This transcript features **Mayor Matt Montgomery** presiding over the meeting, with reports from City Administrator **Jon Radermacher** and various Council Members. Note: While the provided list of council members contains some names that differ from the roll call in the audio (likely due to the specific election year of the 2022 transcript), I have used the names clearly identified during the roll call and subsequent discussion (**Ringgold, Duncan, Gesme, Kronenberger, Lundell, Althoff**). *** [3:23] **[Background Noise]**: foreign [3:30] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: I’d like to call the October 18th, 2022, City Council meeting to order for the City of Cannon Falls. Uh, I guess Laura’s on Zoom. Let’s do a little roll call. Ringgold? (Here). Duncan? (Here). Gesme? (Here). Kronenberger is not on—now she is on Zoom. Lundell? (Here). Montgomery? (Here). Althoff? (Here). Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and [4:15] justice for all. [4:24] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay, you review the agenda. Is there any additions or corrections? [4:30] **Council Member Ringgold**: I’ll make a motion. [4:31] **Council Member Lundell**: Second. [4:32] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Ringgold, the second by Lundell to approve the agenda. Any discussion? All in favor? No, roll call—I’ve already forgotten, I already messed up once. All right, okay. Ringgold? (Yes). Duncan? (Aye). Gesme? (Aye). Kronenberger? (Aye). Lundell? (Aye). Montgomery? (Here—sorry, Aye). Okay. [5:10] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the City Council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length and each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak. Speakers may address topics relevant to the government of the city. Speakers must sign up in advance and provide their name, address, and topic they intend to address. Comments made must be on topic, respectful, pertinent to City business, and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down and if the speaker refuses to comply, they may be [5:56] removed from the meeting. Speakers shall not address issues that are the subject of a public hearing; all such comments should be made at the public hearing. City Council will not generally act on issues raised by the public input but may choose to schedule consideration on the item on a future agenda. Mr. Sterdimer? Oh, it’s tough at three minutes. [6:43] **Mr. Sterdimer (Public Speaker)**: Yeah guys, part of my free speech for just a little intro here to uh, maybe it’s a little unusual or not. [7:03] This is short. I was going to be long with it. We’re allowed to speak on anything that’s not on the agenda as far as important to the city, yeah? City business? I’m sorry, city business. The City Public Library is considered city business, and I guess I’m going to be brief. It’s super difficult... I’d probably do much better if I paid attention in speech class and did all the practicing beforehand and actually writing down, reading from something would be way better instead of just improv, which I’m nice—I’m terrible at. And um, and I go for many, many hours thinking about things. [8:40] **Mr. Sterdimer (Public Speaker)**: What some people may know about me... it might not be exactly what it is, or you know, we barely know each other as neighbors and whatnot. But for me, I’ve like, just getting up for the day, my health is kind of declining, which is... I’m not looking for extra sympathy or whatever, empathy. But I’m just concerned with some of the—what we read on—I think it should be on every city employee's business card: the Council, the Library, the Public Works, Police... have it where it says "Courage, Integrity, and Knowledge." [9:26] I’d like to start with knowledge. It is a big thing. I think, well, they all are. And also along with integrity, I feel like transparency and accountability. I was at a Library Board meeting for citizen input back on September 20th, I believe—or no, that was the last Council—it was back in September. They meet first or second Monday, and I was repeatedly cut out at least twice, if not more times. I would think I would have, just like I do here every time I’ve spoken, uninterrupted three minutes, or what many times people go over. I would say 80 percent of the time people take five minutes, which brings me to another point: you allow up to 30 minutes a meeting. This is kind of just a joke, don’t take this serious, but so that 30 minutes and there’s only say two speakers, another couple minutes or 10 minutes, 15. [10:58] But I’ll just mention what happened at the Library Board where I was cut off by one of the board trustees after just the first minute of speaking asking about why some libraries will display a flag and it can be—don’t have to be up all night which we many of us know it’s got to be illuminated, it’s got to be lit if it’s up 24 hours. But most libraries and others neighboring counties, they seem to manage it just fine and put it at half-staff when it’s appropriate. And to be able to, you know, it’s... we all I think feel very proud of being an American and being in this country and what the flag stands for. We take the Pledge of Allegiance saying that we pledge this allegiance to what, you know, we take that like oath. [11:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Tim, well, first few minutes is up. Finish your thoughts. [11:48] **Mr. Sterdimer (Public Speaker)**: First, might yeah, being cut off from or enter—and there’s like all this crosstalk at the library. But I don’t know if anybody can probably do anything about it until those people that are doing it either leave or get some kind of uh, yeah, I need a spokesperson or an agent to come up and speak. I might be. But as far as the flag, I think it is—like Mary Jill brought it up, and I guess the Library Board doesn’t have their—they don’t check in anymore, or they did wait you know a while back. But now, I don’t think they have the knowledge of, or could be looked at. I’m just expressing that and seeing if it could be something that could be... I don’t know if it goes to the Park Board? I get two different... I come to the city and they say it’s all in the Library's hands, and the Library says oh, it’s got to be brought up to the City. So I’m getting... I talked to Neil a couple days ago, or I think it was yesterday. Okay. [13:19] **Mr. Gorman (Public Speaker)**: Good evening. Um, I was at the Public Works meeting here week, 10 days ago and I brought up something that probably wasn't appropriate there, but Derek made a comment that I should bring it to the Planning Commission, but there isn't one, so here I am. And I'd rather be taking care of this in private, I'm sorry, not in public. But anyway, Supertron got a letter from Diane claiming she was in violation of some sign ordinances. She, somebody had complained about it, she tried to find out who the complainant was and of course that's confidential, she can't find that out, and was made to adhere to whatever the rule is. [14:26] This last spring, a fellow by the name Joe Leonardson—young guy trying to buy Chuggers from his father—he got cited for having a fence in his yard too high. Came to the Planning Commission, they hashed it all over, he ended up going to court several times, tried to find out who complained about his fence, couldn’t. It's confidential. In February of this last year, Supertron got a call from the Chief of Police. Her truck was parked illegally and something needed to be done about it. She had to go to your son, give him a key so he could move it whenever was appropriate or whatever the heck is going on. I don’t know and I don’t care, but apparently, this was on property that you own, Jon [Radermacher]. [15:37] Okay, so there’s six parking places to the south of your building down there, Jon. That’s a city parking lot. It has been since I was in diapers. Okay? And you don’t own it. And the city blacktopped it, city curb and guttered it many years ago, probably 25 years ago. Have you looked that up? Jon, you can do whatever you’d like and believe me, it’s a city parking lot. But regardless, she tried to find out and of course it’s confidential, she can’t find out. [16:11] So I took it upon myself to file a complaint several months ago on you, Jon. I tried to talk to you first. I told you you’re going to want to talk to me before long because we could have taken care of this privately. And the point is, is that you’re in violation of several ordinances, okay? And it’s not a big deal, Jon, until you start allowing your staff and your police to harass and bully people that are in no more violation than you yourself are. And the interesting part is, Jon, the complaint that I made is confidential also. Why is it that I hear about me complaining about you downtown on the street? So there is a double standard. It continues in Cannon Falls and you can look over your glasses all you want, Bill [Angerman], because I know who made the first complaint as you said it publicly right here just before Sue got cited. And it’s kind of a chicken—whatever you want to call it—chicken crap way to go about running a city. Either make it fair and equitable for all and live by the rules that you people enforce yourselves, or forget about it. It’s not fair and it is bullying. Thank you for your time. [17:10] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Three minutes are up. Thank you. Okay, close the public input. [17:56] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: We’ll get into the consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. For you at home and in the audience, I’ll go through the consent agenda: - Item A: Claims for the accounting period ending October 13th, 2022. - Item B: Minutes for the October 4, 2022, City Council meeting. - Item C: Approve a pay request number two for the water tower painting project. - Item D: Resolution 2647 adopting the general election judges for 2022. - Item E: Resolution 2648 acceptance of a monetary donation for $500 from Selco. - Item F: Approval of No Outlet street sign on State Street West. - Item G: Approve the disposal of a 2001 Toro Workman 3200. - Item H: Approve the roof inspection reports and repairs. - Item I: Approve repairs for the City Hall fire sprinkler system. - Item J: Approve driveway gates near Wells 3, 4, and 5. - Item K: Approve Memorandum of Understanding with the MPCA for the PFAS monitoring. - Item L: Resolution 2649 prohibiting garbage and refuge haulers from residential alleys and zones R1, R2, R3, and R4. - Item M: Resolution 2650 designating polling places for 2023. - Item N: Approve a disposal fleet vehicle for the Police Department. [20:11] Is there anything the Council would like to pull down? [20:15] **Council Member Gesme**: Make a motion to accept the consent agenda. [20:17] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Second? [20:18] **Council Member (Unidentified)**: Second. [20:19] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion and Gesme, second by Montgomery [himself] to accept the consent agenda. Roll call. Ringgold? (Aye). Duncan? (Aye). Gesme? (Aye). Kronenberger? (Aye). Lundell? (Aye). Montgomery? (Aye). Motion passes. Okay, reports. Chamber, Kyle? [21:00] **Kyle Paulson (Chamber Director)**: Good evening Council and community. We have just a few announcements tonight. The first one is the White Sidewalls are going to be playing at the high school auditorium on Saturday, October 29th. The tickets are $35 and it starts at 7:00 PM. You can get your tickets at the Cannon Valley Senior Center, Merchants Bank, and at the Chamber office. That is being put on by the Cannon Valley Senior Center; it's a fundraiser for them so it should be a lot of fun. [21:38] Halloween Trick-or-Treat Trot: This is an annual event that the Chamber puts on. This year it is on Monday, October 31st from 3:00 to 5:00 PM and it will be on 4th Street, Main Street, and Mill Street. Right now we have 35 Chamber members signed up to hand out candy and we are expecting at least 900 children. There will be arrows on the sidewalks that day so that the traffic all goes counterclockwise and that really helps to keep away from the congestion and everything runs smoothly that way. [22:37] Deck The Falls: We are looking for parade units. That is Saturday, November 26th. The parade is at five o'clock, so we'll have set up about 4:30. And so if you're interested in lighting up your truck, trailer, lawnmower—whatever you'd like, police cars—please let us know. There is no charge to be in the parade, but we do have a registration form. [23:05] Okay, Saturday, November 12th—jumping backwards a little bit here—the library is putting on a health fair from 10:00 to 2:00, and they will have any kind of healthcare business can have a booth there to talk about their products and what they have for services. And that is everything we have for the next couple of weeks. [23:21] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay, any questions? [23:23] **Kyle Paulson (Chamber Director)**: Also, thank you to Public Works. We had to take down the flowers early but you know, Mother Nature said no more. So thank you for that help and also for the help on the garland, getting that all situated. Thank you much. [23:40] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Thank you. Okay, committee reports. EDA? [23:45] **Council Member Derek Lundell**: Go ahead. Uh, the EDA, we also had a closed meeting to talk about possible future projects. Uh, and then it was mostly just a review talking about our one of our online subscriptions to Sherpa, which was a social media account that we denied. I forget what the final amount was—I believe was it $2,000? Yeah, for $2,000 for a full year subscription, so we declined that. Um, and then more just going through the updates of the loans that we have, the revolving loan fund, and then the closure meeting. [24:50] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay. Park Board? [24:52] **Council Member Derek Lundell**: Update from John Birch Park and the project there. We took another step further with the Bears bringing a design and what their request is. Um, and it’s a third base dugout. They’ve got some really nice plans in preparation for hosting the state amateur baseball tournament in 2028. This will be a multi-step project, and the fact that we didn’t get the state bond last year with the wall—that’s kind of in limbo right now. So they’re moving forward with their own donations and going through the channels to get permission from the city. I believe the next step is to get a designer and then talk to our engineer to make sure that everything will be the way that it needs to be on that structure. They’re going to have a little bit more storage, probably some bathrooms on the ground level for football games and for ADA accessibility, and then connect it to the grandstand behind home. And then also with Park Board, the little projects going on at Veterans Memorial Park; some benches are going to get moved and some cement’s going to get put underneath so there’s not a washout. The dirt always seems to get kicked out underneath those. So a few things getting moved up there. [26:10] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay. Public Works? [26:12] **Council Member Derek Lundell**: Everything we talked about was on the consent agenda for the most part. Um, I don’t think we really did anything else, do you remember? Yep, so that was about it. [26:24] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay. Finance Committee? [26:26] **Council Member Derek Lundell**: We touched a little bit on the Historical Society’s request; that’s still pending. The big discussion was on fire contracts. We’re moving forward with that, working with the townships and hope to get a result—get a new contract before the year is done. [26:40] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay. Library Board? [26:42] **Council Member (Unidentified)**: Um, there wasn't a quorum this month so we didn't really have a meeting. [26:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay, let’s go around. Anything you want to add? [26:50] **Jed Petersen (Public Works Director)**: Um, we’re just winding up flushing water mains and hydrants and starting to winterize the irrigation systems at the parks. Getting ready for winter. [27:08] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: All right. Okay, Jon? [Radermacher] [27:14] **Jon Radermacher (City Administrator)**: Um, we had a meeting today. I’ll touch on the 2023 reconstruction project. We had all staff and engineers, and we’re narrowing the scope of the project. It looks like to be about—keep it around the $2 million mark. One of the big items that we’re going to do is the sewer crossing the river with a lift station and then head up 3rd Street. There’s some sewer and water and storm sewer going up 4th—it’s not an actual street but it’s that kind of that gravel alley, I would call it. And that’ll burn up your $2 million. So, and then just kind of a fun fact today: Diane [Johnson] was talking about building permits and the roofing permits, and I do believe we’re well north of $11 million in permits this year, and most of them are roofing permits. Yeah, so I thought that was interesting. The shingles are flying everywhere. That’s it. [28:38] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay. Uh, Laura, you got anything up there? [28:43] **Council Member Laura Kronenberger**: No, sir. [28:44] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay. Derek? [28:45] **Council Member Derek Lundell**: Nope, nothing for me. [28:46] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Steve? [28:47] **Council Member Steve Althoff**: No man, just congratulations to the Bombers on their homecoming week. Uh, setting a new school record for points scored against Pine Island. So it was a good week. [28:55] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: I have nothing. [29:01] **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Just a quick question about the Library Park input. When Kyle speaks about Chamber events, the Library used to speak about the events coming up. There’s a very important one coming up on Saturday for the community and police from 1:00 to 2:00. Saturday the 22nd, I believe, is a speaker. Somebody that went through mental illness and kind of overcame that—Rich Color. So it’s a lady, I don’t know if she’s local, but I just remembered when the Director of the Library was here, she used to give like a run through of events. So I thought it’d be worthy of noting. [29:40] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay, thank you. I have nothing else. Entertain a motion to adjourn? [29:44] **Council Member Gesme**: Motion. [29:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Second? [29:46] **Council Member Ringgold**: Second. [29:47] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Gesme, second by Ringgold. Adjourn discussion? All in favor? Oh man, roll call. Ringgold? (Aye). Duncan? (Aye). Gesme? (Aye). Kronenberger? (Aye). Lundell? (Aye). Montgomery? (Aye). Okay, we stand adjourned.