[6:22] Anne Burt (Mayor): Good evening. Welcome to the city meeting. Today is November 5th, 2025. It is 7:30 p.m. We are meeting here in council chambers. We also are sharing this um uh meeting uh virtually. Uh meetings are recorded by True Lens Community Media. They're broadcast live, so if you're watching from home, that's what's happening now. They're also replayed on channel 789. You can also follow up with these um meetings on the city's YouTube channel. Uh we have um lots of things on our agenda tonight, but let's begin with our pledge of allegiance. [6:59] Multiple Speakers: 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. [7:05] Anne Burt (Mayor): Um [clears throat] Ashley, our city clerk, can you please do the roll call? [7:17] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Morris, [7:19] Steve Morris (Council Member): uh here. [7:20] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Santini, [7:21] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): here. [7:22] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Stafford [7:23] Donna Stafford (Council Member): here. [7:24] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Wilson [7:25] Kim Wilson (Council Member): here. [7:26] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Mayor Bert [7:27] Anne Burt (Mayor): here. We are all here tonight, so we're able to conduct tonight's business. Um I just want to verify, we talked about this briefly in our workshop. Are we holding off on the K cash for coins for canines proclamation? And did we decide that, [7:38] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Mayor Bert? Uh, we will go through with it tonight. [7:41] Anne Burt (Mayor): We are going through with it tonight. Okay. Do we have somebody here to speak to it? [7:45] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Uh, Mayor, we're going to have our police officer uh representative speak to it tonight. [8:02] Anne Burt (Mayor): Okay. Fantastic. Okay. So, let's do that first order business. And that is the um the adoption for the coins for canines uh proclamation. And am I inviting our guest up now? [8:12] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Uh yes. [8:13] Anne Burt (Mayor): Yes. And it is I understand you're a decoy. Which Right. So, um, Officer Nick Waggner. [8:18] Officer Nick Waggner: That's right. [8:19] Anne Burt (Mayor): Um, who is a de? You have to tell us what a decoy is. I don't know what a decoy is. Are you Are you getting your arm bit? Is that what happens? [8:22] Officer Nick Waggner: Yeah, pretty much. So, I can wear a suit or a sleeve and basically get beat up and help the dogs, help the handlers. So, yeah, I train train with them. I don't have a dog. I'd like to someday. That's kind of my aspiration. [8:30] Anne Burt (Mayor): That's what you have to do in order to work your way up to actually getting a dog. [8:35] Officer Nick Waggner: Yep. put in the work to to get there. So, yeah, I'm here tonight uh to speak on behalf of our K9 unit um as a representative and like you said, um I'm a decoy, so I'm on our team um I'm here tonight to thank uh Donna Stafford um primarily and and the K9 fund, the Woodbury Police K9 Fund in general. Um for adopting this annual proclamation for coins for canines. This initiative was started, for those of you that don't know, uh, by the Woodbury Police K9 Fund under Donna's leadership as a creative way to partner with businesses in order to, [snorts] um, raise [clears throat] much needed funds [9:09] that help us keep our K9 unit operating at the highest level. [snorts] Each year, the K9 fund works tirelessly to put out donation boxes at several of our local businesses to receive donations that directly support training and equipment for our canines at the police department. It's no easy feat. Uh, it requires the police K9 fund volunteers um to dedicate their personal time to collect the boxes on a regular basis. As someone who aspires to be a K9 handler, like I said, I know the value of these efforts and thank the fund very much for their tireless dedication to our K9 unit. Without this commitment, the cost to the city of Woodbury alone would increase significantly, making this valuable program much more difficult for us to operate. On behalf of the K9 unit, thank you for adopting this important proclamation that allows us to serve our community at the highest level. [9:59] Anne Burt (Mayor): Great. Thank you. Yes. And I the coins for the group, somebody comes every year. We um always honor this. So, we've got a month ahead. Um I'm going to go ahead and read the proclamation because that's one of the things we always do. So this is the proclamation of the city of Woodbury, Washington County, Minnesota, naming coins for K9 month, November 20th through December 20th, 2025. Whereas Donna Smith Stafford's husband, Bruce Stafford was a Woodbury firefighter for 22 years and retired as chief as well as a 35-year paramedic. And whereas on November 20th, 2014, Bruce passed away suddenly. Seeing the first responders doing everything they could professionally, their shock and grief, and the caring gentleness shown to his widow, Donna Smith Stafford left a lasting impression on her. To show her deepest respect and gratitude, and with guidance from Bruce and Dick, a fund has been established to honor Woodbury's public safety department, which has been established as the Woodbury police K9 fund. Whereas the fund's purpose and mission is to purchase canines, equipment, and train officers in Woodbury. And whereas to sustain the fund to remain true to the vision and mission, the coins for canines program was established. Whereas the city of Woodbury will declare the month between November 20th and December 20th every year to be designated as coins for [11:15] canines month in Woodbury. Now therefore, I Anne W. Burt, mayor of the city in Washington County, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim November 20th through December 20th, 2025 to be coins for canines month in Woodbury. Donation boxes will be distributed throughout the community, giving an opportunity for everyone to give thanks to our police officers, K-9 officers, paramedics, EMTs, and firefighters. Any idea how many boxes will be distributed around the community? [11:42] Officer Nick Waggner: I don't know the exact number. 75. [laughter] [11:46] Anne Burt (Mayor): Steve is on—You are a board member of the Coins. [11:49] Steve Morris (Council Member): Yep. So there are approximately 40 businesses that will be visiting this year that will host a box as well as new this year will be a number of our food and entertainment establishments. Uh you will see um coasters with our QR code to donate which are new this year as well. [12:06] Anne Burt (Mayor): Okay, cool. For those of you that visit our bars and restaurants. [12:09] Steve Morris (Council Member): Fantastic. All of the all of the businesses are going to be listed on the uh website for Woodbury Police K9 Fund website and featured on social media. [12:22] Anne Burt (Mayor): Fantastic. That's great. Thank you so much. Good luck with all that dog training you're doing. [laughter] And Donna, thank you for uh establishing this fund. I know this is always an emotional time for you and um it is. And um but what a great uh what a great uh legacy to leave behind for your beloved husband. Okay, we'll now move on to the—I'm sorry. Wait, do we do we have to formally adopt anything or no? [12:47] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Uh for the preparation. Yeah. No. [12:51] Anne Burt (Mayor): Okay, got it. Thank you. Do we have anybody for open forum? I don't have any green sheets. Anybody online? Okay, then we'll skip that. I'll go on to the consent agenda. All items listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the city council and would be enacted by one motion and affirmative vote of roll call by the majority of the members present. There'll be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member or a citizen so request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered a separate subject of discussion by the council. We have people in the audience today. Does anybody need anything removed from consent agenda? Seeing none. Online? No. [13:31] Okay. Council members, anybody? Or otherwise, I will take a—Somebody can put forth a motion. [13:38] Steve Morris (Council Member): I'll move to adopt consent agenda item 6A through 6J. [13:41] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): Second. [13:43] Anne Burt (Mayor): Motion a second. Any further discussion? [13:48] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Okay, my mic. So, um just regarding the um delinquent utility bills, I had asked that question earlier also on why there was—and then we did have a um member of the public also write in on this. Is there an explanation on why we have such a huge increase in these delinquent bills? [14:09] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Uh, Mayor Bert, Council Member Wilson, I did uh talk to staff about getting that information about kind of uh more of a historical context and if there's any trends. Uh I don't have that information offhand. I can tell you that um I wouldn't say it's an abnormal uh increase, you know, just based on where it was a couple of years ago and um and some of the newer, you [14:36] know, the more growth in the community. It wasn't alarming. Um but I can get back to the council at a future date with some more information about uh trends and kind of projections. [14:46] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Did you did you actually look back to see what it was in— [14:48] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): I mean it's in the historical comparison in here. 2023 was 457,000 and 2025 we are up to 727,000. [14:58] Kim Wilson (Council Member): I'm just always amazed at the numbers. I mean how many—do we have the number of— [15:05] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): 175. [15:06] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Yeah, it's just always a lot. It just always kind of amazes me [laughter] that many people are not paying but but what is the consequence? I mean it isn't like they're getting by without paying. There's a consequence. [15:18] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): No, there's there's admin fees, there's fines, late fees that ultimately the city is made whole and uh some of the reason why it's going up is because rates have gone up as well. Um that's part of it. [15:32] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Yeah. But then some of them there are some big ticket items, but some of it is for curb stop repair. Some significant things go into that. If there's then those just get put onto their um property tax statement. Is that correct? [15:43] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Correct. Yep. And it's not payable over 15 years like our road rehab projects or anything. Uh curb stop or some of those uh more um infrastructure related costs can be, delinquencies are not. [15:59] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): And so for reference just for number of accounts if I'm doing my math right it's 28 from 24 to 25. [16:09] Steve Morris (Council Member): Yeah, that's what it—dollar amount is 200. Correct. Number of units. 24 to 25 is— [16:15] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): I did 23. That's okay. 24 to 25. You what did you say? 28 additional homes, but it's a hundred and some thousand. Yeah. For the 20 homes. [16:29] Kim Wilson (Council Member): So, um it's always interesting. I would like to know from somebody why they don't pay, but whatever. Um, anything else— [16:35] Steve Morris (Council Member): I would note—and I'm I'm going to ask a question for staff to follow up on. I I did notice as we went through those the number of what appear to be rental units. There was a disproportionate amount of rental units. So to answer your question, I would like to—you know, I'm going to ask a question of staff [snorts] outside of this, but I'll ask the question of: is there a trend? Is there something we're doing on a rental unit standpoint that maybe they're gone? They're no longer renting the unit and the thing is abandoned. We can't get a hold of them. So, is this going to be written off? So, that's going to be one of my questions that I had because I just noticed there was a disparity. [17:11] Kim Wilson (Council Member): I guess that's I did ask that question too like there seems to be whole neighborhoods or whole sections of people and the question is why is that? [17:21] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Mayor [clears throat] and council members, we're pretty confident there's some trends in terms of why and in some um you know, whether it's rental housing or or new homes that are being sold, but we'll get better information uh and come back to the council with that. [17:37] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Is there some reason why we don't—I mean, I hate to prolong this meeting. I know. I'm sorry. Is there some reason why we don't in rental units, if these are in fact rental units, the whole swath of a certain [snorts] street or numbers, why we don't collect uh an upfront fee? I do know that in other communities they will say we need x amount uh holding which is almost like your last month utility payment um in order to connect up to utilities. Make sense? [18:06] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): So like a security deposit? [18:08] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Almost like that. Thank you. Yep. [18:09] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): It's a great question. We'd have to research that a little bit more. Um, there's admin costs associated with that and really gets down to if it's a reoccurring problem and and if that would be a solution to that problem. [18:24] Steve Morris (Council Member): I do know that—I think, well I believe this to be true—that uh if it's landlord owned the landlord is ultimately responsible for the water payment. It's not the renter, it's the landlord. [18:34] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Correct. [18:35] Steve Morris (Council Member): But that's I think reflected in the fact that these things are being assessed against the property itself. And so, if the renter's gone, it's going to fall on the property owner to pay things off, right? [18:48] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Yeah. Yeah. I was just trying to save us admin fees and get our money up front as opposed to going through this process. That's all. [18:56] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Um, okay. Any other discussion—with today's economics and where things are going, I suspect we may see a larger number next year. So, we may want to discuss some options that we might be able to have to help people out. [19:12] Anne Burt (Mayor): Okay. Anything else? All right. We had a motion, a second. Roll call, please. [19:17] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Santini, [19:18] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): Aye. [19:19] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Stafford, [19:20] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Aye. [19:21] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Wilson, [19:22] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Aye. [19:23] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Morris, [19:24] Steve Morris (Council Member): Aye. [19:25] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Mayor Bert, [19:26] Anne Burt (Mayor): Aye. Um, those pass. Um, okay. We the only public hearing we have tonight is for a um liquor license. So rather than reading through the whole thing—I don't—if somebody needs to speak then I have to tell you what you need to say or what the guidelines are. But if not, we're just going to go right on and talk about the liquor license request. This is um item 7A. It's the approval for Seelad Enterprises LLC doing business as Good Bites Mexican Grill for um on sale intoxicating liquor license. [20:05] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Thank you, Mayor Bert, members of the council. Are our screens not working? [20:10] Anne Burt (Mayor): Nope, I didn't touch it. [20:11] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Okay. [laughter] So, I don't know if the cable folks haven't turned them on or— [20:15] Anne Burt (Mayor): I got blamed for it last time. [laughter] [20:17] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): You kicked it. Okay. All right. Again. All right. Um, Seelad Enterprise LLC doing business as Good Bites Mexican Grill has submitted an application for an on sale intoxicating liquor license including Sunday and patio sales for the restaurant located at 10150 Hudson Road, Suite 122. Um, they have one owner of that business with 100% interest. Um, the name is Uleia Varela. Um, as required by city code, a criminal history check as it pertains to liquor licensing was conducted um on the owner and no violations that would preclude the officers of the corporation from obtaining a liquor license was found. Uh, all necessary fees were submitted. Our city attorney has reviewed the application and found it to be acceptable. And then as our procedure, we uh mailed out public hearing notices to the surrounding properties for tonight. Uh, with that, the staff recommendation is on the screen and I'm available if you have any questions. [21:26] Anne Burt (Mayor): Great. And any green sheets? Again, just checking. Seeing none. I make a motion that we close the hearing. [21:35] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): Second. [21:36] Anne Burt (Mayor): Motion a second. All in favor? [21:39] Multiple Speakers: Aye. [21:40] Anne Burt (Mayor): Hearing's closed. Council members. [21:42] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): These are always pretty straightforward. [21:44] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Yeah. And this was a former business. This just had a change of ownership and a change of name. I will make a motion to approve the on sale intoxicating liquor license including Sunday and patio sales to Seelad Enterprise LLC DBA Good Bites Mexican Grill located at 10150 Hudson Road, Suite 122. [22:01] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): Second. [22:03] Anne Burt (Mayor): Motion second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Uh, roll call, please. [22:07] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Stafford, [22:08] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Aye. [22:09] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Wilson, [22:10] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Aye. [22:11] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Morris, [22:12] Steve Morris (Council Member): Aye. [22:13] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Santini, [22:14] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): Aye. [22:15] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Mayor Bert, [22:16] Anne Burt (Mayor): Aye. That passes. Good luck to the new enterprise and I hope all goes well. All right, we then uh have a discussion item tonight. This is to authorize financial assistance to Open Cupboard Food Shelf and uh Jeff is going to share some more with us. [22:28] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Thank you, mayor. So, yes, this item is to consider the authorization of financial assistance to Open Cupboard Food Shelf. I'll be going through a brief presentation. Uh and Jessica Francis, the executive director of Open Cupboard is here as well to provide uh additional context and uh also answer any questions that the council may have as well. Uh so as most of us know as of the first of this month, SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, uh those benefits from the federal government have been delayed and reduced due to the federal government shutdown. Open Cupboard, the food shelf that serves uh predominantly Woodbury and Oakdale, has a growing number of community members as a result [23:14] of this shutdown. Uh specifically, there were north of 2400 visits from Woodbury households in September. More recently, um uh above and beyond that number, visits have increased 10 to 15% and dependency is anticipated to further increase uh given the absence or delay or partial funding of SNAP uh benefits. Overall, you know, there's significant impacts to Open Cupboard in terms of the community reliance on the food shelf. Uh as a result of this, Open Cupboard has requested $10,000 from the city uh to make up for the absence of SNAP funding from the federal government and the overall increased visits overall but also exclusive to Woodbury residents. As a result of this, staff is requesting authorization of $20,000, uh $10,000 to be distributed now per their request, and an additional up to $10,000 for a future disbursement if additional funds are requested based on the length of the government shutdown and substantiated need. This isn't a blank check; it is if there's a [24:37] documented need and the government shutdown continues to go on into the month and into the holiday season. Um, just a little bit of context about Open Cupboard and the area and what other entities have stepped up to the plate. Recently, the city of Oakdale contributed $10,000 as well, and Washington County contributed $250,000 overall to all uh nutrition or food shelf related entities uh to address food insecurity given the current circumstances, 75,000 of which will go to Open Cupboard. Um a little bit about you know this is not a typical thing that a city does in kind of giving direct financial assistance to a nonprofit like this. Um we do have a fund that is uh appropriate for this. It is our local gambling contribution fund. These funds are highly restrictive and only can be used for certain things. At this point all we are using this fund for is um public safety equipment which we have a budgeted kind of line item for uh annually. Um so it's restrictive and we do keep a healthy reserve in this fund. So we are able to make you know the aforementioned payments if approved. [26:02] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): You just really quick want to talk about where that's coming from, where that lawful gambling contribution revenue is coming from? Talk about right at a super high level. [26:11] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): High level it's coming from a fee that um other nonprofits pay to provide for pull tabs, um bingo, those types of activities in which those nonprofits uh ultimately get a profit to cover their you know costs. Um so based on this request... um [26:29] ultimately, um in addition to if the council moves forward with uh funding tonight, staff will continue to work with Open Cupboard uh to leverage city resources and facilities to increase community awareness and support. We're already talking about potentially an event uh at our tree lighting ceremony to encourage the community to come out and support. We need to do a lot more there. But the the point there is, you know, we're we're working on promotion and advertising in order for the community itself to get involved and provide support for this great cause as well. Real quick before I get into the recommendation, you see the website address on the [27:16] PowerPoint there. Um, Open Cupboard has a great website where you can just click on it to either if you need help, if you want to volunteer or if you want to donate right then and there. It's really easy. Um, so in short, we do have the restricted financial resources available for this very unique and exceptional circumstance. Um, and we do recommend moving forward with resolution 25183, a resolution authorizing financial assistance to Open Cupboard food shelf initially at $10,000 to support Woodbury residents in need due to the gap of federal funding and approve the associated budget amendment. So $10,000 now, but it could go up to 20,000. That is what's in the resolution for you to consider tonight. [28:06] Anne Burt (Mayor): Happy to answer your questions. Can we invite Jessica up to say a few words? Jessica Francis, who is the—I think your title is executive director of Open Cupboard Food Shelf. [28:15] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Hello. So, thank you so much for having me here today. Um, I just want to explain what's been happening in the last couple of weeks. It's only been about two weeks, but about two weeks ago, SNAP recipients in Minnesota and across the country were notified that their November um SNAP benefits would not be paid out unless something changed. They were all notified that they would not be receiving their November benefits. Since that time, our numbers have been climbing. Um you know, when we open at noon each day—we are open six days a week—we open at noon [28:53] Monday through Friday and every day when we open at noon the line is getting a little bit longer. Um you know before November 1st it was because people had had been notified that this was coming. I like to say it's like uh when we all know a blizzard is coming everybody you know goes to the grocery stores. Um that was what was happening in the community you know for for SNAP recipients. And so while now we are told that a portion of the SNAP benefits will be paid out, um no one knows exactly what timeline that will be and of course we still don't know when or if those November benefits will be made whole. So there's a a really urgent situation in our community and we're really grateful that the city is considering supporting that. Um, it's going to help the thousands of people in Woodbury that rely on um us for fresh and healthy food. Some of the people that come to visit us um only only come to to visit us every once in a while. Um or they might they might only come when they um you know have have a car repair or something happen um in their household that that really spikes their need. Um, many people are working families that visit us maybe once a week or once in a while just to stretch their budget because the items that we know keep people the healthiest are the ones that are often the most expensive at the [30:27] grocery store. So, you know, meat and fresh produce, all those uh other fresh items, those can be out of reach for a lot of families um that are on a tight uh working budget. So they come to visit us, they stretch their budget, and they get the food that they need. Other people that come to see us are living in their car, and so they they can't get a lot of um a lot of other items, but they come in, they get fresh produce, they get the items that they they don't need to to cook. Um and they they uh live in their cars, and they stay with us. Whatever the situation is, we are here for them at Open Cupboard. We're open six days a week. We are the most visited food shelf in Minnesota. And we make sure that we are here for our community. And so we're just so grateful for the city of Woodbury's support making sure that we continue to be here in this time of increased need. [31:26] Anne Burt (Mayor): Great. Jessica, can you just clarify? I've talked to someone earlier this week that um said—and maybe you just talk about—the the best way to get donations beyond, you know, these big dollars coming from the county and from the cities. Is it cash? Is it canned goods? What works best for you if people want to contribute? [31:48] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Financial donations make a huge impact because we're able to use those at the the food banks mostly uh at Second Harvest Heartland um where we can get $8 worth of food for a $1 donation. Um and so that makes a huge impact and we're able to see what we got from food drives and from the grocery stores when we do our food rescue and we're able to order the items we need most. So financial donations are incredibly important. [32:20] Anne Burt (Mayor): Okay. [32:21] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): But other than that, we say, you know, personal hygiene items, other items that we um can't always get from the food bank, our household um cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items. [32:32] Anne Burt (Mayor): Great. Thank you. Yeah, I'd heard that about cash. Cash is good because you can do so much more with it. And maybe for the public that's easy, too. You don't have to be collecting things. You don't have to drive up. You can just go online and donate uh through your online system. So that would make it easy. [32:42] Donna Stafford (Council Member): I have a quick question, Jessica. Do you also accept any gift cards? Reason I'm asking that is when you said there's people living in their car, food doesn't put gas in their car and heat the car in the winter if that's where they have to live. [32:58] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Yeah. Um that that's absolutely true. And so sometimes, for example, Washington County their team will call us and they'll say, "There's a family that we're working with, they are living in their car, they are out of gas," and so they ask us, you know, to provide uh gas cards and we do keep some. [33:18] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Okay. So, you take—you do that from your end. [33:21] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Yes, we do not budget for it. We don't always have those, but when we do get them, we we use those strategically for those really emergency situations. [33:30] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Thank you. Great. [33:32] Anne Burt (Mayor): Anything else for Jessica? [33:36] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Not for her. I just have some comments um and some questions if I can. So, we are proposing 10,000 now and then a 10,000 in a future disbursement. So, my question is are we going to put a a date on that? That if the government doesn't open up and benefits resume by a date that we would consider advancing that? Otherwise, I'm just trying to figure out why we say 10 now and 10 later. What's later? [34:05] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Council member, Madame Mayor, um later is kind of depending on, you know, what happens. Uh the idea of having um an additional 10 if needed given, you know, another request and appropriate rationale like we're hearing tonight is really just to cut through any, you know, red tape so you don't have to wait to get it and have a council meeting or anything like that. So that was the um the intent behind that. In terms of a date though or or what would be required um it really depends on how long this persists and what the needs are of Open Cupboard. [34:44] Kim Wilson (Council Member): My guess is Open Cupboard could use money all the time. [34:48] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Well, correct. I mean it's like let's—I mean I just want to be clear. It's it's a food shelf, right? Of—what do we call—a shelf or a bank? I don't want to use the wrong term but it—I mean they're serving people in the community and where money is needed in order to help people in the community. So—and council member, Madame Mayor, you know, in this presentation a couple of times it was reiterated this is an exceptional uh period of time based on the shutdown, the lack of funding. If the shutdown ends and there's funding, but they still the food shelf still needs funding—to me, that's not exceptional. So, that that would be—that would preclude, you know, us from, you know, without any additional authorization providing uh another check of $10,000. [35:36] Steve Morris (Council Member): Is—are you advocating that the—can I ask a question? Sorry. In the middle of your—I didn't mean to interrupt you. Is the the fund balance adequate enough to sustain the 20 today? [35:51] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Yes. [35:52] Steve Morris (Council Member): Is there appetite for the council to just say just be done? To your point, it's not like they're never going to need it. Is there appetite to just be 20 and done for this fiscal year? [36:06] Kim Wilson (Council Member): I wasn't advocating for that. Just so you know, that wasn't what I was advocating for. My question is this. I mean, we're 5 days into November. Um there are people who are very optimistic that this federal government is going to open up and and there have been maybe even some legal challenges [snorts] on whether SNAP benefits can be um cut off like that. And so I guess I'm I'm saying um we had a constituent, a resident of Woodbury [clears throat] say something or type in online in the chat during the workshop. Um and so—those were the same feelings I guess I had also of the money. So as a—I'm going to just spill my guts and just speak freely because I know everybody loves that. Um, you know, the government—I just feel is not something that we shouldn't be looking to the government to bail people out. And unfortunately, or fortunately, um I was a recipient of AFDC and WIC and food stamps and and so I understand the need for all of this. Um, but it's a—it's to me this is a [37:27] community. I would love to see the community come together as opposed to taking it from gambling funds that we are setting aside to offset future tax levies um for police equipment. Does that make sense? I mean, either way, it's coming from our funds. And so I I just this is a great opportunity for—I know we're talking about a tree lighting ceremony and things like that—I think I had brought up that Central Park grand opening would have been a great time for people to bring in donations as they came to Central Park, that the community really needs to come together on this. You know, we do have people in our community who are struggling and we know this. Whether we can look at our delinquent taxes or our delinquent utility bills or whatever is happening. We know this is happening. And so I'm going to—I just want to throw a challenge out to the community. Um, I would rather see our community come together um and and get these dollars and donations donated to the Open Cupboard as opposed to tax dollars or gambling dollars coming out of our budget. Either way, it's coming out of our budget. Um you know, maybe your kids went to college like mine and they left behind [38:53] food that you bought for them and they you don't want to eat. Look in your cupboards, make sure it's not expired, and and get it over there or um drop it off on my front porch and I'll get it there. Let's let's—This is a time for the community to come together for the people who need it. Am I against the 10,000? Um, I hesitate on it and I definitely hesitate for having another open 10,000 without saying: if by December 1st the government hasn't reestablished these SNAP benefits. I need a date, not just an open-ended— [39:46] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Council member Wilson and Jessica. Um, from what I've been seeing in social media, our community has reached out substantially. We have a lot of our businesses that are doing collections, food collections. Um, I believe that your volunteer rates are up. [40:02] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): We we just had our our biggest volunteer orientation yet today. So the community is responding with volunteer hours which is fabulous. [40:11] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Yeah. And I think the community is reaching out if I can deep dive into this. Um the 10,000 that's requested now and a potential 10,000 later is our community. These are dollars that we collect from different sources and a lot of it comes from our community in the form of levies and taxes. So indirectly they are we are all giving back. [40:34] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): For the record, this yeah this is not coming from levy or other sources. It's lawful gambling proceeds where gambling organizations like pull tabs are paying money into the city. And as city administrator Dahl indicated, this is a restrictive fund, but just to clarify—particularly because there were some public questions about what does this mean or where are these dollars coming from—the restrictions include an expectation that these funds can and should be used for charitable purposes, particularly donations to nonprofits and even more particularly donations towards organizations that help with poverty and specifically with food shelves by statute. And so this is—and that's why you see not only our city but Oakdale and other organizations looking to use these particular funds for this particular purpose because by statute that's one of the expectations of what these types of funds are used for. [41:31] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): And I'm just going to go on the record for the fact that when we set up this fund I actually thought that these were the conversations we would have each year about the dollars in that fund versus showing up to the budget and having it sort of already line-itemed for various things. And so truthfully, I'm really happy to see that this money is going in this manner because I guess that's what I really thought this fund was going to be utilized for. [41:59] Steve Morris (Council Member): And if uh—you weren't council member Stafford, you weren't on council, but when we when we created this—but we had very long conversations about which organizations, where the radius that would be included for all. I mean, we had very long conversations to understand the restrictions that where these can go to and even within those restrictions, the [42:16] restrictions within them. Um, there was a lot of um a lot of discussion. So, I would encourage probably to get council member Stafford up to speed with those. You weren't here. Neither of you were here now that I think about it. So, [laughter] somebody's going to have to download from somebody that doesn't work here anymore, right? What those conversations were. But uh I'm with Council Member Santini and—Council Member Wilson, you may not have been going there—I'm with you on a date certain. I would particularly like to see this prior to 12/31, but I would actually go the extra mile and saying, "Hey, listen. This is a fund that is extremely restrictive in its use." We've only had a singular purpose on this and it is to offset some public safety costs, but minimal costs for what this is. The true intent purpose of this fund was to go to those specific needs. So I I get that there's an emergent need on the 10,000 now and I understand the withholding of that, but again, this is what we created this—when we passed the lawful gambling and changed those ordinances. We knew it was going to generate some revenue, um disposable revenue quite frankly because that's what gambling is—disposable revenue from people that are choosing to do that and support the local organization. So, I would actually advocate just do the 20 straight up. That would be my change to the resolution [43:38] and just be done with it if it's in the fund. It's part of the approved use. We've had no other um expenditures out of this fund to date other than public safety. So, my—if the council is open to it, I would change the resolution to just do the 20 straight up. [43:52] Kim Wilson (Council Member): I do have a question. How many visitors do you get uh per month in in at your facility? [43:58] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): So, we served over 109,000 total individual visits last month. [44:03] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Last month? [44:04] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Last month. [44:05] Kim Wilson (Council Member): And 2,000 are Woodbury? [44:07] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): That is 2,400 households. The individuals—when I'm quoting the 109,000, that is the total number of household members that were served by that visit. [44:26] Kim Wilson (Council Member): 109,000 people— [44:27] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): That—individual visits. Because some people might visit multiple times. [44:31] Kim Wilson (Council Member): I'm sorry. When you're saying individual visits, they're not individuals. They're visits. 109,000 visits—that someone could have five kids, right? [44:42] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Right. And they could visit every Thursday, for example. So they're represented multiple times in those. [44:48] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Yeah. So if we're talking apples to apples, how many visits out of the 109,000 came from Woodbury? [44:56] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): 7,000 [clears throat] approximately. So we're about 7%. [45:03] Kim Wilson (Council Member): 2400 households. [45:05] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Well, when I say the 109,000, that is including our Maplewood site. Um so that is our organization's whole service to the community. [45:13] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Okay. [45:14] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): So there's a lot of breakdowns in it, but we gave all the breakdowns specific to Woodbury. So that's the [45:25] 7,000. 2,415 visits from Woodbury households. That is the number of individual families. 2,400 families. And then that was more than 7,000 people or individual visits because that household might have three or four members in the household. [45:53] Kim Wilson (Council Member): I understand that. So 2,400 households came from Woodbury to visit your— [45:58] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Visits. [45:59] Kim Wilson (Council Member): But not—it may not be unique ones. It may be that same family is coming every week. [46:07] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Correct. Yeah. There's some—so there might be a thousand households and they're coming twice. Right, there's some of our programs that you can use once in a month. Um so we—when I quote a month that is one household—but there's other programs like our Today's Harvest market that people can use multiple times. So that makes it difficult, you know, when you're trying to talk about different services. [46:31] Steve Morris (Council Member): And I would just add for context, obviously they serve a greater community, but—the same thing for the revenue that this is generated from. It's from businesses certainly in Woodbury that we've licensed, but the patrons of those that are the folks that are playing pull tabs are coming from all over. It's just like a sales tax; those folks are coming from all over. So it's also the revenue is not generated solely from Woodbury residents. [46:58] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Oh, I understand. Yeah. So, the greater good of—anybody who buys a pull tab is contributing to that fund. [47:04] Steve Morris (Council Member): That's what I say every time I do it, which is not me. I'm a net generator. [47:11] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): And to Steve's point, I think it's also the fact that we have people that contribute to our community that might not necessarily live here. That work here. And so to me, I get that yes, some of this benefit might go to people who actually don't live in Woodbury—but they're supporting the charity that runs the thing. And just to reinforce, if we give $10,000 cash, you can almost turn it into $80,000 worth of food supplies, cleaning items, whatever. [47:30] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Correct. [47:32] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Mayor Bert, we did have a question from someone online. It's from a person named Belinda Reid. I did verify that they are a Woodbury resident. Their question is what percentage of the 20,000 from Woodbury will go for administrative costs and what percentage goes to the recipients? [47:58] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): Very good. So um more than 98% of our funds—which is in our audit because we are audited every year—are spent on our programs. Um, if you wanted to, you know, make the funding that you are making available specific just to food, we'd be very comfortable with that because the vast majority of our expenses are food and staffing. [48:19] Steve Morris (Council Member): 98% rate is phenomenal. [48:21] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): Phenomenal, right? [48:22] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): We are a lean machine. [48:25] Kim Wilson (Council Member): I do feel extremely torn on this and I'm only saying this because um because I am optimistic the government is going to open up. We're only 5 days into the shutdown and no SNAP benefits have—you know, for 5 days. And even though it is coming out of the gambling fund, if the gambling fund doesn't do what we need and purchase what we need then it's going to be levied for. So ultimately it's coming from someplace. [49:03] Steve Morris (Council Member): Low risk I would say for what we've been expending from—our expenditures out of that fund are extremely low risk. [49:15] Kim Wilson (Council Member): But they can also go toward police, fire, and EMS for various things. Is that right? [49:19] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Budgeted for 2026. Correct. Right. And this is not at risking this. There's healthy reserves in that fund to both budget our annual police and fire contribution and uh this specific expenditure and there'd still be a a reasonable reserve. That would be better than best practice in terms of how much you'd want to leave for a reserve. [49:43] Steve Morris (Council Member): You know, this would be our first expenditure out of this fund. [49:45] Anne Burt (Mayor): Yes. [49:47] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Since we had a very heavy discussion earlier about the budget, could we pull money from this fund to help cover the fire and EMS services in the budget? Um I mean that just—we were talking about all kinds of things in our workshop meeting about the budget. So one question is if we need to do a little offsetting that would be one place to consider doing it. Um—how much is in that gambling fund? [50:09] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Uh at the end of the year there's going to be $128,000. And while it can go to some stuff for like police, it is limited sort of to what it can go to. It's not like a blank check that we can just put into the general fund. [50:23] Steve Morris (Council Member): No, you can't. But it ultimately is a source of our CIP that pays for uh public safety related equipment. [50:31] Anne Burt (Mayor): Um I'm going to—I'm going to throw this out. You asked for 10,000. I'm happy to to say yes to the 10,000. And if there's—if we go into—if the government stops their shutdown and we don't need the extra 10, or if we do need the extra 10, can we come back absolutely November 19th at our next meeting and say we think we're going to need the extra if you think you're going to need it. But right now the request came in at 10. I can get on board with—hesitantly on board with—doing that without um approving the second 10 at this point. Would you like to make that motion? [51:03] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Uh okay. Um, [laughter] show it to me. Just this? Yep. Okay. Um, I'll make a motion that council adopt resolution 25183, a resolution authorizing financial assistance to Open Cupboard food shelf of $10,000 to support Woodbury residents in need due to the gap in federal funding and approve the associated budget amendment. [51:38] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): It only says 10, but the actual resolution says 20. So you need to clarify if you're adopting resolution 25183 with the amendment. [51:58] Kim Wilson (Council Member): With a budget amendment of $10,000 only and if additional monies are needed to come back. [52:05] Anne Burt (Mayor): Is that good? Let's go to our attorney. What do I need to do? [52:09] City Attorney: There are three different references in the resolution and in the "now therefore be it resolved" portions of the resolution to the amount of the allocation being $20,000 and I think we just should clarify that those are amended to $10,000 in the written resolution. [52:34] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Got it. I see it in the last line of the resolution 25183... Okay. How about if I make this—I'm going to make an amendment to resolution 25183. I would like to amend this resolution to say that we will um that we will give $10,000 now to support Open Cupboard food shelf. Um and if future money is needed that Open Cupboard can come back to the city and ask if the uh federal government does not open back up. And so I would also um ask that the fund of lawful gambling be decreased by $10,000 to forward this money to Open Cupboard and not the 20. It's not poetic. I'm sure someone can clean that out. [53:49] Steve Morris (Council Member): So I think just to clarify—I make a motion to adopt resolution 25-183 with the following amendments: changing $20,000 to $10,000 where it's referred to in the resolution. [54:06] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Thank you, Steve. Pretty clean. [54:09] Anne Burt (Mayor): We have a motion. We have an amendment. Does anybody want a second? [54:15] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Second. [54:17] Anne Burt (Mayor): Okay. Uh let's take a vote. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Ashley. [54:22] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Wilson. [54:23] Kim Wilson (Council Member): Aye. [54:24] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Morris. [54:25] Steve Morris (Council Member): Aye. [54:26] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Santini. [54:27] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): Aye. [54:28] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Council member Stafford. [54:29] Donna Stafford (Council Member): Aye. [54:30] Ashleigh Sullivan (City Clerk): Mayor Bert. [54:31] Anne Burt (Mayor): Aye. That resolution—I still will renew my plea to the community that this is a great opportunity for everyone in this community to come together. And I know that there are drives out there and everything else, but it hasn't come from up here. And so I'm going to forward this out to everybody who's watching. Let's come together in this time and help people—and actually it should just be our way of life—and in this particular instance Open Cupboard needs it right now. And I know there's a lot of places that do need help during these lean times and so let's figure it out and come together as a community. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Jessica. Thank you for being here and thanks for all you're doing. Oh, Shel would like a quick picture. Is that okay? [55:23] Jessica Francis (Open Cupboard): That would be great. [55:25] Anne Burt (Mayor): Who's coming in for the picture? Should we just stand up here? Jeff, you guys stand if—Yeah, we should stand. You guys look good in your blue. [laughter] This is a way that we can share then what we accomplish and then encourage others to donate. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, okay, we're on to staff reports and Jeff, you're up with your city administrator's report. [56:07] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Thank you, mayor. Three quick things. Uh one, just wanted to congratulate um the winners of the election last night. Uh the city of Woodbury was kind of a focal point throughout the region for a special senate election as well as school board. So, congratulations to Representative Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger on her victory. Overall, um in Woodbury, there were over 5,300 absentee ballots cast and then over 14,000 ballots cast yesterday in person. So, overall just shy of a 37% turnout. Uh my understanding for something that's schoolboard or special is a very high turnout. So kudos to the community for showing up last night. Uh, also thank you so much to Washington County and the partnership we have with them for running the elections, our assistant city administrator and city clerk Ashleigh Sullivan for leading uh the city's part in that partnership and all the election judges throughout the community residents—including council member Wilson who actually checked me in last night at the precinct. [57:28] Kim Wilson (Council Member): I checked him in. I just checked him in. [laughter] [57:38] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): So, uh, congrats for everyone on the school board. And Representative Hemmingsen-Jaeger. [57:48] Anne Burt (Mayor): Just a clarification there. We will now need a special election because Representative Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger is moving on to the Senate and so now we will need to have a special election to replace her. I don't know the timing of that. Does somebody know? [58:05] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Madame Mayor, the governor has to make that call, but we would expect that to happen pretty quickly over the next couple months. [58:12] Steve Morris (Council Member): You're ready for session which starts this year in second week of February, right? [58:15] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Yep. Exactly. [58:18] Anne Burt (Mayor): And I just want to say I hope more than 37% of the people show up for elections because although I think that's a good number according to administrator Dahl, 37% is not a good number. Let's get together and do our job. [58:36] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Uh, next item, I just want to remind the council and the community that we're having our committee interviews this Saturday starting at 8 a.m. here at city hall. Um, it's going to be a long day because we have a lot of people to interview, but I think that speaks to the interest and the people that really want to give back and participate in our government. So, looking forward to that. Lastly, I wanted to acknowledge the passing of former Chief Bill Herring. Uh I know it's been a tough week for obviously the family and the community and especially our public safety department. Bill began his career in 1970 as a police officer in Bayport. He also served as a firefighter in Coon Rapids and a police officer in Oakdale before spending 32 years serving the city of Woodbury and retiring as chief of police and director of public safety. Um I think Chief Posel [59:46] said it best; he offered these words: "For those that didn't have the opportunity to work with Bill, he was a gentle, kind, and thoughtful leader with a wonderful sense of humor. He helped shape the culture we're proud of today, grounded in doing the right thing for the right reasons, treating everybody with respect and serving with compassion and courage. Bill guided our organization through significant growth and change and always with a steadfast commitment to excellence and service." And for that we thank Bill. [1:00:26] Anne Burt (Mayor): Do we have any funeral information yet? [1:00:30] Jeffrey J. Dahl (City Administrator): Yes, it's—the obituary came out today or yesterday and it's going to be not this coming week but the next week towards the end I think the 13th and 14th. But we'll—I'll send that information out to the council. And that's all mayor. Thank you. [1:00:50] Anne Burt (Mayor): Thank you. Um all right that wraps up our meeting for tonight. [1:00:54] Steve Morris (Council Member): I make a motion that we adjourn. [1:00:56] Jennifer Santini (Council Member): Second. [1:00:57] Anne Burt (Mayor): Motion second. All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned.