[0:52] Mayor: no changes is all right good evening we'll call this meeting to order for the March 28th 20124 Apple Valley city council meeting uh welcome everyone um as our items come forward this evening anyone who has signed up to speak please uh make your way forward to the podium um state your name and address the council the first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance and I would ask everyone to rise and join us in the pledge pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stand indivisible andice thank you the second item on our agenda is to approve the agenda and Tom are there any changes or additions [1:45] Tom Lawell: good evening Mr Mayor members of the council no changes to tonight's agenda [1:56] Mayor: no changes we have a motion to approve the agenda move motion by council member Bergman and the second by council member grindall all in favor indicate by saying I I I and opposed agenda is approved the next item is our audience participation portion this is for items not on our agenda and we have a total of 10 minutes uh for this item and I know uh Bernie Bowman would like to speak Bernie come on up and I'll let you uh introduce yourself because you'll do it better than I could so [2:33] Bernie Balman: Mr Mayor members of the city council my name is Bernie Balman I live at 15643 duck crossing way here in Apple Valley power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely several years ago my wife and I relocated back to Minnesota from Nebraska after a 10-year assignment with an employer and shortly after I retired we chose Apple Valley for a number of reasons we did not choose Minneapolis nor St Paul henen County nor Ramsey County for a lot of reasons if you are a history buff you know the saying absolute power corrupts absolutely was made famous by the English historian Lord Acton in 1887 Lord Acton was writing about the monarchies of the time those in which all power was given or is more often the case taken by the monarchs examples of the monarchs who corrupted their power included Roman emperors who declared themselves gods in Napoleon bonapart who declared himself an emperor here we are 137 years later and the gods and Emperors in the Minnesota Legislature are trying to take the power and the responsibility of single family zoning away from Apple Valley in the cities and towns across Minnesota through the proposed legislation of he house file 409 and in Senate file 3964 as a locally elected body you discussed these two proposals at your last meeting this legislation seeks to eliminate single family zoning in sittings with a population of 10,000 or more and strip municipalities Authority and responsibilities to regulate housing parking Aesthetics and lot subdivision according to the authors of this legislation the bill aims to increase housing affordability it is my opinion the gods sitting on their Thrones at 75 Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Boulevard and St Paul are wrong about this a manufactured issue as they have been so wrong and so many issues before it house file 409 and Senate file 3964 are Minneapolis and St Paul inspired proposals I don't know about you but Minneapolis and St Paul do not inspire me for anything there is an exodus of citizens in both cities the crime rate continues to be historically High High property taxes have risen at an unstainable rate rent is Sky High roadways have given away to potholes after potholes their parks are falling apart and their schools are failing their students Min Minneapolis and St Paul are the birthplace of defund the police movement house file 409 and file 3964 are not pieces of legislation that will Elevate the cities and towns in Minnesota they will no doubt drag cities like ours down to their level do not relinquish your local zoning control and responsibility over to the legislators and bureaucrats in St Paul please do not take my ability as a local citizen to influence local decision made by sending me to St Paul neither one of these bills considers the input of Apple Valley residents businesses and organizations that make up our local community I will end with an idiom I'm sure you're all familiar with if a camel gets his nose Under the Tent where does The Madness of this legislation end a takeover of your roles and responsibility for City Planning law enforcement Parks and Recreation the city budget I ask you as just a local guy a local taxpayer someone who chose Apple Valley to live when the choice is were many keep local control of our zoning rights responsibilities and Authority call out State elected representatives who do not share this opinion call them out by name don't play politics with this issue call them out by name sound off like a marine preserving the character and integrity of our neighborhoods is vitally important thank you thank [Applause] you [8:21] Mayor: thanks birie just for a bit of background for those who didn't get the rest of the issue uh last uh council meeting you can go back and watch the what about 40 minutes of discussion all of there I would say uh you brought up two Bill numbers Bernie don't Focus for those who want to do research on just those two because things change at the legislature bills get get new numbers new things come up to replace them uh look at the issue not necessarily the bill number because some of those have changed even in the last uh week or so I would say everybody up here has done a fair amount of work on this um I've been with the governor last week we were with uh all of our elected reps as well as many of the advocacy groups who have been behind this to make sure they understand what they're talking about so coming at this from alwayss and from everyone up here but um for those who are concerned the best thing you can do is to reach out to your local state repres representatives and Senators they're the ones who will vote on this and they need to hear the voice for or against of uh the people not just of us so thank you Bernie council member Goodwin [9:38] Council Member Goodwin: thank you mayor first of all thanks a lot Bernie well done folks that don't know Bernie is also the commander of our local American Legion and also somebody who watches City Council meetings I wish more people did our message last week was loud and clear State wants to change the rules and not allow City councils to Zone they want to allow your neighbor in a single family home to build three or four unit housing right in where he is this is just an it's atrocious and I appreciate Bernie coming forward and uh I hope more people get that message message and and can talk to their state legislators thank you mayor [10:31] Mayor: thank you all right I see no other public comments we'll move on to our consent agenda these items are considered routine and will be enacted with a single motion unless a council member or a citizen would like to pull an item council members are there any items you would like to pull all right seeing none citizens any items to pull all right seeing none do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda MO second motion from council member grindall a second from council member Goodwin all those in favor indicate by saying I I and opposed that item carries we'll move on to our regular agenda item and one of our favorite evenings here is our item 5A which is inductions and O the office of firefighters we have Chief Nelson will take us from here and while Chief Nelson gets situated uh for those in the audience who might look for a picture please feel free to get up and get wherever you can get the best one uh this evening so [11:15] Chief Nelson: thank you mayor city council obviously kind of as you said have a lot of families out here today so um here to help us celebrate so started uh firefighters that we're going to badge tonight started two years ago uh a process two years ago in April of 2022 with an application to become a firefighter they passed a written test an interview a background check a physical an agility test and a psychological testing then in September of 202 22 actually started a recruit class went through EMR certification emergency medical responder firefighter 1 firefighter 2 hasm Ops they received all their certifications and received their pager in March of 2023 one year after applying and started the process um and then this started their process of responding to calls and attending drills they worked through their task books with ADD dis with additional on the job training once they had gotten their pagers this uh past January their station captain uh gave their approval for their oath of office to be administered um and for them to get badged turn it over to you Pam for bad oh yes sorry uh we'll bring forth our firefighters um we might need them for this my first uh have Demi Costa Matt Deen Clarissa Keel Joel kosy and Matt Moore he you want to repeat that so people back [13:13] Chief Nelson & Firefighters: or hi Matt dwe I support the of the United States states of Minesota and Faithfully discharge the duties of off of the city of valley of of to the of [Applause] [14:04] Chief Nelson: Jud now they've administered the oath office um we're going to have a badge pinning ceremony it's tradition that they pick who they would like to pin their badge so Demi is going to have her daughter Aver re in her badge Matt dein's going to have his dad Michael Joel kosy is gonna have his wife Carly Clarissa's going to have her dad Jeffrey and Matt moris his wife Sarah you guys want to come forward then if the mayor and Council would approve we're going to have a little light reception celebration for these guys [15:15] Mayor: absolutely welcome thank you all absolutely [Applause] let thank you all and welcome and we'll give you guys a moment to get uh settled and make your way out for your reception watch the whole room empty apparently somebody told John there was cake I thought John was going to go a cake or join the reception or something all right the next item on our agenda is uh staff and counsil of communications and Tom do we have anything this evening [17:05] Tom Lawell: Mr Mayor we do have one we'd like to invite up police chief Nick Francis to give us an update on U Autism Awareness Month in the police department [17:17] Chief Nick Francis: good evening Mr Mayor members of the council um I spoke to you at the last meeting to just kind of give a heads up I wanted one more final reminder here before we uh enter the month of April that we have have autism acceptance month for um our community um it's important because uh our first event is actually before April 1st we always do it on Holy Saturday the day before Easter we have our Easter egg hunt uh that's on March 30th this year so I wanted to get that out to folks uh as of this morning I think we have right around 40 45 uh community members signed up to attend that uh it's a sensory friendly Easter egg hunt which is uh a little bit easier for folks who maybe have some sensory issues um or um Mobility concerns so that's our first event this year uh the next one is uh the week of April 8th through 12th we do a patch hunt uh where Clues are released online and uh sent out to folks that uh register and um and want to receive those directly and so it's a patch hunt anywhere in the community similar to what we do for mid-winter Fest uh where some Clues are given and and they're given the opportunity to find the patch like a medallion and that comes with a gift card uh and then our um third event is April 26 at the Galaxy Library it's a coloring um coloring program um and our staff will be on hand kind of uh there uh helping folks and getting those uh great puzzle pieces and badges and patches displayed so uh throughout the month you may see officers wearing a little bit different patch we authorize a a special patch that was created and designed by a group of community members along with us and uh Apple Valley Community crime prevention Association will be selling those at these events they're also available in the lobby during the month of April during uh normal business hour so um we invite the community to come out we also did uh a podcast that will get released here early in April and our new podcast which is called Buzz with the fuzz I think this is the fourth installment and uh we do uh myself and uh Kibby Clin who's our mental health responder through Dakota County um we are the the guests this month talking about autism acceptance and what it means to uh to kind of celebrate that in our community so we welcome everyone to come out and join us and we welcome those who aren't able to to figure out some way within the month of April to to accept the autism and do what they can to uh to welcome this community [19:51] Mayor: great thank you Chief um I see some click hears on the screen I'm assuming we could is there is that just on the city's website [19:56] Chief Nick Francis: yeah City's website or on our social media accounts uh if you follow us you'll be ble to to get direct links to all that [20:04] Mayor: great thank you y thanks Tom anything else [20:06] Tom Lawell: one one more just one more comment uh because what happened before our next city council meeting just a word about the Apple Valley home and garden expo which will be uh taking place on Saturday April the 6th uh this is being held at East View High School where it's been the last few years uh 900 a.m. to 300 p.m. so this is the Apple Valley home and garden expo put on by the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce uh they have over a 100 vendors there uh certainly the city will be there uh with many of our departments uh handing out information and talking to with citizens about uh how to improve their property uh fire department will be there as well with a display and just a lot of uh good family activity there as well as the opportunity to interact with vendors and improve your property in Apple Valley so just a reminder of that and we hope folks can come out on Saturday April the 6th [20:53] Mayor: and Tom unlike a home and garden show that might be held in Minneapolis or St Paul that's a free event for the public to attend correct [21:00] Tom Lawell: is true yes [21:03] Mayor: all right thank you uh Council any items for communication all right seeing none we'll uh talk about the calendar of upcoming events our next informal city council meeting is Thursday April 11th at 5:30 and our next regular city council meeting is Thursday April 11th at 7 do I have a motion to approve the calendar so second motion from council member grindall a second from council member Bergman all those in favor indicate by saying I I poos that item carries and do have motion to adjourn so move second motion from council member Goodwin and a second from council member grindall all those in favor I I I all right we're adjourned thank [Music] you