good evening ladies and gentlemen it is now 5 30 and I will call this regular meeting of the Burnsville city council to order it is our tradition to stand for a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and we invite you to join us thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all tonight's meeting is being conducted both uh in person and online and all council members are present uh council member Workman is absent this evening he is ill and uh but our staff and council members are present in the chamber the public May attend in person or the public can also watch us on burtonsvillemn.gov meetings or Comcast channel 16 or 859 the public can also join us on Zoom zoom.us slash join more information is available on the meeting webpage and in a council agenda packet foreign the next item on the agenda is announcements and a presentation our announcements have to do with all of our upcoming meetings regular Council meetings are scheduled for Tuesday January 3rd at 5 30 pm and Tuesday January 17th at 5 30 pm we have a work session that's scheduled for Tuesday January 10th at 5 30 pm and a special work session for interviewing a youth commissioner on Tuesday January 3rd at 5 00 pm and that meeting will be held in the conference in conference room D unless noted all meetings of the council are held here in the chambers this evening is also very special for us we have c h architects who will be presenting a fire station one design award so if I could have Mr Quinn Houston and Brooke Jacobson to please come forward yes and uh I would say that our chief will be receiving the award and then there will be photographs taken later thank you madam mayor and Council good evening as you know I'm Quinn Hudson principal of c h Architects and also with me tonight is fellow principal Brooke Jacobson um we're really pleased to make the announcement that brinsville fire station number one uh was awarded the Gold Award to the uh Firehouse magazine the station design award which is a national award uh it's the top award in that category uh totally together there were over 61 applicants for all categories and so this is uh very selective and uh we're very excited to be able to share that with everybody tonight um and from the process I I have to you know definitely note that this commitment uh that the city council and the fire Administration team has towards the um you know to each and every firefighter is really evident in the process and this has had a big part of of the award uh the judge is noted specifically uh in the award response uh that the project was a progressive response to the awareness of mental health and and stress relief within the fire station which is very an intentional part of the design that we were putting together so we had cnh Architects are very proud of the design of station one and that it is breaking new ground in providing a healthy and highly functional facility meeting the challenges of today's firefighters as well as being prepared for tomorrow's fire service so with that we'd like to thank city council and all the staff that were highly involved on the design committee and as well as all of our staff at c h Architects for everyone's hard work and efforts to collaborate on this award-winning fire station design so um before that you present the award to the chief I'd like to just speak on behalf of the city council and how proud We Are of uh a fire chief and all of our firefighter paramedics and the people on the team the facilities team that put the principles together and stuck by those principles in the work that that was done because it was the most smoothest process that we went through we with every step of the way we really acknowledged the difference between staff work and policy work and staff did a great job on the operation side so to our city manager to our fire chief and to the whole team it was important for us to make sure that our firefighter paramedics and what they needed we build a building that's going to address their health safety needs their mental health needs their um and most of all because when we take care of them they take care of the citizens that we serve and that we have a building that will serve our citizens into 30 years so thank you and so yeah absolutely at this time we'd like to present the gold word plaque uh to Chief jungle yeah where is a photographer yeah can you take the presentation first and then I will come and then yeah why don't we um just go like that way yeah and then uh if the the consultant and I will thank you there we go yeah it's a tradition it is a tradition I will do my reminder that if you can't see me I cannot see you so I think I think I got everybody all right three two one thank you [Applause] individual right hopefully 2023 we'll go that way every day the next item on the agenda is Citizens comments this is the opportunity for anyone in the audience to address a council on an item that is not an apprented agenda and not an application form that will be coming before us at a future date is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the council anyone any audience Mrs Henderson is there anyone on Zoom no there is not thank you we then will move on the next item to the agenda's additions to the final agenda and this is for emergency items only city manager Lindbergh are there any emergency items to come before the body nothing from staffmir thank you members of the council thank you we now move on to the consent agenda the consent agenda is a group of items that's considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion however an item on a consent agenda can be removed for a separate discussion and vote is there anyone in the audience wishes an item on a consent agenda to be removed for a separate discussion and vote Mrs Henderson is there anyone on Zoom no there is not okay members of the council anyone wants an item to be pulled Mr Lindberg the staff have an item to be pulled nothing from staff mayor um with that I would like a motion to adopt the consent agenda move to approve second there's a motion and a second all in favor please say aye aye aye opposing a and a motion carries the first item on the regular agenda is a resolution approving uh an update at Heart of the City public space guidelines our assistant community development director Miss Regina G Dean is presenting and I think Ms desert our city engineer is also going to be partnering with her Mrs Dean that you have before thank you mayor members of the council this was a collaborative effort so I'm going to start the presentation and then Jen's going to wrap things up and then certainly if there are any questions at the end uh we can certainly uh both stand for questions so Heart of the City design framework update uh this was before you it was about a nine month process and really the goal of the Heart of the City design framework update was to refresh our 1999 plan that had been in place for over 20 to 22 years we had done some work with the 2040 comprehensive plan looking at Heart of the City and how that could expand over to the west side of i-35w and then we updated our zoning code to be a Transit oriented development zoning code and a lot of the elements that were in this document were moved over to the city code so that developers didn't have to flip-flop between the two documents and it was nice and cohesive in one spot for people to get all of their information we also took that as an opportunity as we were doing the update to evaluate the current conditions around Heart of the City we actually did a walking tour of the area and documented all the things that were issued use and then also looked for opportunities actually walking in in the space we had the opportunity to also evaluate just all the the studies and documents that we had done over the years and then also I had an opportunity to reassess our special assessment policy this is a really special place Heart of the City and we wanted to take the time to see who who pays for these elements and how and how is that Equitable so Council and staff took the time to do that with the help of our Consultants input and information analysis we did have an opportunity to have a robust public engagement not only with Council but with members of the community and I'll go over that in the next couple of slides so this was before you with our consultant team a number of times throughout 2021 and into 2022 we also had the opportunity to have a joint workshop with our Planning Commission Economic Development commission and the parks recreation and Natural Resources Commission to allow them to provide input that was really cool to see um them kind of play off of each other's ideas and and really collaborate and and give some nice input that was really kind of well balanced as well engagement we had the opportunity to have touch points with over 400 people through pop-up events through stakeholder engagement like one-on-one phone calls with business owners we sent out direct surveys to apartment tenants within Heart of the City to obtain feedback what how are they using space and what are they experiencing and one of my favorite opportunities was the Outreach that we did at Nicolet Middle School really hearing from the youth and and the ideas that they have and just the great energy that they brought we also had a staff project management team the people that are um our maintenance folks were part of that team the people that you know are day in and day out um shoveling and plowing and taking care of the light bulbs in the area and they we want to make sure that they the people that are out there that they were part of this plan as we look to implementation in the future so with that I'm going to turn it over to Jen she's going to talk about the framework contents and again to a little more detail about what the final product looks like yeah or the draft final project product should I say well thank you for all of the great work that you guys are doing and I'm looking forward to seeing to hearing about Jen so uh portion of this as well yeah all right well thank you and and as rodina said this was a really big collaboration between multiple departments and so um I'm glad we could tag team on this presentation to present the finding the framework content so this slide here just shows everything that's in that document that regino's holding up um it talks about what we did um the public engagement the existing conditions analysis guiding principles and then the different character districts that are existing today and how we can try and make those more cohesive across the the district there's streets and streetscapes um Landscaping public spaces gateways and wayfinding signage and public art was a chapter parking screening sustainability and stormwater management and then maintenance and then my favorite chapter is implementation because I like to do stuff so um this is the contents and and there was a link to the full draft that's on our website now um uh some of the council concerns that we wanted to address when we did the presentation with Damon Farber was that what does this document how is it going to be used and is it rigid and the answer is no the answer to that is the point of the document is to establish the minimum expectations for staff commissions elected officials but it's flexible and so we wanted to make sure that the council was noting that it is a flexible document it provides priorities and strategies to help initiate those public improvements but there's you know public engagement with each of those independent projects as we move forward and then how to use this document is a part of the document as well we have a lot of other plans so we're using it in conjunction with those other plans it's a guide it's not a final design it's going to inform that detailed design that we would be bringing back before the council and to the public and then back to the council so um really making sure that we are using it as a guidance document but not a final design and it's not an engineering document there's not a detailed you know the widths and measurements and and things like that so it's really a big picture document that we will use for guidance for future public improvements so the implementation plan there's a table of implementation and it it prioritizes and things that we can do in the near term the long-term high priority and things that we're doing ongoing and some things to highlight are in the near term so a paver replacement plan is something that we brought for the council it's a plan um to prioritize which areas we want to replace the pavers in first and then we'll come back with our Council and and put those projects in the CIP there's a Heart of the City District parking management plan which we have in the CIP for 2023 but it's expanded more to a city-wide parking management plan so we've expanded that scope we'll be back before the council to order that project in the future and then in 2024 CIP we have a wayfinding signage plan um that we want that's part of the implementation so that Heart of the City is a cohesive District right now it is a little bit a lot of different elements that don't make it as cohesive when we think and the plan indicates that we could do better with that so with that um Regina and I are here for any questions our recommendation is adopting the resolution approving the updated plan okay thank you it's well done and I know that we did a lot of work through uh our work sessions uh and thank you for following Direction and doing um well getting out there and doing the engagement that was very important uh for us to make sure that the our community was involved and that was great that you involved the youth from Nicollet because I remember when we did the Heart of the City at the high school and our Middle School we're all involved in that process so that was great because they're going to be living here and they need to have a voice so any comments for Mrs Dean or Mrs desert good job very well done thank you so much and uh with that I need a motion to adopt the resolution approved councilmember Keeley makes the motion second by council member all in favor please say aye aye aye oppose a a an emotion carries thank you very much foreign the next item is the resolution of support to submit the Greenwood Drive sidewalk project to MnDOT for active Transportation grant funding and uh Mrs desert this is your item yes thank you um so there is a sidewalk gap on Greenwood Drive between County Road 5 and then along the South End east side of Greenwood Drive this apartment building here Leah's Apartments is an independent apartment building for adults with disabilities and then Greenwood Apartments is just I think a market rate apartment but we had heard that there were people with disabilities walking in their with Walkers or and wheelchairs in the street of Greenwood Drive to get out to County Road 5 for either transit or the amenities that are out there for you know restaurants or shopping or whatnot so um MnDOT has an active Transportation grant that we thought might be a good candidate the estimated project costs so that active Transportation Grant will pay for 100 of the of the construction costs but it won't pay for any of the project delivery costs so um there's no essential match on construction like federal funds or an 80 20 match this is a hundred percent construction but we would have to deliver the project using our staff time um any construction Administration permits materials testing and we estimate that to be about thirty thousand dollars for this project so the timeline back in September the MnDOT issued that they were looking for letters of intent it's a little misleading it didn't mean that we were intending to apply but it meant that we might have a project that would fit the criteria so I did submit and I heard back from indot that this does meet the criteria it's a good candidate and they recommended that we apply so I'm here tonight to request the council that we do apply the application is due on the 30th another thing to note Dakota County has a grant writer and they have offered us to have that for free of charge so we are using a resource and with that I stand for questions and the staff recommendation is to adopt the resolution uh I don't have questions but I commend you for checking out to see if there was an opportunity for us to get funds to make this stretch accessible to our residents who need a sidewalk so that so um I'm glad that you did find that out and then come to before us to say well this is how much it's going to cost and this is how much um it would mean for us to deliver the project and uh so thank you very much for that uh councilmember Schultz thank you uh and I believe I checked on this but I just wanted to make sure so the sidewalk that we're putting in is a six foot wide is that correct yeah we're proposing a six foot wide concrete sidewalk because we don't have room for anything wider right and that's what I was checking on was we could not get to that 10 feet right okay understood uh thank you very much for this um thank you for yes finding the grant possibility I would also like to thank Dakota County that's um very helpful to do the grant writing for us definitely won't turn that down so thank you very much all of this looks really good and we'll cross our fingers right yeah councilmember Gustafson I also would like to thank the staff for looking for ways to get this done I know that uh we're all aware of Mike O'Brien he's actually had been advocating this for several years for with us and they finally found a way to figure out a way to get it done if we can get the grant so Mike's gone to Tennessee now so he doesn't live here anymore but his AB him advocating for people with disabilities is paying off and I think that's yeah nice to see and I hope he sees this because it's he's a big part of getting this done so thank you for your perseverance in this council member Keeley thank you madam mayor uh just a quick question the need has probably been out there for quite a while um but for this grant what other options would we have to put a sidewalk in there so we could have them petition to build the sidewalk and they'd be assessed 100 of the costs that's our current mechanism have they ever petitioned or requested prior to this um well so that Resident Mike O'Brien had made a request and I had said well you could petition and he said they won't the apartments can't afford it okay so they didn't make their request formally through petition because they didn't they couldn't pay for it are these apartments for um now folks disabilities is it um subsidized by the county or the state or the federal government in any way I'm not sure okay I mean there's a obviously a cost consideration that they were not able to overcome and I know we've had sidewalk discussions in the past that our early forefathers and mothers did not choose to put sidewalks in and were very disappointed today because we have a lot of areas of the city that could use it this one and maybe especially in particular because of the needs of the folks there so thank you I'm crossing our fingers hope we get the grant okay uh with that um members of the council I need a motion to adopt the resolution I move to adopt the resolution there's a motion in the second online paper please say aye aye aye opposing a an emotion carries and good luck yeah uh the next item is to consider um Parkview Flats rental license suspension presenting this evening is fire chief BJ jungman chief jungman good evening Madam mayor members of the council as you see in your your background there's a lengthy background in history here with Parkview flats that reaches back to May of this year and there's a proposed uh resolution to uh suspend the the rental license at Parkview Flats in your background packet so I'll give you a little bit of history that we've experienced since May of this year Parkview flask property is 313 units with three buildings on Burnsville Parkway East it's owned by Bridge wf2 Parkview Flats LLC it is managed by Bridge residential PM LLC and you can see a clip of their their values there on the right hand side of the of the screen foreign we've had an extensive history since May of this year May 10th we conducted our first annual fire inspection there we walked through the common areas as part of their rental license every year this is a scheduled inspection that the property works with us to schedule they're well aware of this of this inspection and we found 57 violations amongst the three buildings which is an extremely high number for three buildings and they were concerning violations we went back a little over 30 days later on June 14th and we still had 57 violations and then we went back on July 26th and we still had 57 violations we had no work amongst that three months of any repairs on any of those three buildings we went back on August 1st for a fire alarm and still had no changes and then started to have fire alarm issues in the 1513 building I'll talk about the fire here in a minute but on August 8th we found two floors that had no Lighting in the common area so it was completely dark in there your regular pendant lights or or wall lights that light a common area it was completely dark in that entire hallway no electricity in the common area so residents would have to go through a dark hallway to get out of the building and this is when we involve the regional manager we then reached out to the regional manager and met with the regional manager on August 8th we came back on August 24th and we still had 44 violations we came back August 30th and walked through with the vice president company and found two additional violations we went through on September 14th we asked the rental Inspection Department to help us and go through each unit for life safety inspections and found a number of violations there I'll talk about that in a minute but we still had 31 violations and then November 9th with the vice president and the attorney at their request we walked through all three buildings again they scheduled it and we found additional violations and we're up to 47 and we actually found them doing fire sprinkler work in the garage without a permit again they had requested and scheduled this inspection November 11th uh we had a a concerning fire and we found more violations we're back to 51. now December 6th we did see some progress on some of the repairs and we were down to 21 but we did find a need for some additional inspection by a professional engineer over some concerns on the stairways and the structural Integrity of the buildings so I can tell you that there's no other property in town that has gotten this much attention this year there's no other property in town with this amount of violations or this much concern so we inspected the life safety with with uh Mr Chris forslin and his folks uh we did the initial inspection on September 14th and there's been two re-inspections conducted and as of last week we still had 22 rental inspection violations open amongst the three buildings in addition to the the fire code violations that are open we've had three fires in this building and this is just the 1501 building we've had Three Fires there the picture you see is from the August 6th fire uh I bolded the November 11th fire that was a fire on the third floor in the East wing and what I can tell you is that this these buildings were built prior to the requirements to have fire sprinkler systems so the occupants of the 313 units rely on the other fire protection features such as fire doors to close uh sheetrock to be intact and fire alarms to operate in my entire career I have never been to an apartment fire where the common area horns did not sound and in this building there were no alarm sounding when we got there and there was Smoke on three floors our firefighters assisted at least 10 people out of the building that were choking through the smoke they would have had an earlier notification of the fire if the horns would have sounded that wouldn't have been left that way from a fire alarm company I don't know how it got there but as of extreme concern of mine that when you don't have a fire alarm system that sounds that is the only protection for these folks in these 313 units we had another fire in there November 24th thankfully the alarm sounded but back on November 11th we didn't let them reoccupy until they could get their alarm system in working order now their alarm system is in working order for now but their alarm systems are past their usable life and have to be replaced um they're original it looks like a little bit about the service demand all this kind of comes together when you look at Community risk right we've had 460 fire response fire and EMS responses to the three addresses since 2018. 236 of those are Medicals 121 fire alarms 16 elevator rescues and seven of those elevator rescues were in the 1513 building this year alone let me give you a comparison of that compared to another three address a couple hundred unit multi-family building in our town in that comparable we have 343 calls for service 256 of them are medical so that leaves you know about 90 of them for for other responses we have 39 fire alarms compared to the 121 at Parkview Flats we have four elevator rescues compared to 16. so I definitely see a trend that is concerning at this building and we've tried to work with the management my following slides here are going to give you an idea of the property condition we've seen since May we've seen trash rooms full of trash that's a fire hazard we've seen trash piled in the hallway when the trash room doors didn't work you see exit lights that are missing on the right you see emergency lights that are broken on the left things that are easily seen by anybody walking through uh maintaining this building you see fire doors that don't close and I can't tell you the utmost importance of these fire door ceiling even a crack there allows for hot toxic gases to escape from one corridor from one unit to another so on the left you see a door that doesn't close on the right you see a a door closer that's hanging off the door here's a video of a door that's got a clearly broken door closer we go to another one this is this is the entrance to one of the uh uh laundry rooms and you can see how far off that fire door is that doesn't even close it's not like it doesn't even latch that fire door does not even try to close if you try to close it manually you can't you found open sheetrock that clearly repairs have been done and they never came back to resheet Rocket again multiple times we respond to fires out there and you got uh handrails that are are off if you look here they've got plastic bags for months over where they're they have sheetrock that needs to be repaired again that's a fire rated sheetrock from the hallway Into the Fire door or into the unit and then you also see it in the uh stairwell again that's the only protection of that stairwell is that sheetrock and the sheetrock is missing and replaced with plastic that's duct taped on the wall here we have a uh a occupant that complained about mold that in here and you see mold on the left this is in one of the the bathrooms in the unit and then on the other one they were remodeling it and they put up plastic and it's been that way for months according to the occupant and so that's what they're living with is that's their two bathrooms to to work from we've seen disconnected exhaust pipes off the washer on the right you see that there's no the chains hanging down uh there should be a fusible link there for the garbage so if the dumpster starts on fire that slide comes closed so that the fire doesn't go up the trash chute again a non-sprinkler building the only protection they have are these features on the left you see water a hole into the underground garage where it's washed out on the right you see where there's uh concrete spalling and down below where the concrete's falling on the bottom right to the parking deck we see an inordinate amount of water here into this building and uh on the left you see that's the entry from the the garage into the property and on the right you see the parking garages where water continues to rush in there this is in the basement of one of the units where you have water in there and then you see the The Moldy sheetrock again the utility rooms all summer and all three all three buildings were wet all summer long and not just in the utility area but into the the storage rooms it was prevalent it wasn't due to fires this was commonplace you also see this is another very concerning one to me on the left if you can make it out there's a smoke detector that was hidden by uh in a ceiling so that smoke smoke detector should have been mounted in that drop ceiling it was hidden up above pipes and the only reason we found it is there was a water leak up there and it took out the drop ceiling on the right you see again a corridor smoke detector that is hanging off the wall here's what the sprinkler system in the 1501 garage looked like it was shut down and there were pipes busted at the connections they finally got this repaired in the last two months but it took 30 39 sections of pipe to replace in that garage here's how they repair things that where I was showing you the smoke alarms up there this is where the pinhole water leak was they cut a piece of what looks like garden hose and put a pipe clamp over it where there's drains from air conditioners they put and cut holes in drain pipe rather than Plumbing it out they have pipes leaking in their laundry room where they did and they put a gutter to bring it to where the floor drain was rather than fixing it now that one is repaired but it was there for months and it took until the vice president came out to actually get something done with that so I would say the summary of the conditions here is there's a disregard for the health safety and Welfare of the residents there are significant life safety concerns for the residents and fire staff there's extreme disregard for the responsibilities and obligations of the owner and the property management this is a property as a fire chief I'm concerned about and that I'm concerned for the residents of those three buildings and I'm concerned for the life safety of our own firefighters I have to go fight those fires and these are the high risk properties that we see bad things happen at and it from my perspective can be preventable even if the fire is not preventable the containment of that fire is preventable given the sheetrock the fire doors this fire alarm system all those pieces are meant to be there to keep these people safe the rental ordinance we currently have contemplates a couple of things we we can as a city council you can uh suspend or revoke the license and it also contemplates uh an action plan to be completed by the licensee uh so as far as communication we've communicated with the ownership of management uh that this proposed license suspension was coming before you tonight and the residents have been mailed information facts about the proposed license suspension so that they were aware the license suspension um we would per we would uh propose a 90-day license suspension that would not allow them to rent vacant units or units that become vacant during the suspension and require the management and ownership uh provide us an acceptable uh action plan to repair and remedy and maintain remedied uh the code violations within 45 days this does not displace anybody this keeps everybody living there that does live there it only impacts the vacant units or units that become vacant so with that I would stand for any questions the council would have for fire chief councilmember Keely um Chief do you know when this building was purchased by this Corporation it's my understanding it's about a year ago I don't know the exact date but um it's within about a year are you aware of any uh investments in the property since they've owned it uh outside of the work that that appears to take him seven or eight months to finally start doing it yeah Madam mayor council members I would have to go look I don't know that off top my head I know they built a a new Clubhouse but I think it was prior to this ownership um but right around that time um I know there's been some exterior upgrades over the years but I don't know if they've been in the past year I would have to look at the timeline of that but just in general boy your presentation is is uh it makes it hard to sit here and be objective and um when you when you see the life safety issues of these residents and um it makes me sick to my stomach to think what is it like to live in an apartment with a moldy bathroom and a bathroom with no sheetrock and plastic or viz Queen on the wall and and it being that way for months it's obviously a reflection of the ownership not really caring at all but uh thank you it's it's uh We've I feel like we have another um you know I was here 10 years ago and uh when we were forced to pull the license and displace over 100 families because of circumstances I feel like this is a Deja Vu back to those those days and it's it's absolutely disgusting and there's no excuse for it council member Gustafson I would agree with you council member Keely um I was here when we revoked the last license for similar type things I'm curious I know I know we're going through the suspension because it takes a lot to move families which we went through the last time around but at what point do we end the suspension and say we revoke it I mean you're calling for an action plan but well that plan include a date when this will be accomplished so they go here's our plan we'll get to it as we get to it I mean because because we're because what we're doing by suspending and not allowing them to rent to others we're still leaving People In Harm's Way in that building and that's that's what concerns me and these people pay very good rents and I I've seen the rents they charge over there that's and they're not getting they're not for my mind they're not getting this money's worth out of it and it and it can be uh the safety issue for the residents of that building so that's where I kind of get a little yeah uneasy about a suspension and not a revocation because I know we're leaving people in that building knowing that there are problems in that building so I hope we have a plan here as well to move forward should they decide they're not going to yeah Madam Mary members of the council we would want to continue to move swiftly down the the uh from suspension revocation if we can't get an adequate action plan that has deadlines I I would be looking for further action if they don't produce an action plan with suitable deadlines particularly getting the life safety things fixed immediately and um also if they fail to accomplish those deadlines that have been established within the action plan we'd be back before you um and some of that is if we do go down the road of revocation making sure that we do have the support system in there to support those residents that you know in the fact that we do need to displace them we would have a plan to to provide assistance I would add our staff did a fine job of that last time to get other agencies involved and I don't think anyone was left behind when that happened yep it's very correct yep council member Schultz uh thank you very much for that presentation uh I know I and I believe the rest of council also walked through through the apartment building after one of the fires that was there um it's never good to um try to relocate a fair number of people and families during winter so I understand the process that that is in place um you know I I am a strong proponent of of property rights and I also understand that the um building is under newer management they've been there about a year uh however the lack of fixing the most important items and waiting and then seeing some of the repairs uh that's completely unacceptable you know one of the major roles of government other than making sure you get water and your poop goes away um is that we we step in when residents are experiencing fraud when they're victims of fraud or when they're victims of violence this does look like those residents in my opinion are experiencing fraud they are victims of fraud in my opinion um I am sure there is nowhere in their lease that says I'm going to pay you really good money to live in and I just put it right out there a there is no lease that says that and they are paying decent money I have looked at what the rents are in these apartments um it is at a level that they should have expectations that it is safe in repair and pretty attractive actually for that of the amount of money that they're paying this is verging into as well where we are concerned that residents are being harmed and um that just takes it to a whole new level on this so I I I understand it's been a year and in business terms that's you know just a blink of an eye but they better blink those eyes quicker because this is absolutely unacceptable thank you Chief you present a very compelling finding for what you're asking for and as councilmember Schultz spoke to we all walked through that building and um I remember when this group took possession of the building and did nice work to make the outside look good but the inside where people live and their health and their safety are in jeopardy is when we step in to protect those folks who don't have a voice or don't think they have a voice to ensure that their living conditions are safe and that they are healthy living in those conditions I know that the owners of the building is here and chief I'm going to ask them who would like to speak yes please come forward and give us your uh name and address for the record thank you Vladimir my name is Matthew buyer I'm an attorney with the law firm Lewis Bruce boy bisgaard and Smith I live at 2601 Tyler Avenue North in Golden Valley my office is counseled to the property owners and a lawsuit brought by the city I believe the original complaint was brought in October and the purpose of that lawsuit was to see compliance with the fire code and some of the violations are pointed out by the chief here my office was appointed counsel to the owner we've been working with Mr Shepard since then as the chief mentioned we actually arranged for the inspection on November 9th I think you saw my face and some of the video that was played the purpose of that request was that the complaint that was filed in October obviously identified outstanding fire code and building violations that we wanted to be sure that everybody was on the same page as to what uh violations were still outstanding there were a number of uh fire door violations and some of the prior orders we asked for that inspection to take place obviously we want everything to be remediated as quickly as possible but the purpose of the inspection was to have a baseline to work with Mr Shepard and the city to develop that exact action plan that the chief is asking for right now Council and I discussed negotiating a consent ordered consent decree that would be entered by the court whereby the building would address any outstanding code violations in a time and manner that would that would satisfy the city of course while also of course taking into account issues that the building is facing in terms of dealing with contractors and shipping issues and on that note you know one thing that I wanted to be sure to convey to the council is that many of the violations that were repeating over the course of the last several months had to do with fire doors you saw some of the pictures and the videos of those fire doors replacement fire doors and ADA Compliant equipment on those doors were ordered back in October they are scheduled for delivery in January that is the best that we could do base with the vendors that we've are using to get get that equipment so um the chief's presentation of course uh identifies a number of issues dating back to May um and if I can I'd like to just provide a little more context um to the chief's presentation as well as uh Bridges involvement in the property as I believe you're aware uh Bridge took over the property in December 2021 actually I understand based on some documentation uh with the Minnesota Department of Revenue it was December 20th 2021 so it's our one year anniversary of taking over the the uh the property um the issues that are being identified here tonight admittedly or at least go back to 2018 the agenda and the presentation reference number of violations number calls going back to 2018 that substantially predates Bridges involvement and yet bridge is the one who is being uh potentially punished the property knowing that yes that was full disclosure for the buyer of the property respectfully uh Madame mayor is my understanding that during the due diligence process Bridge requested information about outstanding code violations fire code and building code violations that were on record with the city prior to purchase the agreement and none were divulged the uh the um condition of the property in certain respects obviously is apparent and the bridge did in fact to your point uh councilmember Keeley put in 1.3 million dollars this year of improvements to the property including dog parks fitness centers exterior issues sidewalk repair a number of other issues and uh beyond that they've also been partnering with project access to provide uh educational employment services and other community benefits to the tenants Bridge has come into this property and come into this community with the intent of making the property which apparently has some long-standing issues that clearly predate December 2021 improving the property improving the experience for the residents improving the property's relationship with the tenants and the people of Burnsville and improving the relationship with the city itself and if I may speak for myself having come into this matter in October it has always been our position since the lawsuit started that we are trying to cooperate with the city to come up with an action plan and a consent order to remedy whatever remains outstanding um I asked after that November 9th inspection for a proposed action plan consent order a starting point that we could begin negotiations and I was not provided with that while the city worked to amend its complaint which was filed on December 2nd that answer is not quite come due yet so the litigation is playing out on one and and then you know last week we received notice that the city council is seeking to punish bridge and and suspend its rental license and and cut off portions of its Revenue Source Revenue that of course is going to be put back into the building to make repairs and other improvements to the property it appears to us that the frustration with the property and the concerns over the property and and the potential issues that opposes to Residents have been going on for several years um and yet bridge is the one who is uh apparently uh preparing to Bear the brunt of some long-standing issues and it's been our position from the beginning that we want to cooperate and and uh and remediate the outstanding issues and if my last point then I can see that you'd like to address some things I make yeah because listen you're going to purchase a property and if I were going to purchase a property I will do my due diligence and if I don't get the information I will try and get the information before I buy the property so for you to tell me that our staff did not give you the information that you needed before Bridge bought the property I don't believe you see because it would be in your court to make sure that you have all of your eyes dotted and your t's cross before you buy a property and I've been in the business of purchasing property so um it's not compelling your argument is not compelling to me so I understand but the thing is you have a property you're saying that you're suffering what was prior to bridge purchasing the property well right now we're dealing with what's going on presently I walk through that property and I had to say to the chief we need to leave because my chest I couldn't breathe and I had a headache why because I believe there was toxic uh toxins within the building that I may have been allergic to so we left the building so the thing is it is about the health and safety of those residents that's what's important today and we're their last hope now we're not taking any money according to what the chief is asking it's all of the vacant units that you can't have any more people coming into a building that is not safe for them so all the other residents are going to be there and they're going to be living in this building that is not healthy for them yeah well you put in some really nice amenities um but the thing is it's the health and safety items of that building and the mold and the kids that are sick in that building well I think that the issue here is uh as you said what is happening presently and how are we going to move forward now the mold issues that you're speaking of or there's no mention of them in in the lawsuit to the extent that they're mentioned in the uh in the reports uh issued by the code enforcement officer the most recent report issue the final notice was issued on December 1st which was the day before the complaint was amended um there the number of issues that had been identified in the September 22nd and November 17th reports had diminished I would argue substantially by the December 1st report there were still some violations some of those violations were not even violations they were merely units that are not were not able to be um inspected because miners were in the building or miners were alone in the units the dog was in the bedroom those sorts of things regardless those issues have been addressed before the December 19th compliance they sent out sent uh set out in the notice and in fact uh Bridge requested that the rental department conduct their inspection of those repairs and anticipation of the renewal of the license for 2023 last week in advance of the the December 19th compliance State just this morning they received an email saying that the city is not prepared to move forward with that inspection so we believe that those outstanding items on the December 1st report have been remediated and we're just waiting for confirmation from the city with regard to the fire department inspections the December 6th reports for all three buildings reflected a substantial decrease in the amount of open violations again mostly relating to fire doors all of which are scheduled to be replaced on January 11th so the our perspective is yes let's look at where we are now and let's look at how we want to move forward there is obvious frustration with how things were handled particularly over the summer there are issues even throughout the uh the chief's presentation pointing to inadequate repairs or failure to make repairs that have since been repaired within the last two months I believe specifically with regard to the rain gutter for example but there are other issues that are included in the presentation that were outstanding for some time that have been remediated the chief made reference to the fact that once the vice president got involved some of these things started to um started to be repaired the vice president of all the vice presidents here tonight there is clearly in the uh presentation and in the documents in the agenda a suggestion that there that repairs are being ignored in May June July and then there was this fire in August of fire in August my understanding was arson that actually led to criminal charges to the person who set the fire it was not some spontaneous fire as a result of the condition of the property it's also my understanding that nobody was injured I'm sure that has much to do with the work of the fire department but the condition of the property didn't result in juries to the residents during that fire the building worked very diligently to make repairs to the building where the fire was to assist displaced residents to make sure that those residents were housed and were taken care of during the time of the building had to be repaired in order to be suitable for people to come back in it was repaired and made suitable and it was signed off on for people to come back in unlimited by the end of September it's my understanding that bridge did not even be did not receive complaints and that the tenants who were displaced and had to go through that with the fire were actually very satisfied with the services they were provided during that difficult time when they were pushed out of their units since the fire obviously much of the building's efforts were put towards making those immediate repairs that needed to be done to reopen those units and get those people back into their homes some of the outstanding violations were not addressed as quickly while those issues were taken care of and since September I would note again the lawsuit was started a week after that building was open on September 29th the lawsuit I believe started October 6th since the building was reopened and since the lawsuit started we have been paying we have been putting even more resources and more time towards addressing those outstanding violations and as I said the December 6th fire department report shows substantial compliance again the fire doors remain an issue that are scheduled to be repaired in January the um the code enforcement report also shows that we have been increasing our compliance and remediating those issues the the question I think that we have is what is the purpose at this point of suspending the rental license is it to bring them to the table and bring bridge to the table and make sure that they comply because we've been at the table we've been at the table for several months I personally have been trying to negotiate an action plan or consent decree consent order whatever label you'd like to put on it whereby anything outstanding will be repaired in a time and in in a manner that the city is is happy with we have been trying to cooperate with the city since before my involvement and certainly since my involvement if the purpose of the suspension of the rental license is punitive then it does seem frankly arbitrary to be punishing Bridge who's been here for a year and the first substantial fire inspection only just occurred last May respectfully we're here we're doing what we can to address these issues we've been increasing our efforts to remediate the the most important violations we've been pouring money into the building to make improvements even beyond the scope of the violation set forth in the reports we've been trying to work with the city's attorney to remedy to move past the lawsuit suspending the license is not going to accomplish anything more than is already being accomplished and for that reason I would ask that you reject the resolution to suspend the license or at the very least take this under consideration at a future hearing while the lawsuit plays out and while those additional repairs are scheduled to take place in January are completed and the city can conduct its uh it's uh next inspection which was requested last week which apparently the city is not quite ready to move forward with and and if the city is still unhappy then they can take a consideration this matter again but I think that we have been working very diligently particularly over the last three or four months we're going to continue to work diligently we're going to make the property something that the tenants will be happy with I think they're happier now than they were a year ago I don't know that for sure but it my impression from what I've heard from my client is that they've gotten good feedback from the tenants and I I think we'd like to continue to have a good relationship with the city and the community I appreciate your time this evening yeah councilmember Gustafson I'm trying to get my hands around this I uh I have a fair amount of commercial real estate in my background as well and I can't imagine buying anything without somebody doing an inspection so you're telling us that your client had no idea that repairs needed to be done on that building when they bought when when they bought that property it's my understanding that they inquired with the city about whether or not they're out of Santa Claus violations they were told and it is also my understanding that no they did not have no one out to inspect they just bought the building I'm not aware that they did an inspection with regard to the Burnsville uh fire code prior to based on the building they're just looking at numbers and deciding that's where they're going to put plant their money if that's how you'd like to characterize it well that's how you're telling me that they didn't do it their diligence on it so therefore they shouldn't be held accountable for what needs to be repaired when people buy property that need to repair they usually get that done that's kind of how it works the second part is that I'm kind of getting confused on you tell me you order these fire doors in October and it's January before you can get them and I respect there are some shipping issues but you've known about it since May what happened that's six months between knowing about it and ordering the fire doors that were absolutely needed I mean anyone can see at the first grader can see those fire doors are bad they're well there were the the the issues that the fire department found in May were our first notice of those code violations we had a new team you don't have to you know agree with or appreciate the explanation but I'll give you the explanation which is that we had a new team come in you know the beginning of the year after the property was purchased uh these code violations including the existence of the Pud agreement which I don't think we're really discussing tonight but as mentioned in the lawsuit were were made to the uh to bridge at that time there were people on the ground here at the building who made attempts to remedy these issues but ultimately it was clear it became clear and it didn't become clear fast enough but it became clear that to address all of the outstanding issues that the fire department found required the vice president higher-ups of the company to come in and they came in in August after uh the arson they have been heavily involved since then I understand that the city is frustrated that things didn't happen more quickly between May and August September time frame when the focus was on repairing the building that was damaged by the fire but I think the pertinent point is since I would say that August September time frame the building has been working very hard to address all these issues and maybe not as efficiently as everybody would like at all times I understand that frustration as well too but they cannot be coerced into cooperating any more than they already are they are cooperating they are addressing these issues the rental inspection or the rental license suspension would not kick them in the pants anymore they've already they can't go any faster you know they're they're here and they're working on it that's I think all that uh that I I think we would want them to do is to address these issues they're addressing the issues before I go to council member Schultz chief Madam mayor members of the council I just I have a few contacts things I'd like to add is remember this is a licensed rental property with a professional manager and they may not have had outstanding code violations when they took over it because the previous management may have responded and fixed those code violations right these were found in May in response to the arson fire earlier in the year one of the fire doors did not open without having to put your shoulder into it so it was stuck closed right so people were trapped in that Corridor and I will tell you I was personally out there Friday evening on a fire incident and my hope with this rental license suspension is that we get the management to continue to repair things and we don't have to write them up Friday afternoon Friday evening I was on the phone with their regional manager because we're out there for a fire incident and I find two space heaters Heating in apartments that has no sheetrock in it that they've been reconstructing since before the first fire and it has no heat in it so now they're heating it with two oil space heaters and have extension cords out into the hallway plug them into outlets in the hallway and that caused moisture on the other side of the wall to leak down into an outlet and short it out and so the problem is every time we go out there we continue to find more and more I I have never inspected a building 11 times if you look at that chart that we had back there it's like a roller coaster and so my hope with the rental license suspension is that the ownership and the management continue to maintain the property so that we can fix all of the issues and every time we go out there I don't have to write a new order for fixing things right it would be nice if we could just fix everything and stay with whatever the issues are and fix them but every time we go out there it is new issues and it is it is seriously frustrating from a city staff standpoint when you have a professional ownership and management that is unresponsive to these things that are clearly visible so thank you for taking that additional comment so may I respond briefly to a few of those points um I'll get to you thank you councilmember Schultz all right I do appreciate what you're saying on there are Staffing shortages there are shipping issues Metal Products in particular I get it um but walking through there and I walked through all the buildings I wasn't even into Apartments and there is no way I would live there and I've lived in some shady places um it it was it was beyond what a person would ever expect and you walked through there sir and I'm not asking you to answer it but I know there's no way in hell you would live there would not happen like we all have our we all have our threshold I am happy that now that upper management is aware has walked through has seen that they are working towards fixing these things yes the main focus is on a lot of life and safety things but there are also a lot of just livability and by that I don't mean paint color I mean livability a person has an expectation of a wall I mean that's a baseline expectation there's a wall a whole wall so I am happy that these things are being repaired I do understand that you are um newer onto this because of the lawsuit that you are working with um City representation uh but I I mean this is just not even this is just not even in the realm of consideration that that this is a livable place um I mean I'm going to tell you that I'm probably your friendliest person on this Council towards you and if it wasn't winter I'd be pushing for revocation that's the level of unacceptable that I find this doesn't mean months from now you're working towards repairing and all that kind of stuff could be totally different story I will be so thrilled I will be very thrilled I love that you're you want to be a good Community member and provide a great place for people to live but this is the situation that we find ourselves in now we're fighting ourselves in this situation your client is finding themselves in this situation and the residents are too um your your on-site management damn man I don't even know what to say about that it's just just feel for you on that because that's painful so like this is where we're coming from and I also realized that as you're making your comments you're addressing a council but you're having to do so in a way that you're a cognizant of an ongoing lawsuit so I do understand you know your framing of of the responses back you know I I do get that I really do and I do understand what you're what you're trying to do in the resolution that you're trying to bring um and I I do understand that you are not just trying to be an attorney or trying to be a counselor right so I understand that we do want to work with you I do not see this as punitive but I I do see this as a level of um seriousness of the situation that we're all finding ourselves in I am very hopeful that you do your action plan and it has dates and they're realistic dates right that you can then complete um and that we can we can put this all behind ourselves and you have a great place and you know you have you have your residence in it and they like to be there and so there's not as much churn and everyone's making money and like it's good like that's what we want we realize that this is a business we get that that is my hope but uh yeah I can I can tell you that I absolutely will be voting for this suspension for 90 days I I did not tour the building prior to that fire I did not deal with anything with that building I'm only dealing with it as it is right now I do understand the uphill climb that you have the time of purchase I do understand that but this really needs to be really really needs to be addressed so thank you I appreciate it you are advocating admirably on on behalf of your client I'm happy that your clients here I'm happy that they're taking this seriously so thank you council member Keely thank you madam mayor uh we are I know it it appears that um you know we have obviously a very strong opinion about this this Council in this city has a long history but even more recent years of always being um open-minded flexible working with businesses residents to resolve things it is when we are pushed um in a circumstance like this May 10th 57 violations and we're sitting here December 20th and there's still a third of those outstanding and maybe they're all resolved I hope they are but we should never have been pushed seven months 10 days later and and dealing with this and that's really the problem I mean with all due respect to you and your role legally you've gotten involved in the last two or three months but remember all of this was clearly documented May 10th and we as a governing body hold the property owner accountable doesn't matter if all that stuff was carried over and there was a problem with due diligence and it was unknown it was all made known on May 10th and shame on the management for not getting you involved earlier or Senior Management I believe it was probably our fire chief that pushed and did the work that you guys should have done to get the executives involved and resolve this more quickly ultimately we're talking about people here I mean this is human beings and safe living conditions not whether a parking lot's too big or too small or a sign or a setback these are human beings living their daily lives in these units and the pictures that we witnessed are pretty damning and the fact that they have been there going back to 2018 just adds insult to injury especially when you recognize today's date and you recognize May 10th all 57 violations were brought to the attention of the property manager or someone of responsibility who clearly dropped the ball and didn't bother to tell the right party to get the attention necessary because we would have avoided all of this and to the benefit of the folks living in that complex so you're still being I mean the company is being held responsible and I appreciate the fact that you've gotten involved and things started to happen should have happened several months ago and we we can't just erase that so um I agree I I will uh I will be voting in favor of the suspension I think quite frankly given the seven months that has gone by and the lack of response until just recently I don't think it's punitive uh I I think it's a response to a lack of response for many months on the part of the ownership good for you if you're finally getting in gear and taking care of business you got 90 days soon thank you that you want to rebut because I don't know if there is anything you can say it seems that might be the case but there are a couple of points that I'd like to make uh regardless um the the chief mentioned that each time he goes back there's more and more violations he mentioned uh a call on Friday is my understanding and he also mentioned that these space heaters were found in an area where there was missing sheep missing sheetrock there was work being done and a general contractor had brought space heaters into the room that doesn't even make sense I'm looking at the lawsuit there's some really Common Sense things to do and they're easy things to do and they're not too expensive if you took some of that million dollars and made these Corrections a drier vent disconnection these are life safety issues because of the toxicity that comes out of these things a hole in the wall um the improper closure of a trash chute that is a huge fire hazard please I don't think so I don't know if there's anything you can say to us that's going to change our mind because I wanna other residents in the audience and yes we have residents and they're concerned because they have children when we did this for Country Village we had a mother and child with a child had been suffering and to come and find out they've been breathing in there was mold all over the place and she brought in pictures so I we're their last resort we're their last resort and you've heard that this is about the human beings that live in our community and we're their last resort and our fire chief is asking for a suspension of your vacant units until you get all of this so my um foreign my recommendation to you is to work with our people in 45 days you should have a plan and tell us when this is going to be done because the chief will come back to us with uh with a plan and then when you're going to get because when I look at all of these things they're not hard they're not very expensive and you can get them done somebody's just not paying attention and I believe Mr McGraw is the uh the the manager of the building and uh listen take care of the building make sure the people are healthy there and uh because you've already heard it's going to be a unanimous vote just go for the suspension we're not punishing you we're taking care uh of the residents of the building and we care about you you should have pride in your building and make sure that you have a a property that people will want to live in and not get sick in so well respectfully matter mayor that's why they purchased the property that's why they've been making improvements to it that's why they're going to continue to make improvements to it I appreciate the council's time and uh suppose if any of the residents have any comments yeah and we look forward to working uh uh with the ownership uh thank you to ensure that that that happens did any of you want to speak who live in and you should not be punished for you should not be punished for having a voice please come to the podium and so we can hear you because I also know that we have people from our code task force present and just give us your name and address for the record uh sure um my name is Pamela Speck I'm in uh 1513. uh East Burnsville Parkway apartment 315 I've been there since 2018 actually and [Music] I can easily tell you that this past year has probably been the worst year that I've witnessed living there as for a lot of the claims that were made especially right after the fire I actually worked really hard to create a GoFundMe to help those residents that were displaced contacted management several times trying to get their assistance in the matter trying to get somebody on to help me out with you know even just making sure to spread information anything it took well over a month before I could even get someone to uh reach out to the particular owner of the unit that the fire took place in and I actually have spoken with the resident who lived there who told me that they did nothing to help her um that there was they they basically just kind of let her vendor herself um that is where the majority of what little I could uh fundraise went to was to help her find somewhere else to live because from what I understood she had been having to stay with a friend for well over a month or so they hadn't moved her to a new unit they hadn't done anything to help her out and it fell on us as the community of residents to try to look out for one another uh as for a lot of issues that have been outstanding um as you can probably tell I'm disabled and it is uh more of a recent disability it has been a nightmare trying to live there with how little like accessibility the building has um my roommate was one of the roommates that were one of the people that was trapped in one of those elevator rescues and it has always taken several phone calls or even me walking up to the office to get things done speaking of things that have taken forever to get done um several several months ago when it was still warm I had made a request because a window of ours was not latching and it was you know causing issues especially with heating or Cooling we were having issues with you know wasps getting in and building a nest between the two panes things like that making making basically the window inoperable I got a call I think Friday finally scheduling somebody to come out yesterday to look at the window and the first thing they did when the the third party contractor looked at it it was go yeah this needs to be replaced now I have to wonder why when I put in a request back when the weather was still warm that it took all the way until the week before an impending blizzard for my window to get looked at and now I understand why since I just got the notice in the mail last night about this meeting and it suddenly made sense why suddenly things that we had been complaining about were getting done we understand that we're your last resort yeah did you have done what you can to look out for us because I can definitely say it's felt like a losing battle thank you okay members of the council do you need anything else from the chief do you need to hear anything else if not I need emotion so moved second there's a motion in a second all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed saying a and the motion carries a resolution for suspension suspending the rental license for Parkview Flats is now in order okay thank you chief thank you yeah and I think the residents appreciate and it was a great idea uh to send the notice to each of the units so that they got the notice uh of this meeting and that they can be here so uh and also it was good to see some of our code task folders review folks here so thank you and members of the council there are no other items to come before us uh this evening but before we adjourn tonight is the third night of Hanukkah and we are a community that says that everyone is welcomed and um I want to acknowledge all of our community members who celebrate Hanukkah it is the Festival of Lights and that we all Stand Together we're also going to be celebrating Christmas and it is about peace love joy and good will and so as a community that we should continue to to care for one another and Kwanzaa is also um a celebration that's coming up and that's also about unity and caring for the community and tonight we did something about caring for the community at Park at Park View Flats and so wishing everybody a Merry Christmas a Happy Kwanzaa a happy um Hanukkah and and happy New Year so thank you to everyone and let's continue to help one another and make sure that we are a community that says that we care and everyone is welcome here and everyone belongs here so with that as anyone wants to say anything I need a motion to adjourn there's a motion in a second all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed saying a an emotion carries good night thank you for being with us happy holidays