This transcript features **Mayor Michele Hanson** presiding over the meeting, with **City Staff member Adam** (likely Adam Gabel, who served as Administrator/Finance during this period) presenting the majority of the technical data. Other speakers include Councilmembers **John Carlson**, **Connie Dahl**, and **Ethan Gilmore**, as well as various department heads. [14:11] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** to call to order the december 6 2021 bayport city council meeting please join me in the pledge of allegiance [14:23] **All:** 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 **Mayor Michele Hanson:** adam please call the rule **Adam (City Staff):** mayor hanson here councilman carlson here councilmember dahl here councilmember hanson here councilmember gilmore here all president takes us to the approval of tonight's agenda does anyone have any questions additions or changes if not would someone like to make a motion to approve **John Carlson:** i'll make a motion proving tonight's agenda **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you connie is there a second **Ethan Gilmore:** a second **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you ethan [15:08] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** opposed that takes us to our proclamations accommodations petitions and announcements and the first item is the november recycling award recipient to stuart anderson at 386 main street and he'll be awarded for his recycling efforts with a grant made possible by washington county so thank you very much mr anderson for your recycling efforts and then we have a very special announcement to make this evening and on behalf of the city council i'd like to recognize public works employee tim gardner and his announcement that after 44 years he is retiring and i'd like to thank tim for his many years of dedicated service to the city of bayport and wish him the very best in a much deserved retirement [15:55] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** tim's love for and dedication to the city of aport has been demonstrated during his many years of making sure the city's infrastructure is safe and operating properly and so tim i'm sure on behalf of all of us here we'd all like to thank you very very much for all of the years and your help throughout and wish you a very wonderful relaxing one and happy retirement you're here yeah thanks tim uh that takes us through that area of our agenda and so that we'll move to our open forum which is where we set aside 15 minutes to address topics that are not on tonight's agenda and it does not look like we have anyone here to join us this evening [16:40] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** and we do not have online so with that we'll promptly move along to our consent agenda where we will consider a resolution adopting items 1 through 13. the november 1st 2021 city council regular meeting minutes the november payables and receipts the november building plumbing mechanical and zoning permits report renewal of liquor and tobacco licenses for 2022 the city observed holidays for 2022 the pay application number one to miller excavating for the 2021 street improvement project the appointment of carl bliss to fill the vacancy on the planning commission for a term to expire december 31st 2023 replacement of the rooftop hvac unit at city hall [17:26] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** refurbishment a fire department a 2000 pierce ladder truck the retirement of public works maintenance worker tim gardner renewal of our employee health and dental insurance policies the budgeted fund transfers for 2021 and designate january 3rd 2022 as the next regular meeting of the city council does anyone have any questions comments or changes for the consent agenda if not with some like to make emotion or approve **John Carlson:** i'll move to adopt a resolution the december 6 2021 consent agenda as presented to us **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you john is there a second **Michele (Councilmember):** all second **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you michelle adam [18:12] **Adam (City Staff):** thank you very mayor consumer dahl hi councilmember hanson aye councilmember carlson aye council member gilmore aye mercenaries aye aye that takes us to our public hearing where we have the certification of past due utility bills to property taxes so adam would you present thank you madam mayor starting in 2020 there was a recent just previous to that we made some amendments to the practices at city hall regarding blank water bills as well as the ordinance uh we've always had the opportunity to assess unpaid bills but we've made it easier and hopefully for the benefit of both the [18:58] **Adam (City Staff):** resident as well as the city where it's less less playing bill collector and working working within the residents to get their bills so with that the notice was published and the letters were sent out and so tonight we do have a public hearing uh that's required statute for the assessment of those um if there aren't any payments after this assessment uh hearing then prior to our certification in the county which is due the 20 to the 28th of december but don't wait that long those will be certified any that do pay we'll remove those from tonight's list we did get a couple uh presidents contacting city today after a [19:44] **Adam (City Staff):** second letter was sent out um indicating that they would pay so they're we are expecting a couple to come up but with that i'm happy to answer questions as you can see uh mary who's been hailing mary goulette who's been handling our finance and our utility billing has been working diligently to work with the residents to reduce this this list but when we assess it they'll just be rolled over into their property taxes so there are no penalties and there's no interest these are just basically transferred to the taxes of this assessment **Mayor Michele Hanson:** very good any questions from the council **John Carlson:** i'm just curious why that is adam because we do charge some kind of a charge for other [20:31] **John Carlson:** like say though waste taller they don't pay you they get an extra charge how can we don't do that **Adam (City Staff):** it's not statutorily allowed the minnesota state statutes specifically provide a penalty administrative cost as well as interest on the service charge assessments which the unpaid waste uh falls under uh the unpaid utility charges do not have that in the state statute so okay that's why there's no additional charge **John Carlson:** so this is just water **Adam (City Staff):** just correct this is just uh that's the only utility that we water yes **Connie Dahl:** have we ever heard feedback of why our [21:16] **Connie Dahl:** is there some way that we can make this even easier so that people aren't running behind is there um **Adam (City Staff):** we've been trying to you know over the last couple of years we've been trying to try to get more information as to what uh what some of the reasons are for the delinquent payments um obviously the pandemic had a lot going on if you recall we did uh waive the late fees um the city does impose on the quarter to quarter um for 2020 um we haven't been able to really find out or determine exactly why obviously varies between residents um they're there's some that are more surprising that there's you know we [22:02] **Adam (City Staff):** actually without coming out and asking um all the residents that it's we don't want to speculate one of the things we have tried we do have uh through psn the payment services network you can pay online uh you can set it up through your bank and have that paid electronically um one of the things that we have been unfortunately not able to implement is the credit card payments um just due to staffing shortage the changes in the administration but that we hope will make it even easier um if resident wants to pay there so we are trying to find ways to make it as easy as possible do have the dropbox outside and we have the dropbox here so all right **John Carlson:** so there there's a wide variety of amounts in here you know [22:51] **John Carlson:** a couple of these are quite high relative to some of the smaller ones what kind of period of time does that represent or is it hard to say without looking back um **Adam (City Staff):** i would have a hard time speaking to any specific charge but i do know that there for the entire year um so that's the amount that's still as of now that has not been okay um we do get some that you know they'll i'm just arbitrarily making a number but if there's a 500 bill they may pay you know they'll make payments towards it so there's gonna be a remaining balance um but we we no longer threatened to disconnect the water service as we were doing uh in 2018 and earlier and there is an extra an extra amount of time for the resident to make payments **John Carlson:** in my [23:38] **John Carlson:** time on council this is kind of a housekeeping thing for every year it seems like we do this right so this sort would represent **Adam (City Staff):** this is this is the second year doing the water assessments um the water the utility charges um in previous years there we mostly did any service charges or which included the waste hauler that was the one that we did **John Carlson:** okay that's maybe what i was thinking okay thank you **Mayor Michele Hanson:** all right so with that i guess um we would open the public hearing do not see our us having any visitors here so uh with that i guess i could ask for a [24:24] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** motion to close the public hearing **Michele (Councilmember):** to close the public hearing **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you michelle is there a second **Connie Dahl:** outside okay **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you connie um and do we have we're gonna do a roll call to close it do we no okay all in favor all right opposed okay and then any more discussion by the council okay otherwise would someone like to make a motion to move forward the certification **Michele (Councilmember):** i moved to approve a certification of past due utility bills to property taxes as presented **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you michelle is there a second **Ethan Gilmore:** second **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you ethan and with that we don't all in favor [25:10] **All:** aye **Mayor Michele Hanson:** opposed okay all right we do not have any unfinished business evening so our first item of new business is to consider a labor agreement with the minnesota public employee association union for january 1st 2022 through december 31st of 2024 this includes our police chief and sergeant back to you adam [25:48] **Adam (City Staff):** thank you madam mayor members of the council this is the third and final collective bargaining agreement that the city had that expired at the end of december this year uh it's regarding the it's through the minnesota public employees association and it represented the sergeant and the police chief uh police department and it was scheduled after the patrol officers um had their uh bargaining and negotiation and after this after the council approved that last month we scheduled a meeting and we had been in discussions uh prior to that i met with the union the union rep and the union members and we had a good [26:33] **Adam (City Staff):** conversation one of the provisions that was mentioned in the memo is they have a metoo clause because it's two unions within the same department um they get anything that the patrol officers get that gets added to theirs so that was called out separately in the in the overview of the memo so there shouldn't be any surprises there just a couple high-level housekeeping items uh it's a three-year contract proposed a 10 agreement and the uh with a three percent um cola the uh one of the other items that i wanted to call out um they they didn't make a lot of new demands and obviously they had the same items [27:20] **Adam (City Staff):** from the patrol officer's contract um there were a couple clauses that were more for clarification or um it wasn't really adding anything one of those was the sick weave that what they currently after you accrue all your sick leave after 10 years you can get your own leave on good terms uh you get standing and get that paid out you get half of it paid out um what that what they proposed is to have that uh annually you if you can up to a thousand hours transferred into a health savings account um and then every year or at the fund retirement if anybody retires they can have that instead of paid out cash transfer to a health savings account uh [28:06] **Adam (City Staff):** there's tax benefits to that but there's really no difference to the city uh whether or not we actually it's uh we don't have to pay taxes either way so there's a benefit um what it also does is by allowing them to bank that in their health savings account at an annual period um the it's less of a large bulk some payment when the player retires so that actually benefits both the city and the employee it allows them to start carrying interest on that health savings account for post retirement as well as um saves us any some some earnings uh one of the other things uh that was clarified in the contract and i apologize we didn't because of the timing uh the unit was not able to give us a red line copy of the actual [28:52] **Adam (City Staff):** contract um but most as i said you with the the me too clauses provisions all that language you should it's the same as the patrol officers um so the other ones are fairly they'll be fairly simple to add but we just we're not able to have it done in time um one of the other clarifications was the severance pay under their current uh contract the death benefits capped these severance pay for sick time um and that that's capped at 55 days that's and that sounds like a lot um i can tell you that 800 hours is the 55 days times two so that [29:38] **Adam (City Staff):** 110 hours or 110 days um so this is a lot of sick time and uh both of our current members aren't really subject to that um there aren't many employees in the city who are able to get much because um someone like one of our long-term employees has been here and not used lots of time so that's more significant but most employees rarely get close to that 800 so um the other uh juneteenth holiday which was addressed in both the earlier contracts that was added as a if ratified by the legislature that will be added this one was clarified that they will be [30:23] **Adam (City Staff):** requesting it as a 13th recognized holiday um the other two did not specify that but that will be subject to the state's state legislature's action the um one of the one of the things that they clarified was that the gym membership it wasn't perfectly clear to them in the patrol officer's contract but the incentive for the gym membership reimbursement um is not contingent upon meeting the fitness incentive it's actually to help build to be able to earn the business incentive um so we we do want to encourage them to maintain healthy lifestyles but that was clarified and then one of the other [31:09] **Adam (City Staff):** items under the insurance section article 25 they've changed from the minnesota fraternal order of police legal defense plan to the national fraternal order there isn't really a cost difference there the last item under their new section or the new request was to change or to add a 250 stipend for the take-home squad um this is something that we've i've looked at some other other cities and this isn't this isn't high um right now our current uh the current contract provides for a take-home vehicle for the chief and the sergeant they do both report to city the city very frequently not every day but that's [31:55] **Adam (City Staff):** part of the expectation is that they'll be on call similar to the fire officers there's someone on call um they are able and we for the last past several years we have not been providing a take-home vehicle to the police chief um and instead of buying a new one we agreed that at the administrator's determination either the city can provide a take-home vehicle or a 250 stipend um some of the others i've seen are in the 300 range so this is less um but we uh we're not trying to buy additional vehicles just for that at this point um so it's it's actually uh much cheaper to do the stipend but it'll still depend on what's available um in our fleet at the [32:41] **Adam (City Staff):** time the and then there was a 10 increase for the chief's cell phone um i believe that is all the other different differences and the requests there were two as i pointed out the memo um two items that the union requested that uh would be brought to the city council and so those are the optional i listed them as demands but that's just the formal term for what these are um the requests uh one was to consider uh they did they said not necessarily tonight but just to bring it up again uh was using possibly some of the art funds for uh department coveted bonus pay that was one of the eligible items both in the cares act and [33:28] **Adam (City Staff):** the art fund funding as i i've talked to the union about it and it's not something that many cities there are some cities out there doing that um it's i don't want to downplay it um but we do have some obligations that we've talked about as a city um that i think the money would be best used for um that's from the administrative standpoint um the there is a cap on what amount that's eligible it's based on their pay and there's only so many so much that they can you can't just pick an arbitrary number and give it as bonus paid there's a formula for what that would be um but that's something as we go forward we have four years total to in in depth of money um that's something that they requested [34:14] **Adam (City Staff):** be discussed again at a later point when we get when we discuss that uh the other item they were looking for more of an immediate response um it's not part of the tentative agreement that has to be being requested to be approved tonight so if it's denied the ten of agreement will still still stand but they are asking for a deferred compensation match uh they we they came back with 25 per month per member and i did uh do some some quick calculations um for the two members in this union uh there's only the two uh it would equate to 600 per year and so what this [34:59] **Adam (City Staff):** both of the current members do contribute to a deferred compensation plan that the city sponsors and so obviously there's tax benefits to that um but then this is asking for a 25 per month match a lot of private companies do that there are cities that do that for for some of the the pension programs the retirement programs uh because we have para there the city does contribute quite a bit to the police and fire um we don't have the firefighters to but there is a staff store match um that um so it's not uncommon uh that cities do that this is similar to a company's 401k match um so any any other cities that do this it's usually not a very high number um [35:46] **Adam (City Staff):** but the 25 is what we had settled on that they felt to request um so again it would be 600 for the two members if that was extended to all of the union employees which there are nine of currently um it brings it up to 27 and i also gave the figure for the all the employees who are eligible for benefits um since there's 15 currently current full-time employees and that comes out to 4 500 or 300 per employee annually it's overall it's not a but not a large number um but that it's not something that we've done um not just during my time here but i couldn't find any information on on the [36:33] **Adam (City Staff):** city doing that um but that is the so that specifically was not budgeted for um that was a late late edition there's one thing to mention the the other items and other provisions were planned for in the budget as contingencies so that this one would not be included um and there's no obligation to offer it to anyone other than the two members who requested it as part of this um i wouldn't have to go back and automatically give it to everybody so this is the i would say the three options for that provision um they can be discussed separately um if the council wants to discuss any any other provisions if there is a [37:20] **Adam (City Staff):** statutory we have closed the meeting um if the council wanted to discuss this in a closed session um i i don't know that it's necessary a family recommendation but that is an option and uh with that i'm happy to answer any other questions **Mayor Michele Hanson:** questions from the council so the two options don't have to be decided on this evening the optional **Adam (City Staff):** yeah the optional items uh one is one was more of a um i don't know put the city on notice but formerly asked the city to discuss in the future the use of the art funds for the bonus pay of the police officers the other one was they they asked that that the city initially denied the request they came back with the lower cost or the lower amount and requested that i at least bring it to the city council um so that's what that is if the council denies that the the rest of the tentative agreement the rest of the terms would still be approved and [38:31] **Adam (City Staff):** the contract would be renewed or approved for starting in january but if the council wanted to add that or modify it or discuss it it would be outside of the required approval um they can you can discuss it at later dates the only thing that i need the council to approve is some form of the the rest of the tenant agreement if there are any changes we can go back to the the facts of the union and further negotiate um but if we don't approve it by the end of december um then we'll i'd rather not get into that okay um **Connie Dahl:** well i think it's i mean it's obvious we can talk about the point number one when we get to the funds part right right that's a given so the deferred compensation match just i'm reading it correctly right now everyone gets a contribution to para from the city so that's truly the city required to match at varying rates depending on what their role is okay um there's a uh there is a match repair and then there's also the possibility for employees to participate in the city's four five seven be 407 b yes we have a couple we have a couple of programs we're trying to narrow them down to be consistent over the years there's been some employees who've done one or the other now we're [40:04] **Adam (City Staff):** trying to have all the employees just do one it's easier to manage **Connie Dahl:** says only four doing the 457b right now currently okay do you see that so the numbers that you gave us then are assuming that everybody that is everybody yeah so it could be even less that we'd end know contributing we get only four people continue correct across the whole so we could choose to just do it for the sergeant and the chief which is what they're asking we could then extend it to the union all the union people or we could accept it to everybody in the city but right now only four people in the whole city are even contributing to their forefathers right okay just wanna make sure i had all the facts clear [40:50] **Connie Dahl:** so it doesn't seem like a lot to ask to me but maybe i mean i worked in the public sector in that you know everyone was giving matches but we didn't have parents so i don't know what they're gaining from their parent i know my daughter is a teacher right now and she has something like this she gets para and she also has this retirement account she can come into it gets a match as well so it doesn't seem like it's unusual for us to do that are you saying that you support it just for these two employees or i kind of i don't know i'm kind of thinking it seems like you should do it for the whole city if you're gonna do it for anyone but that's up to us to decide again **Adam (City Staff):** customer hanson one of the so i provided all three options um the city council tonight if it approved just the two uh that with this specific contract it can further discuss where it wants to go with that um the reason i mention is because uh we we often extend the same benefits to you know the three kind three unions are fairly similar and the non-union staff typically receive various benefits not all of them but a lot of the benefits that the union staff gets so that's what just to give you an idea of the total what it could be um but specifically the the two tonight is what i asked to be decided um **Michele (Councilmember):** so i i mean i i agree that it's not very much but i i do like to take into account all of the employees and this isn't something that was budgeted and so i'd want to like and we're just approving tonight going through the budget approval i'd like to revisit it as a whole looking at all the employees early in 2022. [42:50] **Michele (Councilmember):** we could implement it then if we wanted to and not have it be part of this agreement and at least then we could look at the overall impact across for all employees and you know keeping things pretty level and fair yeah so it sounds like the most it would cost us is forty five hundred dollars right **Adam (City Staff):** so it's 45 for a year for yeah assuming that all 15 of the employees enroll uh participate in the 47b um and it would be a match that at the minimum contribute 100 or 25 um under this easter this was all **John Carlson:** any other thoughts if we do decide to go that i i guess i'm leaning toward that it should be offered to everybody not i mean that's as a reading i'm thinking if you're going to give to one you should kind of make it available to others and i guess i'm okay with putting it on hold for now and talking about it more so but i i for my employees i do match so it's not it's a very common thing it's not the same program but but anyway um i guess if it's there i i'd like to see us offer to [44:30] **Ethan Gilmore:** a little bit these are the only people that have asked for it and it seems reasonable to me and um i would think that we could approve this and then work on for 2022 extending it if that is part of a negotiation with the other employees so you're not saying you're against it with the other parts you're just saying that these are the ones that have requested it okay i feel the same as john i think if it's two people that want it we can approve that tonight and then go forward with the other whatever 13 people that it is that could potentially have it if it's the two that are asking for it it's three dollars a person they have pretty important jobs in the city in my opinion so i agree i would prove that **Mayor Michele Hanson:** and i i like to look at the overall budget but i'm open to the motions so so we just need to make a motion as it's written here on our sheets that include as an addendum this deferred comp match that would be my suggestion my recommendation okay i mean i'm gonna work with waiting to talk about the rest of the staff if that makes sense i mean i feel like we're all on the same page i just want to at least discuss that option for everybody **Adam (City Staff):** we we've been working on um not american councilmember hanson we've been working on revising some of the [46:12] **Adam (City Staff):** personnel policy um this would be an appropriate topic to discuss at that time um we've said has been working on it for quite a few months and we're just about ready to bring that to the council so that we could do that in the spring without you know i don't like putting it off longer than we need to but that we there's other items as well that we would fit in normal or naturally with if if the council just so you guys know that uh we you know this wasn't something that we were thought of to bring to the council um but that would be kind of this if the council did want to extend it to all of all employees or any employees [46:58] **Adam (City Staff):** that were not included such as the other two unions because they do have um you know their specific agreements that control it um that would that could possibly be a opportune time or appropriate time to discuss this benefit if you will um **Mayor Michele Hanson:** i mean forty five hundred dollars if if everyone did end up taking is a significant amount to ponder and factor into a budget annually so and we have always you know automatically basically if we offer three percent one place we offer it every other place so i just i want to make sure that we are you know being very fair and balanced to all of our employees um so i i would recommend waiting on this until there's time to discuss it in the realm of the entire group but again i am open for well we would have vote and emotion so [48:06] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** this council can decide otherwise everything else in the contract to me looks like it's very much in line so with that is there more discussion or would anyone like to make motion **John Carlson:** i'll move to approve the labor agreement with the minnesota public employees association association union for january 1st 2022 through december 31st 2024 with the addition of the deferred comp match for the two employees covered under the union that we have discussed here for an amount of 600 per year **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you john a second **Michele (Councilmember):** thank you michelle you're wrong thank [49:13] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** okay that takes us to item number two under new business to consider amending appendix d uh the fee schedule the bayport city code of ordinances and a summary for publication adam **Adam (City Staff):** thank you madam mayor this year in our annual every december just for some of the newer members every december the staff looks at the fee schedule and makes suggested or recommended changes to that um this year we only have three changes that we as a staff are recommending one of them is to implement a charge for the fire boat um after we receive the for we have charges for the other fire vehicles uh on calls that are outside of the jurisdiction um but we did not add one for the fire [49:58] **Adam (City Staff):** boat after we got it so the fire chief eisinger recommended that we add that to our schedule the other two are increases in the permit cost for the fence permit and a shed permit 25 has i don't know how long it's been that amount but it's been quite a few years it's been it's it's very low uh compared to a lot of other jurisdictions as well as the amount of staff time that it takes to process those from the zoning aspect um so we we didn't suggest an increase to 50 dollars for those uh there are there's depending on the the project there can be quite a bit of review time both from sarah or from engineer or legal even depending on the issue so this this would be a better way to [50:45] **Adam (City Staff):** collect some of those charges which is what the fee is intended to do with that i'm happy to discuss the fee schedule uh but again the staff only need those three recommendations now we can just as a reminder we can change the fee schedule at any point during the year this is just an annual review **Mayor Michele Hanson:** okay thank you adam any questions from the council anyone want to make a motion **John Carlson:** i'll move to a proven amendment to appendix d if you of the bayport city code ordinances as presented **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you john i'll second it **Connie Dahl:** thank you connie **Adam (City Staff):** councilmember dahl hi councilmember carlson aye councilman aye councilman hanson aye mayor sanders aye as well **Mayor Michele Hanson:** all right and then we have another motion to approve the summary for publication so would someone else make that motion **Michele (Councilmember):** move to approve a summary of publication for an amendment to appendix the fee schedule of the bayport city code of ordinances as presented **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you michelazar second **Ethan Gilmore:** second **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you ethan back to you adam **Adam (City Staff):** councillor hanson aye councilmember gilmore aye councilmember carlson aye councilmember dahl aye mercenaries aye aye sal thank you **Mayor Michele Hanson:** all right that takes us to the public input truth [52:17] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** and taxation on our 2022 city budget and levy **Adam (City Staff):** so thank you madam mayor members of the council the presentation tonight uh this evening is our truth and taxation hearing public meeting required by the statue for the 2022 budget just a quick quick overview after four budget workshops work sessions and over well over 100 staff hours at the city council back in september adopted the preliminary 22 tax levy city budget and capital improvement plan for 2022 through 2026 and that was back on as we said on september 27th the council tonight we'll hold the truth and taxation public hearing uh and then we will adopt all right request that the council adopt the final figures and we can certify that to the county and just as a reminder the levy can be reduced at this time but [53:44] **Adam (City Staff):** cannot be increased uh staff did not make any recommendations for altering from the preliminary numbers um i'm not going to go through everything but as i mentioned we had several meetings um when you do all the handouts of this powerpoint back in june we started this i gave out the budget information started requesting the budget information from the department heads and started meeting with them and in july they got those back to administration and then we had as i said multiple workshops to discuss them i did make a new basically a new format for the budget this year um the council seemed very pleased with that uh there's a lot more background information and overview uh [54:31] **Adam (City Staff):** some more explanation as to how the budget is done and what the numbers actually mean and where the money comes from so hopefully that was educational it will improve as we go forward next year will be much easier starting over this year there are additional improvements that i'm still looking to make and after at the september 13th meeting uh where we ended up postponing the the normal adoption of the preliminary levy um just because we wanted to spend more time on it and we had just got the county's tax impact information uh the city did discuss having because of the market value increase uh a two percent median home value tax increase uh so that's what the information that staff that i [55:17] **Adam (City Staff):** had to work with and so we went back and calculated that we had our final budget workshop and on the as i said on the 27th we adopted the city adopted the preliminary numbers and we certified those with the county uh by september 30th which was the deadline and at that meeting we also established tonight september 6th as the truth and taxation uh hearing date and so that information was given out to the public on their proposed notices um which i believe went out in the mid november and there there haven't been any changes to the county's information uh but the one thing when i get to the actual tax information uh well [56:02] **Adam (City Staff):** i'll mention it uh again city bayport is a full service city um we have as i have a list here police and fire protection we have our own place our own fire and for a city of you know 4 000 people but really only about 2500 residents residential residents um that's that's not always the case we do our own we don't have one billing official but we have a billing and planning zoning department we do a lot of street maintenance and we we have we've consulted engineering we do all the hr functions in the administration and utility billing we have multiple parks we have our own library it's rare for a city there's two cities in [56:48] **Adam (City Staff):** washington county with the library stillwater and bayport and it's not common for a city not just our size but really anywhere in the metro to have its own library and we by the you know goodwill the foundation we are very fortunate to be able to do that uh but the city does play an important role in helping keep that flowed um as i said we have full water and sewer other than a handful of homes in the city bayport um and we also do storm sewer that's something that we are always working on and then we as i said we have just our own parking and our own infrastructure the we play much larger than our city size um we are it's hard to find cities [57:34] **Adam (City Staff):** that are comparable to bayport because we do so much we are a full service city you look at any other the cities our size and they're usually missing one two three you know sometimes four of these this list of things that they either contract up to do or they just don't have so keep that in mind we accomplished quite a bit uh in this city for all the services that we do provide and i like to believe that we do it well a couple of the significant factors for this next year's proposed budget um we did make several reporting format changes um at three question marketers they had us include additional numbers in both the revenue and the expenditures and so that did account for [58:20] **Adam (City Staff):** increased numbers um but i'll get to when we get to the actual numbers um they're not as high as they initially appear this does incorporate a 3.69 increase in health insurance costs and during the health insurance approval as part of the consent agenda our actual insurance rate only went up 0.5 it was a very low increase but because of the deductible which is matched by their hsa that that accounted for the rest of the 3.69 the 2018 pair rate increase for the police uh we recognize that this year in the budget as i mentioned during the [59:05] **Adam (City Staff):** budget uh meeting uh that was not uh recognized in the previous para budgeting for the police and fire it went from 16 to 17 percent uh right i'm sorry it was like 11 to 17 uh in three years and so we're playing catch up in that so that does have a uh a jump it accounts for part of the increase in the police department budget and there's only the police department budget the one of the items we did not add any additional employees we didn't request any full-time or part-time employees in the 22 budget we did end up at the end of this year i guess uh replays for in a full-time capacity the finance position uh that had been [59:51] **Adam (City Staff):** not unstaffed but uh since march 2020 it had not been staffed by a full-time position so thank you for that but there were no other there were no other requests for additional staff at this time as part of this budget um the couple things regarding the the the city of bayport values we had from the county at 3.7 that is average increase in market value from 21 to 22 and that's just for residential properties uh i am aware that there were several properties throughout the city that were either less or above that um and the washington county has they came up with their tax report just a couple weeks ago and it i'm trying to get another copy of [1:00:37] **Adam (City Staff):** it that breaks it down just for bayport but it has some really great information as far as county wide unfortunately um but there's some really good charts and graphs that kind of show you even there's maps that show where the where the county had valued or changed in value throughout the county so each city unfortunately bayport's map has worked bayport on the middle of it so you can't see it very well um because geographically we're not that large county-wide but uh if anybody wants to see that um or please let me know and i can share that with account with the council our fiscal disparity's contribution was increased um so that means we ended up having to pay more into the fiscal disparities um [1:01:22] **Adam (City Staff):** and so that that does have a direct impact on our levy and then the fire relief association funds went up by 15 000 um now those don't have an impact on the levy but that's one of those items that has an impact on the budget our revenue goes up by 15 000 as well as our expenditures and so over the overall number goes higher even though it's not an additional expense or cost to the taxpayers the one of the items that we changed at the average direction was the debt service amounts uh previously we had just been reporting in our expense bayport's amount which is just under 30 000 and the death service that's for the 2015 geo bond for the fire station uh it's now at 160 000 um ish [1:02:08] **Adam (City Staff):** and that includes the uh hundred additional 145 000 for next year in revenue that we had not been recognizing anywhere in the budget um since 2015 but our auditors said it would make it a clearer picture of the financials um one of the other items that is significant this year is there's 412 000 additional in the intro fund transfers for the capital days we had two items uh the front loader and the fire truck the ladder truck that we had budgeted for next year those historically we have not been doing specific items in the capital hallways we're just kind of doing every year a little bit of the same uh this [1:02:54] **Adam (City Staff):** year we did adjust it to where we reduced it if we didn't need to and we increased it for items such as fire where we do anticipate a an expense and that way we actually don't end up taking as much out of our general fund a couple things that we've been doing since 2018 that we continued this year was the reapportionment of staff wages in 2018 matt and i realized that we wanted to make improvements in the allocation and on department of where staff time was being allocated in the budget so we took some more out of the water sewer funds that we thought were high and if you remember we started with parks [1:03:40] **Adam (City Staff):** and we've been doing that for several other departments one of the other items this year that's down at the um or it's farther down actually sorry it's the next one uh we established wages in the cemetery department um and it's not a large amount but it's it's it is significant when it you know across the entire budget um we especially since the pandemic started spending a lot more time doing the cemetery for one reason or another but we didn't have any wages dedicated to the cemetery um so what we've done now is we're trying to recognize have it accurate where the staff time is actually being spent we want those dollars to be spent in that department the we did maintain the current plan for [1:04:26] **Adam (City Staff):** the emerald ash borer right now it's about thirty seven thousand dollars um actually it is thirty seven thousand dollars in the budget uh we if you recall we increased it last year by about twenty seven thousand five hundred um and so we've kept that in for another year um we are making progress but we do have a ways to go on remediating that infestation uh we ended up adding so one of the things that i was referring to earlier is the additional funding for the capital outlay um we have 58 000 additional for the street construction fund um we do have several projects coming up and 1545 for the fire department equipment fund um some of that is outside or actually [1:05:12] **Adam (City Staff):** most of it sorry at the backwards most of that is outside of the department budget um because we are capped at three percent department budget increase um but the department as a whole both in and out of the department it's at 265 000. um so it's approximately you know almost half is outside after it is inside um and that specifically this year it was increased because of the latter one referred refurbishment um one other thing to just quickly don't get inside tracked uh we initially budgeted 300 000 for the ladder truck um and that was hopefully to cover it um we've since been able to have that reduced um and the memo tonight it's just under 200 000 um we won't know entirely until we started taking it apart if there's anything else such as breaks or anything other than the the intended uh costs but that's that's almost a hundred thousand dollars that we'll be able to we did keep that in [1:06:16] **Adam (City Staff):** budgets have to go to the fire department because they're we've been short we've got on our schedule you know quite we're not short we're trying to catch up so we left that in um we can because it's just in the general fund if we did need it for something else we always have that opportunity but right now it's done it's assigned to the fire department um but that was good news that we you know almost a third of the anticipated cost we were able to find it for less we one of the other items is we did the city did increase the library levy uh by ten thousand dollars um the last time was in 2019 and that does all those dollars are is eligible for match by the library foundation um so any increase that the city does the foundation [1:07:01] **Adam (City Staff):** is willing to match those so that that that was a one of the requests from the library director this year another large item and that we put in the capital today was 145 000 for the public works equipment fund and the uh that's going to cover the sorry i have this wrong money chart that's the front end loader the front loader is not part of the 58 000 i had the wrong classification but the estimated cost for that was 200 000 and we've been looking we've been looking at both refurbishment for that as well as um a new one and unfortunately the refurbishment costs are coming back at [1:07:47] **Adam (City Staff):** about 90 of the new cost so that probably isn't going to be an option for that item but we we are looking at uh all options and then the city council also decided to uh add additional funding for the parks um recreational capital equipment fund and so this is specifically for equipment in the various parks that we have um as we we have spent some of that down and we want to make sure that we are getting ahead of we've made several improvements the last several years both at lakeside and parker's parkers but the part of this is funded through the park dedication not not the specific fund but our park funds are funded by our dedication [1:08:32] **Adam (City Staff):** and as the build-out has happened in bayport we have remaining to anticipate coming into the city specifically for parks so we want to get ahead of that um so we have funds available for future improvements and uh repairs and maintenance and then we did add just a 3700 additional for the cemetery capital fund we had a project this year and we've got one coming uh defense and that will use up a lot of those funds so we want to make sure that we are you know putting money back into that account so we can maintain the cemetery so with the 2022 budget the total was [1:09:20] **Adam (City Staff):** four million 147 382 and this is just the general fund um this does not include the the amount from the library um that's we the city doesn't really have the control over the library budget we do control the levy which is approximately 56 now when you look at that that 4 million 147 000 figures 735 000 more than the 2021 which looks it's a 21.5 increase in the figures what accounts for that is the the way that we're reporting it as i said we're including more the [1:10:06] **Adam (City Staff):** more capital outlay and the fire relief and the death service increases or not just recognizing them in the budget so the actual true budget increase is only 186 000 and that's 5.44 so that that and so on the chart there the the yellow line is kind of the it's not it gives you a better true sense of the increase over last year um because of the way we're reporting the figures and and granted it's still five almost five and a half percent um but it it does cover um some of those are controllables or most of those are not controllable um but that the 4.1 million is it it looks like a lot um but as i said [1:10:54] **Adam (City Staff):** it's because we're recording the figures differently than we have in the past so both of those both those figures kind of need to be taken into account um when you're thinking about the actual budget increase are there any questions on that you know we discussed it multiple times during the workshop i think when we did discuss it during the preliminary approval we also made a point that that 186 is intended to provide for savings so that we don't end up with a you know a large increase in five years or ten years where it's a 20 or 25 percent jump right we're getting a [1:11:39] **Adam (City Staff):** lot of the capital outlay that we are adding as well um both in the departments because our budget is not split as you know in the departments and out of the departments um it's we don't want to wait and instead of one of the things that we'll do right this year because we have the two uh the two large items that we've budgeted in um what we're trying to get away from is the peaks and valleys the drastic differences um year to year we're trying to spread the note while still covering the expenses um so yeah there's there's a significant amount of money that's put aside this year for capital update those investments as i mentioned in some of those departments so very little of it's actually um operational increases other than those we are obligated to um so the levy the actual levy amount um so this is another aspect it's not that the actual amount is not that much um it's if you recall last year it was uh over 100 um right around 100 and that was a seven almost eight percent increase in the levy um this one it's it's still six and a half ish but um there's that that does include the library so the the actual levy and i separated out the the death service this is bayport's portion of that because that's [1:13:11] **Adam (City Staff):** the only part that has the levy impact um it's roughly 89 000 increase in the levy amount and then when you add in the library 10 000 you know it's that 90 99 000. and that comes out to the levy total levy of 1.5 million 991 981 the levy increase as i mentioned um just kind of another chart shows you the and the trend if you will um for those levy figures this one's a little it's kind of a tricky um whenever you're done with tax rates it's not as simple as it uh sounds the city's tax rate is the percentage of or taxpayers over all the tax payments that's allocated to the city but because of the way that the county allots those tax rates it doesn't always equal 100. [1:14:14] **Adam (City Staff):** um down our tax rate actually decreased by 2.4 um compared to last year and our actual tax rate is 32.97 so the numbers down at the bottom of the legend has the actual tax rates but out of a tax bill because the way that the county does the math they have a very complicated the way that the taxes are are calculated it's very complicated and this is what the actual most real effect of the tax bill is and this this does not according to the county these do not account for the uh the school district levy so that um [1:15:02] **Adam (City Staff):** the my numbers do but they um they said that you know if it was passed in november and they just had the caveat that it may change for the percentages um so as i mentioned earlier the 3.7 or the median value increase in bayport was 3.7 and what that comes out to based on just the median values if everybody was just that the median change um these are the amounts that came out the median tax increase would be 11.47 cents obviously kind of looks like a negative 3.7 i mean that way [1:15:47] **Adam (City Staff):** 3.7 increase um in the median home value so if a house was our new median value is according to washington county is 200 000 that means 21 value was 192 900 um which equals the change in the 1147 for the tax difference the actual tax bill um for those but as you as i'm sure you've all seen your tax bills the amount it may not be 3.7 so it can vary and as i said the county has some information kind of on the range of how many homes in each community we're at various percentages so if the public sees this and while they they may be right around or a little above the market value uh the median market value it it also depends on how much it went from the previous to this year if it wasn't the 2.7 now let's say it was a five percent value increase then that would be a little bit more i just want everybody to understand that a couple i just wanna i had two other slides productions to show um this actually three pages um this is a this is from the county um from part of their presentation and these are the 21 versus 22 rates and just gives you an idea of the townships and [1:17:19] **Adam (City Staff):** the cities as to where where bayport falls if they went up or down and again these are the tax rates and then the county uh washington county you know is that the lore rate of taxes in the metro give every kind of an idea of where we in a broader scale and here's just another way to look at the tax rates you'll see a city of bayport it's right here kind of in the middle um all these cities at the bottom it's again i don't want people to get too [1:18:05] **Adam (City Staff):** hung up on the tax rate because it ultimately it's not as impactful as the actual levy amounts and the levy changes um for what what impacts the actual dollars but it does give them an idea of where the taxes are coming from um as far as the proportion of who's taxing them more out of the various entities that are taxing as part of their tax bill **Mayor Michele Hanson:** adam may i interrupt with just a quick question yes um is there a city we can have as sort of our sister city in the metro if somebody wanted to dig into this to kind of do a comparison to see you know like you say we're our population is small for what we provide is there a benchmark city or somebody we often compare ourselves to **Adam (City Staff):** regarding um i wouldn't say there's one there's it's usually in that you know three to five thousand anything under ten thousand that's a full-service city um can give you a good idea of kind of where we where we look um the if it's you know 3000 or less it's we really don't chances are they're a lot different so we don't um there's **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** sarah what communities do you usually look at for we've used the city of newport for comparable lauderdale which is more of a inner core city half of 280 there kind of an industrial area we've also used south st paul i believe um those are the top three that come okay thank you that's helpful **Adam (City Staff):** is any uh any other questions on that information i'd like to thank the city council for the hard work that you guys have done and gone through with me and the staff um one thing i just wanted to emphasize again reiterate that we provide a lot of services and this budget allows us to continue doing that we do our best to do it efficiently effectively and make investments for our future um here in the city so i'd like to thank the rest of staff as well for working with me thank you very much **Mayor Michele Hanson:** i'm just impressed by the work you've done and how much [1:20:23] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** just gets put into this so i really appreciate it and the presentation the organization and the just the scope all this stuff it's it's pretty mind-blowing for somebody like me that doesn't this is not in my wheelhouse at all i always take every opportunity to say that so it's impressive stuff so thank you and the entire staff for helping in this i do have a question adam you can go back like so the fourth to last night there's not page numbers on it the other actual slideshow oh yeah yeah that one so because we are going to have to approve the um the whole general fund and the library fund combined [1:21:11] **Connie Dahl:** if should that bottom line number the one five nine one actually and differently should be 939 if you add those up or am i not understanding how to read the table that's the so like it's am i supposed to yeah one three seven six nine four seven and then the next number and then so i have those three numbers up and it's the bottom number because it shouldn't end in a one right it should end in the night it was sent directly from the i just want to make sure we're getting the right number when we do that the well the one five nine one nine eight one is the preliminary levy number so that one can't go up so maybe the debt service number has changed or something slightly or something's not quite right slightly different could be if you came up with 939 instead of 981 yeah it's not a huge difference but i just wanted to make sure we're getting it right when we approve the number [1:22:19] **Connie Dahl:** 41 difference yeah unless there's a rounding that happens somewhere but that would might make sense did you check that just very precise with the numbers **Adam (City Staff):** oh i see what i'm sorry this isn't a form i mean it's it does it's not a spreadsheet it's not a spreadsheet so i accidentally did the 947 i'm glad you got that this is the 947 accidentally did it from the increase so the actual number is 99. so could you just list those off for us as the tax levy number first **Mayor Michele Hanson:** the general fund proposal id is one well do you start with yeah it's general fund including the debt service or knives let's go with the numbers that we're going to have to quote as we go through the three different approvals so with the tax levy first **Adam (City Staff):** 1 million three hundred and seventy six thousand nine eighty nine nine eight nine okay and then the 20 to 22 budget **Adam (City Staff):** the total budget including the library is one two four four million four hundred and seventy five thousand eight hundred eighty one let's do that again four million they're just in the past it is yes yeah on the resolution on the resolutions um in the title and that's why the so that second so the first number is a total budget excuse me i just asked as we go through for these so that we can make sure that everyone's clear and that they do indeed match what's in these things if you could just repeat 4 million the 2022 general fund levy number is 1 million [1:24:56] **Adam (City Staff):** 406 981 so that's different than the check that includes the debt service okay let me go to them to your document because that's not a number that was just quoted so just a sec **Mayor Michele Hanson:** all right so we are to go off of the numbers that are on in here so yeah general fund lobby certification is one million four hundred and six thousand nine eighty one correct and then the library fund levy certification is not one of the things that we are going to be um approving this is exactly what i was confused about the last thing i remember [1:25:42] **Connie Dahl:** when i was like oh wait we have to do about three separate but we don't we just do it as long as just the total city levy of one five nine one the one five nine one ninety one okay would be helpful next if we could just make some kind of adjustment next time just so there it is in the actual resolution though it's he's got the right number there right there never mind okay **Mayor Michele Hanson:** all right so one mil well added to the motion one million five hundred ninety one thousand nine hundred and eighty one dollars okay correct all right does anyone have any other questions or discussions **Connie Dahl:** if not we have to um approve the capital improvement plan tonight because i don't know i thought maybe you guys feel really solid about it but i feel like we talked about it in august the cip and we kind of talked oh no we need to come back to some of these things because we went really quickly through because it sounds like the last thing we look at so the actual cip i don't really feel solid on right now so is that okay for 2022 or years even 2022 like we have the hockey rink on there still some things that i thought we were going to talk a little bit more about so i don't know **Adam (City Staff):** was there anything that and again the cip it's it's kind of a rough guide you know there's things that [1:27:12] **Adam (City Staff):** right because put it on the radar this is something we anticipate to do in this year and then we you know do the next four years as well and the we can if it's not in the cip it doesn't prevent us from doing something um we just haven't necessarily calculated or taken into account how to pay for it yet we haven't done the analysis um if something's on there the city council decides not to do it that's we just don't do it and we can you know next year's budget we would just take it off um budget process move it up the next year the rolling cfe cip um if there was something that you my my intention is to have a another [1:27:58] **Adam (City Staff):** kind of an earlier goals meeting at the very beginning of the year to go over to 2022. here's the things that we want to do and i think that the the cip kind of the plan for the year capital um would be something that we should you know discuss the point here's there's there's things that happen between you know september between now and february that we may discover or learn new information um so it's the cip doesn't necessarily lock you in to anything and most of the items on the cip we would have to bring back to the console anyways um so that means it's up to the council **Connie Dahl:** and i understand i mean i've done this a few times and i know it's not carved in [1:28:43] **Connie Dahl:** stone but i feel like we always sort of it gets brushed aside because it's the you know the budget takes so much time and then we never really think about what are the actual projects we want to do and i didn't want it to just get brushed aside again so if we can have a plan to still review the cip even if we're proving it as it is as it was in august that's the last time we looked at it right i feel like there was some things we were gonna adjust like um because we looked at some of the fun balances on the bottom and i know we did different transfers because of looking at it and all that i just was kind of hoping we would have got it like an updated cip and i just realized as now that it was like the third thing on here that we're gonna approve and i just wanted to make sure that [1:29:30] **Connie Dahl:** it's not just brushed to the side again and we actually do meet early in the year **Mayor Michele Hanson:** and i think because the cip and because we have you know i don't say limited staff but it's something that instead of waiting until august to address um it is something that we should kind of throughout the year work on so that's i mean from the staff perspective that's we can't spend every meeting just doing the cip but it's definitely something that should be prioritized um for the council's benefit you know education and being able to understand what needs to be done from a capital perspective **Connie Dahl:** so i feel confident in the cip as it currently is and just knowing that there [1:30:16] **Connie Dahl:** is that flexibility it's you know we've had line items in there that were on there for eight years that we never got to and there were some things that we had to reprioritize and bump up and so i think if we have a strategy session early in 2022 and revisit you look at the overall plan that would be okay i agree right i do too with it **Mayor Michele Hanson:** all right any other questions or comments **Adam (City Staff):** just if you call for any public input this time **Mayor Michele Hanson:** oh oh okay we don't we haven't heard any from any other staff and there's one here do we need to formally open or close no just okay solicit **Mayor Michele Hanson:** great we do not have anyone else here in chambers this evening with us so i will take that as a no and that we can move on so with that would any member of the council like to move forward with the appropriate motion okay um **Connie Dahl:** make a motion to adopt the resolution establishing the levy for 2022. okay **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you connie is there a second **John Carlson:** i will second **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you john adam **Adam (City Staff):** councilmember carlson aye councilmember dahl aye councilmember hanson hi sponsor gilmore hi marison ors hi what's up **Mayor Michele Hanson:** great um and then now dude are we good on that or do we need to do we did three each sorry okay so then on the second one to adopt the resolution establishing the budget **Ethan Gilmore:** i'm moving up the resolution establishing the budget for 2022. **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you ethan is there a second **Connie Dahl:** a second **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you connie back to you adam **Adam (City Staff):** councillor gilmore aye councilmember carlson aye councilmember dahl aye councilmember hanson aye marisonors **Mayor Michele Hanson:** and the third um addressing the capital improvement plan **John Carlson:** i'll move to adopt a resolution establishing the cip or capital improvement plan for 2022. **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you john is every second **Connie Dahl:** i'll second it **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you connie **Adam (City Staff):** councilmember dahl aye councilmember carlson aye mr ransom aye councillor gilmore aye mercenaries aye aye **Mayor Michele Hanson:** great and thank you adam and staff for all the work that went into that i know [1:33:12] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** it's hours and hours and adam in particular i know that you worked many many weekends and the days that you're supposed to have off that did not take place but thank you and all of this information is public and can be found on the website and if you have any specific questions please to address those with patent by calling city hall that takes us to our city council liaison reports for this evening and i will start down with uh michelle **Michele (Councilmember):** our planning commission has not met but i'm excited that we have filled the roll and carl has stepped up so thank you carl and i guess um i don't think there's i mean other than i went to the lighting of the green and [1:34:00] **Michele (Councilmember):** the mayor spoke and it was a very fun night i think a huge crowd and yeah how many other reports thank you michelle **Ethan Gilmore:** ethan oh yeah we did meet that was the first time all of us met in person with everybody there they changed their fiscal year to like an eleventh month deal so you don't end up saying it's the end of the year going to the end of january or whatever so into the next year let's look at a little preliminary budget review and then the pay-per-view i don't know if anybody knows about any of this for some of the sporting events they're offering it for pay-per-view and so they discussed that there were some issues with the football game i think [1:34:46] **Ethan Gilmore:** but they're working that out that seems to be a good option to make up for some of the um the peg fees it's also new to me yeah you're doing good because that's dropping because so many people are you know cut the cord and they're not doing the cable um as much with all the streaming services and that sort of thing but they did is that it was happening but then last year kind of leveled off so that was kind of interesting and then we talked about some contracts for their current employees with like inflation rates and all that you know we're looking at like we've all talked about the three percent raise and some of those guys were concerned that they might lose one though if they don't increase it higher so that'll be on the table in future discussions to figure that out with them so but yeah that was about it oh and [1:35:33] **Ethan Gilmore:** there's a they have a new mascot that like shows up at places now for the thing i can't remember oh the cable commission has their own mascot i think so well not the i think it's the tv station thing that yeah **Connie Dahl:** [Laughter] okay well the library board met for its record meeting on tuesday the 16th but then and that was via zoom oh yeah yeah and then we met on november 30th the building and committee advisory for the new and upcoming library project and we met that via zoom with um architects btr architects and i felt like it was a good meeting there's a lot of good discussion they presented some designs and good influence good feedback and we're going to be meeting again [1:36:42] **Connie Dahl:** i don't think we have a big set no they haven't set a date no they were going out for they finally were getting bids back and i think the deadline was coming up yeah so that's why yeah because the library board then moved our meeting back to the forward up to the 14th of december instead of the 21st to address the bids um oh and they were going to do they wanted to do more focus groups so people are interested in giving their opinion oh yeah i think they should um reach out to the jail probably at the library and that would be great i'm not sure when she decided on that but yeah yeah um and then jill said that um she had a great time at the lighting of the greens such a good turnout and [1:37:30] **Connie Dahl:** the weather could have been nicer that's for sure they are still going to do their new year's eve a little party but it'll be over zoom not in person and she wanted to remind people that the library be closed on the 24th and 25th but open new year's eve day from the regular hours from 10 to five and close new year's day great **John Carlson:** john um so my mind always my uh liaison position middle sanctuary watershed always meets a few days after this meeting so i have to go wave after remember um so met in november a couple bayport related things are one not necessarily [1:38:16] **John Carlson:** bayport related but um middle say cry watershed is coming up with an actual logo to kind of start promoting ourselves the first logo actually looks almost identical to bayport city logo that was the first option so um that there is an option too that hopefully we will move forward with and um so kind of as a helpful for outreach and so people know about this organization so the which leads me to the other bayport related item is the people's congregational church just diagonally across the street here um asked for some funds they're going to be uh installing a 10 000 square foot rain their excuse me prairie [1:39:02] **John Carlson:** to reduce runoff and enhance the habitat on the property and we voted to help in the costs to the amount of 500 for their prairie restoration so it is an organization that people should consider when they have different projects or different needs and that's what we are there for **Connie Dahl:** john actually the property of my markers alps then or is it **John Carlson:** i think it is okay where are they gonna do anything there yeah it's very small okay yeah ten thousand ten thousand square feet but it's actually not really that big but yeah so you are correct yeah okay that makes more sense and that's it for me okay great [1:39:49] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** um i actually had a busy month so there's a few things that i do want to make the council aware of um so on november 10th there was a fire contract services meeting with oak park heights uh west lakeland township in baytown township we did a review um chief eisinger did a review of our current stats and some future constraints that we need to take a look at this is the seventh year of the contract and in our original contract it was designated as the year to look at it and across our four cities and take a look at what's working what may need to be revised so we will be meeting again in early january with all four communities to [1:40:35] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** take a look a deeper look at that contract and the future of the fire department such things as you know equipment needs and the potential for full-time staffing sometime in the future um so that you can look for an update again in january on that that meeting will take place probably right after our first council meeting on november 18th i was a panelist in the leadership in the valley program which is has been established by the chamber of commerce i was a panelist along with shelley christensen gary kriesel councilmember juncker and myself and we were moderated by the city administrator of stillwater there's probably about 20 some students [1:41:22] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** in this class and our own joe smith is one of those that are participating it's a great program and they put on a monthly educational session about some area in our community whether it's different businesses or different kinds of uh non-profits etc so thank you very much to the chamber for that opportunity on december 1st i attended the lake elmo airport advisory meeting we met in person and there are some key takeaways that i think are important to share one when you look at their site and you look at statistics that as of july 2021 the number of what are [1:42:10] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** called operations the counts look like they doubled but actually the traffic at the airport has not doubled it is because they are now accurately counting the touch and goes and the circles so if you're looking at current stats of the activity at the airport just know and factor that in the new runway of the construction project that they have underway is going to open in september of 2022 uh last year our last meeting i mentioned a little bit about maybe a couple meetings ago about the concerns that i heard from citizens regarding the evaporators that are going to be on this site because there's going to be more water runoff from this new runway [1:42:55] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** there will be ford evaporators around the perimeter of the proper property they will run about an average up to 10 hours a day uh during the non-frozen months and i'm just paraphrasing there but the overall sound of those evaporators is like a vacuum like sound of a vacuum cleaner or a toilet flush at about eight feet so the noise will not be considerable to anyone that lives around there at all uh the misting operations will be directed downwards so that they will not be going back up into this uh atmosphere and um they will not be killing any geese as part of a mitigation process the dnr has been [1:43:42] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** part of that program and they will potentially if it becomes an issue they will disrupt them but they will there will not be any um mitigation of that south sword the mobile sound study that took place uh in august was a one week uh time frame my concern with the mobile study was you know it is a place in time it's great to get those initial data points but data is only good if you compare it to something else at a later date and with the new runway that's coming people are concerned will there be a significant amount of noise and um and how would we know if that really is significant so there will be they have committed to a second study it will take [1:44:27] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** place the summer of 2023 because it doesn't make sense to run a study and have comparative data if it's in the fall later fall and trainings already basically concluded and the number of flights decrease so just know that there is the commitment to do that second study and this first study did uh end up with a few key takeaways and i know i'm i'm taking a little bit of time but i we have a wide viewership and i've i have heard many comments about this topic so according to this sound study and it is public the current noise is primarily on a airport property it is not extending beyond the perimeters [1:45:13] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** the new runway noise will also uh it's being modeled that it will also be on airport property every complaint that takes place now and that will take place in the future is individually addressed with pilots so they go out and say we received a complaint we've narrowed it down to your aircraft you know it turns out that some are you know yes my muffler is being addressed next week i have an appointment or whatever so just know that every complaint typically is not typically they are addressed with the pilots and most of the complaints if they're tracked back are to um an investigator they're they're too [1:45:59] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** like a handful of households so a lot of communication with those households trying to understand and trying to communicate back and forth but i felt a lot better walking away from this meeting than i did my first two meetings with this advisory group i feel like it's getting better established and now we actually have the study to um to rely or refer people to for information so um so that was that on december 1st and december 3rd was lady of the green i'd just like to say once again thank you to bcal who puts on such fabulous events all year long the nj provided cocky cookies and cocoa vague vines sang from stillwater high school our own city [1:46:45] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** staff the fire department brought santa over the police were there to help make sure everyone was safe and greeted folks our own staff put in public works put in many hours putting up all the lights around the city and so it was great and um our library as connie mentioned was there to make your own ornaments and sign up people for um library cards and their boy scouts and i said they'd be oh so surprised when they asked me if i wanted one of their um bracelets that our boy scouts were also there to sponsor so if you have a child or a grandchild or you're a teacher please encourage encourage our little people to get involved with scouts boys and girls they do great [1:47:32] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** things um then i'm sorry this has been a busier month than normal i received a very very nice note and i just want to make sure that it's recognized that matt i received a note from a resident of an inspiration and he was just complimenting you on your prompt attention he had asked for a sign from matami to be placed for months and months and it had gone unnoticed and matt had a new sign up there across from his property within days so thank you very much for that it's nice to get positive email we actually like that as a council but it doesn't happen as frequently as we would like uh and on december 11th we [1:48:17] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** have been asked by the chamber to participate in a gingerbread contest against our fellow city councils around the area and it sounds like four of us will be participating in that contest on december 11th down at the water street inn so if you want to check us out and come and vote for us um you may we'll be at the water street and this saturday uh building a gingerbread so over to staff reports i'm i promise next month i will be sure thank you very much for your support **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** thank you madam mayor calls members um november call volume was uh 86 compared to 69 in 2020. our year-to-date call volume is 852 compared to 867 in 2020 our monthly drills were the washington county emergency management and co response in addition to the events that you guys mentioned we attended the washington fire chiefs meeting the elections were at the fire station boy scout troop 113 from bayport came out to the fire station we did escort santa november 26 which was a great success too so we had a lot of compliments on that we do have our child seat clinic this uh [1:49:46] **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** this coming saturday from 9 to 12 appointments are needed for that so the information is actually posted on all the city websites the safety tip is make sure your smoke and seal alarms are working and change the batteries regularly check the date codes your smoke detectors on your smoke detector seal alarms smoke detectors life expectancy is ten years uh ceo it's only five to seven years so go and check them because i'll guarantee you when they fail it's gonna either be at two in the morning and i have to come out or entertain guests so with that i'll stand for questions **Mayor Michele Hanson:** any questions can you thank santa for us **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** yes we'll do that thank you the kids were jumping up and down it was so exciting thank you chief **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** chief eastman good evening madam mayor and council i want to thank you for acknowledging our contract and approving it and i understand you know your position with it could go to office staff and and maybe that's a good decision maybe it's not but when you started it goes there so it's thoughtful that you are responsible for the tax dollars and i appreciate that i would have uh like to acknowledge or maybe left the room i was a little awkward to be in here during that and it was probably not good for you guys but i appreciate you and thank you over the years um and most recently this past year with [1:51:17] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** all your support with what's going on in our law enforcement world so thank you um on october 7th we had a mandatory weapons training and all the officers attend per post board on the 31st you might have seen us out to include myself and we had reserves a few reserves our numbers are dwindling and officers in the neighborhoods with glow necklaces and candy and that was fun it was well received um i tried to talk to jill about next year maybe doing something incorporating with the halloween downstairs their scary basement but they're going to be under construction as my understanding so we'll have to come up with something else so that'll be my last halloween so i have to do something big um on the sixth we had officer nick [1:52:02] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** teske and officer brittany lapolsky that have now taken over alcohol in compliance checks as you know we had to do a couple uh renewals or double checks but everything's fine now just you know as you've got the memo to approve their uh licensing so um it says upcoming but obviously the lighting in the granite court on 12-1 and myself asked for ceruses cso tom rozich his father uh the power shift officer showed up in the middle as well as the night shift so we had a very large turnout because of where it lands with our shift change so um you know we had a fair amount of kids come through the squad and they give some candy and as soon as santa shows up you know they're not interested probably the warmest um light in the [1:52:48] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** green that i can recall is maybe one other one that was that warm but it was great so my carolers and everything it was nice to see you both and i missed you guys but i'm sure you have busy but it's a really nice event and if you can get there and get there next year it's so nice um i want to just add that as you know the new speed limit went into effect and i highlighted and i believe it you get a color copy as well and you can see the center it's open for the public there's a lot of highlighted speed education when you see speed education that might mean that they sat in or around your neighborhoods somewhere radar or lighter and then you'll see the written warming verbal warning and if it was egregious it was a [1:53:34] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** citation we're going to move towards citation now because it's been implemented for about a month however that's officer discretion obviously based off of priors and what have you i don't ever tell anybody when to issue a citation but i do you know send the message that now's the time to give educational information out and not you have to share that information some of them weren't aware of it so it's been helpful um i also want to wish everybody a happy holiday since we won't get together until after the new years happy new years and uh our initiated total co-response was 7635 today and i stand for questions **Mayor Michele Hanson:** any questions for the truth i just um want to check when i talked a little bit [1:54:20] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** before the meeting and um there was an issue that that arose on social media and kind of bringing the police staff into question and i just want to make sure and i always encourage people to reach out to the chief um that's what she's there for rather than post something that may or may not be accurate and true go to the source and um so just encourage people to do that and i know you do a good job handling **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** yeah thank you council member thank you i just wanted to add the best way to get a hold of this is actually called a non-emergency number the staff up here would have to call themselves and that's hard and it might be important if they see something suspicious or they want to report something call city hall if they want to talk to me they'll transfer it to me but [1:55:06] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** the best way to report it and the quickest response is the non-emergency number 439-9381 or 9-1-1 because it goes to the same dispatcher and if they're on several calls they'll just ask if it's emergent um and they'll put you on hold for a second if it's just more of a i just wanna sort of know so keep that in mind and i appreciate you saying that thank you there's always more information i'm happy to answer anything and we have and have had whatever cameras since 2017 and squad cameras so it's easy to figure out where people are and what they're doing off their logs actually gps logs where they are so i can get information and it may just happen that my officers are human and they need a reminder but often [1:55:53] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** not all the facts are out there so i appreciate that thank you **Connie Dahl:** any other questions i just wanted to thank you and the staff for all the education you've done so far on the speed limit change because i know that's a little extra work that you've had to go through and have you what's your general sense of it does it seem like it's there's still a lot of people out there that don't know specifically inspiration it sounds like in that area probably because they just get off you know out of their community they're right into you know higher speeds so it seems adjustment seems a little bit differently but um you know a lot of people appreciate it you know at the end of the day um my staff are here to serve all you guys that's why you don't have your own police department it's it's what you want whether it's addressing [1:56:38] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** people that need to be reminded to pick up their dog feces or speed control i mean i truly mean it that's why you have your police department so whatever you need directed patrols in areas that's what you should bring to me **Connie Dahl:** i have been contacted by a few people that live near anderson and it's still an issue and they're they're when they're all cleaned up in the streets now they're going through the alleys somebody's back into their garage and they were always hit by somebody you know going 20 30 down the alley i don't i don't know what streets they are exactly but i've had a few people approaching me about that was that since the new yeah speed limit **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** yeah please encourage them just to call me it's an email out okay and then they go sit in their alleys and then you know it's just learned behavior it works out pretty well but please tell [1:57:24] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** them to call me shoot me an email maybe they don't want it they can remain anonymous i can't legally share that information if they say that to me nor would i yeah so but i appreciate that or shoot me an email if they don't want to reach out to me hey this is what i need to give you guys yep that'd be great yeah **Mayor Michele Hanson:** something else that even though we have the new flashers and i think that we should do another article in the newsletter about where the flashers are located which is across 95 but i almost hit a gentleman going from city hall's bayport or our little parking lot here going to the legion cutting across without look they didn't look you can't see them on fridays they do for the fish fry frequently and they won't they don't go [1:58:10] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** down to the crosstalk i can't remember which evening it was but you see it a lot on fridays when they're going to the fish fry it's very dangerous and maybe just stepping in at the legion and just having a reminder finder sure um you know i i want them to go in the legion it's a great it's a great place to go i just want them to get there right absolutely and i don't want to be responsible for hitting someone and i've been like creeping along and it's still just it can happen so fast absolutely sure **Mayor Michele Hanson:** connie you're the only one that hasn't talked i asked a question **Connie Dahl:** [Laughter] you do a great job happy new year earlier thank you [1:58:57] **Joe Hansen (Public Works Director):** thank you thank you chief public works director client may remember the council out of the model temperatures and spotlight department so time to conduct and have more um work outside reasonable environment putting up decorations definitely a little easier when it's 50 degrees out than what it's like 20 10 below and we've also had the opportunity to do more street sweeping than normal um so i'm helping out the same current chamber um some of the bigger projects we've had to under the lightning green that's what's going to mention uh i'd just like to thank blackwood spawner um and stillwater for providing the trees [1:59:43] **Joe Hansen (Public Works Director):** um they've been a great partner with the basketball players um also a little the 6th noodle road project that is probably about 95 complete there's some sewer lining that still needs to occur but other than that there's not too many items another good thing would be the water legacy property um we've got some entrance rolling and then some signage to better indicate how to get down there and then finally the booster station upgrades the advertisement of bits for my project will be open on december 8th and uh staff will be reviewing them and coming back to the council wanted recommendation as mayor mentioned before just like to really reiterate the acknowledgement for uh tim garcia's resignation just knowing him the past five years he's been a big help um in the public works department and [2:00:52] **Joe Hansen (Public Works Director):** just his institutional knowledge and help with every project out there will be certainly missed **Michele (Councilmember):** who's gonna run the street sweeper **Connie Dahl:** yeah that was my question tim knows he doesn't keep that or anything i know [Laughter] and is there gonna be any sort of um ceremony or like little party or get together anything for tim **Adam (City Staff):** we can trick him into it it sounds like maybe come on there is a it's not for him it's for everybody else and he has to show up we are working on the event planning okay we have two months **Mayor Michele Hanson:** great job in the village green by the way the lights are probably the best i've ever seen so great job dude and another um just plug for black woods we actually have been getting our trees that's a great local really close little tree farm is that just right down here yep can't cut through on 30th stage yeah yeah highly recommend it great thank you assistant administrator taylor **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** adam council uh the city conducted a special election on tuesday november 2nd on behalf of the stillwater area school district to vote on the referendum and levy as well as a seat on the school board [2:02:24] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** i just wanted to recognize and thank the public works department fire department and all my election judges for their help getting the polling place ready and assisting with voters on election day so thanks very much um a draft of the fall edition of the city's e-newsletter bayport brief was distributed to individuals that subscribed to email notices and updates via the city website that was done on november 28th if you don't already subscribe to receive those updates it's the electronic newsletter but there's more important news and updates and events that are announced that way so we'd encourage you to sign up for that the next print newsletter of baycord news is planned for early in this winter 2022. [2:03:10] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** for the past several months the city has been soliciting applicants to fill vacancy on the planning commission the application deadline was november 15th and the city received one application and letter of interest from carl bliss as was mentioned earlier and he was appointed on the consent agenda this evening steph will be scheduling an orientation with carl in the coming weeks to prepare him for his first meeting on the planning commission and then finally the allen king plant advisory panel met in october and that consisted of a group exercise whereby stakeholders express strengths and assets weaknesses and liabilities opportunities and then threats for redevelopment of the site and the november meeting focused on establishing visions goals and values [2:03:56] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** based on that group exercise and a final meeting will be held in december followed by a formal presentation of the advisory panels recommendations and findings to the oak park heights city council in january i stand for questions **Mayor Michele Hanson:** i have a question regarding excel energy if you i read the article in the gazette and agree with the request for bonding funds made by oak park heights to our state representatives and in there they talk about the that they will be taking down the tower and so i would as a member of representing us i if you could um pay close attention to how they plan to bring that down if it is just imploded the pollutants [2:04:42] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** will be distributed all over bayport and other places so not only its demolition but the demolition and the transport of all of the contaminants to get them away from our you know so that they do not transfer and blow even further into our city so that's a really key interest to me right **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** yes of course so thank you sarah you're welcome **Connie Dahl:** sir would you mind letting me know when that december meeting is i assume public can like come and listen if they want or is it a zoom meeting **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** they haven't been um allowing for a zoom [2:05:28] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** opportunity it's my understanding it's mostly by invite only just because this is a stakeholders group and people have been designated or appointed specifically to represent an organization or entity i think um they're held at archives city hall i think you could come and they would be open to the public but i can get you more information yeah if you wouldn't mind i think i watched a little bit of the meeting where they were signing or talking about who to have on that committee and it sounded like it could anyone could actually go but yeah um so the next meeting is on december 15th that is a wednesday okay and it's um 6 30 to 8 30 p.m okay but i can definitely provide you more information **Connie Dahl:** thank you you're welcome [2:06:17] **Adam (City Staff):** all right adam all right thank you sir um we've gone over several other things on my update so i'm just going to touch on a couple quick aspects um in november i met with i'm the city's official representative on the inspiration stewardship foundation uh councilmember dahl is serving as a resident non-official on that board and there are three others two from the inspiration hoa appointment uh we've been looking at the structure and how best to get that up and running or at least have that role and i met with a third-party attorney um a couple weeks ago i have not yet heard back [2:07:03] **Adam (City Staff):** any follow-up information uh but i will keep the council posted and we were trying to get another meeting scheduled for that foundation um to discuss with the attorney our options uh we've had a couple a little bit of some challenges in the administration department staffing-wise um we we are regret to inform the council that we had another employee go out and leave medical leave and then she decided not to come back so we will be looking at the administration staffing going forward and how best to resolve that opening um so we'll be discussing that with you coming up um i just want to again speaking of staffing [2:07:50] **Adam (City Staff):** the job for tim's replacement public maintenance worker sorry public works maintenance worker um um is posted uh and so we are accepting applications for that so please apply if you are interested and we do have several holidays coming up throughout the rest of the month um so check the city calendar but other than that i stand for questions and we're just doing end-of-year tie-ups and uh getting everything ready for the new year **Mayor Michele Hanson:** you should add questions seems like we could use um tim's letter of recognition to promote the job because he made it sound like he loved his job so much it's pretty great it was really nice [2:08:36] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** very very well he's probably one of the three people watching kim thank you but uh tim loves baby part perhaps between him and uh mary goulette i don't know anybody else loves dave moore but tim is right there he's been an excellent employee for many long time we are going to be sad to lose except when he's traveling to his wife but it sounds like he's going to do but it's good for him we're happy it's i guess it's been a long time he deserves it certainly does so thank you very much thanks to everyone and the staff and happy holidays to all of you as well as well as our council um does anyone have any last minute items yes [2:09:40] **Connie Dahl:** twice for todd's drive until the 17th so here at city hall effort thank you for that as well so um if there's no further questions or comments but someone like to make a motion to adjourn **Michele (Councilmember):** i'm a reacher **Mayor Michele Hanson:** thank you michelle and say a second **Connie Dahl:** i'll say also thank you **Mayor Michele Hanson:** fall in favor [Music] [2:10:27] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** you