This transcript is from a White Bear Lake City Council meeting. Based on the context and names mentioned, I have identified the speakers as **Mayor Dan Joas**, **Chief of Police Dale Hager**, **Sergeant John Vetti**, **Public Works Director/City Engineer Paul Copy**, **Finance Director Kerri Kinser**, **City Manager Lindsey Crawford**, and Council Members **Walsh** and **Edberg**. [0:28] **Unknown**: e [0:58] **Unknown**: e [1:28] **Unknown**: e e [2:23] **Unknown**: Church mice and Country mice the same oh [2:36] **Mayor Dan Joas**: all right call the meeting to order will the clerk please note those in attendance all will be noted please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all let's jump into item 2B minutes of the regular city council meeting on April 9th I'd entertain a motion to approve those minutes I have a motion a second all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries item 2 B minutes of the city council work session from April 16th and entertain a motion to approve those minutes [3:19] **Council Member Walsh**: no move [3:20] **Council Member Edberg**: second [3:21] **Mayor Dan Joas**: I have a motion a second all those in favor say I I any opposed minutes are approved item three adoption of the agenda we have an addition which is it item 8A Department of Public Safety Pathways to policing reimbursement Grant and if there are no other additions or changes to the agenda I would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as amended [3:42] **Council Member Walsh**: move [3:43] **Council Member Edberg**: second [3:44] **Mayor Dan Joas**: I have a motion to Second all those in favor say I I any opposed all right we have an agenda item four consent agenda I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda [3:55] **Council Member Walsh**: motion [3:56] **Council Member Edberg**: a second [3:57] **Mayor Dan Joas**: all those in favor say I I any opposed consent agenda is approved all right item 5 a law enforcement memorial Proclamation as most of you just saw we took a a picture I'm certain it turned out well uh and uh so we're joined by many law enforcement and we've got the the privilege of reading a a proclamation that uh gives thanks to the the dedication of our many Law Enforcement Officers here today and around the country so without further Ado I'm going to read that now whereas there are approximately 800,000 Law Enforcement Officers serving in the communities around the the United States including the dedicated members of the white bar Lake Police Department whereas since the first recorded death in 1786 26,593 law enforce law enforcement officers in the United States have made the ultimate sacrifice and been killed in the line of duty whereas the names of these dedicated public servants are engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC whereas 282 names of fallen heroes are being added to the national law enforcement memorial this spring including 118 officers killed in 2023 and 164 officers killed in previous years whereas the service and sacrifice of all officers killed in the line of duty will be honored during the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial funds 36 annual candle lit vigil on the evening of May 13th 2024 whereas the candle lit vigil is part of National Police Week which will be observed this year from Sunday May 12th to Saturday May 18th and whereas May 15 is designated as Peace Officers Memorial Day in honor of all fallen officers and their families now therefore be it resolved that the Whitebear Lake City of White Bear Lake Council shall observe May 12 through 18 2024 as police week in the city of Whitebear Lake and publicly salutes the service of law en enforcement officers in our community and the communities around the nation and I will just again add my thanks to all the officers that serve the city of Whitebear Lake we know you have a dangerous job and we thank you for your dedicated service and we pray that you continue to remain safe and at the end of each shift come home to your families and with that I'd like all of us to stand and offer our appreciation to these officers [Applause] [6:41] **Mayor Dan Joas**: thank you [6:47] **Mayor Dan Joas**: all all right item 5B uh Citizen Police award Michael Henderson Chief Hager please take it away [6:51] **Chief Dale Hager**: Mr Mayor members of the council first of all Mr Mayor thank you for the proclamation thank thank you for the nice words about our officers um many of many of whom are here tonight um and many of those are here on their own time um so thank you very much uh mayor members of the council thank you for allowing us to be here for this purpose tonight a little bit of history about our Awards um committee my predecessor Chief Julie Swanson reinstituted our White Bear Lake Police Department Awards program last year when I'm sure you all remember we handed out a variety of awards to the firefighters and officers are involved in the officer involved shooting in January of 2023 since that time we've enabled our Awards committee to expand the program a bit and doing so we've identified several honorable and heroic acts performed by our employees which will soon be recognized at a police department award ceremony however tonight our Awards committee have ident has identified the need for a special well-deserved citizens award which we tell you about very soon after that I um I hope that uh Mr Mayor and uh city manager Council or excuse me city manager Crawford uh will come around and just take a couple photos with us at the end of this so the incident during the morning hours of Saturday December 23rd 2023 in a very busy set of parking lots filled with Christmas shoppers on burkel road officers were uh dispatched to report of a female assaulting multiple individuals and trying to steal their vehicles the suspect in question possibly intoxicated or in severe crisis um had approached two parties in the lot after their workout at a local gym the first victim was grabbed by the suspect that she demanded the keys to steal her car after hearing this person yell a very brave citizen who were honoring here today Michael Henderson ran over to his sist he physically intervened to free this victim from the suspect allowing her to get to the safety of her vehicle and drive away thankfully without Serious injury the second victim a student home from college had left the gym and was approached by the same female the suspect grabbed her and told her she needed to take her car and tried to take the phone out of her hands the suspect pulled the victim's shirt trying to remove her out of the car so she could jump in and steal it that is of course what you know we we call carjacking this victim was scared and unfortunately she was unsuccessful at pushing the suspect away Mr Henderson again selflessly came to this young woman's Aid as well he risked his own personal safety by putting himself physically between the victim and the suspect and was able to move the suspect away from the car the victim then drove out of the area during this time by the way Mr Henderson had one arm in a sling due to a pre-existing injury Mr Henderson remained unseen until the police officers arrived as though he hadn't done enough already one of our s uh sergeants John Vetti who's here tonight was the first one on scene and as he approached the suspect she took off running to prevent more people from getting hurt or even to prevent her from getting hurt Sergeant Vinnie grabbed her and attempted to take her to the ground the suspect immediately fought he also tried biting Sergeant VY many times he was alone or Le he thought once again Mr Henderson willingly offered his assistance by removing his injured arm from the sling and grabbing the suspect's legs they helped to control her until more officers arrived the suspect was then taken into custody Mr Michael Henderson risked his own life to help two strangers in need he also stopped two potential carjackings from occurring before mind you helping police subdue a suspect who was a danger to the community this was done without selfish motive and all while attempting to heal from his arm injury already Michael Gregory Henderson is truly deserving of the Citizen Award granted by the White Bear Lake Police Department Awards Committee in the city of Whitebear Lake we value community members like you thank you Mr hend for your bravery and courage to others to help others please come up and receive your award from Sergeant John Vetti you're your good [Laughter] friend [11:24] **Sergeant John Vetti**: Mr Mayor members of the council be okay to just say a few short words um again we're very grateful for Mr Henderson and his actions on the day of December 23rd um in addition to Mr Henderson being here um we're also pleased that the two citizens that he helped also came to support him so um we have a lot of appreciation for you Mr Henderson and again um in addition to everything you did to help them uh to be safe and to flee from a chaotic scene I'm very grateful that when I got to the point of trying to arrest this um suspect and she's trying to bite me that you pulled your arm out of a sling I wasn't sure if you'd have a Superman capee that was going to come next but um you made no hesitation to jump in and help help me uh before other officers can come and then uh at that point you backed off and then remained as a good witness so on behalf of the white PA Lake Police Department and the City of white PA Lake we present you this plaque for the citizens award thank you and congratulations thank you [Applause] [Applause] we also have a certificate with an explanation and then some some patch and some gifts for you to bring home as well so if we could get a photo and appreciation we are very grateful thank you very much thank [12:49] **Michael Henderson**: you thank youate you [13:07] **Unknown**: aw thanks again thank you appreciate it thank you again Inc thank you always looking for good people on the Flor [13:40] **Mayor Dan Joas**: all right very we good okay item five C Public Works engineering department by annual report Mr Copy when you're ready [13:42] **Paul Copy**: uh thank you uh mayor members of the council uh so this is our second uh report for the uh Public Works and engineering department um I'm going to Breeze through the first couple slides uh the repeats from last time but just kind of a quick update um our current Staffing um it remains pretty steady uh we do have one opening in Parks uh currently uh uh that we're working to fill uh that current position um also as far as the budget goes we have a um position potentially be added mid year um we'll start looking at that shortly for a facil ities person within the parks department so um we'll keep you posted as we uh as we move forward with that as well um otherwise uh very steady um from a staffing standpoint um just kind of a reminder of what we're dealing with from an infrastructure standpoint um if you'd like I can uh definitely make this available to council if you'd like to from a statistic standpoint I always like that to have that handy and can definitely make that available to council um if so if you so desire um going into each of the um uh divisions I'm going to start with streets just because they deal with the winter months so this report is generally dealing with November through uh April here um so kind of going through uh uh kind of beyond the fall we get into the winter months in November typically start our snow season um so you see we're kind of down we all had we all know we had a pretty mild winter both temperature as well as snowfall we still had 13 snowfall events is what we would uh call that um uh only a couple of significant snowfalls where we had full you know curb to curb whatnot otherwise most of them were pretty minor snowfall events where we still went out um and only a handful of those I think 10 of them um we had downtown operations um where we uh went out and and cleared all the sidewalks and did snow removal in the downtown area um and of those only 10 of them or only three of the 13 um were kind of off hours so pretty fortunate from a snowfall event um from a uh salt application um you know to uh control snow and ice uh uh build up on our streets we only used just over 200 tons this year our typical were 6 to 800 tons so you can see we're about a quarter of what we typically would use uh which uh not only helps the environment by not putting that salt down the storm sewer into our water bodies it also helps obviously from a cost standpoint uh we were able to do quite a bit more uh pothole filling uh tree trimming things like that that we typically couldn't do during a normal winter so uh those are a little bit on the higher side uh we also got out uh doing some early spring street sweeping uh as early as uh we're doing our full curb to curb City uh every mile as we speak they should be done uh they started uh early last week they should be done sometime midweek depending on the weather and rain that we're having so um definitely ahead of schedule there as far as projects equipment no major projects uh over the winter uh we did however uh get a pretty good deal on a new Skid Steer uh which needed to be replaced uh the old one needed to be replaced uh staff was able to really work with some vendors and we got uh some much needed accessories for that um a couple that are uh will be very useful for um especially with a lot of the trees and the uh dealing with some of the emerald ash B issues with uh uh tree removal is our forestry Mulcher and our grapple bucket the forestry muler thinks of it think of it as a um attachment for that skid steer that we can goout into some of the rougher areas and it basically grinds up all the brush and whatnot and it definitely reduces the Manpower needed to you know manually remove and and uh and the material can stay in place in most of the area so definitely uh uh huge um you know we used to rent it uh huge cost but uh we're able to add it to this package deal um and eliminate those rental um should last for quite a while the other one is the grapple bucket which will allow us to more easily feed material into the chipper as we do tree removals with um as we deal with the EM dashboard issue so um again saving Manpower you know potential injuries to workers trying to lift the the uh branches and brush into the chipper so that's kind of the highlights of the streets division um Parks uh they always get to have all the funder in the winter time and uh uh with their holiday decorations um just a and uh kind of starting off again they did a huge amount of tree removal tree trimming uh what not within parks open space uh a lot of time spent removing brush or uh tree branches along the um sidewalks and trails uh to help with snow removal which we didn't end up with so they were able to really get ahead of things they got behind the last couple of years because of the bigger snowfalls but this year we're uh really able to get out and uh get ahead of things um probably should have done this in different orders but the holiday I'm going to go to uh holiday decorations next cuz that's a winter activity but um they spent a ton of time spent 240 almost 250 hours getting set up uh putting holiday decorations trees lights things like that um and can you imagine 56 miles of lights they put up they also take those down so that's a that's a lot to do uh 600 feet of Garland you can see it on you know like the uh um at rro Park uh very well done for the holidays 110 holidays trees with you know most of them with lights as well so a huge effort by parks to make our town spectacular during the holiday season um so again as we get into spring here uh and over the winter they spend a lot of time preparing for summer activities preparing uh orders for uh um you see on the picture on the right side our our fertilizer and seed and things like that came in um so they start getting ready for everything that goes in a lot of planning for the uh flowers and and planting beds and things throughout Town um and this is a first as we go down the list the matosa launch docks were put in on March 14th that is typically when we are kind of finishing up our skating rink efforts so we were way ahead of schedule on one and actually as far as the skating rinks go we never successfully got one to freeze up so tried at podin for a few days but um the warm attempts and uh weather that we had did not allow that to occur this year but we got the docks in early and people were able to get out early fishing so um that being said we had very little damage to um the marina this year I didn't specifically list it but very little damage uh some of it was uh ice on the shoreline with the uh the stairs and the handicap ramp those are things that were actually kind of uh scheduled anyways uh or you know would have been needed for for future updates as things started to you know rot out and uh uh just previous damage from wind and and uh ice so we're able to get that done this spring and the Dock's in and um the Marine is getting set and everybody should be in on time as far as the uh the boat slips go so um otherwise parks and facility staff did a lot of uh just countless special projects I hate to start listing them but Painting and Remodeling they did the uh Public Safety gym got everything ready for that and and helped coordinate with them so ton of different projects around the different facilities that we have around town um as far as equipment goes on the right side um we were able to replace the uh watering carts that the uh uh seasonal staff used to go water all the flower beds and the hanging baskets throughout Town um the cool thing about this project uh they work very closely with our um Fleet staff um and we're able to find basically a two for one we got found uh vehicles that would work uh we needed two to replace two of them um the old kushans uh just we couldn't get parts for they were failing our our uh Fleet staff was able to find two of these for the price of one of the kushans that we were originally looking for so basically uh uh saving us a ton of money there also the uh uh get to it when I get to the fleet department but uh they were able to outfit these uh and uh the cool thing about them is these are automatic transmissions now so um maybe a a good and bad our our seasonal staff will not learn how to drive a standard transmission anymore but uh it will be much safer for them uh as they cross Highway 61 they fill up on this side they stor them on the side of 61 do a lot downtown so be actually much safer for our seasonal staff um you know without the risk of stalling it in the middle of crossing highway 61 so um other than that they replaced one pickup truck so pretty uneventful there um from that standpoint uh Water Division again pretty uh uneventful over the winter however uh I will note you know uh last time I noted we used about just shy 400 million gallons of water over the winter you can see that reduction um as we uh uh those are uh typical rates or typical usage um our overall usage for the year of 2023 was down as or uh kind of stayed down as well so even with the uh drought and whatnot our final numbers for the year are pretty in line with where we had been the last several years so um thank you to all the citizens out there that are conserving water um otherwise uh just a few little uh tidbits uh water main breaks uh this year we had only 11 typically we're in the 20 up to 30 low 30 so um the uh lack of a lot of frost definitely help with that and of those 11 waterm brakes they were cheaper to repair because it was easier to dig uh not a lot of frost in the ground and and easy to repair so um otherwise just kind of an interesting fact we had 53 water shut offs so the snowbirds people who leave town and whatnot that want to um get their water shut off so that they don't have Freez freezing issues within their homes um so we have at least 53 people who leave town for the uh winter um otherwise currently as we speak uh the Water uh staff is working on the uh spring uh shutdown um so what they do is they shut the plant down not from a um treatment standpoint per se only a softening side so they bypass uh still treat with fluoride and chlorine uh to uh make sure the water is safe for our public you'll notice a little bit of a uptick in in soft or hardness as we go through the week uh by the end of the week here they should be done and and back up and running uh uh 100% it's nice to be able to get it done early um so we're not uh the last couple years we've had to flirt with uh getting towards the end of May into June um so uh we'll completely uh have our water uh plant maintenance and repairs done uh before we hit the peak Seasons as we get into the end of May and and early J and early June so um that was a blessing uh this year as well uh as far as projects and Equipment go uh we were able to get well our well for rehabilitation done uh again well ahead of schedule typically we're in the May June flirting with the uh peak season to get those done uh we're able to get that done very early uh we also um before we get into summer uh finally got air conditioning uh called mini splits that were put into Wells three and four what that does is help cool the buildings to keep our Motors um cool uh they heat up uh quite hot as we get into the summer season and uh just a recommendation from our um folks who do our well rehabilitations to um definitely help make those uh it's a small investment to uh uh extend the life of our uh pump motors uh that are within those well hoses so um uh a couple of other things that they've been working on is uh finally getting to a lime Silo dust collection system replacement and what that does is we get our lime that we use for water softening um it uh collects and and uh treats the air as we um do our well or our uh lime uh deliveries it uh keeps the dust out of the air so and as we process it so uh much needed Improvement to the plant as well and lastly um we're uh they're working on some skate assistant maintenance just to make sure all our um our new uh lime slaker that we put in last fall um talks to everything and and our system is um a lot of the upgrades that we put in the last several of years everything's talking to each other and sending out the right signals and what that means if anyone's wondering what ska means is supervisory control and data acquisition um so really what it does is to make sure our wells Towers whatnot all talk to each other and make sure um things are working seamlessly uh next up sewer division um again not a lot of crazy things going on in the sewer division they were able to do about an extra mile to two miles of uh both sewer cleaning and televising um this winter just due to the uh the real when it gets really really cold they can't go out with the equipment because it freezes um they were able to get about a couple more miles and they typically would have been a uh an a typical winner so um that uh is is great as well um again keeping our sewer um um backups to an absolute minimum there's still areas that we have you know we with the televising and jetting and the routine maintenance that we're doing uh we used to have you know 10 to 20 of them a year you know we're down to one the last you know 10 to 20 years since we've gotten the TV equipment and uh really started doing uh routine jetting and then our sewer lining projects as we get in the summer but um as you can see we still uh get a few u customer service backup calls which we still respond to just to uh make sure that they're taken care of um but those are in those customer own lines and we help assist them with uh dealing with those issues as well um other it's just a lot of uh routine maintenance uh keeping up with our you know from a project equipment standpoint just uh replacing uh Parts as needed uh doing lift station maintenance um we got a new cement mixer toweh cement mixer as they go around and do manhole and uh for both uh storm sewer as well as sanitary sewer manhole repairs um otherwise just a lot of lift station repairs the fourth and Otter Lake uh Road lift station rehab is do is being done um in advance of the otter or the County's Otter Lake Road Project um so just to get that done and out of the way before they come in and do the road work um and likewise they're coordinating with the water department to do skate skate ass system U Maintenance and upgrades so just getting everything to talk together um as they both uh help each other out on those uh call outs and the water who are are the on call folk so um just so they're all on the same page from a ska standpoint uh Fleet division uh again continue to uh work very hard um taking on new tasks and uh as you can see by uh the prevent preventive maintenance major repairs they continue to keep majority of them in house uh they continue to do our DOT inspections we don't have to send those out like many communities do um the you know 22 Outsource repairs um and most of those actually are Tire work that we don't you know that we don't do in house um just from a uh um um economy a scale standpoint to not have all that equipment uh but most of the other ones are Body Work warranty work recalls we don't do those in house warranty and recalls obviously are you know from the dealer so um again not much those guys can't do in the uh Fleet department and then I was like to call call them out they uh they love taking on these weird special projects they got the shirt trailer uh uh repairs done for them so they can uh continue their operations um this year uh you can see in the picture we got six new Squad Squad cars for uh the police department um really the uh um folks in our Fleet division taking on a lot of the uh help coordinating the upfitting to make sure that they're all all squad cars are done the same uh done uh with uh Quality Parts uh uh quality wiring things like that so um we'll definitely help with uh anybody being able to jump in any squad car and having the same build um and then uh I mentioned it earlier but they really help getting our our Parks water wagons outfitted and and plumbed so um being able to keep that in house saves huge dollars being able to take the equipment off of the old cars putting it on the new carts getting it to fit and and uh um done a fantastic job there [32:06] **Mayor Dan Joas**: Mr Copy did they also work on the Zamboni [32:11] **Paul Copy**: uh they also do so I didn't uh put it in there but they do all the work on the uh um our Fleet uh again a lot of things I don't touch on but they uh they work on our Zamboni they work on fire trucks they work on the entire City's vehicles and and even some non- Vehicles they even did a few projects down at the Sport Center that weren't vehicle related so or Zamboni related so they're I was jumping in and and taking on all kinds of new uh um things because they have that Mechanical Aptitude so it's they're great assets to the the city for sure they two we have two mechanics uh we have a lead mechanic and then a staff mechanic so uh between the two of them um have a wide mechanical uh knowledge of diesel uh passenger vehicle other equipment so um not afraid to take on a challenge and uh getting compliments from all the different divisions and departments that work with them um on all the things they do uh engineering um the big uh push over the winter is uh getting ready for the uh next season projects uh this year we're back doing a street Rehabilitation project again started uh early last week with our work prior to that even Excel Energy got in to start doing the gas main uh uh change out so um very early uh to start a project typically the end of May before starting a project and I'm not going to jinx myself with a specific date but they're talking not too far from Memorial Day to be done with the project so um it uh they're really hitting it hard uh most of the utility work be will be done the end of this week and uh they're currently doing um water valve replacement and some uh sewer repair so um it's going to be moving along very quickly um um otherwise uh keeping very busy uh with a the public safety uh renovation project or downtown mobility and parking study as we uh uh wrapped up a bunch of public Outreach working on the final report right now for uh presentation of the council here shortly uh uh very active doing a lead Water Service inventory that's coming down from the EPA that we have to do um you know 8,500 homes and businesses that we need to figure out uh whether they have lead water services or not reviewing all records as we go into the uh even as we go into the street project we're digging up um doing uh kind of using a VOR the contractor using a VOR like we use for sewer jetting um to suck out holes near the water shut offs on 40 some homes in in our project area that we couldn't find records on so every opportunity that we have to uh get out there and find it uh some of the other ones we actually going to try to get into uh the folks homes along the project to be able to verify the service side of it those that we knew the other um the water main side of things so U very active with that project uh both from a uh engineering staff as well as GIS uh mapping that and and getting that all into a format that we have to ultimately submit to the Department of Health um later in August um otherwise a lot of coordination with uh County Road projects review and and and plans with Otter Lake Road Long Avenue County Ro sidewalk project um also at the uh School District project uh with Highway 61 the and a street signal a street and division uh improvements that were required as part of the north campus uh expansion project and then uh just our typical activities with uh project reviews with Community Development uh buildings houses uh developments uh RightWay permits and uh just numerous uh hard to keep track every one of them but numerous GS mapping projects uh that everyone requests from um our GIS technician um and lastly I want to promote our Public Works open house uh those you who are watching at home I will have a our first Public Works open house on Wednesday May 22nd from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. uh located our uh White Bird Lake Public Works facility at 3950 Hoffman Road uh we'll have a lot of fun um displays Hands-On activities that our staff has working on with different vendors our Union and we'll also have tours of the facility so hopefully uh everybody come out it'll be all ages appropriate uh things for uh kids to learn and and adults to learn as well so um other than that that concludes my presentation I'd be happy to answer any questions if Council has thank you Mr Copy uh Council any questions [37:15] **Council Member Edberg**: red so we have another event coming up before the open house at public works like a week from Saturday [37:21] **Paul Copy**: oh yeah and I'm going to mess up the date here uh we have our uh I put it in my PowerPoint for later so this Saturday is trash at treasure day and then May 7th I think is uh spring cleanup day I have some more information later but May 4th is spring cleanup dat [37:37] **Mayor Dan Joas**: very good any other questions from the council do check our website to get accurate dates and times on the aforementioned thanks that we stumbled through no worries there all right uh thank you Mr Copy appreciate the report keep up to good to work in engineering and Public Works you guys are busy as always all right item 5 C finance department quarterly report Miss kins whenever you're ready [38:13] **Kerri Kinser**: good evening Mr Mayor and members of the council tonight I'm here to talk about the finance department operations and the license bureau activities we're going to start with the finance department um the revenues and expenditures are tracking Accord to the 2024 budget um to this point in the year when we're early on in the year we haven't all of the Departments are working to get their projects together so we are on track for our budget um the Excel franchise fee is a 1.5 percentage of the Excel Energy's electric revenues in our area they make a payment to us in the beginning of every year our 2024 actual amount received was approximately $13,500 more than what we had anticipated in the 2024 budget this receipt has fluctuated over the years um during the pandemic um it went down significantly and then has been rebounding back up so in 2023 we received 371,000 and in 2024 we have we received 373,000 in addition to that as I look through the revenues um our rental inspection fees are higher for this first three months when we compare the activities in 2024 to that of 2023 um when we Analyze This the building department at this time last year was not at full staff and they were working to accomplish all the tasks with the staff that they had so now that they have a full complement of Staff those activities are being done earlier in the year so um as we look from the activity through January 1st through March 31st we've received 53% of the budget revenues for the year for that activity um with the weather being nice and not being really cold in the winter and not too hot yet um our heating and air conditioning permits are higher than they were this time last year we've received 54% of our annual budget for the in the first quarter and as we when we prepare that budget we just take an average of what we've gotten over the last three years so um everybody has been busy I think getting new heating and air conditioning um units the general fund miscellaneous revenues are primarily receipts for Park rentals and then rentals for moing skid kayak and canoe um facilities at matasa Park Lions Park and lak View Park so people are gearing up to be able to be out on the lake um as Paul mentioned the snow and ice removal expenditures are significantly lower so when Paul was talking about it he was looking for the whole season from November until April as I'm looking at it I'm looking from January through March so January through March last year we had 53.3 Ines of snow and for the first three months of this year we had 26.2 in so significantly less that um we've been able to save some money on those expenditures and then as we look at the license bureau the department continues to experience customer transaction counts at a level higher than they were last year um in 2024 for the first three months we had a total transaction count of 2,751 transactions and in 2023 there was a total of 20,25 I'm expecting that when we I come back and I talk to you about the second quarter activity that it's going to be not as much of a difference because we will be recognizing uh the first year anniversary of Maplewood closing their DMV office in May and so that's when a lot of our transactions up ticked when their customers came to um have their transactions handled in our offices so when we look at the 2024 totals our office is helping more customers with tab renewals this year we had 356 more this quarter this is exciting because this is transaction has quick turnaround time and provides us um $9 there's an $8 filing fee and then a $1 um Deputy register fee that so we get $9 for every transaction on that um the EV transactions are significantly higher between the two years we have 400 more transactions for this type of deal in 2024 so the electronic vehicle transfer or title and registration transfer is what the EV stands for and this is where the dealers collect the fee from the customers at the dealership for their license plate so the customer receives their license plate and the tabs from the dealer um the customer also receives their title faster when they process the paperwork through their dealership the dealership sends the paperwork to the city and then once we process it then this that's when when the state issues the customer's title um so it takes the state out of the equation as they're trying to to get the um vehicle's license but our office still handle we still get the same filing fee in the vehicle search charge when we process those just as if someone would come in transfer their title and um pay that extra sear charge um so in both of those comments I talked about the $1 um Deputy vehicle search charge this is new that the state um went into effect as of January 1st this one dollar is added to tab renewals all title transfers both the EV and a regular transfer that a customer would bring into our office um duplicate titles duplicate stickers and plates and customer correct requested title Corrections or if they add or remove anything um from their titles so the TR if a transaction that I just listed if someone comes in and they want a title transfer and they have a tab renewal and do both at the same time then we collect $1 for each one of those transactions that takes place um kiosks has been really popular the governor was when he came out and visited our um facility and got his new um license plate he had talked about the kiosks so Ki asks are now located in the Cub Food Stores um one DMV that is uh located close to the kiosk location agrees to be the lead DMV office and they're in charge of transferring the monies that are taken in when people get their tab renewals through the kiosk um this transfer happens each day and the lead DMV offices receive 10% of the filing fees that are collected through the transactions in that kiosk when the lead DMV office works with the state to set up the kiosk any DMV office that is located within 10 miles of that kiosk is asked if they want to be a participating um DMV office the participating DMV offices don't have any work that they do they just share um a portion of the revenues so the first 10% goes to the lead DMV office the 90% that remains is split equally between the participating DMV offices so um the city of Whitebear lake is participating in some of the we have participating DMV offices and so we are receiving quarterly revenues from those um we agreed to be a lead DMV office for the kiosk that is is going to go to the white bear um Cub Foods on metal lands Drive which is on Highway 96 and Centerville Road that is not in place yet but we're working with the state and that should be in place soon so then as mentioned we will receive 10% of the filing fees if someone gets their tabs through that kiosk there are six participating deputies that are going to be part of the that kiosk so then the 90% will be shared between 7 seven DMV offices um and then finally as you look at the the report you can see that on the um in March it looks like we the transaction per hour was different because of the city does bi-weekly payrolls the structures there are two months out of the year that have three payroll um days that happen so the first of those three payroll months happened in March so that circumstance just makes it appear that there are extra hours worked in the month so that it lowers the transaction per hour count so that wraps up my presentation and I am available to take any questions that you have about the finance department or the license bureau [47:40] **Mayor Dan Joas**: thank you Miss Kinser one quick question on the kiosk so I might have missed it does the customer pay the same fee as if they were at the deputy register what what what are we sharing in [47:48] **Kerri Kinser**: Mr mayor that is a great question so the customer actually pays when it's um they pay extra because they need to pay a kiosk fee so they're going to get their tabs and then they're going to pay the $1 service charge and then there is a fee for the kiosk fee that goes to the company that maintains the kiosk and then they're going to have a credit card fee so they're going to be paying with a credit card so the fees that we would share would be the file fees so the $8 and fee plus that $1 vehicle um Deputy vehicle fee so there would be the $9 that we would be sharing [48:32] **Mayor Dan Joas**: okay so the customer still still paying the same fee as if they were in person the fees correct but they do have that extra Kos getting a proportionate share of whoever's participating correct but they are effectively paying quite a bit more if they're running a credit card a kiosk fee so it's still cheaper to come to the deputy just draw right here in White Bear Lake and get correct correct we'd prefer to have people come visit us in the office very good thank you Council any questions from Miss Kinser [49:10] **Council Member Walsh**: council member Walsh uh thank you Mr Mayor just picking up on that same topic so just just help me I I know we want to I'm trying to figure out what the state interest is in that process so is the state Interest really we're going to set up kiosks so it's more convenient for citizens to get their tabs we're going to do it in a way that shares the revenue so we don't kill all the deputy register offices across the state is that is that what I'm hearing here [49:46] **Kerri Kinser**: Mr Mayor members of the council yes [49:48] **Council Member Walsh**: as a as a St taxpayer I think that's really bad policy as somebody you know on the board of an organization that runs a a a deputy register's office I guess that's good but man that's I don't know about the state policy there we don't have to we don't we could probably lower the cost of that transaction in that kiosk if we didn't try to share the revenue to keep all the off is open so this this policy thing is is weird um okay another question more positive um EVR um as I'm listening you described the car dealerships process with us um are we are we is Whitebear Lake uh better than that than other cities is can we make that claim I'm just thinking of a marketing thing here is like buy your car in Whitebear Lake because the tab thing is smooth and easy and fast faster than other C because we've got this great partnership with our our local Deputy register can we make that claim or is it just s everybody doing this the same way [50:41] **Kerri Kinser**: Mr Mayor and members of the council everybody does the EV [50:44] **Council Member Walsh**: okay still buy your car and wipe your leg exactly [50:46] **Mayor Dan Joas**: any other questions all right Miss kin futter thank you for the detailed report we appreciate it all right item six public hearings we have nothing scheduled item s unfinished business nothing scheduled newly added item 8A Department of Public Safety Pathways to policy reimbursement Grant Chief Hager whenever you're ready [51:00] **Chief Dale Hager**: Mr Mayor members of the council thank you again I'm here to ask you to consider adopting the resolution accepting a $75,000 matching Grant through the Minnesota Department of Public Safety uh their Pathway to policing reimbursement program uh this program um expanded recently um from what it was to uh help out more departments in enabling us to attract and hire more uh non-traditional law enforcement Cadets um we attract them by uh first of all hiring them as employees and then financially assisting them by contributing towards your education uh we saw a need to create a creatively attract police officer candidates um just like the rest of the state and Country uh we applied for the grant and we are awarded it um just earlier this month or last month 35 other departments around the state were awarded the grant as well uh we know that the funds will be used to cover expenses related to wages benefits and education at it accredited postsecondary institutions that meet the Minnesota postboard requirements we know that it's uh that is a local funding match of $75,000 uh we will use the 24 and 25 operating budgets as well as the recently allocated Public Safety um LGA money that I spoke to you about uh at the last meeting to cover those expenses so I recommend that the city um Council adopt the attached resolution accepting the $75,000 matching Grant to the state of Minnesota uh Department of Public safety's Pathways to policing reimbursement grant program I'll take any questions if you have any [52:43] **Mayor Dan Joas**: thank you Chief Council any questions for chief otherwise I'd entertain a motion to approve the resolution council member edberg [52:53] **Council Member Edberg**: thank you Mr Mayor so Chief it seems like we have two different stream of Revenue could you distinguish between the LGA and this Grant and which what kinds of either uses or sources it seems like they're both state money um but how do they different differentiate and is there any way of getting some Synergy out of that [53:14] **Chief Dale Hager**: uh Mr Mayor members of the council so the LGA money is uh we explained um last time um was uh money given to us the 1.1 million given to us by Governor wall in the legislator legislature um to be uh used for um recruiting and retention um and as you know um that money was divvied up between the fire department and us we used it um for our purposes we used it generally for a lot of retention um kind of practices and and uh equipment um this um Pathways to policing Grant is from the Department of Public Safety and their specific purpose is to hire or attract more non-traditional uh law enforcement recruits to law enforcement so while they don't necessarily have anything to do with each other we we do get that it's it is both state money that is coming to us um for what we think is completely different purposes if that makesense [54:19] **Council Member Edberg**: I guess I'm still not seeing it and I'm what's in the back of my head is so if we're going to adopt the the program which we did at our last meeting to um attract new new candidates by by providing incentives um we were using LGA money but we could use LGA money for a larger number of things than the pathways to policing so I'm trying to figure out how do we are we missing an opportunity to get other needs met with the LGA money or because I I'm sorry I didn't understand the distinctions [55:00] **Chief Dale Hager**: mayor uh if I may add mayor council member edberg um that's a that's a great question and great uh great point there was about $2,439 of the public safety LGA that will be going towards um our matching portion of this grant um and that was really to help offset uh a tax levy increase for um for I think the rest of this year in the 25 budget I mean we wouldn't be adding another tax levy but um yes we could have allocated the LGA elsewhere but this was the this $122,000 were funds that um we didn't have have in our budget that will largely um be used I mean they will be used for this for the grant [55:46] **Council Member Edberg**: okay [55:47] **Mayor Dan Joas**: any other questions for the chief council member Walsh [55:58] **Council Member Walsh**: uh thank you Mr Mayor I'll I'll move approval of the resolution [56:02] **Council Member Edberg**: I have a motion do I have a second motion a second [56:05] **Mayor Dan Joas**: any further discussion on this just just a comment this is the second meeting in a row where staff has gone out and found a grant uh to bring money into the city that we didn't plan on and so that's awesome uh it saves taxpayers money so on behalf of taxpayers thank you staff and continue to be aggressive looking for these grants it's great very good any further discussion seeing none all those in favor of approving the resolution say I not any oppos motion carries and the resolution is approved item nine discussions nothing scheduled item 10 Communications from the city manager Miss Crawford do you have anything for us tonight [56:16] **Lindsey Crawford**: I do thank you uh mayor members of the council hopefully it's working here okay couple slides so our spring and summer newsletter is out now um should uh should have arrived in your mailboxes we have plenty of copies at City Hall and you can find it online as well again thank you to all staff um for working on their articles and especially to our city clerk for um putting this together um it's our our B anual newsletter and I'm really proud of the the publication and the work that that goes into it so thank you to our city clerk for that one a couple more slides we have a lot of upcoming events um this weekend Friday Saturday and Sunday is our spring skate show the theme this year is time to skate um it's a really wonderful show that we put a lot we put a lot of time and work in um our staff at the sports center do so I strongly encourage people to attend that um you can get early tickets I think through the end of this week and then tickets at the door uh cost a little bit more um as we said it is Trash to Treasure day this Saturday I think everybody knows what that one is um we have a ribbon cutting on Tuesday April 30th at 3:30 p.m. for True North directory direct primary care and then we have another uh celebration for Allstar pet hotel their fifth anniversary already um which is Thursday May 2nd at 3:30 p.m. and then uh again as we said our spring cleanup day is May 4th um from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at um Public Works proof of City residency is required so any wiper Lake uh resident can participate so bring those things that were not picked up on trash treasure day to the spring cleanup um Chief Hager and I will be going to the NFS leadership lunch in on May 8th uh at 11:30 a.m. and then we have Touch a Truck coming up um at podvin Park on May 9th which is another really wonder wonderful event um that police and fire and Public Works um and many many of our partner agencies um um attend so great free event for for the family so um uh uh lastly just I wanted to acknowledge our um department heads and our staff who work on these quarterly and biannual and annual reports I know that there's a lot of time um that is spent putting into into those reports so um it doesn't go unnoticed by me and I think it doesn't go unnoticed by the council and and uh a lot of the good information that you provide and put in there so thank you um thank you to all the department heads and then lastly uh the assistant city manager and I will be at a conference next Wednesday through Friday so that's what I have [58:54] **Mayor Dan Joas**: thank you m Crawford Council any questions for the city manager all right before we adjourn it's been several Council meetings since I gave my little Spiel to the high school students and I see many many of you out there so first off welcome and I'll say you guys got off pretty easy we're going to be out of here in inside of an hour there's been other groups that got stuck here till 9:30 so congrats enjoy the extra time um as I said to the other groups it was 21 years ago that I attended Mr maum's American government class and sat where you are um and at the time never thought I'd be sitting here but I still remember that meeting don't know everything that was on the agenda but it left an impression on me so I hope you learned a thing or two um realize the importance of local government as our city engineer went through the many many different things that Public Works does and Engineering does or our finance director and all the the money that changes hands and all the things that are bought and paid for by the taxpayers um it's important work it affects our everyday lives uh so maybe one day when you're a little older you'll decide to participate in local government so thank you all for being here and we're going to adjourn in just a minute so if you need your paper signed uh you can come on up in just a second thank you and with that I would entertain a motion to adjourn [1:00:08] **Council Member Walsh**: do I have a second [1:00:10] **Council Member Edberg**: second [1:00:11] **Mayor Dan Joas**: all those in favor say I I we're adjourned thanks remember