[0:00] Mayor Mary Fasbender: council meeting will be conducted solely by telephone or other electronic means as provided in Minnesota Statutes 13d point zero twenty one to one and no in-person meeting will be conducted in city council chambers I think it is important to recognize that using a video conference is not as good as an in-person meeting but it is necessary under the circumstances we are doing the best we can to maintain transparency in due process I would appreciate everyone's patience and cooperation as we work through the meeting please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of [0:47] Audience: allegience allegiance America thank you [0:55] Mayor Mary Fasbender: seeing that this meeting is being held remotely when Clerk Flatten calls your name would you please indicate your presence here sorry about that okay let the role reflect all Council members are present and a quorum has been established are there any Corrections to meetings from the workshop may 18th or the regular meeting on May 18th councilmember Folch [2:00] Councilmember Tina Folch: thank you your honor I just wanted to make an addition not necessarily correction but to the regular city me to the meeting minutes the section towards the end of the meeting minutes in regards to city communications could has sentenced please be added that the council agreed to send further discussion about city communications to the Administrative Committee for further discussion something to that effect [2:44] Mayor Mary Fasbender: was it the follow-up okay thank you who comes from member Folch thank you. comments from the audience for public comments we have options for comments to be emailed prior to the meeting or well as an interactive feature during the meeting for the email comments they have been forwarded to the City Council and the receipt is a now acknowledged please recognize that these items are not on the agenda will will not be discussing this evening we ask the attendees to raise your hand feature and I will therefore then call on you we think we have a speaker Susy Dillon welcome Susie Dillon [3:41] Susie Dillon: um I have been alerted that the pops in downtown Hastings are being foregone because of budget and all the covet mess and all that stuff for this summer so I rallied a bunch of people this weekend and raised 1200 dollars to plant the pots and i reaiiy have a team ready to go as soon as we get a go-ahead to plant them I did have a conversation with Josh Fox about watering them he said the city has the bill or the bid I should say water them but I thought a bunch of concerned citizens could at least donate the money to plant and get them started [4:29] Mayor Mary Fasbender: council do we want to add this to the agenda later your honor [4:32] Councilmember Tina Folch: within the downtown business association request there isn't they do request that some of the pots be planted and so could we have that conversation at that point please [5:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay with that okay we'll just add it to the John I believe that will be under your Community Development okay thank you for your efforts and I don't know if you'll stay on or not but will it be intact contact with you as what is decided later Council items to be considered I would like to add a statement from the City Council if it's okay we can do it now and proceed with the remainder of tonight's meeting any okay with adding this do we need a motion yes we would need a motion to accept it and do you want to do it now or at another point of the meeting [6:04] Councilmember Trevor Lund: I would make the motion to accept it in and do it now in a second please [6:08] Councilmember Jen Fox: second [6:15] Clerk Kelly Flatten: councilmember Fox? [6:20] Councilmember Jen Fox: yes [6:22] Clerk Kelly Flatten: Balsanek? [6:25] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: yes [6:27] Clerk Kelly Flatten: Lund? [6:30] Councilmember Trevor Lund: yes [6:32] Clerk Kelly Flatten: Mary white oh yes yes excuse me yes sorry don't be sorry [7:05] Mayor Mary Fasbender: last week the killing of George Floyd shocked and angered all of us our deepest sympathy Floyd family then we watched the sadness and the violence and arson of the cities of Minneapolis and st. Paul our goal in Hastings is to be welcoming to all at this time take a moment of silence and reflection Thank You counsel I would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda [8:05] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: so moved your honor [8:11] Councilmember Tina Folch: seconded by councilmember Folch [8:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: any additional discussion console clerk Flatten please call the roll [8:33] Clerk Kelly Flatten: remember by yes yes yes yes yes bender yes [9:05] Mayor Mary Fasbender: awarding of contracts and public hearing public hearing 316 layout excess and right-of-way changes for this item we have an introduction by public works director Nick Egger and a presentation by MnDOT followed by a public hearing potentially action by City Council Nick welcome [9:21] Nick Egger (Public Works Director): thanks mayor Fassbender you've covered that quite well introducing it so I won't belabor it this is a required part of the process in furthering along highway 316 project you may recall that it's currently scheduled to be into construction in the year 2021 and the municipal consent is what you have before you tonight and that is exclusively to give the city's consent to the right-of-way acquisitions that are involved with the project that step is necessary for MnDOT to be able to proceed through that and continue down a project development timeline so it's a it is a time-sensitive item you'll hear more from MnDOT Molly Klein here in a few moments about why that's necessary it is covered under state statutes as well as part of a any project that is going on a trunk highway through a municipality so I'm gonna bring in Molly Klein here who will provide a presentation recap and explain the process and will probably be tag-teaming a couple of the audiovisual elements of this just for efficiency purposes with the new technology so bear with me see if we can invite Molly in the air I'm allowing her to talk Molly looks like you're there [10:54] Molly Klein (MnDOT): I am Thank You Nick great so are you able to share your screen and if not I can step in with that [11:05] Nick Egger (Public Works Director): don't see that as an option I see that I'm talking and I have some options for audio nothing or sharing the screen apologize here share with me a moment [11:41] John Hinzman (Community Development Director): I'm sorry I get to the file error just take a minute yeah Molly this is John Hinzman he write something does check to see if you can if you're able to share now [12:15] Molly Klein (MnDOT): I see it now yes okay my apologies John you're much more savvy at this thanks for bailing me out I see it but I'm not able to share [12:28] Nick Egger (Public Works Director): all right back back to planning I will be able to share my screen here so Molly you'll all you'll have to do is tell me when to advance the slide so here we go everybody see that all right whenever you're ready Molly [12:35] Molly Klein (MnDOT): good Thank You Nick we can go right into slide number two we're here tonight to talk about municipal consent state statute requires that Minda request municipal consent from any municipality which a project meets certain criteria this project on highway 316 triggers municipal consent because we need to purchase permanent right-of-way from a number of residents along Highway 316 so the state statute also requires a Mac 150 days from when MnDOT submits the consent package to when counsel makes a motion to approve or disapprove municipal concern how do to Cove it we were anticipating being at this with the city for this public hearing and in March or early April Dudek ovid we working in the city staff have agreed to kind of shift around some of those timelines we had hoped that we would be able to meet in person here in June and since that is unfortunately I'm able to occur we're meeting here virtually tonight but we still are holding that final date of June 21st 2020 when we need council action so Dudek ovid we've shifted a couple of dates around and mutual agreement with the city but we do need to hold that June 21st date so with this penis will consent hopefully it'll be approved but what approval means is that MnDOT is able to continue to move forward with the project as you will see tonight and as we've talked about in the past and the next step after municipal consent would be MnDOT moving forward with that right away acquisition from the affected properties along Highway 316 well it's a fairly small impact on the project considering all of the work that is being done but permanent acquisition is needed from seven properties along Highway 316 with that we can move into the next two slides Nick so this first slide shows spiral to 33rd Street and this information in this graphic here is pulled directly from our right away files and shows the roadway layout in the blue line work the current right away line is the green solid with a couple of dashed lines and the acquisition areas triggering municipal consent are shaded in orange so there are two affected properties shown on this slide and these are the largest two right away impacts or permanent acquisition on the project they are the first two properties south of 31st Street east of Highway 316 and this acquisition is needed due to topography in this area and the need to retain the minor ditch section as well as adding the trail so again this is the most impactful section of permanent acquisition for this project next slide Nick this graphic shows highway 316 from Tiffany to 37th Street this area is triggering the municipal consent request as seen shaded in blue there are five properties shown on this slide all of which were determined during our early property searches as only having active easement along Highway 316 versus fee title so it's not unusual to find this on a project that we're working on it did come late in the process on this project unfortunately which we talked about at our last neighborhood meeting in November when we find when MnDOT finds these prescriptive easement parcels we typically try to clean them up so that's what we would be doing with these five properties is cleaning up the right-of-way in this area to bring it into current conformance with our right away process so just a reminder from our November meeting these are the two block sections where we found the prescriptive easement and we removed the trail section to minimize rightaway needs in this area so this is just to bring these properties into conformance with the current MnDOT right away process first open house for this project is back in February 2018 where we opened up the project and said we're doing something what is it that is important we came back at a second open house using the input that we received in February we came back in August 2018 where we developed concepts to address the community priorities that we heard at that first open house we shared concepts at the second open house and asked for input we held the third open house in April 2019 where we received input and shared the preferred concepts so we took the input from the second open house and move moved that or coalesced that into a preferred concept we held a fourth neighborhood open house and over number twenty nineteen where we shared project updates and tonight I'm here to request meanest lookin son from the City Council this would be the second official approval from the City Council following an action in December 2018 okay next slide Nick we heard if you've been along for the ride on this project you've seen this graphic a number of times we've we've held it constant as a reminder to our project team of what we heard from the residents and the community at that first open house so access speed reduction safety improvements for both vehicles and bicyclists and pedestrians were concerned shared with our project team we heard loud and clear at a first open house that access is a concern and the number one thing we heard from the community we heard access to and from driveways and city streets was a challenge specifically making left turns we also heard excuse me we also heard that safety was a concern in part due to the speeds volumes and lack of pedestrian facilities along the roadway the safety concerns are supported with data they from Maher 261 is not only about the statewide crash rates it's well above the critical crash rates as well a section of roadway between Tuttle and Maher is above the statewide average crash rates and it's very close to that critical crash rate the data shows that there are more crashes on 316 than done similar roadways throughout the state of Minnesota when the data shows crashes exceeding this critical crash rate those roadways raise to a level of concern at Minda where we look at safety improvements that should be incorporated into the next project ashes on highway 316 32% or rear-end crashes likely related to congestion at intersections and 29% our rate angle crashes associated with left-turning vehicles a right-angle crashes these 29% are the most severe crash type and that number is very concerning to us by competi silla t's came up and we heard that as our third top mention at that first open house we did a field walk with your city engineer and a number of MnDOT staff in 2017 we walked this corridor from pebble 261 I would agree that it feels very unsafe and I would be unlikely to use it so I can understand that concern as well the number four concern we heard the data available supports the concerns we heard from the resident and documented the speeds are 42 to 46 miles an hour in the 35 mile an hour section what can we do to make the roadway slower safer and accommodate bike and pedestrians I please very small and we will share a visualization here in just a minute but this shows all of the strategies that were applying to this roadway section to address access safety bike ped and speed concerns which we heard from the community the roundabouts provides safer access speed reductions crash severity reductions and a safer pedestrian crossing the median provides safety improvements by eliminating the left turns which are associated with the right angle crash risk which I mentioned just a second ago was 29% of the crashes on this corridor and the most severe crash type and in curb and gutter also provide a visual narrowing of the traveled surface which will help slow speeds and to also provide a pedestrian refuge area or anyone wanting to cross Highway 316 on foot or bike blend sidewalk provide a designated space for pedestrians and bicyclists now we've heard that the medians will cause a travel inconvenience to the residents adjacent to them we've heard that potentially that's a mile and a half or each resident traveling we've looked into that and I can show you how we came up with this information but the most impacted properties have about a half mile of added travel distance due to the medians while the remainder of the properties have less than a half a mile added travel distance may add maybe a minute to the trip the added travel time will greatly depend on when you're traveling during peak periods it might actually be faster if you were trying to make a left turn to go right to the roundabout and then head back in the opposite direction during off-peak times where it wasn't an issue to make that left turn it could actually cost a little bit more time but again it's maybe a minute there are three roundabouts shown on this layout all within a one-mile stretch so we placed those very cognizant of the added travel time and distance that would be required to make make use of minimizing that that distance so our project team believes the numerous safety benefits associated with the median and the roundabouts outweigh the added travel distance and inconvenience associated with those medians calming efforts are underway nationwide to provide slower and safer roadways narrowing the roadway is a tried-and-true traffic calming measure so as our team moved forward with the design and right away outreach there have been a number of modifications made to this layout which I will highlight on the next couple of slides is on the north side of the project so this is the spiral roundabouts as we met with Valley Chevrolet we heard concerns about their business being impacted by not only construction but the shared access that we had proposed with the Hastings Civic Arena those concerns we have modified the layout and the project on this end to retain the access that is there today so the two driveways that Valley Chevrolet has today will remain in the after condition as well as the current driveway to the Hastings Civic Arena off of highway 316 will remain on to the roadway as it is today now we have extended the median in this area to restrict those access points or driveways to right in bright out access so coming southbound 316 you will not be able to take it left into either Valley Chevrolet or the Hastings Civic Arena in order to to minimize right away acquisition or any impacts to Valley Chevrolet we did have to shift the roundabout a little bit to the west it still fits within the MnDOT right-of-way and we have minimized act impacts excuse me so Valley Chevrolet with that change okay next slide thank you this is the Tiffany roundabouts and as you'll see on the graphic on the left the address 3505 Redwing boulevard had anticipated or we had on the layout showed that the driveway would be closed onto highway 316 and relocated on to Tiffany when we met with that property owner they they weren't in favor on that change so as you can see highlighted in yellow on the graphic on the right we're just going to shift that driveway a little bit to the south and it will retain its access to and from highway 316 34 85 on the right I don't know Nick the right side of the left drawing yes thank you that we show it as a closure however it currently has just a little pavement out in the MnDOT right-of-way it doesn't connect to a driveway as we can tell today so we're showing it as a closure but really it that property seems to have access off of Tiffany which will not be impacted with the project Thank You Nick okay one last change this is 3705 Redwing Boulevard we had as you can see on the left graphic shown that we would like to close that driveway and realign it to Malcolm in talking with the property owner that wasn't favorable for them so we have the design and will allow that access to remain on 316 as it is today we'll still have a median in that area so it will be right in right out but it will still have access onto highway 360 and as requested now I'll turn it over to Nick to share this visualization [25:37] Nick Egger (Public Works Director): yeah thanks everyone thanks Molly I what I need to do is switch applications here and employ a video visualization I will note you know with digital videos and uploading rates and things it may come through a little bit choppy but I think each image will be pretty clear so I just want to make that disclaimer first so I will give this a try here I didn't hear any comments they're hopeful people were able to view that is that the case no no we just saw the presentations well we will try that again here then I apologize for that let me I'll go out and then back in my okay now what's up Nick Joey okay that must have been the trick okay give it another run here better this time I I hope yes looks great Nick good I apologize it's doing the best we can here thank you all we go through the presentation here I'll go back to the slideshow Thanks and we will be updating the link to of the visualization on the project website as well we just wanted to share it here first before we uploaded it to the project website so that should be live here in the next couple of days all right back to you Molly [28:44] Molly Klein (MnDOT): thank you so MnDOT continues to progress with the design to target the 2021 construction this slide provides an update based on our current level of design so we're currently at 30% plans MnDOT has four point three million identified for the project and the city of Hastings was successful in receiving seven hundred and ten thousand from the local partnership program solicitation there is an anticipated City cost participation on this project based on the cost participation policy excuse me that MnDOT has for trunk highway projects and there remains a 1.1 million dollar funding gap so these numbers are not yet final finalized and we continue to work with city staff as we progress through the design process MnDOT in the city have gathered 5.7 million dollars so far towards this project through our collaborative efforts MnDOT in the city continue to work with legislators we continue to look at internal funding sources at both the city and MnDOT and we look for other partners that may be able to contribute towards this project as well so MnDOT consent is not a funding commitment we as we progress with the design and find the funds to fill the gap MnDOT would then return to the city to execute a cooperative construction agreement which would then spell out the city's funding contribution to the project tonight we're here in consideration of municipal consent which would allow MnDOT to proceed with the project and start the permanent right away acquisition purchases thank you [30:42] Nick Egger (Public Works Director): sure Thank You Molly and Mayor at this point I would turn it back to you to with recommendation to conduct a public hearing together any public comments that there may be from members of the audience before moving into any deliberations over there resolution that's before you and I can touch on that too after the public hearing has been completed [31:00] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay thanks Nick at this time we will ask for the attendees to use the raise hand feature and they will be invited to speak one at a time anyone wanting to speak to this at this time I see no raised hands one more call just because we're on zoom' anyone wanting to this at this time for the public hearing for 316 okay seeing none I will close the public hearing and now we will have council discussion [32:10] Councilmember Tina Folch: your honor Molly Klein as you know the residents that live along the highway have provided a petition in regards to the median being installed and we've spoken about this in the past and there's a great concern about access into their driveway and you did know in your presentation that it was the highest of all concerns and so thank you for talking a little bit about about it's only a half a mile of increased distance and in just an extra minute or two of actual time could you also please just address what the actual median looks like so that we have a better standing if it has curbs or flat rounded curves or you know if I think there's concern about people being able to back boats or large or RVs vehicles of that matter into their driveways and not having access and so could you please just discuss that for just a moment please [33:15] Molly Klein (MnDOT): absolutely thank you the median curb is going to act like a barrier for crossing because we don't necessarily want people making a left turn over the median it it won't be the straight faced curb that we typically see on a median it will have a more rounded face just in case an emergency vehicle might need to get around a stalled vehicle in that area it would be able to accommodate that sort of a manoeuvre we also are looking to work with all of the property owners in case they need to back a boat in the trailer or an RV or whatever that might be from the roadway into their driveway we can model that on our end with software and ensure that the driveway width accommodates those sorts of maneuvers so we don't want to put in a really narrow driveway if that prohibits you from backing in your boat or your whatever your situation might be we really are trying to work with the property owners to make sure that if it's a boat and a truck or if it's an RV that we are able to accommodate that with this design so there will be a median or there's proposed to be meeting and we're trying to do our best to accommodate as much of the property owners needs as possible mostly with the driveway widths and not with the median itself [34:36] Councilmember Tina Folch: just so I understand you are meeting with each of the individual property owners then and having that conversation with them and has that conversation yet happened or it will it's to come just so that residents are listening would know [34:55] Molly Klein (MnDOT): we have started all of those conversations so preliminary right-of-way outreach has started so we have made initial outreach to all of the affected properties along Highway 316 our rightaway process only touches the folks or the residents where we need to purchase right away from so separate from that I have been trying to reach out to the small number of other property owners that do not have a MnDOT right-of-way acquisition on their property to touch base on the project and ensure that we are aware of the concerns and can mitigate as best we can with the design there are a few that we have not yet been able to touch base with we've looked for phone numbers or email addresses and have come up empty and now with kovid we're not able to go out on site we will continue to try to find ways to reach those property owners that we haven't and already reached and I would say that's less than a handful I think we had three or four that we weren't able to contact [36:04] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: thank you your honor my question involves a section from the roundabout to highway 61 it was stated that there and from what I see on the the drawing there is a barrier between the lanes and so there's not going to be any left-hand turn into the auto agency the miss arena people won't be able to turn left so I'm assuming what they would have to do is go down to the roundabout at Spiral and do a u-turn and back and get into the auto agency am I correct on that [37:15] Molly Klein (MnDOT): councilmember you are correct there there's two options if you're coming from Hastings southbound highway 316 you could like you had mentioned make a u-turn at the roundabout or there's also alternate access to both the Hastings balli Chevrolet in Hastings as well as the Civic Arena off of spiral Boulevard so you could opt to either make the left at the roundabout on to spiral and access either of those locations or make the u-turn come back northbound and access them via a right turn off of 316 [37:48] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: okay good thank you [38:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: councilmember Folch you're unmuted sorry I didn't turn it back on I'm just checking in but your honor in light of the conversation we had just previous to this are you looking for a motion yet or are you still taking I'm just looking to see if there's any other council discussion which I'm not seeing at this point so then yes I would need a motion to accept the resolution or the layout approval of trunk highway 316 [38:34] Councilmember Tina Folch: councilmember Folch making that motion thank you [38:45] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: I'll second it your honor councilmember Balsanek seconds it [38:52] Mayor Mary Fasbender: any other discussion Council and clerk Flatten would you call the roll please [39:05] Clerk Kelly Flatten: yes yes yes yes vales [39:23] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank You Molly and Thank You Nick thank you okay the Hastings Business Park topsoil sale deconstruction this item will be introduced by Community Development Director John Hinzman John welcome again [39:35] John Hinzman (Community Development Director): Thank You mayor and city council members that we have before us tonight is a hopefully a resolution here to a problem we've had the last year or so and that is we've got about 7500 cubic yards of soil within the Hastings industrial park it was prohibitive to a sale that we had last year we took it out for bid and did not get any responses at that time however we have on an interested party that being Guard's Construction who would take the entire cubic yards that we have there for payment of three thousand seven hundred fifty dollars and so asking for your help tonight with is to award the contract with Guard's Construction to remove the soil now with the contract we did have two options on it we had an initial option 3750 with removal by September 30th of this year we also had another option in which there was a larger payment of 9375 but that removal would be extended to June 30th of next year our preference is to get the soil off of the property as soon as we can as I mentioned it was prohibitive to a sale we had earlier and we'd like to be able to remove that possibility of a hindrance in the future so our recommendation is to award the contract to Guard's in the amount of three thousand seven hundred fifty dollars and I can stand for any questions thank you [40:58] Mayor Mary Fasbender: thank you John any questions to Mr. Hinzman [41:05] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: your honor make the motion to Ward the contract for the Hastings Business Park topsoil with option one for three thousand seven and fifty dollars to Guernsey [41:14] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: I'll second that your honor okay [41:20] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and I have a second by councilmember Balsanek additional council discussion okay clerk Flatten please call the roll [41:44] Clerk Kelly Flatten: yes yes yes yes Mayor Fassbender yes Wales [42:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay John you can just stay on with us and for this item we will have an introduction by you for the following for a public hearing then potentially action by City Council [42:31] John Hinzman (Community Development Director): Thank You mayor and city council members when I share my screen a little bit here to provide a update of the presentation that I'm looking at a couple of items related to various liquor and outdoor expansions of restaurants as you all remember we had a discussion at this at the last meeting on May 18th there's a number of different actions tonight so I thought I'd first start out with an explanation of what's what one of the things that we did last time we met was to provide flexibility to restaurants they come in too early two main categories one is expansion of restaurants into privately owned space now these would be restaurants generally outside of the downtown area in which they can expand into their own parking lots or into their own yards this would not include any impact on the city right-of-way so with this one on the consent agenda tonight we approve six of these and so we have taken action on that with expansions into the public streets in right-of-way they they fall into two categories the first one we'll be doing now with this public hearing and they relate to sidewalk cafe permits so these are for restaurants in bars and these have liquor license requirements for the sidewalk cafe ordinance that we we need to hold a public hearing for and then take action on them we also have another set which we'll be discussing a little bit later on in the meeting that these are non restaurants that would expand into sidewalks in the downtown streets with approval of a temporary right-of-way expansion plan so that's what we're looking at tonight first item up here is the public hearing for the sidewalk cafe licenses so under these we've got a number of them we've got new licenses from the Fireside Social House a renewal license in Greek Eat Grind on Second Street and then liquor license agreement' since a sidewalk cafe ordinances or permits from the Onion Grill the Busted Nut Lock and Dam Eatery and Spiral Brewery so you can see here there are six restaurants within the downtown area in which we are looking to take action to approve their licenses tonight now these licenses are approval are consistent with the expanded sidewalk cafe the approvals that were granted by the council at the last meeting on May 18th this would be approval for temporary right-of-way expansion plan for outdoor dining this is fallen later on so as a reminder of what happened at the last meeting we saw a plan from the downtown business association with the creation of what we term parklets we later modified that into an expanded sidewalk cafe area hopefully have tonight is the public hearing for the liquor end of it that's required under our ordinances second action on that would be to take a look at the the downtown plan itself oh there has been some modifications that are run through you as a separate item later on in the meeting so at this time you may open the public hearing or I could stand for any questions thank you [45:25] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): yeah I can jump in real quick Mayor's internet went down she's trying to reload but leader at the moment I believe legally the process would be to hand it over to the Mayor Pro Tem that's correct there a quorum was established so you can proceed with the meeting without the mayor as soon as she logs back in then she can be handed the gavel again [46:05] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: who would like me to take over then yes yes council members Balsanek at this point the appropriate step would be to open the public hearing you ask any attendees that wish to speak to use the raise hand feature we call them one at a time all right I will open the public hearing and if there is anyone who is associated with us here on zoom' please state your name and address and then you can give your comments or questions and I don't have I I don't see anything in terms of anybody requesting Dan do you have access to that at the moment [47:20] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): I do not see any raised hands feature is also in the public hearing is open if anyone would like to join in on the zoom meeting and any concerns that you have please do that we'll wait here and see if anybody logs in I don't see anybody indicating a desire to speak in the hearing [48:05] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: alright that being the case I will close the public hearing and we will proceed with motion I'm assuming yes thank you [48:20] Councilmember Tina Folch: I would like to make a motion to accept all of the sidewalk cafe licenses for Fireside Social House and then sidewalk cafe renew a license for Eat Grind in the sidewalk cafe and liquor license amendments for the Onion Grill the Busted Nut the Lock and Dam Eatery and Spiral Brewery [48:55] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: as seconded by councilmember Leifeld [49:05] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: discussion any questions or comments on the part of the City Council I don't have access to seeing who is unmuted so if anybody has a comment please go ahead and chime in I'm your honor you're supposed to say your honor or I guess I'm now your honor tempura [49:26] Councilmember Tina Folch: for sure thank you I just like to say that I'm really glad to see that the businesses are stepping forward and making requests to be able to expand into sidewalk and parking areas and and so just hoping that we see more creative solutions coming from our business community and that they're very welcome Thanks [50:00] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: Thank You councilmember any other councilmembers care to make a comment else I will just add that we're we're the tip of the spear in terms of helping businesses as far as local governments we've provided grant loans we've provided the access to our streets and so forth it is a citywide endeavor and I'm very proud of what we've been able to accomplish everybody else is sort of following our lead that being the case with no further comments I'll ask our city clerk to call the roll [50:40] Clerk Kelly Flatten: yes yes yes um [50:50] Mayor Mary Fasbender: counselor Fluegel could you help me should I vote because I internet why not or should I abstain sorry [51:01] Attorney Dan Fluegel: a mayor I think you are okay as long as you're comfortable that you're fully informed and can can you can turn the ask a question if needed but yes I believe you can vote [51:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: um can you restate the motion [51:25] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: I can do that if that'd be appropriate the motion by councilmember Folch and seconded by councilmember Leifeld was to effectively approve the staff recommendation to approve the new sidewalk cafes the renewal and then the expansion for the various businesses with no changes from what was recommended [51:40] Mayor Mary Fasbender: great say I would I would vote yes as well and thank you for coming back on thanks Joe I'm so sorry it just like went out I had to go down and redo my modem good lord okay thank you so let's see and we that motion prevail okay for this are we on body cameras then I'm sorry okay for this siding we will have an introduction by police chief Brian Schaeffer followed by an opportunity for public input Chief Schaeffer welcome [52:15] Brian Schaeffer (Police Chief): good evening mayor Fassbender councilmembers it's good to see us a little different in this role in zoom but I'm sure we're all getting used to it so tonight this is a pretty straightforward procedure as you said mayor we're just asking giving the community an opportunity to provide public input because we purchased new body cameras and before we can implement those we have to give the community an opportunity to just basically provide comments regarding body cameras nothing more nothing less with that I'm just going to give a brief history to kind of bring everybody up to speed we began our body camera program in 2016 as part of a pilot now we transition to full implementation in 2017 since then they've proven to be extremely beneficial for the reasons that we cited when council approved this for purposes of evidence recollection case reporting investigation of officer complaints and use of force to date we've had approximately 20 or 62,000 recordings have been made by these devices since July of 2016 at the current time we usually house about 30,000 video that are retained as part of our state retention or the state retention guidelines so there are some that drop off in ninety days some we keep for three years some for seven years and some are kept forever but due to some of the maintenance problems storage things that we were seeing last year we felt that they were near and in end-of-life so we presented a proposal to Council as part of the 2020 budget which you approved and we went ahead after the first of the year we ordered the new devices and the technology platform from axon Technologies and this is the primary reason we had to get public input tonight is because we are changing vendors had we simply upgraded to a different model camera from the same company this would have been required but since it is a new platform and a new vendor it requires public input so according to the memo you have in front of you I'll just if you don't mind I'll just kind of cite the statute Minnesota statute that covers these body cameras under six to six point eight four seven three sub two provides this opportunity for public comment it just basically says that a local law enforcement agency must provide an opportunity for public input before purchase or implements a portable recording system and this requires both an opportunity through chronically by email or by email or by mail and an opportunity to do it in a public meeting so at this point last week we put this up on on our news I guess our news tab of our city homepage and it'll be taken down tomorrow at noon or to give folks an opportunity to weigh in via email if they like and they can provide their comments so at this time Your Honor I just ask that you open this up and give the community an opportunity to provide any comment and and then go from there thank you [56:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Hey Thank You chief um we asked that the attendees that wish to speak a raised hand feature and they will be invited to speak one at a time I have to go into there and see if there's anyone seeing then I'll say it again anyone wishing to speak to this please press your raise hand feature at this time I'm seeing none so I'm going to close it at this point for public hearing I'm sorry okay is that attendee want to speak at this point okay welcome we're not hearing you if you are speaking I don't know if he's trying or there he is welcome if he does not have a microphone available he might use this Chat feature do you have a microphone Tony on your computer Tony can you hear me okay Tony if you don't have a microphone you may want to go to the chat option and just type in your question or comment not hearing you Tony we're not hearing you would you want to go into the chat option and send an email or send a text Your Honor I think he's asking how you do that sure the bottom center of your screen if you hover over that there's probably a message bubble that yes chat and click on that it'll open a window that would allowing you to type do you have your volume up Tony on your computer Tony can I ask you a question and then you can add your head is this about the police cameras is this question is it about the police cameras yes I didn't think so okay so it's not about the cameras we saw him shake yes correct okay then we'll move on okay at this point we are closing the public comments okay and there's no motion correct to be made and Fluegel great thank you thank you under public works we have a resolution tonight for a municipal consent approving layout of Hope sorry we already did that I'm sorry Community Development the premise into parklets for this item we will have an introduction by community developer John Hinzman John welcome again [1:01:41] John Hinzman (Community Development Director): thank you mayor and city council members the item that I have before you tonight I'm going to share my screen to go through a little bit of a PowerPoint presentation on it we're looking at tonight company names we started last week with a term called parklet which was essentially the expansion of downtown parkings conversion of that into space for restaurants and retailers what we're calling it now is essentially expanded sidewalk cafes extended space or for retailers downtown this was part of the discussion we had last week in the action that we took to allow further use of our downtown right of ways for business expansion so we're asking for you tonight is to approve the plans themselves the plans were based off of the DBAs proposal that we were discussing at the last meeting that showed six parkland areas within the downtown since that time we've had other we've had other requests before us and some of those we've been able to to include within there because they they met the time requirements for public hearings for liquor expansions and there may be other ones that are coming forward that didn't meet the cutoff but are showing interest as well so what I want to do tonight is to go through those temporary right away plans the action I'm looking for is to have the mayor and clerk authorize us to execute retail expansion licenses for non-residential businesses as part of this back to my last presentation two types of things were looking at within the right-of-way downtown restaurants and non restaurants we took actions on the restaurants with the first one with this plan here we're also asking to execute these expansion licenses these are essentially a license dealing with insurance and indemnity so what are we looking at here altogether let's see this map and I should give a big thanks to Nick Egger for putting this together the information that I shared with you on May 18th was woefully not up to the standard but we've got a good plan going now so last time we talked we had we had two plans it's the second Street highway 61 Sibley Street we had in front of the Busted Nut one of one of the Spiral Brewery those are both in here the parking lot spaces that we take up are shown here within this black and orange and then these represent also traffic demarcations would be putting up there the orange areas around these is expanded seating areas are the route for pedestrians so pedestrians would be coming down the sidewalk be routed by a ramp down unto the surface of the street around and then back up again and then the light area here with the dimensions is the area in which the business can use that the dot here it's showing 12 by 28 that is the area within the street also includes the area on the sidewalk as well so that's farther expanded sidewalk cafe license same thing over here with the Spiral Brewery we did have an addition from what we talked about last week for the Fireside Social House with their request shown here and then we also have an expansion on to the the bump on area by Lock and Dam Eatery so as it moved forward eastbound 2nd Street leads I think are pretty much the same as what we showed last time this would be perfect gifts galore to use as a non restaurant space and then this one down here would be for I can't be refined to use the space down here look at Tyler Street this is the art space building it stood identified an area in which we would include another area within the parking space this one here is a little bit little bit different here so this is shown as a non parallel park as a parallel parking space a little difficult figuration and infirm the Onion Grill for restaurant expansion pretty similar to what we saw last time and then we have some other ones that have noted now these are not for action tonight but these are businesses that have shown interest in doing expansions they would require a public hearing for liquor licenses so we anticipate these coming forward at the next meeting on the 15th one would be for the American Legion which would come out towards the east a 1 for the Hastings Social House we're still trying to define what the limitations of that might be in any parking they may take up Froth and Cork which was looking to use part of the sidewalk area in front of their business as well so those are the areas that we are looking at right now for expanded sidewalk areas again the action that we're looking for tonight is for your approval of these plans upon your approval of the plans here we are set to go tomorrow with with putting up cones putting up traffic demarcation we have contracted with a company to come in and to provide that tomorrow so we would be putting this into action very quickly so I can stand for any questions thank you [1:07:11] Councilmember Tina Folch: thank you your honor um John I had a I had a question you had denoted in your write-up that it's those future requests that you know the map also denotes the following businesses for the Hastings social tavern Froth and Cork the American Legion and on Mexican can we can we approve the ones that were brought forth and then oh and give you permission can we give permission now to for you to work with those businesses to and authorize those are does that or do they have to come back to the City Council because that would take an additional two weeks and time is really of the essence and so I was wondering is that something we could add to a motion is to approve them now and for the details to be worked out by staff yet [1:08:10] John Hinzman (Community Development Director): councilmember I may look to attorney Fluegel on this one as well my my understanding is that any liquor license requires the public hearing and so I'm not sure if that's something that could be considered with the delegation of that authority to the city staff in terms of that public hearing so I'll turn it over to Dan thank you John [1:08:35] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): staff did look at this we are working for the sidewalk cafe items within the confines of our existing ordinance that requires the public hearing for an expansion or for a new sidewalk cafe area to give neighbors and anybody some opportunity to make press concerns about that so that's the one item the second item is related to the liquor licenses which we do consider to need to be the the premises approved by the City Council under our ordinance so we do not have an option to allow these to be approved by staff administrative ly we did try to put out the word as early as possible to give people the ability to just at least notify us by the deadline when we had to publish for the for the public hearings to get them in early even if they didn't have a plan in place all the curing so the answer unfortunately is we do not have the ability to have these approved by staff even with advanced council I guess [1:09:40] Councilmember Tina Folch: okay if I think we might discuss later on possibly having a like a workshop later this week or something is that something possibly and if I'm sorry we're gonna have maybe possibly an emergency council meeting is that something that we could posit just just throwing it out there just to understand to include that maybe later [1:10:14] Attorney Dan Fluegel: comment on that I think it would be a subject matter for a special council meeting that does require some advance notice to the council members three days I don't know that it would be appropriate for an emergency council member or council meeting but I think if the council was inclined to hold a special meeting we would still have to look at the public notice requirements I'm not sure exactly how student could be held but I think it could be held before the next regular City Council meeting [1:10:43] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: thank you your honor I'm a total agreement total agreement with councilmember Folch if there's any way we can expedite this I I'd be willing to have a special council meeting you know given the appropriate timelines and so forth at a special council meeting attorney Fluegel can we old public hearing at a special council meeting member you could well I'm all in favor of that if John if you could move you know you're not you but get the establishments to move as quickly as possible I don't want to have a special meeting for two and then have another special meeting and so forth but the point is 15 days before our next council meeting and that's 15 days you know well it won't be 15 even probably no matter how fast they work but we could get them may be up and running in 10 days with a special meeting so whatever you couldn't get them to do I think would be greatly appreciated by us and also by the business thank you your honor [1:11:45] Mayor Mary Fasbender: councilmember Balsanek? Councilmember Lund? [1:11:55] Councilmember Trevor Lund: thank you your honor just following up on what councilmember Folch had mentioned she was alluding to on the potential for a special not emergency meeting that that may be requested here based on an upcoming agenda item where I think it makes a lot of sense that we can pay back these things together so that mean my suggestion is is that would be a good opportunity [1:12:42] Councilmember Tina Folch: your honor I would like to make a motion to with the staff recommendations of approving the temporary right oh boy expansion plans for the downtown businesses as presented and authorized the mayor and the city clerk to execute the retail expansion license agreements with entities not receiving a sidewalk cafe license [1:13:10] Councilmember Trevor Lund: second [1:13:20] Mayor Mary Fasbender: second thing councilmember Lund additional council discussion Clerk Flatten please call the roll [1:13:29] Clerk Kelly Flatten: yes yes yes motion prevails [1:14:14] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and you want to just stand okay mayor councilmembers all proceed on with the next item here which is a request from the downtown business association for additional assistance here and so share my screen here with the PowerPoint presentation we did receive a letter from the DBA on May 25th I'm gonna highlight the request that we have received go forward with some information on what we have done on previous requests and status of that and our comments on the actions that have been requested so the DBA did request a number of items on here one would be the consumption of beer and liquor in designated downtown public streets and right-of-ways they're asking for that a designation of what's termed a curbside to go area or areas within the downtown areas of all on sale liquor fees for the remainder of 2020 sing up certain downtown streets every Friday and to Sunday to provide additional restaurant seating from now until November and removal of flower planter bump-outs and allow display of no smoking vaping signs around outdoor eating areas since that you have before you tonight you can consider the actions that they have requested on individual requests understanding that there's some of these items that may require less discussion than others so you can take a look at the request that's brought before you and take action on some of that also but the suggestion that a special meeting might be something that's requested by the City Council to further discuss items these would be items with unresolved questions and this option was discussed by the covert economic development task force who had a meeting on this last Wednesday as it stands with retailers and restaurants the downtown area most of this is a history lesson for you all retailers were closed until May 18th restaurants have been closed until today although today they are limited to take to just operating outdoor seating of no greater than 50 people so it's certainly as you all know there's been some operational restrictions that have been placed upon our restaurants within talents may 18th we did have an initial blast from the DBA and a number of items and I wanted to provide an update as to where we're at and the actions that we have taken a 1 is expanded use of sidewalks for commerce recognition that of a social distancing there would need to be the ability for folks to spread out of the stores further and so we established a free sidewalk use form we've received about five requests for that and these would be for non restaurant entities to expand out into the sidewalk area we had a request from the DBA to convert downtown planters to table eating facilities the action we took was to allow private conversion upon plans the middle of the city we have not received any plans from the DBA and from discussions with them I think the DBA now seeks to remove those planters I'll be if we did have some discussion and raising from from citizens that may change that discussion earlier tonight on the trunk highway 61 bridge Plaza we made a commitment to provide additional tables toilets and hand-washing facilities those items have been completed by the city the tables are there the toilets are there and wash facilities are there we are going to add additional tables beyond what we've added already so City riverfront we will be putting more additional tables there as well so that's more to come private parking lot conversions to dining and pick up as we acted earlier tonight we amended our we through our resolution allowed for the private conversion of up to 25% of parking areas into downtown eating into private eating and pickup facilities these are primarily areas outside of the downtown we've approved six of those already so they're not been a prioritized temporary signage enforcement to allow greater flexibility for businesses and as we just took action on we've been at the forefront of leadership I believe and be able to provide additional areas for downtown commerce to commence through using parking spaces within our downtown some restaurants can stretch out into those areas we've had six restaurants and four retailers that have taken advantage of that we expect additional requests on the 15th as we've discussed earlier a key point to the cost for the pedestrian traffic signage is P by Headroom headroom their parkland approval in their meeting in May we've transferred that funding towards covering the cost of this this has not been done it everywhere there's been a lot of cities in which the those responsibilities have been borne by the business owners our Hendra group here has provided the funding to do that with the approval the liquor licenses today we are set to move tomorrow to install all this items so that people can get to town and start their work so I just wanted to note that that there's been a significant amount of things that have been accomplished here over the last couple weeks to provide further flexibility and to provide further space for restaurants to expand and we'll be put into place now and going into tomorrow and we're very hopeful that'll be helpful in providing additional areas for people to work looking at the requests that are before us tonight the items is the consumption of beer and liquor on downtown streets and sidewalks what they're asking for is to create a special district to allow consumption district would be along 2nd Street from highway 61 to Tyler and then north to the Mississippi River what they're asking for us to do this by an emergency organs to the city code and that this be operational until November 1st a little bit about some of the temporary off sale of liquor items and law changes that have occurred since the since the Cova restrictions have come placed I think as we're all aware the state legislature did pass a law to allow on sale license holders now on sale are restaurants that sell beverages alcoholic beverages for consumption on site blasio which is generally going to be at the liquor store operation where you are taking a prepackaged item and taking it off sale for consul for consumption this temporary law allowing be on sale retailers the the restaurants and bars to sell some of their product there are some restrictions on that it does not allow it does not allow a purchase of a beverage to go so you can't take a mixed drink out and walk around connected to a food order this is something that must be accompanied by it and it's limited to prepackaged beer and wine no mixed drinks no spirits so there are a number of restrictions based upon this but it does allow one to to purchase an alcoholic item prepackaged with their food order and take it someplace else now the key point of this is the allowance ends upon the expiration of the governor's emergency order bration today for the governor's emergency order is June 12th we're not sure what may happen at that point it would be extended if it would be modified but bear in mind that once this emergency order is done with the ability for our businesses to provide off steal liquor ceases at that point when we looked at this we looked at this in trying to be able to accommodate to the best of our abilities of the abilities for downtown restaurants and bars to have further options for expansion however in taking a look at this we cannot recommend adoption undoing this I'll go through a couple of the reasons here we did Kaneda scuzz concept at our May 18th meeting the idea of creating a zone within the downtown area that there was no action by the council at that time the certain that this may contradict the governor's executive order social distancing aspect of the governor's executive order was to not create a type of atmosphere that would be encourage the gathering of folks you know there's some concern out there that this may be more about that this may work really well and it made for yard kind of a festival type of atmosphere out there which would be in contradiction to the governor's orders our staff did have a conversation today with the the alcohol gambling and enforcement office and they shared their concerns about be about creating these type of areas because they may be in violation of the executive order no link to purchasing alcohol from a downtown restaurant to this ordinance individuals would still bring could still bring their liquor in from the outside daba shman of a link to to require people to buy their beverages their alcoholic beverages within the downtown area we have concerns of the legality of that and we have some concerns that it would be nearly impossible to enforce state law limits the consumption of on some on sale alcohol off site the current allowance expires with the emergency order once that expires you may have a situation or you would have a situation in which unfortunately you'd have people that could bring liquor in but they couldn't buy it from the downtown downtown Stross practical way to assign legal liability under the circumstance in other in other situations of which we've had the streets closed off or for a beer garden or for a street dance we've had a defined area and we've had to find servers but we're having this situation would be a number of alcohol licenses in which one would purchase one from one business could move freely throughout the downtown and the liability if something happens would be all over the place there's no way to effectively assign it the city would could be liable it could be individual bars that could be liable on that one we have the concerns on that also the enforcement of open containers in adjacent neighborhoods is a concern with the public intoxication litter broken glass things that may may come out of the downtown area and into the residential neighborhoods nearby so on that aspect of it we are we're not recommending approval from the other question they had other requests downtown curbside area to go this is what I needed a little more explanation on it my first thought on this one was completely different than than what the request was what this is is essentially an area in which people could consume to go Wars it's not a situation in which parking spaces are designated for pickup to go someplace else this is a situation where people could ticket to go order and consume it someplace in the downtown area what they're asking for our help is is to work with them to establish and promote these areas again it would not involve a loss of parking it's the more information on this one to offer recommendation we need to know location of the designated areas the responsibilities enforcement and how consumption of liquor would fall into that so I mean this is something I think that we could work with folks on on that one to figure out how this would all work but just more questions than answers at this point quest if they have is the waiver of on sale liquor fees for 2020 just as or as a reminder the council was asked to waive license fees on April 30th they opted not to do so what they did take in that time was to prorate fees through June 30th so those were waived at that point a collection of the fees were delayed until July 15th included a number of licenses liquor tobacco massage and pot estimate the cost of reducing all on-site liquor fees would be about 86 thousand dollars the DBA did bring forward a number that this fee would be about forty four hundred dollars for individual sales an on-site liquor licenses and we would recommend that any action that would be taken by the City Council include all on site licenses citywide another request that they had was the expansion of the restaurant patio areas on the weekends what the request involves is the closure of 2nd Street from highway 61 to Sibley so that first block east of highway 61 and Sibley Street going from 2nd Street to the Legion so another block in that direction would be closed from Friday to Sunday on every weekend from now until November 1st we are not recommending of this approval Bobcat phases have yet to operate at this point we're hopeful that the flexibility granted within the sidewalk cafes will provide additional space for those to operate and for those to operate and serve the customers that they have within their areas service would not be allowed outside sidewalk cafe areas themselves and less we were to change the code which we're not suggesting be done yet the governor's order again with this festival atmosphere as I discussed earlier there's a lack of details and how the space would be used a traffic detoured through residential areas is a concern to us we could do this from time to time through festivals that have occurred throughout the year but to have this every weekend that's just that's a more of an impact that we usually have emergency access to this area would be unclear it would also involve additional hours to to make the switch every week so something that we need to be cognizant up from a staffing standpoint you know so that's uh that is a recommendation on the expansion question we had was through the removal of flower planters and bump outs this one I think has changed with potentially some existing funding that comes in there I will note that we've got about thirty five planters in the downtown area estimated about one to two days to remove them by city crews utilizing light equipment so whatever decision is made on that request on temporary no smoking no no baby they want to post areas closed for traffic and expanded sidewalk cafe areas to do that they are free to post the private signs on expanded sidewalk cafe areas oh that is the request that we have a for is tonight we've had about nine comments that we have received and I believe all of these have been forwarded to the City Council they're in all of them are in support of the closure and second street many of these are retailers office dwellers within the downtown area themselves that do support the closure and provide various reasons for doing so so I did want to bring that to your attention here back to what we do with office tonight we do have this request before us by at the downtown business association again the council may look to take action on individual aspects of that that they may they may choose not to take act not to take action on it and just not do anything with individual aspects or they may seek to hold a special meeting or some private workshop to gather more information so I can stand for any questions that you may have here I have I do know that that the attendants there are a number of those from the downtown business association and and business operators from the downtown that around the suit call as well thank you John [1:30:24] Mayor Mary Fasbender: thank you John council um like to proceed councilmember Balsanek [1:30:35] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: Your Honor I would make a motion to approve the staffs recommendation [1:31:00] Councilmember Jen Fox: okay burr Bryce where Balsanek or is that specific to all the items in the list or are we going to talk about them are you referring to one individual one [1:31:12] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: I'm referring to all of them council member [1:31:15] Councilmember Trevor Lund: thank you your honor we we discussed this I would say somewhat at length during the taskforce meeting last week and I do want to recognize staff for gathering as much information as possible from that point to today because that is a lot of research to put together in a short period of time on top of your other day-to-day so the collective thought at that time was that this is a lot to unpack and it still is a lot to unpack there's still questions there I'm concerned that we are now have a motion in a second without talking through some what-ifs and having some additional information I think there's a solution in here and perhaps it's not exactly as requested but I think there's there's some opportunity here and I'm concerned that we'd be missing out on that opportunity the hope was that for the my thought was that maybe we could be discussing this in the next couple of days here we call a special meeting you give the three day notice and dedicate some time to this and by that point time hopefully we'll have more information from the requesters as to maybe some questions that are left unanswered some clarity brought to it and if there's any additional legal questions that that may be are are still kind of lingering as well it relates to the executive orders and so forth so I will not be voting in favor of the the motion I believe this requires additional conversation that just simply can't be had today because of the information that's not available but I think there's some merit to some of these things that are on this list and I think we should discuss the middle later date soon but a later date [1:31:58] John Hinzman (Community Development Director): councilmember Lund you aren't correct there there are some items he in which there was not a recommendation I'll briefly go through what was recommended in what wasn't the consumption of beer and liquor downtown and the closure of 2nd Street those items were not recommended for approval the other items on the list we did not offer recommendation on those I would take your direction as council members well [1:32:15] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: my motion is to approve the recommendations that the staff has given us we could take care of that and then go back to the other items individually [1:32:32] Mayor Mary Fasbender: might it be easier to take each individual item and and vote on it the light asks maybe for your help on that just cuz it could be a bit confusing I guess I would attempt to clarify [1:32:45] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): in the in the staff memo it seems that there are recommend Asians for number one and number four and I think that's what based on John's clarification and Councilman our coastal member Balsanek's motion would be to effectively deny the request in those two I would encourage you mayor to call for a second on that motion to see if there is a second or not if there's not then different action could be taken but I think you need to deal with that motion [1:33:09] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay do I have a second for the motion [1:33:14] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Joel Carter move on is a second [1:33:20] Mayor Mary Fasbender: council discussion [1:33:25] Councilmember Trevor Lund: thank you your honor I agree with you that the concern that was brought up in our in our task force meeting my concern that was brought up was there's a there's a heck of a lot of public safety issues here and logistical issues here insurance issues here and I think there's there's some solutions within that but as presented I think it's it's significant risks there but I think it warrants further conversation with with more time to talk about it so whether we we did not yet today and then talk about it later or or just talk about it later in and maybe in a new forum you know later on this week I don't know if really there's a there's a difference between those two but I think that this needs to be talked about further [1:35:25] Councilmember Tina Folch: thank you your honor I fully concur with that councilmember Lund we both sit on the Colvin economic task force and it was that was a recommendation and you were hoping to have further conversation about these issues furthermore the League of Minnesota cities has updated their website they have a page that specifically doesn't need it to the opening of restaurants and outside areas and and just quickly one of the questions about on-sale liquor license is continuing to sell unlimited quantities of alcohol that the governor's office has indicated that the in the next phase it is a partial extension of the previous closure executive orders and will not discontinue the current ability for bars and restaurants to conduct off sale in the quantities laid out by the legislature and so we are not going to be seeing an ending of that in the foreseeable future and secondly the leek has provided a statement for those who don't know the insurance trust through the league as who provides our insurance and they've said that if the city closes streets to allow bars and restaurants to expand their outdoor space is there liability of the city and the lega said that the city would likely be covered by its trust coverage for any claims against the city related to closing of the streets there would not be a trust there would not be trust coverage for the restaurants or bars specifically and so it just goes to show that there are questions that need to be certain and the league is providing clarity and some of these issues and I think that we owe our business community who has made this request and since we're receiving a lot of support from others within you know the downtown that we we just have further conversation about it [1:37:36] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: thank you the reason I expected those voters because I'm staff has put together two things that really um it's public safety is the first one in the festival part but we're kind of going against the governor's order I'm not saying that we might not revisit this again but currently the way it is in front of us today that's where I'm concerned with is on the public safety side of it and are we gonna create those festival areas now if we get some different orders coming along I think it's worth us revisiting but currently with these two that are in front of us I support staffs decision and for customer number Folchers point I looked at up to with the league thanks for the link on that today I was a little concerned that the league said likely be covered I want them to say you will be covered not likely because I still think that puts us at risk as a city in general [1:39:18] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: thank your honor greeing with all three of the points for the points I'm hearing here I think now might be the time where we continue with what has originally been presented to us don't wreck what we're calling them today which other but what they were referring to as the park I think we we start this see what where this goes let's take a look and see if this causes any issues or concerns you know it was in the police department you know down on Second Street and I always want to be real aware of the residents on the east end of town you know there are many different things that prevent them from getting over to their end of town when the water comes up car shows different events so I'd like to hold off and I agree with the others that we should wait and take a look and see well let's start this first process and then see where we can go from there [1:40:43] Councilmember Tina Folch: your honor I just wanted to mention that I did send an email through the previous Association president Harold Kristensen I'm asking for feedback from the East Side Association and also their current president Pete likes for folks to reach out to me I had only received one resident an opposition of closer closure of the streets because she didn't want the inconvenience of having you know didn't divert traffic to go around it otherwise I didn't receive any strong opposition in regards to it although Pete likes did recommend perhaps not the entire statement of second Street perhaps just the first block you know closest to the to the bridge and so I just think that it does show that we're not hearing the kind of / overriding opposition see the closure of this of the street on the weekends there's just been a couple individuals and so I'd hate to throw the baby out with the bathwater because of just a few I think that we should be looking at compromises so thanks [1:41:35] Mayor Mary Fasbender: I almost ate I did have one phone call from the east side and she was not in favor of closure of the street either that's the only thing that I've heard personally on that [1:41:45] Councilmember Jen Fox: Your Honor I agree with what all the other council members have said and I think we did ask the downtown business association to be creative and to come with us the suggestion so I think I just want to acknowledge that they have done that and they're continuing to innovate and to do things to help their business and what has been easiest month that I can ever remember and so I just want to say that I appreciate that I appreciate the creativity and I think that from our point of view you know we're trying to accept those recommendations with ifti of everyone in mind including the public safety issues that Trevor mentioned and I want to be flexible and creative and allow whatever can be done with also keeping in mind that we do have a whole community that uses traffic in a certain way goes to work a certain way you know accesses our town in ways that we understand or mean it may not even understand so I just want to make sure that whatever we do considers everybody and since I am a large represent at-large representative I think it's my duty to just say we need to consider everybody with also I want to acknowledge John for the amount of work you've been doing on this I think it you're doing a lot of research and a lots coming at you and I'm really appreciative that you are handling this but I kind of agree that we need to go in a staged approach instead of throwing everything up against the wall and seeing what sticks I think we need to kind of try something and see how it works then add additional measures as we see needs arise and I'd like to do that the most strategic way possible just an example for me is the planter request seems gone back and forth and I know that in the past we've had conversations about who plants the planters and who waters the planters and how they're taken care of and where they're located and so I would like to see some additional clarity on that because that seems like kind of related to this issue and also they were gonna be used as tables but now they're gonna be planted so I guess I'm just looking for what is agreement on how these are gonna be used and they are City property so I think we do need to take care of them and decide what we're gonna do with them but it seems like there might be some differing opinions on what that looks like so I'm looking just for some more cohesive consensus on some of these items before I say yes to all of them so thank you I agree with the motion that's the main here [1:44:41] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: thank you your honor I'm sensing that some of the council members think that because I made the motion and we have to be very careful of this I made the motion to get it on the floor for discussion and we we are looking at it specifically as opposed to the whole thing that that's a very efficient way to operate I am you as I said you know you should not assume too much but I did make the motion because I am opposed to what it is right now primarily because the look of the liability aspect I grew up in the restaurant business to restaurants with my parents liquor licenses so forth it's a can of worms and okay let's deny it and have them go back and look at it again see what they can do to tweak it and then bring it back to us the only unfortunate thing is that there's only so many days to the warm weather and this could be a delay of another 15 days before it comes back but I really appreciate what John has done in terms of his diligence to put put this forth in a very sophisticated manner we have to have confidence in what our staff members present to us as a council I think that's very very important and should be recognized thank you [1:46:59] Mayor Mary Fasbender: thank you you know joy I agree with you I think John's done a ton of work I think everybody has done a lot of work to be creative town people John Nick has helped so wanna to some of the safety part of it I'm I trust my our police chief in his comments and his part of his recommendations I to get them to get moving and going as fast ly as they can I hate to say it but I would like to see it in in steps at this point and I'm hopeful that it's the community's gonna come out and we're gonna start to have tourism and let's try to get them moving as quickly as we can to open and let's start it let's start it going and we can revisit it I gonna hate to say that but there's a lot of questions that we all still have but I think at this point we could get it started for them and get the process started there's a motion on the table if no one has any other discussion your honor [1:48:06] Councilmember Tina Folch: well thank you your honor I just wanted to say I'm strongly opposed to voting down issues number one and issues number four as we've been discussing because it doesn't make any sense to deny it and then force the DBA to have to work to put together another letter to bring it back we can just table it and have a conversation in a few days about it and then continue I just think that it completely sends the wrong message as we're supposedly as a council supposed to be promoting creativity and and wanting to be there for our business community and so I just I just feel that it's a harmful vote to vote no when I know that all of these business owners are burnin the candle at both ends trying to prepare for these outside patio areas and and I know that the paperwork has been a lot of extra work for them and they're and they're trying their best to get through it and so I urge you not to to vote no to vote no on those two issues I think that we should have a special workshop and continue conversations so that instead of being a no council we're like okay we're trying to work with you Council so thanks [1:49:19] Councilmember Trevor Lund: thank you your honor and and clarify where my head's at if somebody would have made a motion to accept it across the board I also probably would not support that motion and so I want to what council member Folch has is brought up there's a like I said before I'll repeat myself there's a lot to unpack here and there's information we don't have quite yet to make a full confident decision and so the end result look a hundred percent like as presented I very much doubt that but I think there is a solution in here and it just requires us that have a little bit more information and to dedicate that time to discuss it once we have all that information you know the decisions that we've made previously they're not moot and just by nature of how this will play out we will see those decisions in operation before anything that we decide further is able to happen - so your here's your step process just by by nature you know the that when we did make some of these earlier decisions we didn't fully know what the executive orders we're going to be you know and so having having that extra space was seen as a way to offset lost inside space but now there is no inside space right so we need to think about that - do I want to see people roaming the streets with coolers full of beer I do not you know so is there something that can still accommodate what they're actually looking for which is to support their business and those businesses downtown none of these business people want reckless Mardi Gras behavior going on down there either so let's have the conversation that's why I don't think we should vote on this at all I think we should be looking at this holistically in a workshop so we can do whatever you want but I'm going to make a motion after this that indicates it such [1:52:26] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: I'm just gonna comment the reason we're going I think there's people on the Xoom tonight listening and I think from the downtown and it's not a no it's just a note tonight but let's continue the conversation and phase this in I think some of our mic like you're taking it too strong as a no we're not saying that we're voting tonight no but let's try to way to phase this in we're just getting started with this parklets tomorrow we're gonna get things open and I don't think staffs just gonna drop it off and say we're done working on it it's time to keep working but in the meantime I gotta respect staffs time and I got a respect to public safety of this and the things I'm getting in front of us I'm concerned about the public safety side [1:53:12] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: so just to clarify your honor or city attorney Fluegel so if what's on the floor right now is they know to these six items agree with with you know and what council member is that correct [1:53:35] Attorney Dan Fluegel: if you want me to mayor the system please the motion before you is to deny the DBAs request to allow the closure of 2nd Street as a I guess a open container area for the balance of the summer and their request at number four which would be to close portions of 2nd Street for the weekend periods of time so those are the only two request items that are the subject of this motion on floor [1:53:59] Mayor Mary Fasbender: ok and then as councilmember Vihrachoff had indicated this is something that voting no tonight by any means not indicate that we will be looking at this in the coming weeks as we take a look at what's happening with the space additions is that correct we can bring this forward at any time mayor if you wish I would consider that an ongoing request of the DBA so at any subsequent City Council meeting where it's on the agenda it could be is it required of us to even has council members indicated is it even necessary for us to vote on this or is it something that we do councilmember Vihrachoff approach of get more data and kind of watching and see what it happened [1:55:18] Councilmember Jen Fox: mayor that motion needs to be dealt with today either by a vote on the Slayer of the motion yes or no or with a motion to postpone indefinitely or lay it on the table table it in which case it could be taken from the table at any subsequent meeting [1:55:31] Councilmember Jen Fox: stating what everybody has already stated and that may be I'm just saying this for myself but it seems like we're arguing semantics because if we support the denial of the two recommendations as staff has set it on that doesn't close it down from future discussion all we're saying is right now today moving these because there's not enough information but however and always come back and there may be new recommendations there may be modifications of the recommendations as John has on this list or there may be new ones we're doing by supporting Joe councilmember Balsanek's motion will preclude anyone from helping downtown businesses in the future so I just want to be clear that the court and vote YES on the motion and still come back and discuss all these topics later which i think is is what everybody's saying I think we're just talking about two different processes to get there [1:56:16] Councilmember Tina Folch: vote I'm sorry I guess I just don't get it why would we vote no and then we'd have to take it up again in two weeks whereas we could just table it and have a special kind of a special meeting to discuss these issues in the next week and be more timely about it and so I guess it speaking on behalf of the DBA I just know that they're exhausted emotionally physically and asking them to put together a whole nother package and proposal and type it all up and send it all over and in two weeks we're gonna Mull that over again I just think it does them discredit and I think that we should honor that they brought forward something they're at least trying their best and that and I think it just makes sense to table it and and pick it back up and and be more thoughtful about it it's just I'm saying no like okay try again so um anyhow that's my two cents thanks your honor [1:57:49] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: point a procedure if we table it then the very same language and recommendation is what will come back again at a future date I'd rather see us in favor of the recommendations of the staff perhaps somebody would want to make an amendment to the motion that that has a caveat that says DBA go back and tweak this and bring it back that's really the I think we're all trying to get there with that so I don't think I can make an amendment because I made the motion and emotion I'm not sure Dan can I do that [1:58:35] Attorney Dan Fluegel: I don't know that you can't councilmember I I think you may be able to amend your own motion [1:59:10] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: all right then I propose an amendment and we'll need a second on it and a vote an amendment that says that even though we are voting for the staff recommendation we are asking the DBA and any other businesses to go back and look at this again and provide something that is more definitive or acceptable to the council okay yes [1:59:21] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: thank your honor to council member Folch she made us statement a few moments ago regarding the time-it that's required of the DBA to come forward with this so I'm being reminded that we remember the patios the sitting is only going to happen when it's nice out so that's going to immediately cause a decrease this isn't happening seven days a week so they're gonna be working very hard to run this I'm really concerned and based on what I'm hearing from businesses specifically just now that this is very time consuming and costly for them to keep coming forward and if we were to table it ourselves that would probably it would not probably would absolutely save the DBA much time effort money from I guess what would be considered spinning their wheels to bring back to us the same thing and going back to that let's wait and see what happens let's hold off on this let's table this that's I'm just giving you my opinion because that's I will be voting against this particular position just due to the fact that I feel that this should be tabled for us to look at it a later time as is thank your honor [1:59:45] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: what point of order Your Honor we we have an amendment and a second and that's what we're discussing right now not to mean motion [1:59:58] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: discussing your amendment I'm telling you my position on both your original and German that's all I'm saying council member thank you [2:00:07] Attorney Dan Fluegel: all right but you just appointed a clarification your honor council member Leifeld is referring to tabling we have no motion or second to table a motion in a second for amendment to the main motion to answer that I stand [2:00:30] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: that council member what I am saying is I will not support what you've the amendment that you've put forward because I would support it tabling completely so yes I do understand what you brought forward I will be voting no to your Amendment is what I'm referring to so thank you for the clarification [2:01:39] Councilmember Joe Balsanek: I'm gonna bring in one of the downtown girls here we are welcome Amy I don't know how Sofia got up there but there's gonna say you've changed I know do you like that that's I'm supporting my girl I do it so [2:03:14] Amy (DBA Representative): I'm just here to speak on behalf of the DBA there's a few other on the video as well that would like to chime in after so what we came to you with the partial street closure was done immediately after governor waltz issued ruling for the restaurants so for a restaurant downtown to be able to have the capacity of 50 people how do you fill it they can't do that so the street closure came for that reason you know it's not gonna be a festival it's for these businesses these restaurants to be able to fill up the 50 people so they can stay in business I mean the DBA right now as we said we're extremely frustrated I don't know I'm not even a restaurant owner and I've been helping out just because they're trying to keep their businesses alive so I don't know if we will come back to you with anything that's why we chose to have the planters removed because we don't as small businesses have time to come back and forth with recommendations to the city we're just asking for some help so if there's something that you can give to us that you know we can say it's not gonna be a booze fast we're trying to be trying to socially distance and get these bars and restaurant to even have 50 50 people capacity which they cannot have on their patios which were we came to two weeks ago this was before the governor came back and said outside dining only so then you add in the weather the heat all of these things these restaurants are not going to survive down there working retail since the governor our foot traffic down there is non-existent during the week thing you need to do whatever we can to get people to feel safe and comfortable to come downtown we we are veal our feeling on the closure was just giving the people the extra space even if they went in and took take out of a table but could bring a chair and sit down in the middle of the street to enjoy their dinner we're trying to become creative as creative as we can and we don't when these when these customers come down we don't want to lose them retail doesn't want to you lose them the restaurants don't want to lose them so we kind of thought coming together and doing this closure would give us the ability to keep our customers down there so if there's any questions I'm on here Tasha's on here and Amy Fox's on here us can answer any questions any amendments whatever you want to do but if you if you if you we're done do if you don't prove it thank you [2:07:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: thank you Amy. Amy Fox would you like to speak as well? Amy Fox hello everybody [2:07:36] Amy Fox (Spiral Brewery): hi I just want I just wanted to chime in and whoa and one second everything that Amy the other Amy just said but to give you some context I do we all really truly appreciate all the hard work and research and time that went into preparing this proposal and preparing all of the expanded sidewalk cafes and all of that because it really truly is a big help to all of us businesses especially the downtown businesses but like I said to give you some context with our expanded patio we at a very maximum capacity are at 26 chairs so that's about a quarter capacity of our tap roast Spiral Brewery tap room so that is only when it's a beautifully perfect day and we can get reservations to cover every single chair for every single time slot and that is with added expenses more staff PPE potentially paying for a reservation system so it's it's very minimal added revenue that we're getting even with the expanded patio and to speak to our time we at least I can't speak for everyone but Spiral Brewery we can't even open up our patio yet because we're not prepared with yet with our preparedness plan and training of employees and our reservation service all of the loopholes that we have to jump through to operate so we can't even open yet so to say that we you need us to go back to the drawing board and take time to put together another plan to throw stuff like him up against the wall when we have no idea what you're even gonna accept it's quite frustrating to be on this really had to add a thank you Amy [2:09:43] Councilmember Jen Fox: okay I just want to clarify mayor that one of the reasons I don't care for this motion is that in my view the my intent is not for us to push this back to the DBA my intent was to go along with what Trevor I'm sorry council member Lund and council member Leifeld were talking about earlier which is the council itself would discuss his recommendations and that we would give our staff more time to do more research and get some alternate proposals together if that's what we were going to do but I think the point of giving us more time was not to push it back at least it wasn't mine buddy that's downtown the purpose in that for me would be for us to do that work not to push it off on anybody else so I just want to clarify that was my intent that's what I was speaking to maybe I didn't say that very well the first time so I apologize but that was my intention [2:10:38] Councilmember Trevor Lund: correct Thank You councilmember Jen Fox thank you your honor I have to admit I don't know exactly the procedural to Julie correct way to go about this so I look at council for some advice I I think tabling it gets us to a special meeting that we can pick it up on that's we need to do I'll have pear and and make good decisions is that impossible to do now that we have a motion and a second are we able to then after the vote on this recommendation that this goes to special meeting or can I or somebody else make a motion on top of the motion or an amendment on top of the amendment to table it [2:11:51] Attorney Dan Fluegel: hey Dan could you help please baron council anyone at this point in time can make a motion to table it would table the motion with the amendment pending so that when it is taken from the table at a subsequent meeting that will be the status that you'll be at but you could vote down the amendment or deal with it at the same way as you could tonight so if there is a motion to table she needs to be a second and that's a non-debatable motion and mayor you should call for a roll code [2:12:13] Councilmember Trevor Lund: member Lund I'd like to make a motion to table [2:12:20] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: okay and councilmember Leifeld second [2:12:25] Mayor Mary Fasbender: I still have council discussion or clerk Flatten could you please call the roll [2:12:39] Clerk Kelly Flatten: yes yes yes [2:13:00] Councilmember Jen Fox: so councilmember Jen Fox so is someone else making motion for a special meeting at this point in time or is that just something that we're talking about is someone going to do that but for future discussion if I clearly [2:13:16] Attorney Dan Fluegel: the the council can set of set a special meeting date today if you would be inclined to do that I would also point out a special meeting can be called by the mayor solely or by any other three council members my only concern here is just timing I don't know if the council at this moment would be able to pick the best time for the council a special council meeting or if perhaps you might want to let staff turn about some of those things and propose to either the mayor or some council members on a good date when we could try to accomplish as much as possible but again either of those options either setting it tonight by the council is okay welcome Florida vote for waiting in the mayor and or three council members could set it tomorrow or another day [2:14:05] Mayor Mary Fasbender: call it an attorney Dan does it have to be three days or is that not into that three day notice for that [2:14:11] Attorney Dan Fluegel: we did talk about this concept of trying to add those additional liquor licensees for their sidewalk cafes that's gonna take a longer time so I don't think you could jam that in as quickly as you could just a three day notice for the special meeting [2:14:46] Councilmember Tina Folch: I would suggest that we convene on this conversation that Monday of next week since it's an off week and that may give time enough time for staff to be able to feel like they get their ducks a little bit clearer in a row sure you could schedule around those but there are two meetings that [2:15:35] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): okay folks the utilities committee what we were discussing wasn't time-sensitive the other planning group was what they're discussing but I would just suggest that we could temper we could push back the utilities committee meeting to a more convenient time to allow for the council to have this conversation Thanks [2:16:35] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): okay can we just move forward and we can come up with a date or do we want to do it tonight I think if it's not in any motion we should take it offline and decide to date are you sorry take the discussion about the date offline and decide it later [2:17:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay okay we are at reports from city committees first council members council do you have any announcer [2:17:21] Councilmember Trevor Lund: uh yes just for clarification I know that there's some interest that bringing the discussion to a meeting in the near future is that all six items or just items one and four they have several other pieces of the DBA proposal that you've not discussed including flower papers [2:18:16] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): councilmember Lund I believe the motion was specific to I don't know what the I mean Joe council members Balsanek's motions were specific to a couple of items my intent was that the entirety of leave that's how I phrased it but that that the entirety of the requests were to be discussed I understand your question city administrator Dan I don't know that it answers my question if the council moves on obviously the other items [2:19:03] Councilmember Tina Folch: okay so you know council member Folch you're unmuted is that for a reason thank you your honor I agree with Dan just for clarification when a custom member Lund made his motion I had interpreted it that he was tabling the motions that were on the floor so that there wasn't a vote on those particular two issues and so I had I just don't want I just don't want like week for us to officially lose all of the other four issues that were up for discussion which we hadn't even touched so I'm just looking I guess maybe for clarification from mr. Fluegel as if how it was that he interpreted the motions as they were in movement in a tabling thank you your honor [2:19:49] Attorney Dan Fluegel: I contemplated that it was a table of the entire DBA request with the motions that would carry along with that that would leave all of those items able to be discussed at a future special meeting if there is one scheduled I I'm gonna respectfully disagree with you [2:20:14] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: is there a truth we had a motion on the floor with an amendment there was a motion to table my understanding is what we tabled was that woman with the amendment not the other items I was assuming we would still be talking about the other items tonight that correct me if I'm wrong but that's the way I was reading it [2:20:34] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator): when you have motion on the floor and there's a motion to table well what your table is the motion on the floor not everything else your honor from death [2:21:20] Councilmember Tina Folch: well I'm waiting for an answer from Dan I'm about to step over the answer I'd like to make a motion to the table all six items as presented to us by the city obviously number five we've got more information and we need to now look into that so I don't know that we'd be in a position to even vote on that right now as we have heard from Susie so we do need to find out more information so I would make a request or a motion to table all six items at this time and discussion and quick flatten please call the roll yes yes I guess yes yes yes yes [2:22:10] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay council members do you have any announcements councilmember Balsanek? oh sorry okay okay I have a couple announcements um let's see filing for Ward city council seats ends tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday June 2nd first a June 4th five o'clock the Operations Committee of City Council will meet Monday June 8th at 6 p.m. is a utilities committee of City Council 7:00 p.m. as planning commission Thursday June 11 there is a Headrum meeting at 6 p.m. Monday June 15 Finance Committee of City Council at 6 p.m. and there is a City Council meeting at 7 p.m. I would like to make a like to congratulate the class of 2020 who will soon be graduating and they you know they have been through a really tough year for those kids and it will be a memorable year for them as it will be memorable for all of us but I just want to die at this time congratulate them and we look forward to seeing where they're going to end up down and down the road in their future and that is all I have I take a motion to accept to adjourn [2:23:43] Councilmember Tina Folch: so moved councilmember Folch [2:23:45] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: council member Leifeld [2:23:47] Clerk Kelly Flatten: quick Flat and take the role yes thank you