[0:00] Dan Wietecha: showing is a blank gray screen on yours it is all right hopefully we've got audio also hi i'm dan hi i'm dan wietecha hastings city administrator and i am pleased to introduce employees of the city of hastings who were hired in 2020 as well as recognize those who were promoted within this past year we are fortunate to have their service and their expertise on staff and we wish we could recognize them in person as we typically do since we cannot please join me in celebrating their accomplishments by video thank you to hastings community television hctv for producing this recognition the following staff members joined the city of hastings this past year lindsay anderson began employment with [0:46] Dan Wietecha: the city in late august as a city hall administrative assistant in addition to her front desk duties she assists accounts payable in finance before that she served for nearly a year as an americorps service team member with the minnesota green corps through this service she worked with the city's recycling and composting practices and held sustainability workshops for hastings residents she partnered with dakota county and numerous community groups throughout her service to promote waste reduction ben bannett a new public works operator comes to us from working most recently at nature's quest landscaping where he was part of a team that performed landscape construction projects [1:31] Dan Wietecha: and property beautification work ben has had a healthy dose of exposure to a variety of maintenance and operations work through his first year on the job ben lives in town and enjoys spending time with his family and playing hockey robert clark also a public works operator joined the team in november robert has a seasoned background in fluid pumping equipment most recently with his work at w.w gatch associates of edina he also has experience with heavy equipment and commercial truck driving operations although robert and his family now live in hastings he originally hails from lakeville and served in the u.s marine corps in the late 2000s before entering the domestic workforce chris eitemiller [2:17] Dan Wietecha: joined our team in september after spending more than 13 years working in finance at the city of saint paul while there he managed the central accounting division and assisted in compiling the annual budget chris is a certified public accountant and has his master's degree in public administration from the university of south dakota he and his wife have two sons and chris has been actively involved as a coach for youth baseball and basketball officer ryan haight is a savage minnesota native he graduated from prior lake savage high school in 2015 and completed his bachelor's degree in law enforcement at the university of minnesota mankato in 2019 ryan worked as a community service [3:03] Dan Wietecha: officer in mankato a jailer in blue earth county and most recently did contracted animal control for the city of burnsville ryan enjoys working out motorcycling fishing hiking and sailing ryan began his duties in january of 2020 officer matthew herrity is a minneapolis native and formerly a minneapolis police officer assigned to the second precinct he completed his associate's degree at inver hills community college in 2013 and his bachelor's degree in law enforcement at metro state university in his free time matt enjoys playing hockey camping and spending time with his family he joined the police department in october grace holm was hired in september of [3:50] Dan Wietecha: 2020 and began her training to become a paid on call firefighter emt this training will be completed in august of 2021 we look forward to her contributions to the department officer zachary nakamus is a lakeville native zach completed his bachelor's degree at mankato state and placed skills at hibbing in 2019. he worked as a campus security officer at msu and filled in as a community service officer as well zach enjoys ice fishing and spending time with friends and family he joined the police department in january of last year tj lucas is the city's forester as well as a parks keeper primarily tj is tasked with maintaining [4:35] Dan Wietecha: hastings urban forest including conducting tree inventory completing tree trimming and pruning tree removals new tree plantings preventing tree diseases and working very closely with hastings residents on all things tree related as a parks keeper he helps complete many of the routine maintenance and project tasks for the hastings parks and trail system tj brings positive energy to our department is consistently willing to help out with any project or task and has the desire to learn as much as he can about all of hastings he is a great asset to our team and we have enjoyed getting to know him very much eric moss joined the city as economic development coordinator in november [5:20] Dan Wietecha: after spending seven years as a consultant at wsb where he served a variety of local cities he assists in shaping economic growth in hastings by working with the development community local businesses hedra and the city council eric received his bachelor's and master's degrees in landscape architecture from the university of minnesota where he now volunteers for the alumni association additionally eric serves on the board of directors for the economic development association of minnesota eric and his fiancee aaron live in minneapolis with their cat oliver and they look forward to purchasing their first home this year cody mathisen started his role as [6:06] Dan Wietecha: principal engineer in mid-november after a four-year stint with wayne associates cody grew up at the opposite corner of the metro area in delano which is also the place he got his first taste of the world of municipal infrastructure by serving as a civil engineering intern from there cody pursued and received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the university of minnesota he recently passed the professional engineering licensing exam which is no small feat cody has a passion for the game of baseball playing through his high school years and also in the minnesota town ball circuit for a few years thereafter cody and his wife currently live in st louis park but have taken interest in [6:51] Dan Wietecha: moving to the eastern metro sometime in the near future caitlin kiki radke was hired in september and is a recent bemidji state graduate kiki began her training to become a paid on-call firefighter emt and will complete her training in august we look forward to her contributions to the department blaine railway also was hired in september and began his training to become a paid on-call firefighter emt we look forward to his contributions to the department officer chad schlichte is a cottage grove native who worked as a deputy sheriff in martin county before joining the hastings police department in late december 2019. [7:36] Dan Wietecha: chad served as a police officer with the saint james police department from 2015 to 2018 before joining martin county he completed his bachelor's degree at mankato state in 2013 and the skills portion at hibbing in 2014. he enjoys hunting fishing sports and concerts josh saranek began his role as public works operator at the very tail end of 2019 but we haven't had a formal opportunity to introduce him until now prior to joining the city josh worked for castle rock contracting and tree throughout his first year with us josh has gained experience in a wide array of operations duties and we're excited for him to continue to grow and expand his experience josh [8:22] Dan Wietecha: lives near town is an avid hunter and fisherman taking to the fields and lakes whenever he gets the chance and he recently got engaged congratulations josh dawn skelly is our communications coordinator and came to the city of hastings in september from the city of arden hills where she held a similar role for the past three years prior to working in arden hills dawn was the director of marketing and communications for minneapolis community and technical college she has a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's degree in public affairs from the humphrey school dawn and her husband joe have two teenage children and a rescue dog dawn enjoys hiking reading traveling and spending time with [9:08] Dan Wietecha: family jalen snedeker was hired in september and is a graduate of the university of minnesota in duluth jalen is in training to become a paid on-call firefighter emt this training will be completed in august we look forward to his contributions to the department canine sunny a one-year-old hungarian-born german shepherd came to us in march the purchase was made possible through a private donation after our former canine ozzie was retired sonny and his partner dan vomistek began the minneapolis canine academy on march 9 and graduated on may 28th kayla tesh was hired in september and is [9:55] Dan Wietecha: training to become a paid on-call firefighter emt in august we look forward to kayla's contributions to the department officer payton walzer is a fairmont minnesota native who attended winona state university and studied abroad in spain during the summer of 2018. [10:15] Dan Wietecha: payton graduated with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and completed her skills portion of training at rochester community and technical college she formerly worked for winona family and children's center and for olmstead county sheriff's office peyton enjoys biking rollerblading reading traveling cooking and spending time with her family she joined the police department in november we are fortunate to welcome these hires to our city i also want to take a few minutes to recognize those employees who were promoted this past year sam boyk joined the police department in 2018 after serving seven years as a police officer in huron south dakota he was promoted to [11:01] Dan Wietecha: sergeant this past year replacing sergeant mike munson who retired in june sergeant boyk has been working night watch in the patrol division sam has a bachelor's degree in political science from mankato state university and he enjoys hunting fishing and spending time with his wife and newborn son congratulations sergeant boyk ryan klein was also promoted to the rank of sergeant with the hastings police department in march sergeant klein was formerly our school resource officer and filled the vacancy created by sergeant james galland who retired he joined the department in 2012 and has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the university of st thomas ryan enjoys bike riding [11:47] Dan Wietecha: and other outdoor activities with his wife and two daughters congratulations sergeant klein john townsend a 20-year veteran of the fire department was promoted from assistant chief to fire chief this past year while serving as the acting fire chief for a year john took on additional duties of maintaining leadership updating procedures and promoting a positive culture for the department in october he was promoted to fire chief and we look forward to him continuing the good work he has been putting in place john began his career as a paid on call firefighter emt for hastings over two decades in 2007 he was hired on full-time as our assistant chief and fire marshal [12:34] Dan Wietecha: thank you john for continuing your leadership and service to the city of hastings officer dan vomistek took on additional duties this year with a passion to train dogs dan was selected to be our new k-9 officer in february and paired with his new canine partner sunny they began the minneapolis canine academy on march 9th and graduated on may 28th completing all certification requirements specified by the united states police k9 association uspca this arduous training consists of searching apprehension and narcotics detection in a myriad of conditions to maintain certification they train together monthly with other [13:20] Dan Wietecha: canine teams in the region and re-certify annually dan joined the hastings police department in november of 2018 he is a cottage grove native and a graduate of the university of minnesota duluth with a bachelor's degree in criminology and an associate's degree in law enforcement officer jake willers replaced ryan klein as our new school resource officer jake joined the hastings police department in october of 2018 after serving as a police officer in hutchinson since 2015. [13:54] Dan Wietecha: he is a graduate of mankato state university majoring in law enforcement with a minor in psychology officer willers has vested interest in mental health including trauma informed care dealing with the adolescent brain which is an excellent quality to have in this position jake recently competed completed a 40-hour sro training course sponsored by the national school resource officers association nasro we are fortunate to have the knowledge and the dedication of these employees and we look forward to their continued contributions to our community this concludes our recognition for 2020. [14:35] Dan Wietecha: thank you for joining me in welcoming our new employees and in congratulating those who have earned promotions this past year [14:57] Mayor Mary Fasbender: congratulations to everyone and uh welcome and congrats to the promotions for the police officers okay um council members are there any corrections to the minutes from the workshop and the regular meeting of january 4th seeing none they are approved for public comics we have options for comments to be emailed prior to the meeting as well as an interactive feature during the meeting for the email comments they have been forwarded to the city council and their receipt is acknowledged [15:43] Mayor Mary Fasbender: please recognize that items not on the agenda will not be discussed this evening we are excuse me we ask that the attendees use the raised hand feature and we will be we will invite you in to speak one at a time i also want to remind everyone that the public comment period is not intended for an extended dialogue is there anyone here that would like to speak to the council at this time [16:16] Mayor Mary Fasbender: i do see a raised hand um miss myers you'd like to come in [16:34] Mayor Mary Fasbender: oops [16:50] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay we brought miss myers into the meeting uh miss myers if you would unmute your microphone you can address the council oh all right can you hear me now yes okay i am here with a couple of other people from my uh townhouse association we're inquiring about the uh [17:00] Ms. Myers: association behind us on featherstone oaks the uh myers can i interrupt you please would you please state your address oh 248 glen blue way okay and the property behind us is on a featherstone or summer point drive in the association of featherstone oaks [17:38] Ms. Myers: owned by whitman's okay and we are just concerned about um what was said in the minutes about the drainage problem or what they were going to do to change or um the drainage from their association we cannot handle any more drainage onto our properties both properties are back to back and there's not much yard back there and every time there's a hard rain we get a flood in our backyard so if they're changing anything on that property we are opposed to it that's if it's going to increase our [18:24] Ms. Myers: the water flowing into us i talked to um john heinz huntsman yes yeah i talked to him about it he really didn't know what it was either and so we we're just questioning why they asked for this to discuss the vacation of a drainage assessment in the southeast portion [19:00] John Hinzman: mayor and miss myers if i could offer some clarification here i think miss myers is seeking to take her comments uh during the public hearing for the vacation of easement i did speak with her [19:09] Ms. Myers: yes late last week so i think her comments are related to that yes [19:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay so we'll bring you back you can speak during the public hearing on that item okay okay okay thank you you're welcome let me just look to see if there's any i see no one else for comments [19:45] Councilmember Dave Pemble: so console item any council items to be considered i'd like to have a moment of silence for the paramedic toby rowan who died in the line of duty on january 7th mr rowan was a previously employed at the hastings fire department [20:21] Mayor Mary Fasbender: thank you council i would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda [20:31] Councilmember Angie Haus: uh council member Haus so moved [20:45] Councilmember Dave Pemble: second okay uh counselor do you have any new discussion on book flattened please call the role [21:00] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [21:09] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and that motion prevails but tonight we are here to authorize a signature for settlement agreement with hastings commons llc for this item we will have an introduction by city attorney dan fleegle [21:20] Dan Fleegle: thank your honor and the council you're asked tonight to consider and approve the settlement agreement that would resolve the land use lawsuit brought by the plaintiffs hastings common and commons and summit management that has been pending since about late 2019 as i believe the city council is aware this claim was based on the plaintiff's belief that the city wrongfully denied their application to construct a motor coach facility from their property that's located [21:46] Dan Fleegle: generally on the southern portion of vermillion street and which is zoned within the c2 commercial zoning district if approved the settlement agreement would obligate the city to consider the zoning amendment that is on the agenda later tonight and that amendment would amend the c2 district regulations and other portions of the city code to effectively allow a motor coach commerce facility as that's would be defined in the ordinance to be operated as an interim use within the c2 zoning district the proposed ordinance amendment contains a number of regulations that would govern the use of the property for these purposes including the limits on duration of [22:32] Dan Fleegle: stays use of personal property that can be associated with the sites noise and many other matters as an interim use the ability of a property owner to use their property is limited in the permit itself to a certain designated time or a number of years if the settlement is approved the plaintiffs would then submit an application for the interim use permit this is assuming the ordinance would also be approved uh for the interim use permit in the manner required by the ordinances and the city council would then consider that application at a later meeting that app as part of that application and review process a building permit inspection and sac and whack fees would need to be paid to the [23:17] Dan Fleegle: extent that they don't have credits for pre-existing uses on the property also some additional review of the site plan would be completed although much of that has already been done to date by staff if the application was then approved in the future the interim use permit would include specified terms that are contained in the settlement agreement document and those would include the types size and age of the units that could be brought into the facility the length of time that any unit can remain on the property to prevent any uh permanent occupancy by occupants the duration of the interim use permit would be two ten-year terms with the owner being able to continue on [24:04] Dan Fleegle: into the second term as long as they comply with the conditions of the interim use permit rules of operation for this facility have really been negotiated through staff to this date and are part of the settlement agreement and then there's also a requirement for an on-site manager of the property that would be there in conjunction with the with the adjacent property also owned by the same individuals so long as that those operations on the site would comply with the interim use permit then that use could be continued for the entire 20-year duration but if there were any violations of the interim use permit uh that are not cured as part of the process that's contained in the settlement agreement and the ordinances then the city could compel the closure [24:50] Dan Fleegle: or the terminations to operate i think we all would agree that this is probably not a use that the city council or city staff had envisioned for this property but due to the language that did exist in the c2 zoning district ordinance at the time of the application in 2019 all of myself city attorney george hoff who's the city's litigation council and city staff that have been involved are recommending that the city council approve this settlement agreement and later the proposed ordinance amendment that would follow on the agenda i can stand for any questions or if none i'd uh the mayor could consider an appropriate uh motion to approve hopefully uh a simple majority vote of the city council is required uh to pass [25:38] Dan Fleegle: the action thank you thank you dan any discussion council okay councilwoman accept a motion to approve the settlement agreement with the hastings commons llc [25:50] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: so moved. [26:00] Councilmember Angie Haus: second. any additional new discussion clerk flattened please call the roll [26:10] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [26:32] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and that motion prevails tonight we do have a public hearing the amendment of city code chapter 50 general provisions uh for this item we will have an introduction by this city parks and recs director chris jenkins and by dave magnussen from dakota county followed by a public hearing and action by the council welcome mr magnuson and welcome chris [26:50] Chris Jenkins: thank you mayor and council um i'll keep the introduction pretty quick here what we're looking for tonight is a ordinance amendment that is required by dakota county which is also then required by the state of minnesota to comply with [27:19] Chris Jenkins: waste abatement goals for the state and the county as well so all the cities within dakota county must modify ordinances to ensure that they comply with dakota county ordinance 110 and city staff as well as dakota county staff as well as our city attorney have reviewed all of hastings applicable ordinances and drafted revisions to those ordinances which are also included in the packet and uh here with us tonight to provide a little bit more detailed information and a presentation mr dave magnusson from dakota county and i'll i'll turn it over to him at this time and then wrap it up in the end [28:07] Dave Magnuson: thank you chris um is my powerpoint going to pop up or ah there yes it is okay perfect so madam mayor council members thank you for having us my name is dave magnuson i'm the waste regulation supervisor at dakota county along on the call with me is john buck my senior environmental specialist who is the lead in working with the cities on solid waste and recycling issues um as chris said we were invited to give a quick summary to solve this ordinance amendments that affected municipalities um i do want to give a little bit more background than chris just gave you um minnesota law requires the county to write a solid waste master plan that plan implements the mpca's metro solid waste policy plan [28:54] Dave Magnuson: the plan lays out many requirements for solid waste management one of the big requirements that you might have heard is the county must achieve a 75 recycling goal by 2030. it's coming up quick many of the master plan strategies and tactics have a regulatory component and those were incorporated into the solid waste ordinance in in last november actually november 2019 time really flies here um okay um so on the screen here are the new requirements that all entities in the county must comply with not just the cities so this is the anybody who is basically not a household [29:39] Dave Magnuson: commercial schools churches goodies the requirement is that a recycling container is is paired with every uh solid waste trash container you will need both of these options so that when they have solids to dispose of in their hands they have a choice between recycling and disposal there are standard labeling guidelines now these are put in place to send a clear message and a consistent message to all the users so if you're looking at a trash can in hastings or looking at trash can in apple valley says the same thing on it all employees need to educate their all employers excuse me need to educate their employees annually on proper recycling and that even includes dakota county we have to follow this rule ourselves [30:25] Dave Magnuson: and reporting required uh annually by commercial schools churches all of that for the cities you already have a grant with the county so we're modifying your grant report so that you don't have to do more than one next slide please so these are specific to municipalities um our new or or are saying modified origins 110 asks that the cities modify your ordinance by the end of 2020 so we're a little late but we did grant an extension to hastings for more time um the ordinance needs to be consistent with ordinance 110. [31:04] Dave Magnuson: an example i'd like to throw out is a lot of cities have an ordinance that says recycling is every other week our new ordinance has a weekly recycling requirement coming up next year and so it's important that the ordinances match and somebody doesn't have two different laws they have to comply with um city uh enforcement is required with the um ordinance amendment um however at this point a complaint based system is is adequate to meet that requirement you are being asked to add multi-family recycling requirements which follow the same best management practices we discussed prior paired containers of labeling standards education things like that and then finally there's a large event [31:49] Dave Magnuson: venue recycling requirement and that's only for venues that that prepare food the existing requirements have not changed supporting the the dakota nice always master plan ensuring operations recycle exists for all residents and businesses delivering our standard message that stuff is wasn't the ordinance and stays in the ordinance next slide please the um county does have resources available to assist the cities um we've been working with the city closely john buck's been doing that extensively providing guidance examples links other city code we've been reviewing your code giving feedback we are available for regulatory assistance if needed most cities have a lot of experience in [32:35] Dave Magnuson: enforcing your own code so i don't know if you're going to need any help from us but it'll be available if you need it um and then of course present to city councils if requested as you did um we do have the community abatement grant that's continuing that's not going to end um that that money is available to use for developing the code strengthening your compliance and education tools purchasing containers and other infrastructure but the grant does not cover any enforcement activity that you do under your new code in 2020 the the hastings share of the grant was 39 000 and of course the county's going to continue our recycling programs that we've always had in place for um support and [33:22] Dave Magnuson: education of the commercial residential and multifamily [33:31] Mayor Mary Fasbender: so separate from the ordinance i was asked to touch briefly on the processing subsidy that hastings and farmington requested the county ad that was the budget was approved by the county board um at twenty five dollars a ton that's slightly less than what the city asked for thirty dollars a ton but it was approved at twenty five dollars a ton um the there will need to be a grant agreement put in place before those monies are available um i i think we'll be reaching out to you fairly shortly to start that process um if uh your average is about 5 300 tons a year if that continues to go to red wing then that subsidy would be right around 132 000 a year [34:17] Dave Magnuson: slide please that's everything i have prepared happy to stand for any questions thank you mr magnuson yes um at this point we will open the public hearing there is a raised hand feature and they will be invited invited to speak one at a time let's just go in i see no raised hands i'm opening the public hearing if anybody would wish to speak on this at this point now is your time [35:04] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: still no raised hands so at this point we will close the public hearing any council discussion Councilmember Vihrachoff thank you honor good question for dave on um reading through this um there's a few confusing slides and it starts at saying with the state to county to cities and that we have to follow change our ordinance for your ordinance but it also says it's up to us to enforce it it's not required as complaint based but i've seen a few things in there on large venues that how much will this cost a is it our job as a city to enforce it on a venue a private business to do organics for that place will they [35:51] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: be required to offer organics if they're a venue above 350 i think is what i read and if so is it up to the city then to go enforce that to make sure it's being done to meet these um or to meet the ordinance that's my first question [36:15] Dave Magnuson: mayor council member um so yeah i'm sorry if it was confusing um so the city has to do the enforcement of the multi-family and you have to put in your code that large event venues with back of house organics have recycling so the city will not be required to enforce the ordinance component they'll be required to enforce the recycling component of that um and the reason we put that on the cities is that in our research [36:37] Dave Magnuson: almost all the large event venues were owned by cities and it would be an easy thing to put into your agreements that you have with with the vendors who are renting them but the organics no that is my responsibility to enforce [37:22] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: so to confirm if we change our ordinance to match what the county's asking us to do or requiring us to do if it's a private business that offers an event and it has over the 350 i think is what i read is it is it our job to make sure that business knows that they're offering an organic option for supplies and food and the recycling side i'm just trying to look out for the businesses here saying how much is this going to cost our local businesses if there's no funding source for them if it's a requirement from the state down to the counter to the city yeah right [38:08] Dave Magnuson: mayor council member um the um so the cost part of it we don't know it's that's going to be um obviously a market driven um item the vendor will have to hire a hauler hallway the the organics what is the hauler charge what is the facility charge to manage that city does not have to enforce the organics component of that what the city has to do is ensure that a large event venue that that meets the definition has recycling that would be your component so if they if they didn't have the recycling bins they didn't have the labeled recycling bins that would be your responsibility the organics you could walk in and say call me up and say they don't have organics and i would take care of it or you could not do that that would be my job to make sure the organics itself is being recycled the cost this is a private the solid waste industry in dakota county the most part is private hastings has organized collection for for residential environmental as organized collection the rest is run by the private sector [38:40] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: and what if we don't adopt the ordinance that the counties i guess i'm confused of why the county requires us to do it if it's a county ordinance why won't we just make it a county wide program and they take care of the enforcement education and so forth are we doing it as a partnership that you're asking us to do this or again i go down to i we're going to get a phone call from a large venue saying what did you approve on january 19th that i have to now do and i just want to make sure that we're being upfront with what we're getting ready to approve here [39:20] Dave Magnuson: madam mayor council member um well i mean to be blunt if you don't approve it you'd be violating the dakota county ordinance that the the county board has already passed that so it's a requirement um the the city itself does not have to enforce the organics component you have to enforce the recycling component if you have a venue that in your city that is not owned by the city itself um they probably get a license from you to operate um that would be the place to put the requirement um in in that license um but yeah there's there is there is a role for the city um you mentioned partnership i certainly see this as a partnership we uh the state has mandated we we meet a 75 recycling goal by 2030. we've been at around 50 to 52 percent for 20 years okay the status quo doesn't work that's why we've branched out into this regulatory component i i'll tell you that the county board was not excited about this [40:28] Dave Magnuson: they didn't they didn't sit around saying dave bring me some rules we can enforce what they did was just said oh the state's requiring us to do this and yeah the state is um we had a lot of latitude in how we incorporated it but the state is requiring us to do this so the the resources i mentioned on the slide of where we can assist with um just look at our grants for the education component you'll uh and the infrastructure component for for equipment containers things labels things like that if you need any assistance with enforcement from technical assistance we can do that too but the actual enforcement um you'll have to do [41:13] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: your honor i have one more question if you don't mind sure dave you mentioned the state has got a goal of 75 and you say the county is the county at the 50 percent or is the state at 50 is dakota full disclosure i do recycling and organics at my day job so i know what it costs and i'm worried about a business getting told you have to do that because it's going to be at a cost to them it's that simple it's going to cost more money it's the right thing to do and i think we're i want to get to the end game with you i just want to make sure and i get we got a date that the state wants to get there i want to make sure everybody in the state is doing their due diligence so not dakota county's carrying the load here we can be leaders and say we're doing it but i don't know if i was ready to go to regulatory yet without a little more effort into the education side of it [42:00] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: and see if we can get a little bit closer that way but those are kind of my comments i'll leave it at that i'd like to listen to my colleagues about this but i have a little bit of concern with this i could see where the county board struggled with this one because i'm struggling myself on this too thanks dave thank you Councilmember Vihrachoff [42:30] Councilmember Tim Lawrence: Councilmember Lawrence thank you ron dave i just have a question on the point of clarification on some of the terms here so the if we go down to um apologize i lost my spot here so the large events uh area that we were talking about just a little bit ago um it says pub public gathering of at least 300 people i think that's what Councilmember Vihrachoff was was [42:46] Councilmember Tim Lawrence: speaking about just a moment ago but um can you i know we have some examples of that that you ever get that you gave to us but could you could you elaborate a little bit on that because um you know is is this what to what extent does this impact i guess you know is this uh festivals only or can this be um something that is a private event that is on public space or you know what kind of can i tell that a little bit because i think it is a little bit confusing there [43:20] Dave Magnuson: council member um the uh the key here yeah it could be anything could be a festival could be a parade it could be a soccer tournament key here is they have to have back of house organics they have to be preparing food preparing food this doesn't present to comply to them so we're not asking even if somebody sells food if they bring it already prepared lie to them so what we're after is a kitchen environment that has food waste but then that has to be diverted once the food has been served no diversion requirement whatsoever an entity can choose to do it but there's just so much contamination on that level once it's been served that that it just doesn't it doesn't work but when it's under the control of the kitchen or whatever they cool into the kitchen is they have a lot of control over the organic waste that they're producing and then it's easy to divert i'm not gonna say it's it doesn't cost money [44:19] Dave Magnuson: because it does um there's no scenario none whatsoever or we move from 52 to 75 and don't spend more money um because if that scenario existed we wouldn't be having this conversation we'd already be there um john i noticed john buck has his hand up and he's kind of my expert here uh i'm wondering if you want to weigh in on this john is that uh [44:40] John Buck: thank you yes yes thank you dave uh you can fix whatever i said that was wrong so [Laughter] uh well yeah i think i still had that up i wanted to clear i hope to clarify the uh the organics piece of it and i think we're getting there but it's um the organics that that word is specific just to that definition of of what a [45:06] John Buck: large event venue with organics is and that's that 300 people or more a public gathering that generates that back of house organics and and and of course it has to generate or or contract to um service a certain level of of waste uh but that that is what i had my hand raised for to clarify that thanks john [45:37] Councilmember Angie Haus: thank you your honor i guess i i have um a question for staff then um and perhaps this is for dan um i was wondering so if we're going to be putting um into effect this ordinance how long do you all have until you have to start actually doing enforcement and how is it that you're going you're planning to comply if it's the city have that has to do this function um so if you know i i'd really like to understand what's the burden that's being placed on our our staff [46:35] Dan Wietecha: unfortunately you beat me to the same question i've got oh good okay so i i don't have an answer [Music] from emails i saw among county and city staff just a couple of weeks ago i was of the impression maybe it's this confusion about organics versus recycling but i was of the impression that the administration of of this the handling of some required reporting the enforcement was all on the county so i've got the same question with where do we go from here from a operational standpoint i've got the same question [47:01] Councilmember Mya Beck: and Councilmember Beck thank you your honor as a small business owner who has actually worked through the county for um grants and recycling opportunities like this and i just wanted as a point of information i just wanted to to mention that the educational experiences really mitigate the regulatory side of it they're really exceptional resources and they're really easy to use and then as a question perhaps for john is part of the city's responsibility the recycling since that's generally where we're going with this the public [47:46] Councilmember Mya Beck: outside of a kitchen experience experience event would that be like us providing vessels for recycling or organics material versus um enforcing like pickup is that what we're talking about perhaps yes uh [48:15] John Buck: madam mayor council member um the the city's requirements uh under the generator side um would be yes if you're putting on a function or even at city offices you are required to follow the commercial generator requirements which is ensure that the designated a list of recyclable materials is being collected um and ensure that your you have adequate capacity to collect the organ or exceeding the recyclables that are generated so if uh dave's example where uh someone using one of your facilities or at your event has a a bottle or some recyclable material and they they come to a you know a waste receptacle again there needs to be that paired container so that they have the option to recycle if um if they want to um and again it has to you have to have adequate capacity so if the recycling bin is overflowing and they have no choice but to throw in the trash that wouldn't meet the ordinance so you [49:19] John Buck: would need to you know address that and that's it's not something that you know the county or um the city starts you know enforcing those sorts of requirements on multi-family or those large event venues it's it's not something i ever envisioned um you see that and you you give them a citation or something like that it's um it's just kind of putting a little bit more force behind the uh uh yes yes it's the right thing to do um but these state mandates coming down uh they're there the things that we need to start doing and making sure um that that we're doing and that's why we're basically putting best management practices in [50:04] John Buck: place as a requirement so again it's not just like hey this is what we should do this is what we have to do now to help move that needle towards 75 percent uh and to echo what you said earlier the uh about the education requirements is we still um are full speed ahead on on all of that um the the county has a contractor that helps their business program any any essentially any business that wants help with getting meeting these requirements you know they can reach out to our business program and apply for that assistance and that includes i believe our program our unit doesn't administer that grant but [50:50] John Buck: if i recall correctly they can they can receive up to ten thousand dollars if they meet certain requirements to can implement these best management practices to uh to meet the ordinance and there is a similar program for multi-family properties as well that the county administers and as far as i know continues to plan uh to administer in the future and if i even could continue the one one more point as far as the city enforcement of it as we've said you know it's a complaint base is okay where uh the county board put this in the ordinance uh for the cities as a requirement to enact and enforce um so that is uh for me that is the [51:35] John Buck: partnership um it's just it's going um another way for it to go both ways or that the county has requirements that they enact and enforce um so now we have the city saying okay we're going to give you some or help you nudge you into getting a little bit more of um of teeth i don't want to if that's the right word but um the the ability to take action on um you know these violations that you might that you might see um and we're still rolling out some uh assistance with that uh my work has been largely on the uh assisting the city staff to develop the code um and now once they're enacted my focus [52:23] John Buck: will be on helping cities implement the code we have some some things planned for staff enforcement staff and recycling staff to get together and and talk this through see what it looks like and go from there work together to to make it work [52:45] Councilmember Dave Pemble: Councilmember Pemble um thank you madam mayor my question is about the um food trucks how will the organics requirements at large gatherings apply to smaller kitchen facilities like a food truck will the same requirements be required of of an a a fairly small business unit because they're part of a larger event [53:13] Dave Magnuson: john you want to take that one you better handle on the details than i do on that uh well yeah i'd i'd love to so [53:40] John Buck: yeah i'm adam mayer and a council member um food trucks uh it's that's that's that's a nuance um you know the uh and there hasn't been a situation again this is all very new for for us as well um you know these these uh requirements at the county level just started as early as you know january 1 of 2020. um so a lot of this stuff we're planning as much as we can but uh these situations come up where we kind of have to step back um and you know reread things and and kind of get uh get our interpretation uh of of how [54:01] John Buck: that would apply um so looking at um you know if it is an event if it's a festival um well yeah of course town festivals have uh have food trucks the looking at the the back of house organics definition is you know a kitchen a fruit prep of a large event venue with organics that's not accessed by customers or the public um so just on the surface looking at definitions the i think you could draw the line that a food truck would be a back of house area that would [54:46] John Buck: be required or or in the case of city enforcement all that would mean is that it would qualify as a large event venue with organics therefore the city would have to enforce the recycling bmps the city would never have to enforce the food truck to capture organics that they're generating [55:10] Councilmember Dave Pemble: thank you for the clarification i i think the question in my mind though is if we're providing a food truck license to somebody who's coming to an event in our city you know do we have a responsibility to inform them of of this it sounds like we do because we are responsible to educate and inform as much as we can so we still have some responsibility i understand it's not an enforcement responsibility but um i appreciate that clarification because i think it if you have five or ten food truck vendors at an event that is something that they would need to know so that we could be making sure that they're doing it so thank you for the clarification and let me add on to that if you don't mind madam mayor [55:40] Dave Magnuson: councilmember that it would be the event organizer that has to do this not the food truck we're taking arrangements for all the solid waste management they're the ones that have to make the setups obviously if you have eight or ten food trucks they're not each going to set up their own solid place disposal it'll be the the venue that's doing that [56:10] Chris Jenkins: council if i can add a quick uh real life scenario which would be rivertown days um and with rivertown days obviously it's it's over 300 people and it is uh you know there's there's back of house organics that are generated there as well so in our partnership with chamber of commerce we do require that garbage recycling and those food vendors not this last year because we didn't have rivertown days year before that we did implement back of house organics for those food vendors so they had five gallon buckets and and those sorts of things and then we we brought in a dumpster for that as well so the city is is already doing some of this for our events and then for other events rotary united heroes league concert require those folks to bring in [57:07] Chris Jenkins: paired garbage and recycling for all of those events as well so those are just real life examples of what specific event things we're talking about here thank you chris for that clarification [57:20] Councilmember Angie Haus: Councilmember Haus thank you your honor um first i i'd like to thank the county for working with the city of hastings for our request and meeting us by providing the 132 thousand dollars of subsidy or i'd like to say incentive for us to continue to maintain following best practices um in our in our solid waste um collection um and it's my understanding as you just said that more information is to come and i um [57:55] Councilmember Angie Haus: i hope that our our hands aren't tied too much as to how that money is going to be um spent uh some of the initial conversations i had with commissioner slavic about that um perhaps differ a little bit from what our city council our city administrator has been told so um more to come and i bring that up because um this this goal of meeting uh recycling uh you know a goal to recycle 75 of our waste by 2030 that i'm that's great i'm all down with you know trying to do the best we can to you know take um waste out of the landfills and all but i do also know that forty thousand [58:40] Councilmember Angie Haus: dollars um annually and in a grant which we're supposed to be using for public information and um and i'm not sure how exactly the staff does intend you know to to use all of that but what i do know is that's a pittance when you're doing uh public education and informational campaigns and so um just feedback is i think that it would be really wonderful as you're beginning to look at how it is that you implement this and and help the individual cities hit this goal of 75 is to coordinate public information campaigns like for instance the recycling partnership which is a national nonprofit organization that's out there they put out um template materials [59:25] Councilmember Angie Haus: for individual like cities and counties to be able to use and then just use to reproduce and um and they have all sorts of samples about um how to do that and that's and that's so useful um because i don't think a lot of cities have on staff like you know professional communication staff who just really specialize in putting together on those kinds of materials and it's really costly and so so i just say all of that is that i hope that you're thinking about more than just how it is that we do the enforcement component but then also how is it that we help move those numbers um to better educate our businesses and to better educate our residents about um you know how to properly [1:00:10] Councilmember Angie Haus: recycle and um and like for instance the organics program that we have right now in hastings i've been trying to do it and it's really um it's difficult to make that lifestyle change and then particularly when you have to bring the organics yourself to um the the dump station and uh so i'm trying but i'm the choir and so you know what more do we do to um help people see what the you know the benefits are and uh participating in those kinds of programs and so we're all in together and so i know that's outside of the scope of what you wanted to talk about was an enforcement but i just think to think more holistically because um i i think that it's going to take you know a team effort to be able to to move a number that large so thank you for all of your efforts we do appreciate [1:00:57] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: it thank you Councilmember Haus Councilmember Vihrachoff thank you i got one follow-up question for dave and john here thanks for the clarification chris jenkins thanks for the real life experience i think we're i think we're kind of doing this already where i got hung up on the organics on the private sector it sounds like and can you confirm staff from the county it's just the food portion i just don't want to require a business to buy organic straws organic plates organic everything and that because they will contaminate their dumpster it's happened to me every day and it's a really heavy expense for someone that owns a business and and i could see right away they're always going to ask the city to be a partner in the event put her name on the banner and then they're going to say why don't you bring in the organic side of it and pay for that site [1:01:50] Dave Magnuson: so i'm a little cautious about 2024 i'm kind of looking ahead here a little bit and all those people i mean if they had to buy the organic cups straws plates and everything else we will get phone calls it won't be the county it'll be us saying i'm just looking at a food shelf that's going to call saying do you know what they just put on us as an expat mayor council member i was the one leading the charge to not include compostable products okay this is food waste only intentionally food waste only there's almost no chance we're going to add in compostable products they're a contaminant they're too difficult they're very expensive they don't always compost well so no this is you can be certain this is food waste only and if i have any say it's going to [1:02:28] Dave Magnuson: stay food waste only and i'm the res i'm the enforcement person so i have some say i appreciate that and i would love to see that in writing myself it is it is it's if you read the ordinances back of house food waste only back up all right thank you it's in the ordinance [1:02:45] John Hinzman: council if it's okay commissioner slavic would like to come in and speak if you could help him in john [1:03:10] Commissioner Mike Slavic: great thank you welcome commissioner you're on mute thank you good evening mayor council members it might happen okay i'm good there you go here we go yes you can great thank you very much for the conversation first of all i think that uh anytime the county has shown up to any of uh the communities in dakota county it's been a very lively discussion uh and uh many of them have happened uh last year hastings is one of the latter ones so uh i just i do appreciate the conversation because you go back a couple years ago and this is very much where the county board was in many of these conversations and dave [1:03:55] Commissioner Mike Slavic: and john can certainly attest to this in the fact that we rejected the first ordinance 110 revisions that the state of minnesota was was putting on us because of how burdensome they were in fact we actually got a county attorney legal opinion to see what would happen if we said no to the state uh so i i just uh to give you that perspective on there that's how frustrated we uh were throughout this process and um at the same time knowing we wanted just like all of you we want to go in and and get the things out of the landfill that can be out and and that but there was uh you know to give perspective there was a very high cost to go and do uh curbside organic such was going to go right on every one of the uh the residences and [1:04:40] Commissioner Mike Slavic: there was a number of extra costs that we were trying to uh be able to achieve the goal but also not put as much of a burden not only on our businesses but also on all of us as a resident so i just want to certainly say that i i share some of those those parts in there i think a second thing is to make note that many of the things that other communities are very um concerned about have already been best practices in the city of hastings first and foremost of that is the weekly recycling you talk to every single community that doesn't have weekly recycling and they will tell you that you're not going to get more recycling it's uh it's just going to cost more however hastings has been able to be the model that for at least the last uh nine years they've been doing weekly recycling [1:05:26] Commissioner Mike Slavic: because it has not cost more as a result of that and we're actually as a community recycling more than our communities across the county that don't do that and uh uh chris jenkins gave an example of some of the large events that the city had already been requiring some of the organic side of things so i think as as much as there's some uh constraint and how we're discussing today i think it's important to note that acing has quite frankly been a leader in many ways of solid waste throughout the county um with that so i just wanted to share that and then just last point with uh in terms of just this this is probably one of those classic examples of bureaucratic government top down telling you what to do and uh i apologize but in this also comes in [1:06:12] Commissioner Mike Slavic: we're in that middle telling you what to do so it goes in a you know from from the state to the counties to the cities uh all the way down it's it's just not exactly how we like to do it which i think the point like council member Beck had said if we can figure out how to do education i think that's what we all would rather do than the sledgehammer approach so um just wanted to to go on that part in there and say that uh the county still is looking to be a partner not to go and be uh doing all this stuff here but we've just been very much plateaued i would would go and say that uh the more we can encourage to change the culture as Councilmember Haus said with you doing our in-home organics uh our household we actually have a scale and we weigh how much we uh we're able to bring out there and it's a it's kind it's [1:06:58] Commissioner Mike Slavic: by the way it's pretty surprising how often uh we go there and somebody else is there also dropping something off so uh the running joke of the county is that uh even though you're supposed to sign up we're pretty sure that enough people in town know the code and are just showing up on their own even though they're not signed up with the county because uh it's actually been wildly popular for uh for the community with that so um the last point that i would just want to make uh and certainly open for any questions on kind of the relationship that we all have to the point of Councilmember Haus yes we're still working on what those um dollars would will be used for as long as they're in the solid waste realm but my most recent conversations with staff is that um where some of yours and my conversations are it seems to be gaining some momentum and what those [1:07:44] Commissioner Mike Slavic: could be for but just keep in mind that the county board did pass those dollars to go in and benefit those communities that are are truthfully paying a higher cost because they're going to redwing as opposed to a landfill so uh the first and foremost this was to be one how do we address solid waste issues but also to go in and make it so that our businesses and our residents that pay those garbage bills are the ones getting the biggest benefits so i know the county attorney's working with uh with city staffs to kind of figure out some of that stuff and you'll see it um in first quarter still is the expectation but otherwise thank you for this and i'm certainly open to any questions that um john and dave did a great job but if anything i can answer i'd happy to do that as well [1:08:32] Mayor Mary Fasbender: okay thank you commissioner uh counsel any questions any additional discussion [Music] okay then i would accept a motion to approve an ordinance of the city of hastings amending chapter city code chapter 50 general provisions provisions [1:08:45] Councilmember Mya Beck: council member Beck so moved. [1:09:00] Councilmember Angie Haus: Councilmember Haus I'll second your honor okay any other new discussion council clerk flattened [1:09:12] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [1:09:21] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and thank you both john and dave for your um your assistance in this and and commissioner thank you thank you for having us everybody yep thank you very much [1:09:40] Chris Jenkins: madam mayor before we move on there's a second part of that which requires a action of its own which is to approve the resolution for summary publication for this as well that was the second action that's requested so a formality that we need to do as we publish this resolution in the newspaper okay [1:10:20] Councilmember Dave Pemble: we'll need a motion on that council or a Councilmember Pemble yeah motion to approve [1:10:35] Councilmember Angie Haus: and Councilmember Haus i'll second year okay thank you uh click flat and please call the roll [1:10:45] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [1:10:58] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and that motion prevails thank you thanks for that clarification chris now we have a public hearing for the vacation amazement uh wickman on 178 summit point drive for this item we will have an introduction by community developed director john hinsman followed by a public hearing in action by city council [1:11:15] John Hinzman: okay thank you mayor mayor and city council members i'm going to share my screen to show the property that we're looking at here we have before you tonight is to consider a vacation of easement this is uh also has a public hearing component to it the property we're looking at here is this property right here 178 summit point drive it's an undeveloped property off of the cul-de-sac of summit point court what's being requested is part of a larger request to relocate the property boundaries here the area here in red is where the [1:11:44] John Hinzman: existing property boundaries are for the home as you can see with the other detached town homes that have been constructed in this area this constitutes really the the area where the building is constructed and all the other areas surrounding it is association held land which is under a drainage and utility easement the applicant is hoping to do is to basically move the lock box five feet forward towards summit point court for a couple of different reasons one you can see towards the back of the yard here there is some existing tree cover he would like to be able to move the home further away from those trees so to limit any disturbance that would occur behind there so the action that we have before you tonight is the request for vacation of easement [1:12:29] John Hinzman: as i said earlier the whole area here that is not within the privately owned lot boxes is under a drainage and utility easement now the term drainage and utility easement may you may connote uh having drainage and utilities in it and perhaps there there are some within the area but within the specific area in which the request for vacation is to occur there are none this is just part of a larger area in a way that we have property described to limit development on that association held property so the action before you tonight is to hold a public hearing and to consider vacation of this easement area located in yellow which is about five feet uh from east to west and i think about 56 feet north to south here and i can stand for any questions thank you uh [1:13:16] Ms. Myers: thank you john and i'll bring back in miss myers as we open the public hearing if she is still on yes i am i am um how does this affect the back of the property um that property is a lot higher than our property down below and so we're wondering about the drainage well if you're still here you can come on too he's our other co-president [1:14:05] John Hinzman: do you know how the drainage is going to be affected or why was drainage even brought up uh cult mayor i i could address that if you'd like thank you yes sure uh the request on the vacation of the drainage and utility easement really has no bearing on the drainage for the property the the property in this let me go back to my screen here i'm pointing to something nobody else could see the area right here is generally a flat area there is no drainage swales no drainage infrastructure within this area the drainage should not be affected the area was masqueraded back in 2006 with the rest of the development to create pads for future development here and so by moving this property further east by five feet it's going to move it away from the existing homes that are to the west over here which you can just see off to the edge here to provide greater separation it is not going to have a negative effect on the drainage in this area because there really is no great difference here there's no drainage facilities that were contemplated in this area [1:15:33] Ms. Myers: okay well that's what we didn't understand and um if it was going to add any more water to our property we are fully against that but if it's not going to do anything why i don't understand the language of it i guess vacation of a drainage easement to me drainage is water so why is it you know um stated like that and that's what brings us here okay [1:15:50] Mayor Mary Fasbender: thank you miss myers john can you reference i'm sure i can address that mirror [1:16:05] John Hinzman: yeah i underst i understand the concern when when something is is going to affect drainage and utilities the term though is is used throughout this larger area anything that's not homes here is under this drainage and utility easement albeit only certain portions of it actually convey water or convey any utilities within it so the area that is being proposed to be vacated this yellow sliver here does not contain any utilities and does not contain any drainage infrastructure it should not have any effect on the drainage that's currently occurring here by the by doing this vacation does it have anything to do with how they might um oh what i want to say level off the property or do something to the back does that have anything to do with this sure with the drainage vacation of drainage and utility easement that's before us tonight no that [1:17:04] John Hinzman: would have no effect on it the plan that was approved back in 2006 would still have to be complied with and that is they would have to channel all water within the property and not have any water leaving the property that would negatively affect neighboring properties okay okay as long as that's in writing okay yeah yes okay that's what we didn't understand okay okay okay thank you you're welcome any other hands raised i'll just look to see if there is i see none so at this time i will close the public hearing council any discussion [1:17:50] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: Councilmember Leifeld thank you honor okay john uh to miss meyer's question there when in your little map the yellow part is the front of the house right because there's the cul-de-sac so when in this picture then when we're [Music] vacating that easement does that mean the house will be built on that yellow part or further back to the tree line that i didn't quite catch what you were saying because i'm leaning towards miss meyer's question of if the house is being built further back towards the tree line does that not require more of a retaining wall elevation type thing so go ahead and i'll let you answer the question is it being built closer to the front of the cul-de-sac [1:18:45] John Hinzman: decals number yes uh the house would be built closer to the cul-de-sac right now this area in red which would include the western part of this yellow line is where the house would be under the current plans what they're hoping to do is to shift the entire house five feet further east towards the cul-de-sac five feet further away from the tree line up here thank you john [1:19:21] Councilmember Dave Pemble: thank you okay thank you you're welcome any other council oh Councilmember Pemble i'm going to take a shot at defining a drainage and utility easement and john you can tell me where i go wrong because i'm sure this is my commoner definition and not the one that an engineer would give but my understanding of what a drainage and utility easement is in regards to a piece of property is the allowance of space between properties or it can be on any side of a property to allow the drainage that needs to be built to be built or to allow the utilities that need to be built to be built underground so basically easements are a way for us to reserve space for something that might be there already or maybe it needs to be there in the future but it's that's basically how i understand easement can you tell me if my definition just to clarify um a layperson's definition of what an easement would be does that is that right or are there any parts of that i got wrong [1:20:06] John Hinzman: sure calls them but i can expound on a little bit further though i agree with that i'd also add that when you're when an easement is taken on a property you're buying rights to that property the underlying ownership remains with the association but there's certain rights that are being purchased and cannot be enjoyed on the property the one thing that we look at with associations of which you have a lot of common open space is to ensure that there's no construction of of buildings or privately held items within these easement areas and so we set up these drainage and utility easements along all these association properties to really restrict the ability for private encroachment and construction on them now there's also a point within these properties in which there truly are drainage areas and utilities that need to be protected uh but the purpose we have them so large in this in this situation is really to restrict future building thank you for that explanation that helps thank you [1:21:20] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Councilmember Vihrachoff any other discussion Councilmember Vihrachoff thank your honor john going off of what you just asked or educated us on that yellow is allowing if we allow the easement they can build their house inside that yellow box which is an easement that we ask for to do utilities access to work correct so once we allow them to do that we're not tearing up we don't have the right to go in there anymore and fix anything underneath there or have access to it is that correct [1:22:00] John Hinzman: that would be correct council member there are in review of this there are no present utilities under there the yellow area would be basically the front of the house and so there really wouldn't be any room for us to put any any utilities within that area anyways follow up your honor um is this is this owned by the association i'm referencing a property that we worked on here in wallen that was the same thing inside an easement that we denied and i want to make sure we're consistent here of what easements we allow and which ones we don't sure in this situation here yes the uh the where the area the drainage and utility easement vacation is on property that is owned by the association not by the private property owner uh in another step here there would be a transfer of ownership of of the five-foot sliver towards the uh towards the front of the building with a five-foot sliver behind the building to move the box up so there would be a transfer of those uh that in re reshuffling the property line there in developed and that's what i'm asking so the real change here is we're just transferring easement a little bit we're moving it they're allowed to build closer so the back to property is the part of the easement that we're having access to we're using for drainage yeah i i think i think that what's trying to be accomplished here by the the property owner and concurred by the association is it would be a better situation to have the house five feet closer to summit point court because it would move it further away from the tree line in the back thank you you [1:23:45] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Councilmember Vihrachoff any other discussion council okay then i accept a motion to approve a resolution the city council the city of hastings vacating a portion of a drainage and utility easement generally located east of 178 summit point drive [1:24:00] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: your honor i make a motion council member Leifeld helps up the easement as indicated in your little speech okay do you need me to repeat it i don't think so i need a sec [1:24:15] Councilmember Dave Pemble: council member Pemble second is that a second okay any other additional discussion council okay clerk flatten please call the roll [1:24:28] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [1:24:57] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and that motion prevails we now have a public hearing and a proposed ordinance amendment to zoning code c2 in interim uses for this item we will have an introduction by community development director john hinsman followed by a public hearing and action by city council [1:25:05] John Hinzman: thank you madam mayor and city council members that we have before you tonight is a public hearing to look at an amendment to hastings city code as uh city attorney fleegle pointed out early earlier part of the amendment that is asked of you tonight relates to the resolution that was approved to the settlement agreement on the motor coach commerce facility i'll get into that in just a moment here but what we're looking at here with the ordinance amendment is really two sections of the city code one of them is a new section in which we would we would be adding and that is the chapter 30 relating to interim use permits now an interim use permit is something that we have facilitated in the past albeit with the new language here we're going to make it a little more structured we base the interim use permit language on the special use permit language the question may come up as to what's the difference between a special use permit and an interim use permit interim use permits are meant to be temporary whereas special use permit follows with the land and can follow in perpetuity an interim use permit has a defined limit of time and that limit of time can vary from permit to permit in the situation with the motor coach commerce facility and the agreement we've structured there we've agreed to two ten-year terms on that property uh but if other interim use permits were to come in uh they could be uh they could be approved on a differing time frame so we establish the criteria and the parameters in which an interim use permit would be could be considered the second portion of this are amendments to our zoning code and in particular our c2 zoning district our c2 zoning district is a little bit unusual and i'm going to put a picture of that on our screen here it's an area of town that has a smattering of different properties this is highway 61 coming south from the vermillion river uh continuing down this way towards hastings ford and then splitting off at highway 316. the areas that are located in red here are zone c2 c2 right now is turned within our city code a um remember don't remember off the top my head uh it is the highway auto specialized commerce district what it is is most known for is this is the area of town in which automobile sales can occur so all the automobile sales lots that we have in town are located within this district we also have a few other types of areas as well that are located within the c2 zone in reviewing the c2 district we concluded that the definitions were fairly broad and it would be best to be able to provide a more tighter definition of what we anticipated and what we desired to have with that district and so that's what we've done with the amendments that are before you tonight get back out of the screen here one of the things we are adding is an opportunity via an interim use permit to consider what's termed a motor coach commerce facility and we have termed what a motor coach commerce facility is within the uh the definitions in the zoning code as well on a motor coach this is a type a motorhome defined in state statutes uh it has to be no more it cannot be uh 15 years or older at that time it has to be less than 15 years old when you take a look at what this would look like i'm going to put my screen back up here we're looking at here so we have we have defined motor coaches very tightly this type of facility less than 15 years old would determine what a motor coach would be and so that would be something that would be allowed via an interim use permit within that zoning district we've also defined other items too some of them which are allowed within the district some of them which would not be allowed within the district uh we have a definition for what's termed a travel trailer as well has that 15 year provision on it as well this is more of your your fifth wheel type of facility uh the point that we were trying to do with this ordinance is to allow for a very limited window in which uh a motor coach facility could be uh implemented within within this area of the city uh what we were not looking for was to open this up for more broader uses and so we put in there specifically prohibitions on camping defined what camping would be and defined it to limit it to this type of facility only so that in a nutshell are the changes that we're looking at today to the c2 district we did have the planning commission review this on a couple of different different times the most recently on december 28th of last year a planning commission did vote 6-0 to recommend approval of the amendment at the public hearing no one spoke for or against it at that time as the council is aware we've been looking at changes to this code and reviewing motor coach commerce facilities for well over the last year and we've worked with our city attorney as well as the league attorney george hoff in the crafting of this ordinance so this is a public hearing you can open it up at this time or i can stand for any questions i will remind you that there's two aspects aspects to this one is the adoption of an ordinance which can be done in a simple majority and the other one is the adoption of a resolution for the summary ordinance to be published this is similar to the action that was done earlier with the uh with the waste facilities so i could stand for any questions thank you thank you john i will look in and see if there's anyone at this time i will open the public hearing [1:31:07] Mayor Mary Fasbender: anyone wishing to speak to this i will watch for your raised hand motion i see no one in the audience for the public hearing this time i will close the public hearing council discussion no council discussion okay then council i would look to approve accept a motion to approve the ordinance of the city of hastings amending city code chapter 30 city organizations and chapter 55 zoning code [1:31:45] Councilmember Dave Pemble: so moved your honor Councilmember Pemble [1:31:55] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: i'll second your honor Councilmember Leifeld and any other new discussion council okay clerk flatten please call the role [1:32:05] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [1:32:20] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and that motion prevails so then we need another motion [1:32:37] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Councilmember Vihrachoff move to approve. [1:32:45] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: second. additional discussion console click flatten please call the roll [1:32:55] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [1:33:06] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and that motion prevails okay thank you all that was a long long discussions and john thank you so much for all you've done with that project thank you yes so council now we have a resolution to approve the 2021 cdbg budget and for this item we have uh john giving us an introduction with that as well [1:33:45] John Hinzman: thank you madam mayor and city council this is the annual item we have for our cdbg budget this year our estimate is just under 77 000 these are federal block grant funds that are given to us by dakota county uh in the past we have used it for assessment abatement what that means is that the assessments on city reconstruction projects for low to lower moderate income individuals could be fully or partially abated and that is what we're proposing to do with the funding this year we have a project along 15th street between pine and pleasant and speaking with public works director edgar we anticipate the requests to come forward on that project that would expend the full amount of the funding being proposed so what we're asking tonight is to adopt the resolution to authorize the middle of the budget to dakota county along with the attached application and i can stand for any questions thank you thank you john uh council discussion [1:34:41] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Councilmember Vihrachoff nope i was here to make a motion to authorize okay i see no one uh wanting to discuss so Councilmember Vihrachoff make a motion motion too okay and [1:35:10] Councilmember Dave Pemble: Councilmember Pemble second. additional discussion clerk flattened please call the roll [1:35:20] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [1:35:32] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and that motion prevails uh tonight we have a 2021 cip cep recommendations from council or from city administrator dan wietecha forget how this works sometimes uh [1:35:45] Dan Wietecha: thank you um i i can introduce it but i've actually i think these recommendations are from senior staff as a group and i think that's important to note we took a different approach to capital projects this year with uncertainty about how the economy and finances might look throughout the year particularly concerns about local government aid we although we took a list of prioritized projects and you could a little bit predict here here were projects that were higher rank here were projects that were lower ranked uh we didn't want to go ahead and actually move it move forward with any projects until we knew that money was in place and a question of are we comfort comfortable about uh current uh finances in the economy uh at the end of december we received about 430 000 of local government aid this actually was the 2020 uh allocation of the second half of the allocation um but close enough to the the first of the year that let's uh uh roll it into the 2021 uh and the the process of using money when it's available uh when looking back at the property tax collections in october uh the county had given a november extension so the collections in november also uh in both cases uh they were strong and and and on target with where we would expect them to be in a normal year so that was a good sign at the first of december the state had a new uh state budget forecast that actually had the current biennium go from a deficit to a surplus and a significant reduction in the the projected deficit for the the state's coming biennium so again good signs about uh where our financial outlook is and from staff's position comfortable recommending let's use that 430 000 and put it to good use for our residents rather than saving it for a rainy day if if the economy was a bit more sour we might say let's hold tight and see how things are playing out but staff met over the past couple of weeks looked at the the abc list the priorities moved some projects up based on the timing and other projects down but this list is the consensus by staff on how to spend 430 000 uh quickly running through them replacing a 16 17 year old tahoe for the fire department um replacing uh the the five-year rotation on our computer replacement so just here's the this year's replacement of computers replacing a 21 year old zamboni at the ice arena part of that would be using some ice arena fund balance not entirely from the lga keeping on a 10-year replacement schedule for one of the the large 16 foot lawn mowers that the parks department uses those do a lot of a lot of work every summer replacing a 20 year old chromer painter machine for the parks department uh doing thirty thousand dollars which is sort of one-third of a three-year cycle on um sealcoating some uh crack sealing of the 30 miles of of the trail system so really this is a asset management maintaining what we have in order to help keep it from getting in worse repair expect that when we see uh the next sort of list of recommended projects uh hopefully this spring there will actually be some reconstruction uh to take care of stuff that has deteriorated but this is trying to maintain the current condition investing in or replacing the squad cameras in the police cars this replacement would put us um one make sure that we're working off of one platform uh currently we've got it the the squads and the body cameras are not on the same same system so this would make them all consistent it also would make us consistent with the platform used by the the county uh additional money for the street mill and overlay project the adopted budget already includes four hundred fifty thousand dollars uh this bumps it up by another fifty thousand dollars um just trying to to keep on top of maintaining our street assets as best we can afford do note that this one has a timing piece and because of other parts of this the mill and overlay financing we need to report into the state how much we're doing where we're doing it by the end of the month so if there was any thoughts on uh delaying this list this piece really needs to be decided up or down today obviously staff's recommendation is to move forward with it the last item is to replace the backup generator at the hydro plant and actually this is not being funded or proposed to be funded with the lga it's a matter of it was on the the priority list but hadn't made the the cut from the budget itself and saying uh the hydro plant might not be able to afford it on its own but this is critical uh let's take out a up to five years hopefully we paid back quicker loan from the sewer fund that has some uh ability to afford that uh but essentially uh if the power goes out at the power plant we will see water coming in and not be able to pump it out so this really is is emergency generator to keep the pumps going if if there were some failure there and trying to keep from you know seeing serious damage to the hydro plant if it were flooded out those are the nine projects that staff are recommending i hope that we'll be having similar recommendations later in the year but with that i know there are some questions on the tahoe but can certainly stand for any questions on any of the projects and the other piece i'd note at the end of the memo just for 21 not even looking ahead to projects in 22 or 23 on the cip list we've got eight million dollars worth of projects that are on hold and even with with uh optimistic projections for local government aid or fund balance that we might use later this year we're not going to get all the way through that list in 21 federal allocations that might help take some of that burden off of us but this is what we're looking at currently but with that i'll certainly stand for any questions thank you great thank you dan um council any Councilmember Haus [1:43:52] Councilmember Angie Haus: thank you your honor as dan had just mentioned about the first item up for approval is the fire tahoe at 52 000 and so just a little background information um just remind folks because we have discussed this in the past um so what had occurred was in january of 2019 there was a fleet assessment that was uh conducted as specifically to look at vehicles that would be [Music] you know which ones would be prime for converting from a combustion engine to an electric vehicle and so the city of hastings participated in an initiative um called city charging ahead and they received a grant and so this study was done and in it i had forwarded to the council earlier um early this morning just the powerpoint presentation that was provided as a summary of what that study had been i never received like the full study with i'm sure it was very thick but um so there were at the time um there were two 2004 chevy tahoes that were identified as the best of the entire fleet um to convert to a mitsubishi outlander hybrid plug-in and so um i what had happened and um clerk flatten can help help me remember because um she was i think she was the interim when we had had these conversations was um when that as when that study recommendation came out the first tahoe had actually already been ordered and was enroute um and so it so they missed that opportunity um just you know it's like two boats passing you know in the night and so um that was unfortunate and then this decision with the second tahoe was made not to replace it right away although it had been in our cip for a few years there and the decision was made to just put a pause on that particular one to give whoever was going to be the new fire chief the ability to make a decision on whether or not they actually wanted to replace that particular vehicle or not and so um julie clerk flattened had taken it off of rcip for for 2020 and um and so now that we have a chief townsend um in place when uh the finance committee when we met in august uh and uh chief townsend was uh updating uh the three of us who were on that committee of what his plans were for the year he actually did mention this uh this tahoe and i had brought up at the time you know that i think this was one of because you know there's just a lot of information that was going on that day and i was like i think this is you know one of the tahoes that was recommended for an electric vehicle and he was unaware of that study and i you know and i believe him he wasn't the fire chief at that time and he may not have been you know aware of um the study and and how that had all rolled forward now that it's been two years ago and so um i would like to see that particular fire that tahoe for just to be tabled i'm not saying not to move ahead with the replacement if staff need it but it was the most opportune vehicle of the city's fleet to actually make a conversion to um being an electric vehicle and that the council did have a follow-up conversation i can't remember how long ago i'm sure it was at least it was pre-covered so it's before it was at least a year ago about um about in the future when opportunities presented themselves for uh vehicles to be converted to electric particularly when it was you know cost beneficial that um that we begin to make those moves and so um and and the reason i i'm saying it was between a 12 000 to almost a 15 000 range is because there were two tahoes and i'm not sure which um which one was which any longer in the replacement schedule so um so that's why i i didn't say definitively what the total cost savings were going to be but um and again it would be slightly offset by because some kind of i'm charging uh apparatus would be needed you know to go with the vehicle but just a dumb charger i mean literally i was just on a conversation with a vendor like two days ago and they said a a charger which you just plug in and let it the vehicle plug overnight with six hundred um so i don't know what the needs would be but i'm just saying it's not it can be very economical um depending on how the vehicle is used and charged and so so with that said um so i know i probably caught um dan and and i don't know if that was shared with uh chief townsend earlier today um often and i i would assume that you probably weren't aware of those recommendations but i'd really like to see um staff take a serious look at um at following that fleet study and actually looking at i'm converting that vehicle into an electric vehicle so that's where i'm at with it [1:49:00] Councilmember Tim Lawrence: thank you Councilmember Haus Councilmember Lawrence thank you you know um i recall the conversation um you know we did i don't know if we did deep into it necessarily but it was i remember you bringing it up uh Councilmember Haus um and and i think you know in general i'm supportive of the concept when practical right um converting things for the sake of converting it doesn't i don't think that's the justice that that or the justification that we need um i i i'd like to know uh a couple of things um you know uh and i don't know if we have the people on on the meeting to be able to answer it today or not but um you know why was that tahoe and the other one identified as the optimal um vehicle to be replaced um you know what were the criteria that were set to do that um if it were and i'm not trying to minimize the the the study but you know if it were it's the oldest one and it's up next for being replaced well that's it's good to know but that's not necessarily a great criteria other than you know take the opportunities as they come which we should be looking at i think you know for vehicles that make sense to be flipped over to uh to an electric uh platform but you know here's the deal things are moving really quickly right now in this space there are many major manufacturers knocking at the door of of cr of producing um you know really viable um products that you you we're not you're not going to miss a beat necessarily in performance or thing you know things of that nature but not today necessarily there's not a ton of appealing alternatives today there's some that are on the the horizon and the one to five years from now kind of thing where you're going to see a lot of pickup trucks suvs that are just like the ones you see on the road today that can you're not gonna you're not gonna go oh that's a lesser vehicle but um so not to go too deep into that but what that does is bring me to the next question then is what is it used for um you know if this is just tooling around town sure that that the outlander is going to be fine but in reality that outlander is really like a it's a crossover vehicle it's effectively a car that has all-wheel drive and it's a little bit bigger body but it's on a car chassis it's not a four-wheel drive vehicle it's towing capacity is 1500 pounds the the tahoe is like five times that so if he's if if the if the chief is using this as a vehicle to do any sort of emergency work pulling somebody out or whatever it needs to you know driving in difficult conditions um we need to take that into consideration i just don't think the outlander would be the right solution there's not a lot of other alternatives right now so my two questions were why was it identified what were the criteria so it's kind of a one and one and one a and then what is the tahoe used for thank you Councilmember Lawrence dan would you like to speak to that [1:52:10] Dan Wietecha: yeah um i'm going to have a lot of trouble on the study piece uh my understanding uh is one of the key factors that what the study looked at on determining the the financial viability uh was idle time so a vehicle that might be sitting idling a lot cheaper to have it running you know idling off of electricity rather than than gas or diesel gas in this case i think um is so so a matter of some of these vehicles that that respond to a call and sit and idle i think was part of what drove those ones being i highlighted in that study that's as far as i want to get with the study i just i certainly wasn't part of it and i'm getting pieces secondhand and don't know just enough to start being dangerous with the study itself with the vehicle itself the the tahoe that that we're looking at replacing it is an emergency response vehicle uh it's a special service vehicle um which the uh the study uh was more of uh off the showroom floor model as as you were pointing out um a couple of specific concerns that chief has about um the the operation of this vehicle uh are the tahoe has a wiring and a bigger alternator and it's set up to be able to run lights and sirens and have a computer in it and quite frankly the off the showroom floor model doesn't have that capability to to do that you might be able to have a light or a couple of lights with limited power to it but but it's not going to be the full setup it is a vehicle that needs some muscle it's it's four-wheel drive it goes off-road and across fields to respond to brush fires it depending on the the time of a call it will be driving in heavy snow on unplowed roads out in the townships and really just concerns that the vehicle that we're looking at replacing is not one to be currently not one to be looking at at least not the one recommended in the study do note i believe actually since that study came out so very recent in the last couple of years both ford and chevy do now have um special service vehicles in a hybrid model we did not price those we figured they're brand new and one some concerns about they're being unproven by how new they are but also just a matter of an assumption that they were going to be uh much higher cost and and certainly eat up whatever savings there might have been when comparing a bit of an apples and oranges comparison but when comparing uh our tahoe with the the outlander model so staff's recommendation is to stick with the the existing tahoe in this case um recognize that respect for resources is one of the city's you know values that we we put on on you know anything in print our core values and definitely want to look at how do we look at greening our fleet and doing other things for energy efficiency beyond what we're currently doing looking at replacing some of those errands type vehicles much easier to look at doing converting those over to uh to electric but concerns about doing it with an emergency response vehicle [1:56:40] Councilmember Angie Haus: your honor dan Councilmember Haus thank you um your honor and so plenty plenty many very large cities are converting their police and fire administrative vehicles to electric vehicles and so as you um did say that um yes there are new vehicles that are out there i'm study is now two years old and so that's my point um that staff haven't really looked at what is actually available right now for compatible makes and models and to going back to Councilmember Lawrence's question about how it is that these studies are conducted they put telematics equipment within the vehicles to monitor how the vehicle is functioning how fast it's driving how often it's driving how long it's sitting how long it's idling as dan had said and and it's not which ones are the oldest and that they're the easiest to flip it's how they're used and what the total cost of operations is over the life cycle of the vehicle and how it is that you would get the best opportunities for savings and so as dan was saying i'm guessing that the tahoe is a huge gas guzzler and and that's why there was such a significant amount of savings that would be attributed um to it and so that was my point about just tabling it and really looking at it you know the great plains institute is having a webinar next thursday from 10 to noon that is specific specifically meant for cities to learn about how to buy electric vehicles it's being actually facilitated by the great plains but the speakers are the state of minnesota's procurement office specifically their fleet manager and then they're also going to have source well which is the national cooperative agreement that um has electric vehicles on a contract that cities are able to use for procurement purposes and also has um some of the best pricing available on those and so that's what i was asking for is for staff just to be educated and actually look at it since um i think it's unfortunate that this study was you know conducted and not one of the vehicles that had been um that had been earmarked as being uh flipped over have been flipped over and and and so the city isn't currently looking at flipping any vehicles and so um so i so i wasn't saying no to this but i would really appreciate if staff took the time to actually be well-versed and before they make a decision that's kind of knee-jerk on just oh well we had a muscle car so we need to you know replace it with a big muscle car and so particularly when you look at city minneapolis city of denver so many large cities are moving can bring their fleet um over onto this way and so so anyhow so that's why i was asking for staff just to table this particular one um so otherwise i don't i don't i don't see a path to staff beginning to actually do this kind of evaluation in this conversion of the fleet i mean to be honest i mean i don't hear anything from staff about how it is that they're going to be moving forward in some of these green initiatives and this is one where study was done and that there's no path to actually doing anything about it so thank you [1:59:50] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Councilmember Haus Councilmember Vihrachoff thank you honor um i think we got a reference back to the study in 2019 it was done if i remember right by a grant i think excel energy helped with it i i think that's great that we did it but i think we need to have that conversation as a council then and approve that study so we utilize it when staff understands when you make decisions we as a council approve that study i don't remember us approving this study as a whole council so staff can reference back to it when it's time to replace or at least analyze what's coming into it in this situation i'm agreeing with our fire chief the difference and i conspire folks i get it i think bigger cities are doing it but i'm looking at our city and our city is have partnerships and we have fields and we have we're going to township so we're going this vehicle has to go in some other areas that minneapolis doesn't have to go into you froze froze mark [2:01:18] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: an example so i'm agreeing as a council we need to get correct still so i don't know if you know mark but you did freeze oh he must be going in and out there he comes sorry your honor i can't wait to be back in the uh chamber where we get yes so you did freeze so i don't know i was referenced saying i agree with staff's recommendation at this time but that study needs to be looked at as a council and we need to approve it to give staff correction for the future thank you okay thank you Councilmember Vihrachoff any additional discussion council you froze again mark sorry okay i can't tell if he's trying to any other discussion oh [2:02:45] Councilmember Dave Pemble: Councilmember Pemble yeah i won't take a long time because you guys have already heard enough of my hybrid stories because i had one and it was a very positive experience so i do have to share a couple of points just that i heard made earlier and the charging station a station is not required as far as i know i don't know about a mitsubishi outlander but my car plugged into the wall of my garage so i had a 110 charger that came with my car and i plugged it into the wall at night and we ran it on off hours so that it was charging when the energy rates were at the lowest rate of the day and um so it didn't really have any cost the interesting thing about a hybrid though and i i googled this mitsubishi vehicle a hybrid goes about 22 miles on an electric charge so the charge that you charge overnight for that vehicle goes about 22 miles and then it will switch to the gas engine when needed so i know there are full electrics and there are hybrids but i believe i'm not sure if this one this one looked like it was a hybrid um so there is some energy savings but it is it still has both a gas and electric engine in it and it switches between the two mechanisms as you drive it now i had a ford fusion so i wasn't driving an suv but i can see from my understanding and and my husband's experience in public safety this that how much they outfit these vehicles for these specific jobs and and this is kind of going back to Councilmember Lawrence's point there is a lot of energy drained from the battery running lights running sirens running laptops running all the equipment necessary inside those vehicles so i just want to default to the person who knows best the person who's going to be using the vehicle i think we need to defer to chief and and acknowledge that we all have some room to educate ourselves and grow in this area and start applying the study to the vehicles that we're using as a city but i just i understand his point because there is a lot of of uh power drainage on a vehicle that's outfitted for public service public safety vehicles they just are so i would with that i would make a motion to approve the recommendations from dan wietecha that came from staff and i would motion to approve [2:05:15] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: second thank you Councilmember Pemble thank you Councilmember Lawrence as a second additional discussion council Councilmember Leifeld thank you just to chime in i absolutely agree with Councilmember Haus in regards to um i feel like there was a piece lost here because we were in an interim of changing um changing the guard as it may at the at the fire department this is definitely something that i think we're already behind we've seen this happen and um things here within you know the city when it comes to you know wanting to sit and wait you know it's we want to sit and wait and get more information we want to wait for prices to go down we want to wait until there's more data and we we saw that um primarily with the um solar you know so i feel like we're always just a few steps behind um i'm not sure what the protocol is for tonight with us coming before us i do believe that this is something that we need to look at as a city going forward which is i think what was said previously that this would be something that we would look at going forward where reasonable we would start making these changes and i'm not sure if if this is the spot at which we say hey wait a minute we we should have done that or can we say all right you guys let's start doing this let's make sure this is on our radar and um i i feel that that would be my direction right now would be that we approve as everyone had indicated i always like to err on the side of caution and let the experts um you know tell me what is best and then we talk it through but i do agree strongly with Councilmember Haus in that this is something where we don't want to be you know too far behind the process you know when we can make a difference now and you know save our city money in the long run um but i'm not just not sure that tonight is the night for us to say hey we missed it what do we do thank your honor thank you [2:07:35] Councilmember Tim Lawrence: Councilmember Leifeld Councilmember Lawrence yeah just real quickly i i want to be clear i'm not going to speak for everybody but i kind of get the sense that we're maybe on the same page a little bit this just specifically isn't a very good example of of converting to an electric vehicle that's my opinion now i get Councilmember Haus point um which is if not now it's just the kick in the can kind of thing so i i think um dan has heard some of the um interest from from some of the council members to to perhaps look at this a little closer for future opportunities but this particular vehicle just isn't isn't it and so that was the sentiment that i was trying to convey thank you Councilmember Lawrence and i concur with everyone i just think this vehicle needs to be strong and i i'd be leery of if it is out into the country roads and everything [2:08:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender: that it doesn't have the stability that an electric vehicle would so i i agree i think we should move forward with these electric vehicles especially for our maybe our streets or public safety or not public safety i'm sorry but public works and a few of the others cars that we're going to be looking at replacing in the near future i also wish that Councilmember Haus will you pass that webinar on to us so if we have the opportunity we can start educating ourselves and watch that webinar sure sure yeah i can't do that yeah it's meant for staff though um but it's not like a policy level it's more like okay staff this is how you go about buying actual cars but okay or if any other opportunities come up that you see that we'd be interested in in educating ourselves that'd be great so there is a motion on the floor discussion any additional discussion clerk flattened please call the roll [2:09:50] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. [2:10:08] Mayor Mary Fasbender: and that motion prevails dan thanks staff for their diligence in that and um it'll be good to see uh some of these things checked off of our lists uh council any announcements okay i have just a couple uh thursday january 21st 6 30 there's a public safety advisory commission meeting monday january 25th there is a planning commission meeting and monday february 1st is a city council meeting at 7 pm i would accept an emotion to approve i'm sorry approve a motion to uh adjourn i'm sorry [2:10:45] Councilmember Tim Lawrence: Councilmember Lawrence move. [2:10:54] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: second council Councilmember Vihrachoff no discussion clerk flattened please call the roll [2:11:00] Clerk Julie Flaten: Councilmember Vihrachoff? Yes. Councilmember Haus? Yes. Councilmember Beck? Yes. Councilmember Leifeld? Yes. Councilmember Lawrence? Yes. Councilmember Pemble? Yes. Mayor Fasbender? Yes. we are adjourned thanks everyone