[08:27 PM] Jason Stoopa:** Okay. And with a phase two I'm sure our engineers can answer this too. Is it just phase two or is it a specific for this aspect? **[08:27 PM] Nate Stanley:** Yeah, they're they're sampling for PFAS, asbestos... there's a groundwater plume, so they'll probably be taking samples of this of the soil—soil samples. **[08:27 PM] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** So is the TCE concern as well? **[08:27 PM] Nate Stanley:** I would have to look at the report again. **[08:27 PM] Jason Stoopa:** Yeah, I can share the report with you. **[08:27 PM] Nate Stanley:** All good. No report. **[08:27 PM] Miss Sala:** No report. **[08:27 PM] Acting Mayor Jeff Holtz:** And with that I am adjourning the meeting at 8:27. Thank you all.