**[0:00] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** welcome and please stand for the pledge of allegiance our flag is gone excuse me they clean the carpet okay i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all **[0:36] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay let the roll reflect that council member layfelt is absent and all council members other council members are present and a quorum has been established tonight we will be reading the proclamation for black history month and mr councilmember vaughn if you would start please **[0:52] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** sure whereas black history month is celebrated to raise awareness of african-american accomplishments and contributions to our society and whereas african-americans are part of minnesota's story from before it was a territory to the present and whereas george daniels was an enslaved amer african-american man who freed himself during the civil war by crossing battle lines to join union troops in the **[1:21] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** process he and beverit brigadier general leduc became acquainted and built a strong trusting relationship daniel's moved to hastings where he lived and worked along leduc married at chloe hudson and started a family and whereas the story of george and chloe daniels is not unique and represents other african-american families that found their way to the hastings area following the civil war and whereas in the early 1890s the curry and wallace families organized other african-american community members to establish brown's chapel african methodist episcopal church which served as the center of religious **[2:08] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** and social activities for african americans in the area from 1892 to 1907 and whereas recent census data showed the number of african-american residents in hastings has increased by 51.2 percent in the past decade hastings continues to strive for racial equity to provide a healthy community for all and the city council has made diversity equity and inclusion an important initiative among its strategic priorities and whereas the importance of observing black history month in the city of hastings is to acknowledge recognize and welcome people of african descent and their contributions to the city of hastings while simultaneously recognizing the injustices they have **[2:55] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** endured now there for be it resolved that i mary fassbender mayor of the city of hastings minnesota and the hastings city council hereby proclaim february 22nd 2022 as black history month in hastings minnesota thank you all tonight we have new employment introductions and hastings we are very fortunate to have these employees and dedicated to our community so tonight we will introduce several new hires and chief will you be starting **[3:50] Police Chief Kyle Linscheid:** thank you mayor council members tonight i'm extremely pleased to welcome our newest staff members to the hastings police department stephanie taylor george anne freeman den and matthew green who started with the police department in january stephanie i'll just have them stand is that all right how would you like that stephanie taylor is our newest full-time police receptionist stephanie was selected from over 160 applicants for the position she resides in hastings with her two sons justin and brandon who are here with her tonight she was formerly formerly a 911 operator for the university of minnesota a ups customer service center supervisor and a food service associate **[4:35] Police Chief Kyle Linscheid:** stephanie has brought a new life of laughter and fun to our front office there's not a day that goes by i almost have to close my door i'm on the opposite end of the building because they're they're laughing and having such a good time so uh that's i shared with council at our workshop of the morale the high morale that we have in our agency and and the great employees that we have so we continue to build on that with with hiring stephanie our next next employee is george anne freeman den is one of our newest police officers she was hired last month as well george ann is a hastings resident and she was previously she previously worked **[5:20] Police Chief Kyle Linscheid:** as a crime prevention specialist with the savage police department and we talked about how we like to we like laterals we like to steal people from other departments she was a prime example she was also a former hastings police reserve so we're extremely proud of that george anne brings a bachelor's degree from the university of minnesota in sociology of law criminology and deviance and obtained her law enforcement skills certificate uh with rason college in 2021 i think is an interesting story i like to share about georgian and she has when she interviewed she told us that she had planned her life out including raising a family and everything in her college degree she had timed it all out just so **[6:07] Police Chief Kyle Linscheid:** she could be in a position to become a hastings police officer so i think that speaks volumes once again for the quality and committed employees that we that we hire here second is matthew green he's our latest hire he worked as a public safety officer and interim sergeant for the university of st thomas he formerly served as a store company manager for walmart and other sales associate positions for over 10 years so he is a second generation hire coming out of the private sector and and wanting to give law enforcement a try and we're extremely proud to have him matt graduated from winona state university in human resources and business manager management in 2020 **[6:54] Police Chief Kyle Linscheid:** completed his law enforcement certificate from century college and finished his skills at hennepin technical college in 2021 and uh as i mentioned i'm a winona boy he's a one owner boy so uh hopefully you get as good of get out of him what you got out of me if you're satisfied with it if not i didn't i don't take credit for it so but interesting story my college roommate from winona who went on to be a deputy sheriff in winona him and his wife and uh he was raised right up the road from them so small world so once again i want to recognize them and i welcome them to the city of hastings i wish them a long a long and illustrious career here i'm proud to have them thank you [Applause] **[7:42] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** and ryan stampski is here with us tonight from public works **[7:51] Public Works Director Ryan Stempski:** thank you mayor tonight our new hire in the public works of our department is bowl shooti if bo could stand up beau's story is kind of interesting he came to us originally as a consultant this summer we needed some overflow help and so he came in from wsb an engineering consultant helped us out brought in high level expertise all the staff liked him and he came into my office a few times and and wanted to learn the staff of hastings he wanted to learn the policy of hastings he kind of was ribbing me a little bit as a position ever going to open up and at the time the answer was no but um beau kept doing a good job and as fate would have it we did open up a position **[8:37] Public Works Director Ryan Stempski:** beau applied he rose to the top and we couldn't be happier to have him here so kind of a kind of an interest interesting start it makes me feel like he's been here a little bit longer than he actually has so a little bit on the details there beau did actually start as a full-time employee on december 15th of last year with the city of hastings as an engineering technician in our department he brings with them four years working on municipal design and construction services so four years of experience of doing exactly what what we need him to do here in hastings bull grew up in cannon falls where he attended eventually attended dakota county **[9:24] Public Works Director Ryan Stempski:** technical college where he received his degree in civil engineering technology now beau is also a local hastings resident where he lives with his wife maddie and his two kids noah and ella so beau is excited to now serve in the community and where he calls home which is which is fun for him and in the community beau is an avid outdoorsman you can off when he's outside of work he's an avid outdoorsman where you can often times find him fishing along the rivers in hastings maybe he'll have to give me a tip one of these days or you might find them hunting waterfall across the state of minnesota **[10:12] Public Works Director Ryan Stempski:** but one thing i did remember from checking references on bull one of his supervisors told me beau is like a rising tide he brings which means that he brings people up around him so with his attitude and his hard work that really stuck with me and and so far beau has really lived up to that in our department which which is really exciting for us boa is not shy so when he's around please stop by say hi when you see him out and about he's asked a lot of questions in the department which just shows his passion for learning and and growing um in the department and one of the qualities i like most about bo is he's got a high care factor that's that's a very important quality **[10:57] Public Works Director Ryan Stempski:** in an employee so we're excited to have them and welcome bo thank you welcome council if we could step forward for a photo with the new hires **[11:25] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** welcome congratulations [Music] all right thank you thank you so much [Music] okay very exciting for our staff to grow and um to have new members in our community as well council members are there any corrections to the minutes from the workshop or the regular meeting on january 18th seeing none they are approved tonight we have comments from the audience for public comments we have options for comments to be mailed prior to the meeting as well as interactive feature during the meeting for the email comments they have been forwarded to the city council and their receipt is acknowledged please recognize that items not on the agenda will not be discussed this evening for live comments they may be either through zoom link or in person we ask that attendees **[13:29] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** raise their hand in person or raise use the raised hand feature in zoom and they will be invited to speak one at a time i would also remind everyone that the public comment period is not intended for extended dialogue is there anyone who would like to address the council at this time on zoom no okay and i see none in the audience okay council items to be considered council is there are there any items to be considered okay and council i would accept a motion to accept i'm to approve the consent agenda **[14:16] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** So moved. **[14:18] Councilmember Jen Braucks:** Second. **[14:20] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** any discussion council okay all those in favor of the motion state by saying i i opposed to the motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails tonight we have with us john hinsman and he will be doing a couple public hearings the first one will be for the annexation for the best development and um with a potential action by city council welcome john **[14:40] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** thank you mayor city council members tonight is a scheduled continuation of the public hearing we opened up at the last meeting pertaining to the ordinance for annexation for best development properties what we're looking at here is about 71 acres located on highway 316 and michael avenue roughly this parcel here we opened up the public hearing at the last meeting and tabled we continued the public hearing and tabled the action on the ordinance amendment at that time we were in a situation in which a development agreement for the property had been cancelled and the concept plan would in which we were we were looking at development was no longer in place so we wanted to table any action until we had more certainty on the property so that we had a situation in which we had a developer on board and we had a concept plan that people could review prior to annexation of the property at this time we're no closer unfortunately we do not have a developer on place and by we i should say the private property owner the property is owned privately the city is not involved in the **[15:46] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** ownership of it but as a portion of annexation our practice has been to have an agreement for annexation a development agreement between a property owner and a developer and a plan that we've reviewed prior to considering the annexation in since we don't have those items at this time what i'm suggesting is that we continue open the public hearing take any additional comments tonight close the public hearing at this time and table action on the order orderly annexation or the annexation for ordinance for annexation excuse me and we would bring that back forward when a plan for development and then developer comes forward prior to that occurring we would provide notification to the surrounding property similar to **[16:32] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** what we did in the in the beginning here so that people are aware of what's going on and and may be able to provide additional comment but at this point not take any action until uh we have more clarification uh we did get a letter from the owner of the property that has waived the 60-day review requirement so we do have an open clock on this one so at this point you can open up the public hearing or i should say continue the public hearing take any comment and our recommendation to staff is that you close the public hearing and then table action on the annexation ordinance and i can stand for any questions thank you **[17:10] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you john at this time i'll open the public hearing is there anyone who would wish to speak to the annexation please step forward i see no one on zoom anyone like to speak to the annexation please step forward at this time i will close the public hearing council discussion **[17:35] Councilmember Tina Folch:** your honor i'd like to make a motion to table but annexation until uh developers uh found for this lot **[17:42] Councilmember Jen Braucks:** Second. **[17:43] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you councilmember folch and second by council member braucks there's no discussion so all those in favor of the motion state by saying i i those opposed to the motion state by saying nay okay that motion prevails thank you john you may continue with the next public hearing for the city code chapter 34 building department fees **[18:04] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** thank you mayor city council members as the mayor pointed out we have an ordinance amendment relating to fees we've gone through a bunch of fees at the end of last year did want to take some time to go through some of the building permit fees separately since there were some more changes in it bottom line is the the changes that we're proposing in the building fees are not terribly substantive but there are a few of them that i wanted to go through and make sure that there wasn't any questions for council so when you look at it in general what we're doing here is we're including some fees that historically have been charged but have not been within the chapter 34 ordinance of the city code this includes the building building the permit valuation table state church charge computation and plan review fees these are fees that we've **[18:49] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** continually charged for many years but they weren't codified so we're we're putting them into the ordinance similar to what we've charged in the past the only difference is that is raising that minimum valuation fee from 29.50 to 50 and that would be the only change there we're also eliminating some fee categories as we look at our building codes separate fees for in-ground swimming pools retaining walls and patio doors have been eliminated the swimming pool work will be based on permit valuation and the patio doors will be charged with other doors and windows so still be a charge for it but we're not calling it out separately as we have today we're also simplifying some of the permit fees for plumbing there was a large table with different fee evaluations we are going to a a straight **[19:35] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** fee on that one also doing the same thing with fire sprinkler alarm system system fees those will all be 100 at a base fee and then the fire suppression hood installation going up 25 so the bottom line is the the impact on these fees is fairly negligible not not terribly large in any one category but wanted to make sure that the council was aware of the fees and be able to answer any questions that you may have this is a public hearing you can open it up at this time or i can stand for any questions thanks **[20:10] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you john at this time i'll open the public hearing anyone wish to speak to the fees the building department fees any unzoom no one on zoom one more time anyone wishing to speak to the fee structure increase seeing no one i will close the public clearing and open the discussion for council any discussion counsel if no discussion then i would ask for a look for a motion to approved and adapt an ordinance of the city of hastings minnesota amending city code section 34.03 **[20:50] Councilmember Jen Fox:** So moved. **[20:52] Councilmember Tina Folch:** Second. **[20:53] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** any new discussion counsel all those in favor state by saying aye aye opposed to the motion state by saying no me and that motion prevails and we have a third public hearing for city code chapter 70 the microability vehicles john you may continue **[21:20] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** right thank you mayor city council member the first question council may have is what is a micro mobility vehicle this is essentially small vehicles electric bicycles electric scooters what we're doing with the city code is we're establishing regulations primarily for the operation of private rental facilities within the public right-of-way itself and so this this is a new portion of our chapter a chapter of our code it's in response to a request that we had from bird rides which is a a rental scooter operation that operates throughout the country they operate minneapolis and st paul what they do is they offer scooters on a on a per minute basis so you come in with an app zap your card you can rent a scooter the scooter is is generally within the public right-of-way they may **[22:10] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** be parked at a central location but it's not rented from a store the bird store it's it's in within the public right-of-way generally because these items are within the public right-of-way uh we wanted to ensure that we had regulations in place we're very hopeful that uh operations can operate in such a way that they will not pose any sort of any sort of nuisance or violations on anything but wanted to ensure that we had stipulations in place so what this does is puts those regulations in place it also puts into a licensing requirement for those that operate private rental businesses in which the rental occurs within the public right-of-way that's a it's a key distinction there so if you're operating an electric rental say an electric bike rental facility and you have a **[22:56] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** storefront location this is not applicable this is only applicable for those that are operating these type of micro mobility vehicles in which those vehicles are rented and left within public rights of way not at a central private location so that is a a key distinction there we have a couple of things to note as far as the fees go this will require an annual 500 license and then a 50 per vehicle charge for this would also be a separate license agreement that we would approve by the city council we have a draft by the city attorney that we will be working on there's also established of an impound p impound fee provision that would have a fifty dollar initial impound fee and twenty dollars per day after that so we've hoped to take into consideration **[23:43] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** various items to watch out for looking at this to be operating in such a way that it would be pleasurable for folks and be a great benefit to the city but not be a detriment in any way looking at the micro mobility fees and the ordinance we were able to look at other cities uh new album duluth and a few others in drafting this ordinance so again this is the micro mobility ordinance you can open the public hearing at this time or i could stand for any questions thank you **[24:12] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you john at this time i will open the public hearing on microbial ability i'm sorry vehicles an establishing fee for microbiality sharing thank you sorry um anyone on zoom okay no one in the audience at this time i will close the public hearing counsel any discussion **[24:45] Councilmember Jen Fox:** your honor i'm very excited about this opportunity and i think after all of the conversations we've had as council about tourism and the importance of it this is just one more step to make that possible and i'd like to make a motion to adopt the the amendment to the city code chapter 70.09 **[25:05] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** Second. **[25:06] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay thank you councilmember fox councilmember vaughan second any new disc council member braucks **[25:15] Councilmember Jen Braucks:** this is a little bit more in the public safety arena john so i'm sorry if you don't have this information in front of you but whose responsibility or liability is it that the person who's operating these vehicles is licensed or is the appropriate age to be operating the vehicles because i understand with this action we're we're licensing the operator but whose responsibility will it be for the people who are using it that they're the appropriate age and all those kind of details will that be our responsibility or would that be their responsibility **[25:46] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** the council member would ultimately be the the person we would license the the operator of the business there i know we when we've asked that question of bird in particular uh what they've stated is that within their application there is a portion in which you have to testify that you're of a certain age and that you are going to abide by by rules so there is a disclaimer statement that one who operates a scooter for bird would have to sign so that would is what would happen in that particular instance but in a general application it is going to be the licensee's responsibility not ours **[26:35] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** any other discussion council member folch **[26:46] Councilmember Tina Folch:** thank you your honor i've traveled to big cities in the past that have had you know these kinds of services available and it is nice you know to be able to zip about quickly but um you know i've also seen it where they're just littered all over sidewalks and you're practically tripping over them and and so um how are we envisioning um this going to roll out are they going to have like a like a bike rack of scooters so to speak you know an area designated for the scooters to be left or is this like i've seen in other cities where they can just leave them wherever they're left on the sidewalks for the next person to grab **[27:21] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** sure council member be a couple of things uh there's provisions under the ordinance which prohibit the placement of scooters in such a way that they're going to be in the way or uh impeding passage within the sidewalk areas we have that in there now from a practical standpoint who's going to enforce that from talking to the bird in particular uh they have something in their application in which you have to take a picture of the of the scooter in its location to ensure that it's it is where it's supposed to be so that that'll be nice in that particular instance on it to have that follow-up as far as downtown downtown's going to be an attraction for this most definitely there's there's already prohibitions within the riding of these vehicles within downtown sidewalks bird in particular has an application in which they can geofence areas out that will not which you cannot allow scooters to be ridden in so if you're riding down sibley street you get downtown poop it's a stop at that point and you can't wide of the sidewalk anymore so we have those provisions in place so that we can hopefully negate that in the downtown area as far as you know hubs if there's going to be particular hubs that they wish to place scooters at that we're going to have to be able to negotiate that through the agreement **[28:45] Councilmember Tina Folch:** okay so what i heard you say is that you're very cognizant of the nuisance problems that these scooters can cause and so you did yes okay thank you for working on that then john **[28:56] Community Development Director John Hinzman:** sure thank you councilmember **[28:57] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** any other discussion if not all those in favor of the motion state by saying aye aye opposed to the motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails thanks john thank you tonight under administration we we will affirm the continuation of employee vaccination incentive and dan wietecha will **[29:20] City Administrator Dan Wietecha:** thank you mayor this is on the agenda really is a matter of avoiding potential confusion if you recall back about a month ago early january osha had a regulation in place dealing with larger employers including hastings needing to require either employee vaccination or weekly testing requirements we started taking steps towards that shortly thereafter the supreme court stayed that and osha later withdrew uh that that ets uh and as soon as that happened we hit the brakes and said we're not uh proceeding with with with that it's it's no longer requirement under the law but where there's potentially some confusion is at the same time that we adopted that policy we also included a vaccination incentive we said it makes for a safer workplace it'll reduce absenteeism um in that case it would have reduced the the expenses related with weekly testing so we we put in place a uh an incentive for employees to get vaccinated and report that vaccination status to the city it was two parts one being a for most regular employees a wellness day give them a paid day off sometime during the next year for paid on call firefighters or some of our seasonal positions they don't work quite the same regular schedule but are still employees and and have that same uh benefit for us to to know that they're safe and and healthy we we had a cash stipend as an alternative to that wellness day because they don't really work a regular schedule anyways that incentive was not part of the osha ets it was not part of those federal requirements it was separate from that believe that it's still separate from that in our policy i believe that there's still an ins a value for us to provide that incentive safe workplace reducing the potential for absences but recognize that it's also potentially a gray area or could have some confusion we've had a number of employees ask us about it so obviously there is some question and recommend that council affirm that this is still policy the wellness day the the stipends would continue as an incentive did put a time limit on in this case through the end of june that matches up with our emergency paid our emergency sick leave policy but with that i can certainly take any questions thank you **[32:10] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you dan any discussion council okay no discussion i'd ex oh councilmember folch **[32:15] Councilmember Tina Folch:** um thank you your honor um i i would just like to confirm that i i think that there is value in it as well um just in case regulations change also in the future so that um the city has you know a better understanding of how many employees are vaccinated or or not and then because one of the things that we were struggling with what with what with the required testing was how many employees were going to be impacted by that and what was the potential cost that was going to be involved in having to test employees weekly so i think that there is still value in that and something i just wanted to add i thought it was interesting i was listening in on a conversation with other representatives from cities and the city of rochester has a program similar in ours where they have the emergency leave um bank replenished as as we did and their nuance was though that for city staff to take advantage of that additional pool of vacation um or leave if they became sick um or needed to stay home with you know a loved one as well who had been i'm exposed to covid um was that they had to prove that they had been vaccinated for them to be able to be a part of that program as an incentive also instead of penalizing staff then they were trying to provide a carrot for for staff and so um i think it makes sense to stay the course for now but if we're looking at continuing uh that program at the end of june that perhaps we revisit and look at other incentives that we could be providing to staff thanks **[34:10] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** i think comes to member folch any other discussion council i would accept a motion affirming the continuation of the employee vaccination incentive through june 30th 2022 **[34:25] Councilmember Jen Fox:** So moved. **[34:26] Councilmember Tina Folch:** Second. **[34:28] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** any new discussion council all those in favor of the motion state by saying aye aye opposed to the motion say by saying nay and that motion prevails dan you may continue with the compensation and classification study a we will have agreement for service b budget amendment and c a resolution amending resolution 122307 of the city of hastings establishing criteria for compensation **[35:10] City Administrator Dan Wietecha:** thank you mayor as you pointed out there are several parts packed in here they all work together as a package and this topic or parts of this topic have been talked about for several months referred to the administration committee which has had a couple of conversations as well as conversations and budgeting here at city council one of the pieces is working with a consultant to do the compensation classification study just in the first place we this past fall in november put out a request for proposals we had six responses based on experience timeliness and cost we interviewed three of those i had some reference checks and follow-up questions our recommendation is to work with abdo and their materials are in your packet the second item aside from the contract is a budget amendment we initially budgeted or in the 2022 budget we budgeted 20 thousand dollars that was based off of talking with a consultant and another city about their recent experience and what costs were uh the actual cost uh with abdo came in a little bit over that so looking at a fifty two hundred dollar amendment a couple pieces i would point out uh that are different than what we might have expected coming into the the rfp one is adding a procedure um some instruction to how would we insert a new position or a reorganized position into the the wage structure so if at the end of the comp study here's how 80 different positions rank and compare to each other and a year later we decide we need a new city employee not just an employee but a new position or we need to change fundamentally change an existing position and give it different responsibilities making sure that we can continue to use this study beyond the the immediate year so having some instruction on how to the procedures for inserting a new or reorganized a reorganized position into into the system a second piece that i think is vitally important but not quite what we expected when we were doing the rfp proposing using we expected current data so 2022 wage data but that's not going to be available until may so where earlier we were thinking this might be wrapped up in april or early may that the meat of it is is really going to be a little bit delayed still figure on finishing up around late july or late june and in place by july but particularly with the the current wage market out there and a lot of uh changes in the the the labor market uh wanting the most up-to-date data rather than stuff that's a year old uh and then trying to project it forward the other piece which i'm sure you'll recall we had some discussion uh in december was adding a review of city council wages also so a few items that that play into that budget amendment it's a little bit different than what we were expecting going into it it's still a reasonable price the recommended vendor the recommended consultant abdo although he certainly looked at the the wage or the the cost it was not the deciding factor really we're looking at experience and timeliness their responsiveness overall the third item in the the packet is the resolution or amendment of a resolution from 2007. back then the city council said when we compare ourselves and our wages we should compare ourselves to similar cities and defined that as cities of 15 to 35 000 population we're about in the middle of that and within the seven county metro so a matter of hearing the the twin cities in the metro area levels of service or types of services are probably different than they might be out state so just trying to recognize sim compare ourselves to as much as we can similar communities the administration committee in its discussion said um that's a fine as a base definition but recommend that we add four additional cities uh because geographically they're our neighbors they're right next door uh cottage grove is just over the 35 000 population but they're right next door looking south red wing and northfield are within that population bracket but they're just outside the seven counties and they might be outside you know a distance from minneapolis but they're close to us so recommended including them also recommended including cannon falls as a neighbor it's both outside the population range and outside the seven counties but adding those four so that's the amendments to that 2007 resolution is those recommendations to add those other four cities the other piece that's added to the resolution is the language in the original said average which i would typically take to be the mean which basically you add them all up and divide by the the number which i i do believe in certain instances is very reasonable in this case the recommendation is to make it the median which if there's 20 comparisons it looks at 10 below and 10 above and it picks that the one that's in the middle which with potentially variation among the cities becomes more important instead of having a city that may be overly rich or overly stingy really changing the the average you know they're just one side of the line you know above or below so it takes out that that influence of those out those further out ones that that aren't grouped in the middle those are the three parts to the recommendation the other piece that i really want to emphasize and we'll be talking about this assuming this is a path past this evening we'll be talking about this at an upcoming management team meeting but the importance of communication around this this affects every one of our employees so we're going to want to make sure that we're keeping them up to date on it you know from day one here's what's coming here's why here's what to expect here's the next step here's who to ask questions of um but also a matter of emphasizing that this study is looking at positions it's not looking at individuals in a position and i know that in any employee might have a tough time with that at times um because in the end it's talking about their paycheck but really we're looking at and looking at a couple of employees out here i'm not picking on any anybody particularly using them as representative positions we're comparing police officers we're comparing engineers public works operators we're not looking at the individuals in those positions so really want to make sure that that's part of our communications approach to it also that it's not about the individual as much as we appreciate our employees this really is trying to set up the right pay structure with that i know there's a lot of material here i glossed over some of it because it's been discussed for several months off and on if i can stand for any questions please thank you **[44:18] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** dan counseling discuss council member vaughan **[44:26] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** thank your honor dan you may have answered some of these but i want to confirm them the study you had said all employees this study is only looking at full-time employees not seasonals or paid on call correct **[44:40] City Administrator Dan Wietecha:** that's correct it may be something we could inquire into but it's beyond the scope of the rfp **[44:45] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** and then with that scope so all union positions will get looked at as part of that scope but if they're in a union contract do we revisit those contracts or do we wait until does it get implemented in their next contract or is that an internal discussion still to happen **[45:00] City Administrator Dan Wietecha:** both my intent would be um let's say this wraps up in june my intent would be uh that we sit down with those unions and say hey can we reopen the contract midterm and make an adjustment here in june july we've negotiated four of the five contracts over the past few months and that's been a recurring refrain from me because every one of them has said look at our neighbors we should give a raise compared to that and i've held off saying we need to do the study i don't want to just look at a single neighbor really want to work the process so i i at least have made a commitment that intend to be doing this and that certainly played into the the negotiations with them and the trust relationship with them with two of the unions both the police unions actually we actually put in the contract don't know what it means but we put we will begin implementing the wage study or the the results of the wage study no later than july 1st of 2022. what begin means but but there was actually an explicit commitment in those two contracts that we would start doing something but i would carry it through all five of them **[46:12] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** thank you and my final confirmation is at times we've discussed council stipends is that included in this study or is that is this company going to look at that **[46:21] City Administrator Dan Wietecha:** yes they would **[46:22] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** got it i just want to make a clarifying point because if anybody read one of our local papers um that that was an editorial but that wasn't true i mean the fact that we just got this proved today that we did not give ourselves raises we don't get to do that anyways without it being implemented down the line i think the community needs to know especially the vote that i made we rejected five employees for this reason that was one of the reasons why i did it this is an outside view looking at all of our positions at the same time and i think our city administrator is saying it this is going to be a difficult thing to implement because it's got people's names to it but we're trying not to use the names we're using a position so i i i cheer on staff it's going to be it's going to be a challenge to implement it but i think it's the right thing to do for the community i think these employees deserve it and i'm glad we're taking them all at the same time and and move up what needs to be moved up we need to be competitive with the neighbors so i'm glad we're doing i think this is the right time and i like the time frame that we can implement this too so thank you **[47:24] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you councilmember councilmember folch **[47:26] Councilmember Tina Folch:** thank you your honor um dan i had a question in regards to what you were just saying about um the median uh using the median and i was looking at here in the write-up how you it says the city's policy from 20 2007 is to be base the wage scale on the average paid by cities um populations 15 000 and 35 000 within the seven county metro area and so um i i think that we should revisit that as well i agree with you about looking at the median but for us to have further policy conversation about do we do we just want to be shooting for 50 or do we want to be competitive um you know i think that it's interesting cities do this where they look at each other you know comparatively and and everyone says that you know our employees are our greatest asset their greatest resource but we're just gonna shoot to pay them you know the median or the average um and and so how does that factor in into competitiveness and so i i would like to see us have further conversation about that i i understand why they're looking at what the median salary would be but do we want to do better than just being the median in retaining and attracting new employees we have heard so much conversation we as the council have heard so much conversation in the last couple months from our fire department from our police chief just today about how important it is to attract new employees the fire chief shared with how truly dismal the situation is with keeping on their full-time employees right now they're way understaffed it's just incredible they are begging for resources to be able to bring on more staff because they're afraid that we're going to continue to lose the existing staff and so and then just today our chief schieffer shared with us that morale is high in the police department but they're very worried uh it's extremely competitive right now within the across uh the the law enforcement profession um and uh we're super fortunate that we're able to still uh attract staff but there are very competitive packages that are being given out by other police agencies at this point to try to attract law enforcement personnel and so i mean something for us to you know consider is you know and this is why i'm bringing it up and we've just heard our chiefs begging us for resources and for assistance and bringing on more personnel and keeping their personnel and so um i think that we do need to have more conversation about do we just want to be average or do we want to step up and help them in attracting great staff but also retaining staff so that they're not going elsewhere so those are my thoughts thanks **[50:40] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you councilmember folch did you want to speak to that dan or no okay any other discussion council i would be looking for a motion approving number one the agreement for services with abdo to the 2022 budget amendment of 5200 and three a resolution amending resolution 12 23 0 7 establishing criteria for compensation **[51:15] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** So moved. **[51:17] Councilmember Jen Braucks:** Second. **[51:18] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** additional discussion council **[51:22] Councilmember Tina Folch:** clarification point then i guess this is a question for dan then are we setting then our standard at this very moment or can we have further conversation about policy and what it is that we're going to shoot for in the recommendations moving forward are we just going for median i mean again i mean to the point that i was just saying for employee retention and recruitment efforts **[51:48] City Administrator Dan Wietecha:** i'm going to straddle the fence here i i think both the resolution does say median i i would also very much believe that as the study is completed late spring early summer and we look at how do we implement it that question could certainly come up again in terms of is media and what we want or 60 or some other figure right it won't change the the scale of the study if for a position if we look at a dozen neighboring communities and they pay anywhere from fifty thousand to sixty thousand that range those dozen communities are still gonna be fifty thousand to sixty thousand so whether we take the halfway point or the sixty percent point that that they'll still be the same set of data so i think it is something that can come up later this this late spring but you're right median is the term that's in the resolution tonight **[53:08] Councilmember Tina Folch:** okay i'm i'm gonna support it for now but i would hope you know in because i mean to honor the please that we have just heard from again police chief and the fire chief that we have further conversation about this so that we can be a resource to them thanks **[53:22] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you councilmember folch there is a motion in a second all those in favor of the motion state by saying aye aye opposed to the motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails thank you council members and the announcements **[53:40] Councilmember Tina Folch:** i think you're your honor um i just wanted it's more of a concern than an announcement it was uh it was within the local paper the the journal their edition from last week that there was the minnesota pollution control agency was fining art and mills in regards to a violation in regard from some equipment upgrades that took place in 2020 and so the fine finding was in february of 2021 and they're now um implementing the fine um because of lack of from what i was reading it seemed uh not coming into compliance perhaps with the mpca regulations and so um so in november of uh 2020 i had brought up to staff that i was receiving you know complaints from neighbors of mine i live on tyler street up by the mill and um and i had to concur that it had become very very loud at the at the mill and then particularly after the leaves fell he could hear it even more so that there was this really awful constant uh ringing that was coming out of the the mill and so um so that was in november of 2020 that i contacted art mills manager and city staff and and so finally staff had asked that we uh put in complaints to the mpca about the noise violation and and so over the last several months i have continued to follow up with mpca staff asking for them if they're going to do the readings for the noise and they did finally do a compliance check and the the person that the staff person that i had spoken to said that um the reading that they had taken during the day was actually louder it was higher than what the evening um an evening reading would be allowable and so they were following up with um with them to find out what a course of action would be for a correction and so i'm just because you know if if there's multiple violations that are coming out from the mpca i would like to ask for staff to again to follow up directly and have on discussions with the mpca staff in regards to the noise violation and to find out what you know corrective actions are going to be taking place because i can't tell you how many sleepless nights i've personally had because of the noise at the mill in the evening and when i moved in there six years ago it was very peaceful very quiet in the evening and there were no problems and so it's been quite the disruption i've even had a resident out on sixth street west call me upset about how she couldn't sleep this last summer because the mill was so loud and so um i just feel like i you know enough is enough if those uh if those equipment upgrades were done a year and a half ago and they're aware that they have multiple issues with it that that the mill began to take corrective action to ensure not only are our residents not encounter encountering um conditions of you know air pollution or how whatever particles are being emitted by the mill into the into the air and then having to suffer um through noise violations as well so thank you **[57:15] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you councilmember folch wanted to reply to that no not the rebuttal **[57:18] City Administrator Dan Wietecha:** thank you mayor thank you councilmember um yeah if you could pass on that contact or what correspondence you had with the pca be helpful and staff be happy to reach out and get some clarification and coordinate with them where we can thank you **[57:33] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** any other announcements from council i have a few ice fishing adventures at lake rebecca saturday february 12th bait tackle and instruction are provided attendees can fish without a fishing license during this event this event is a partnership with carpenter nature center hometown ace hardware get the let out rapala vexilar and the national park service free of charge but registration is required and time slots are limited local love is in downtown hastings celebrate the season of love on saturday february 12th with a dj horse and carriage rides and ice sculptures throughout our historic downtown city offices will be closed monday february 17th in observation of president's day happy birthday goes out to council member lifevelt next week and meetings moving forward are tuesday february 8 7 p.m parks and rec commission thursday february 10th 6 pm hedra monday february 14th 7 pm planning commission tuesday february 15th 7 pm heritage preservation commission wednesday february 16 6 pm arts task force thursday february 17th 6 30 pm public safety advisory commission tuesday february 22nd is a 5 30 city council workshop and we will be getting an overview from our community development department and 7 pm council so with that council i would accept a motion to adjourn **[58:55] Councilmember Trevor Vaughan:** So moved. **[58:57] Councilmember Tina Folch:** Second. **[58:58] Mayor Mary Fasbender:** no discussion all those in favor state by saying aye aye opposed state by saying nay we are adjourned thank you all