[0:13] Speaker: Hey, [0:19] Speaker: Ah. [0:56] Luke Hellier: Good evening. Welcome to the November 3rd city council meeting. If you join me for a moment of silence in the pledge of allegiance [1:18] Luke Hellier: to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for >> [clears throat] >> Okay, roll call, please. [1:36] Ann Orlofsky: Michelle Volk, [1:37] Michelle Volk: Here. [1:38] Ann Orlofsky: Luke Hellier, [1:39] Luke Hellier: Here. [1:40] Ann Orlofsky: John Bermel, [1:41] John Bermel: Here. [1:42] Ann Orlofsky: Dan Wolter, [1:43] Dan Wolter: Here. [1:44] Ann Orlofsky: Joshua Lee [1:45] Joshua Lee: Here. [1:46] Luke Hellier: All right, great. We'll move on to item three, citizens comments. Is opportunity for those in audience to address the council for up to three minutes on issue not related to something agenda. Seeing none, move on. Any additional agenda information, Mr. Miller? [1:58] Justin Miller: Nothing tonight, Mayor. [1:59] Luke Hellier: Okay. And we'll now turn it over to our police chief, Brad Paulson, for our quarterly report. Good evening, Chief. [2:10] Brad Paulson: Good evening, Mayor and members of the council here tonight to present our quarter 3 report covering the months of July through September of this year. As we always do, we'll start with the mission statement. The Lakeville Police Department exists to ensure an excellent quality of life in Lakeville by serving and protecting in a professional and innovative way. [2:32] Brad Paulson: It has been a year of movement for Lakeville PD. So, uh highlighting some of our quarter three uh long-term retirements here on this slide on the left there is Jenny Davis who after 25 years as a records technician. Uh retired in August. Uh thinking back to 25 years ago in a police records job, her her job changed significantly over those years and she did a great job of adapting as time went on. But happy for her in a in a well retirement. In the middle there, Officer Chad Laughler. Uh he had a total of 28 plus years in law enforcement. Uh I think he was 21, a little over 21 with Lakeville PD, but uh Chad did a lot of work with canines over the years. He handled three dogs with Lakeville uh Storm as you see there along with Tank and Shadow before that and he's given a lot to that program over the years. Then on the right, uh community service officer, our lead community service officer, Randy Smith spent eight years with us uh and did a great job in that role. uh he did a lot of onboarding with our seasonal CSOS, younger employees who are at college age and getting them outfitted and and trained and up to speed. [3:36] Brad Paulson: So now back filling some of those spots uh starting in uh in August, Kristen B who is a new records technician. She comes from us uh comes to us from the Minnesota Department of Health where she's been spent 13 years there uh doing newborn screening, public health data analysis. She did a lot of work on substance abuse including uh opioid over overdoses. So a lot of lot of crossuh section with public safety in that role and she's been a great addition to our team and our staff. [4:06] Brad Paulson: Uh new community service officer Bill Nelson who spent uh little over three years as a reserve officer for us. Uh kind of a a second or or third or even fourth career. Bill's done a little bit of everything over the years but uh his main career was a air traffic controller. Retired from that. also a member of the the US Air Force. Uh but he's jumped right in uh where Randy left off and and he's uh his time as a reserve has certainly helped him get up to speed quickly in that role. [4:35] Brad Paulson: A few new officers uh starting out in July. Bennett Wrand was also a cso for us for a few years. Graduated from Winona. Uh so he's been around but officially started in his sworn role in uh middle of July just after Pana Prague. [4:51] Brad Paulson: All joining him is Joe Baron. Um Joe grew up in the St. Peter area, went to school up at Baiji State. Uh this is his first uh sworn police officer job. So he's uh uh doing well. All of these officers see here are are winding down their field training phase. So they started in July and and kind of starting to wrap wrap some of that up. So close to being out on their own. [5:15] Brad Paulson: Megan Karp uh also started in July. you see there. She was one of our u grant funded recipients of the uh the IC poet grant. So graduated from Henipin Technical College uh in July and started with us as a sworn officer. She uh got her undergrad graduate degree from St. Cloud State but came to us really from the hospitality industry. And then Josh Enavald, also on the IC Poet grant, uh, graduated from Minnesota State Mano and prior to Lakeville PD was at the Carver County Sheriff's Office in a in a detention deputy role. [5:54] Brad Paulson: Quick update on the first center. If you haven't seen pictures or driven by, some good progress out there. Uh, most the exterior walls are up. Uh the big push now is to get things tightened up and enclosed before uh before the snow flies. They're they're coming along good on that. Uh there's a note there, the first layer of asphalt will be laid before winter. That now down. I drove by earlier today, so that's a that's a good sign. So, uh we're on track with uh getting that sealed up to do the interior work over the cold weather months. Uh as far as partnerships, we're in the final stages of uh finishing up some capital member uh agreements with four area law enforcement agencies, just putting kind of the finishing touches on those agreements. Uh and also continuing to have a conversation with the local college on partnering on a potential skills program there. Uh they were waiting to see some of the uh changes with uh the Minnesota Post board and the education requirements that they were looking at and now that that's been flushed out a little bit, uh those conversations have have re-engaged. So that's uh exciting for us. [6:57] Brad Paulson: Highlighting some of our support from the Lakeville Public Safety Foundation. On the left there was a significant grant for a UTV uh which we received just before Panaprog this year. It was a good tool to have out there uh to to get around downtown. I think that picture is from just before the parade. But uh with with crowds uh that's that's a nice asset for us to have. Uh also good conversation piece for people coming up to to look to engage with our staff. Uh given our parks with Ritter and now Grand Prairie, some of these large area parks that uh it's not probably conducive to drive a squad all over. This will be a good tool for us to get around in those areas as well. On the upper right there is our what's become an annual police fire softball game that our public safety foundation helps to support. Our first round at it uh in late September. We made it, I think, one batter in before the skies opened up and we got rained out quickly and uh we tried to cancel, but the fire department wouldn't let us. So, we uh we came back in October and uh and we came up short once again. But um always a good time to get together with with their staff and a relaxing evening for for everybody. And then on the bottom right, that picture is from the uh police and fire ball in uh September, the biggest foundation event every year where we highlight and honor the both police and firefighter of the year. And it's a room full at brackets of supporters and donors and a and a good evening for all of us. [8:18] Brad Paulson: Community engagement, just a few highlights there. We get a lot of um a lot of requests for uh for events and for our staff to come out and speak or interact with people. Some of it is uh just uh by happen stance as well with people driving around and looking for opportunities. Uh but these are a few of those moments. On the left there is officer Andy Shurmer doing a drone demonstration at the fountains. Uh one of our senior care facilities. They're always amazed at some of the new technology trends that are out there. So we're always happy to get out there and show them some of our tools. That's uh CSO Anuka Lang talking with a gentleman and is I believe a parrot of some sort that the bird does talk. I've seen it before. Uh that's down at Antlers Park. On the upper right is a community education visit. I believe that's Officer Brian Smith up there. And then on the bottom right, safety camp which is in August. Always a good turnout for that. And the helicopter landing is always one of the one of the big highlights for all the kids to see. That's North Air. That helps us out with that. [9:22] Brad Paulson: And of course, it seems like a long time ago, but this was in quarter three in July. Panaprag. Uh it's it's a heavy lift citywide, including for our department. Um, we wouldn't want to do it every weekend. Uh, but it's a great way for uh for us to uh interact with the community. Uh, by and large, most of the folks that are out there looking just to have a good time and enjoy the community, enjoy each other. There's always a handful of people that uh that we deal with and try to do that as discreetly and and efficiently as we can to not impact everybody else's good time. Uh but always proud of our staff for the amount of days and long long days and hours that they put in to uh to safely get through all of those events. [10:03] Brad Paulson: And then uh National Night Out, which is in early August, about a hundred parties again this year. We get to as many of those as we can along with the fire department. But again, a great way for kids to jump in squad cars and check out equipment and interact with officers. Uh we had another good weather year, which always always helps us out. And uh some of us ate way too much once again. So highlighting some of our training and development. Not uh intending for people to read through every bullet point on the slide here, but there's a lot of acronyms and abbreviations, but just to kind of capture the amount of training and development that gets done. That's one of our uh internal priorities is professional development. There's certainly a lot of training tied to our lensure uh which we're mandated to do. Uh but there's a lot of extras that uh that people look to try to enhance their skills. Uh both technical skills, leadership skills, mentoring. Uh you see a real variety there from the upper left, the Glock armors, the folks, our staff that inspect and maintain our firearms. Uh some of the more um I guess job related tasks with emergency driving out at the Dakota County uh track. Uh and then on the right you see uh leading without rank uh mentorship and leadership uh northwestern school of police staff and command. Those are more leadershipbased programs that uh we do our best to get uh get our staff through. [11:29] Brad Paulson: Moving into some of the uh the numbers here, the statistics and a lot of the slides leading up till now uh with our community activities. Um they're they're fun uh events for the most part for our officers and positive. the uh statistics. I think what kind of gets lost and buried in some of these is some of the heavier work that our staff does that um you know isn't as well represented in public slideshows and presentations, but I don't want it lost. I know the council recognizes this, but for the public uh there's some heavy calls that our staff deals with and uh a statistic doesn't often tell the whole story, but these are just a way for us to show some of the work that gets done on uh on the more enforcement side of things. So, third quarter uh police reports um actually pulled. We're down uh we were down uh about 30 from uh third quarter of 2024. And then our 911 uh CRU call transfers. These are calls that come into dispatch, 911 calls that the dispatcher uh realizes are probably better served by our crisis response unit. So we've we saw 25 of those calls specific to Lakeville in quarter 3. uh and we continue to be right around that 75 to 85% that uh police department never gets involved with um which is how that program or that um function is intended. [12:45] Brad Paulson: So good to see those numbers kind of tracking consistently. Calls for service uh you can see in the parentheses just above the title there um we're at about 12,400 in quarter 3 down from u 14,200 uh last year. Again, that's driven largely by our medical response. Fire department move moving to full-time, there's a lot less medical calls that we uh respond to. So, that's been a good improvement. Uh welfare check and crisis mental health calls, both down a little bit in quarter three, which is which is great to see. We put a lot of afterare resources out there to try to minimize uh the call back on on some of our folks that uh are struggling uh with certain things in the community. And then uh more traffic related, our traffic stop numbers uh were down in 2025 and quarter 3 driven largely by a little bit shorter staff in in patrol with some of our changeover and uh uh people out on medical leave and other types of leave. And then uh crashes are relatively consistent year-over-year with property damage and also personal injury. [13:53] Brad Paulson: And just a comparison to some of our neighboring uh agency total calls there. We're just uh right in between Apple Valley and Burnsville in quarter 3. And on criminal offense reporting on the far left, they're driving under the influence. Those numbers are up a little bit. Uh we've uh we have three trained drug recognition experts. You'll call you'll hear them called DRRE. Uh but they uh are great at looking for um drugs outside of alcohol. So, uh, cannabis prescription uh opioids things like that. And we're seeing more and more drivers impaired by u substances other than alcohol. Uh, but it's a different type of of training and skill set to recognize those. So, as our staff continues to get more used to that and trained on that, uh, we're hoping to see those numbers continue to to go up as they're more proactive in uh, in taking our impaired drivers off the streets. Uh, aggravated assaults are up just a little bit. Simple assaults or misdemeanor assaults down. Um the the one other one to highlight there that which is a pretty significant drop damage, vandalism. Um those are more uh what we would call kind of a spree type of crime where sometimes you might get a pack of these all in one uh one event or one evening which can generate a number of case files based on one uh evening of activity. [15:13] Brad Paulson: Finally just some snapshots from our uh social media work out there. The animals always get uh get a lot of attention on the left there. I think that's officer Engel. It's a little small for me to see from here with a injured bald eagle. Um, you know, all kinds of things that we get called to to assist with. Uh, they they're large and dangerous. Uh, but we were able to get that bird up to the U of M Raptor Center, which is always a great partner and and very willing to uh work with staff and in getting uh injured raptors up there. In the middle was a awfully friendly raccoon which went to a wildlife rehab center up in Roseville. Uh on the right there is a picture from prior to swearing in uh when we introduced our officers here a few months ago and uh a birthday uh shout out to K9 Nora on the right. That wraps up our uh third quarter report. Happy to answer uh any questions you may have. [16:06] Luke Hellier: Okay. Thank you, Chief. Questions, comments? [16:09] Dan Wolter: Just a question with the uh impaired driving stats. Uh have you noticed in proportions between alcohol and let's say marijuana or other drugs? Um those used to be rare, relatively rare, but have you seen a change in that? [16:33] Brad Paulson: We have seen an increase. I don't have the numbers in front of me with statisticals. Um it is still largely alcohol. I mean that is still the main driver. And I do think a piece of that is it's it's more recognizable and officers are are more trained in enforcing that. When you think of a roadside portable test, uh we have tools that can detect alcohol. We do not have something that someone can blow into that detects uh THC or you know other u other substances, intoxicating substances. So that's a piece of it, but we are seeing the trend uh rise with other drug impairment for sure. [17:08] Dan Wolter: That's it's good to see us investing in a training that's going to allow people to detect that. [17:14] Luke Hellier: Joshua. [17:15] Joshua Lee: Chief, thanks for the report. I um had a request for your next quarterly. Um we've received some new striping at the uh roundabout and I'm curious if we could maybe get a report on potential decreases in fender benders around that. [17:35] Brad Paulson: Yes, we are tracking those. It's still a little early to get a good grasp of it, but we will provide that um those numbers at uh the next quarterly report for sure. [17:46] Joshua Lee: Thank you. [17:47] Brad Paulson: You bet. [17:48] Luke Hellier: Thank you, Chief. Appreciate it. Okay, moving on to our consent agenda. Mr. Miller, anything you'd like to highlight? [clears throat] [17:55] Justin Miller: Thank you, Mayor. A few items tonight. 6G is an acceptance of a donation to the fire department from the McCoy family. Uh Skyler McCoy was a former firefighter for us and his family donated over $32 that's going to be designated toward fitness equipment for the fire department. Item 6M is an amended and restated joint powers agreement with ISD 194 Lakeville schools. You reviewed this at your work session last week. This is in relation to um revised use policies for facilities and parks between the the two entities. And then item 6 is a resolution of support for the 2026 through 2030 Dakota County Capital Improvement Program and we uh appreciate their support and partnership and uh projects that are occurring in Lakeville. [18:36] Luke Hellier: Very good. Thank you. Uh council, any items you'd like to have further discussion? Not I will take a motion agenda. [18:41] Luke Hellier: Is there a second? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. [18:50] Councilmembers: I. [18:51] Luke Hellier: Opposed. Okay, the consent agenda passes. We'll move on to item seven, a public hearing imposing a service charge for special district number one for taxes payable in 2026. And I'll turn it over to our finance director to give us... [19:06] Julie Stahl: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Um, the district special service district was created in 1998 and it has to follow Minnesota statute 428A. One of the requirements of that statute statute is holding a public hearing every year um to impose a special service charge whether there's a charge or not. Um the special service district advisory board is recommending a zero special service charge for taxes payable 2026 and the budget that they have um provided or put forth for 2020 their 2026 2027 year is an exhibit B. Um, and with that, I'll just open it up for public hearing or any questions council may have. [19:52] Luke Hellier: Okay. Of the board. This is a public hearing, so if you have any comments related to now open. Seeing none, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. Okay. Is there a second? [20:08] Luke Hellier: All those in favor say I. [20:10] Councilmembers: I. [20:11] Luke Hellier: Opposed? Public hearing is closed. And with that, I'll take a motion to approve budget and charge. Yep. Councilmember Bermel. [20:20] John Bermel: I move to approve the resolution imposing a service charge for special service district number one for taxables payable payable in 2026. [20:31] Luke Hellier: Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? The only thing I'll note, I had a conversation at one point with the DLBA and they think they're getting to the point where they're almost drawn down and they're going to have conversations about what the future of this charges. So that I'll take a motion or roll call. [20:53] Ann Orlofsky: Bermel, [20:54] John Bermel: I. [20:55] Ann Orlofsky: Wolter, [20:56] Dan Wolter: I. [20:57] Ann Orlofsky: Lee, [20:58] Joshua Lee: I. [20:59] Ann Orlofsky: Volk, [21:00] Michelle Volk: I. [21:01] Ann Orlofsky: Hellier, [21:02] Luke Hellier: I. [21:03] Luke Hellier: Okay, motion prevails. Um items 8, nine, unfinished and new business. Seeing none announcements. Our next city [clears throat] council uh meeting is uh Monday, November 17th, and our next work session is November 24th. And with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn. [21:20] Luke Hellier: Is there a second? [21:21] Luke Hellier: All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. We're adjourned.