[00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. Before we get into the regular agenda, I would just like to take a moment to begin with a moment of silence to honor former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband who tragically lost their lives in June. Um, we did not have a meeting in July, so we didn't have an opportunity to think about this. So, um, and also keep state senator John Hoffman and his wife who are wounded and all elected officials in our thoughts with the hope that such tragedies never happen again. All right. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda is the approval of the regular agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the regular agenda? [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Move to approve the regular agenda. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: Second. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cornett. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cremona. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Anderson. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Rog. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Mayor Giefer. I. Uh, approval of the consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: I will motion to approve the consent agenda. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Second. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cornett. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Hi. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cremona. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: Hi. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Anderson. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: Hi. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Rog. John? We can't hear him. Council member Rog. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I. [00:00] Kristina Handt: Did you do the mayor? You didn't do it. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Mayor Giefer. I. Okay. Uh, next on the agenda, staff agenda. City engineer Brad Reifsteck, consideration of trail study. And we have Brad on. Um, Brad, before we get started, um, could you please provide just a quick summary of the first state of the project, including the city's cost share that we did for the first part, um, starting um, from Hilton Trail to the west there? I don't think all the council members were aware when we did that. Just a quick recap. [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Mr. Mayor. Um, I believe the cost share for that trail was around 25 to $30,000. I don't have the numbers exactly in front of me. Um, but that again was a cost share for, um, I believe it was a trail segment along 75th Street here as well as part of either the federally funded project or that resurfacing of the, um, trail on the north side. Um, but I believe it was around 25 to $30,000 that the city, um, yeah, participated with the county on that project. Um, any other questions regarding that project or should I jump into my agenda item here? [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Ready for him to jump? [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: Yeah, we're ready for him. [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: So, good evening, mayor, members of the council. Um, tonight I'm seeking a motion to approve funding for the CSAH 12 trail improvements in the amount of $25,000. And I think rather than going uh line by line through my my um staff report here, I'm going to share my screen. I've got a better map that's colored. Um, I believe the one in your packet is um is black and white. So, let me see if I can't share my screen. Can everybody see see the screen or the trail—the the exhibit? [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Yeah. [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Okay, great. So again, so this trail uh project was initiated by uh the Mahtomedi school district and Washington County by applying for a uh safe routes to school grant. They were successful in getting that grant. Um, the grant was in the amount of $75,000. And so on the map here, you see there's two trail segments. This one in blue um is from the school entrance uh at the intersection of 75th Street and then it goes north about 400 ft into their entrance. They want to try to get the students off uh the streets, walking in the streets and riding their bikes in the streets and off to a safe route so that uh they can get connected to these uh other trails that are within their uh school campus. And then the other segment is the one on the south side of 75th Street shown in red here and this would be the city of Grant's responsibility. Now, um, even though the the the the grant that uh was secured, um, the eligible costs uh are only for construction and uh the engineering costs would not be eligible as part of uh those grant funds. And so, uh, I believe part of Washington County's policy is that they have a 50/50 split, um, for engineering on these types of projects. Um, so the school uh district would be responsible for 50% of the engineering on this trail segment here in blue and the city of Grant uh is responsible for 50% of the engineering um costs of of this trail segment here. Um, I do have a breakdown of the cost estimate the county sent me as part of the uh grant application. Um, they've got an estimate of around $183,000 for engineering. Um, and then you can see the the construction cost here of $555,500. Now, um, we met, Kim and I met with the county to discuss the, uh, the cost of the project and if there were ways that, uh, potentially we could, um, get a better handle on the costs. Um, you know, the two two items that jump out at me right away are the cost for the retaining wall of $200,000. Um, and then another line item for $100,000 for drainage. Um, if we jump back to the map, uh, the retaining wall uh is to limit the construction limits along this large wetland um that is just adjacent to the shoulder of the road. So there's a large wetland complex right here. They build a wall to uh minimize the construction limits and hopefully not get into having to mitigate uh the wetland or impacting the wetland. Um, and then I'm assuming the $100,000 for drainage is um potentially for any um issues that they would have with building this trail uh along the shoulder of the road. Uh, they may look at options of putting curb and gutters or some other barriers that would prevent the the street drainage from draining, um, you know, transversely I guess across the the shoulder and into the existing ditch. So they've got some money um in the estimate for that. Now, one thing you have to remember about these estimated or these estimates is that they're um a little bit inflated. And so when Kim and I met with the county, we wanted to have a better understanding of, you know, is there things that we can do to to minimize the cost for the city. And out of that meeting, um, we came away with the county willing to phase this project for the city. Um, and so that they're willing to phase the project in two phases. The first phase would be a preliminary design phase where we would—the county actually would lead the project. They would go through the process of of setting the horizontal and vertical alignments and having a really good understanding of the limits of the construction grading and also with those limits would come the limits of that retaining wall. And so we would have a better understanding, um, of all those costs and—and I'm assuming they would—they would go down from where they are at in the estimate today. And so, um, tonight I'm here to present uh to you folks a couple of options here. I guess uh the one the staff is recommending is to move forward with approving the $25,000 to do the preliminary design. Um, but the other two options for the county or the council to consider would be not to fund the project at all. Uh, and just it would terminate today. Um, and I think in that in that scenario the the school district would have to go back to the safe routes to school uh application at the state and uh amend um the original application. And so this could be at risk as well uh potentially. Um, but that's—that's another option or, you know, the the third option would be just to go ahead and fund the entire project now. Um, estimated $183,000. So, um, I guess that's it in a nutshell. If uh you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: So to confirm, because there's a 50-50 split, the entire project would be approximately 90,000 on the city? [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Yes. Uh, if we funded the full entire project today, right? So the again, the engineers cost estimated 183,000, the city share would be 90,000 or just over $90,000. But even if we didn't do it all today, I mean 25 is just the first step and then you would—like you would come back and eventually get up to that 90,000 figure. [00:00] Kristina Handt: Correct. Correct. Yep. So the 25—the county is going to kick in 25,000. Uh, the city would kick in the 25,000 for the preliminary design. That money wouldn't be lost, right? If—if we decided to move forward, because we're doing essentially, you know, a 30 to 60% complete design. So that money wouldn't be lost in the design; we would just move to the next step, which is the final design. And mayor and council members, I'll just add to that, the hope absolutely is that those engineering costs come much lower after they—they do the design. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Right. So kind of reiterate what we just said here. So if we approve the 25K for preliminary engineering, that would leave us responsible for another 92K, half of the 183. And then of the potential external funding sources, it appears at least some of those could be used for feasibility studies and preliminary engineering. And um, correct me if I'm wrong, we just talked about this Kim and Karen. We budgeted project for Washington County 30K for 2025, which this 25 could come out of, right? [00:00] Kristina Handt: In the draft budget it was 50,000 for 2026. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: For 2026, right? Um, so the question would be um, for these potential funding sources, um, could we use any of that funding for future engineering and or construction expenses related to the project? [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Yes, we—we certainly could do that. Uh, this—this project uh most likely wouldn't be built until 2027. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. Design next year. And could we, if we let's say we kicked in 25k now, um, could we pay oursel back out of the um, external funding? Would—would that be talking about the the grants that are available um from the county? [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Yeah. Uh, yes, potentially. Um, the one thing that they did mention to us that is that the the amounts that we would receive were—would be small, like between five and $10,000 a year, and typically they don't—wouldn't give more than um one applicant uh for one project during one cycle. So we could go back next year and apply for another five or 10 grand for this project. So, um, you know, it's not a lot, but it, you know, everything helps, right? [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Yeah. So, I guess it takes—it takes time to apply for those grants. I have no idea how much time would take. Um, are you saying, Brad, like if your time um was spent towards applying for those grants, that it would be worth it? [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: We would—yeah, yeah, I think so. I think with the help of the county, um, I'm sure they—they've got this process streamlined. Um, and so it would be a pretty quick application. Um, I'm not thinking more than probably two or three hours to put the application together, mayor. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: So then, um, in addition to the the question before the council, if we would wish to approve the 25K, are you also seeking um direction from the council to um apply for the external funding? Because I think that would need to come from council. [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Yep, I think you're right. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. Yep. Um, and I have one other question. Um, are—at this time, Brad, are you aware of any future asks the county may have uh of the city regarding this project? Um, or are they only asking us to split engineering costs and then, like you—you seem to say before, they—they'll cover the actual construction costs at this... [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Yeah, I'm—I'm not aware of anything right now, mayor. Uh, I know the Lake Elmo interchange at 36, uh, there's no cost sharing for us for that project. And I know they've got another uh project on Manning. I think it's a mill and overlay and maybe um a potential trail project there, but I—I haven't heard of any uh potential cost sharing for the city on that project either yet. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: So, okay. So for planning for the future, if we approved this one today, it'd be 25,000 and then likely next year it would be 65,000 if the budget didn't go down lower with respect to the engineering. [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Correct. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: And that 65, we could hopefully get a grant that maybe would cover approximately 10,000 to get us down to like 55. [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Correct. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. Greg, do you have any questions? [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: No, they've been answered. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: John? [00:00] Council Member John Rog: Well, yeah, I mean Brad, did you say that there could be multiple years for 5 to 10,000 for grants potentially? [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Usually, usually they don't—for this—this is from what I've been told from the county—is they typically don't uh do it in um the same cycle. So, the cycle starts at the end of November. So, if we want to apply for this, we've got to do it, you know, soon for this cycle. And then the next cycle starts after November 1st is what I—I think I read. So, then we can apply next year again for this same um project. So, in theory, we could potentially get 20 grand in grants on this project. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: Yeah. [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: But she didn't sound hopeful that we would get 10 grand. You said it'd be more on the lower side of, you know, between five and 10 grand, but um, it all depends on how much money is available, too. I mean, they don't have a big pot of money, right? And everybody's, you know, putting in applications, but she thought they had a little bit of money left this year that if we got ours in before the end of the cycle, that we could potentially get at least $5,000 of funding this year. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I think Washington County has more money than we do. [00:00] Brad Reifsteck: Well, not in this fund. They don't apparently. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: Well, perhaps they might. Perhaps they should. Maybe. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Um, Ben, do you have any questions? [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: No. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: I have one more. So, we have 30k budget for 2025. Um, I guess the question to—to staff or council is if we don't spend that money right now, I'm not aware of any other partnership projects that we could spend it on. Now it's not saying we have to spend it, but we have the money available for this 25k and there would be matter of um, with the remaining 92k, which is our half of the 183, whether we could get external funding sources and/or budget for um um extra beyond the 50k that was budgeted. So, it kind of seems to me if we um go ahead and okay the 25K, then uh, we would probably want to change the the budget for 2026 from 50K to um something more to that because we—it's kind of unknown the external funding um that would come through. So, does that makes—makes sense that we would... [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I think we need to support this, at least get it moved ahead to get some final numbers. Yeah. While the trail goes just a short piece down to one road, I—I—I see the importance there with the school nearby and at least get it far enough along where the—the school and this—and the county can take advantage of it. If the costs come in at planned or—or a little bit under, that'd be good. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. I mean, it seems like we've already kind of budgeted to help with some project um of 30,000 and so based on the current budget that we have and for next year, it's pretty close. And so, uh, yeah, it's a good project. It helps our students uh in the district and obviously goes towards safety, which is important for all of us. So, can you rephrase that in the motion? [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I can. I would move that we would approve the preliminary budget for 25,000 to go to—allocate towards this partnership with the county for the CSAH 12 trail improvements and apply for grants. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Please do that as well. Please apply for grant for this year before the November 1st deadline and then next year for the November 1st forward. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I'll second that. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cornett. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cremona. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Anderson. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: Hi. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Rog. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: Hi. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Mayor Giefer. I. Okay. See, that brings us down to—no action items. City Attorney Amanda Johnson is here with us in person tonight. It's very good to see you, Amanda. Um, would you like to walk us through um, your items, please? [00:00] Amanda Johnson: Yes. Uh, thank you, your honor. Council, in your packet this evening... [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: You can—you can call me, mayor. I know "your honor" is a little bit too—too much formal. Sorry. I know you're used to being in court, right? [00:00] Amanda Johnson: Yeah, it's—it's habit. So, you're going to hear me accidentally say it. Okay. Um, so in your packet this evening is a memorandum regarding a proposed ordinance that was also in your packet and we—it was um, published on the website 10 days prior to this meeting when um, we recently had some code enforcement matters that you know went relatively close to requiring court action. And as a part of that situation, I took a look into the code and we don't currently have something in the—in our ordinances that clearly states that we can assess costs related to code enforcement actions. Um, and so what that's essentially what this ordinance in front of you tonight does. It gives sort of broad authorization for the city to take whatever sort of uh, legal action is necessary to enforce our code. So that could be a code enforcement action, that could be a criminal citation, that could be, you know, the whole gamut of abatement—all of our tools that are available to us. It uh, gives us clear authority to enter the property if we need to do so for inspections. The caveat to that, uh, it is important to understand that if somebody were to tell us to get off their property, we would need to go get an administrative warrant. But it's helpful to have a general understanding that we have, I would call it "soft authority" to enter people's property. But we can—if we're told to leave, we have to respect that and go get a—an order from a judge. Uh, it clearly states that if there is court action, that they have 60 days to appeal, that's statutory as well. Um, but it's—it's largely in the ordinance so that staff remembers we have to wait 60 days to do the thing, um, whatever that thing is that we might have won. In this situation, it may have been forcing the removal of a sign, right? So, we would have had 60 days before we could actually enforce that. Um, it also says that uh, what—assuming that we would win the court action or whatever the legal action is that we've taken, that we are entitled to reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. All of the abatement costs, basically everything that relates to that court code enforcement action would first be sent to the property owner as essentially a bill. If they do not pay, then those costs would be assessed against the property at the end of the calendar year as an unpaid assessment. It—so essentially, it allows for the city to ensure collection of our costs associated with enforcing our code. That is a summary of what is in the ordinance. I am available for questions. Uh, but I am looking for council, if you're willing to uh, to approve this ordinance tonight, and I can walk you through what those steps would be. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Um, any questions? Ben, thank you for raising your hand. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Um, so it says "rare and extreme circumstances" and while I assume most of the people here on the staff and everyone have good intentions, like, what does that mean? Because later down the road that could get changed into something that's maybe not so rare or uh, extreme. So, how could we encapsulate that into a more definitive wording to make it like, "hey, we took these steps and now we're at this step" instead of "this is a rare thing"? What, you know, it doesn't mean anything to me. Thank you. [00:00] Amanda Johnson: Council, I would say we could—we could amend the words. Uh, we don't have to have them in there at all, but the idea is that the city recognizes that legal action would be sort of the—the last resort. So, first you're going to obviously send them letters, phone calls, potentially have uh, a building inspector show up on the property and have conversations with them uh, warnings of that nature before you would move to court action, is recognizing that this is sort of the last step that the city would be taking. That's what that language is intended to imply. And we're not looking to... [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: Oh, I'm sorry that—I was just going to go back onto that. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Oh, go ahead. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: So, to that end, if we could strike maybe that part, the "rare or extreme," and just put in "those limited those situation circumstances where a city has in its judgment exhausted all other reasonable..." because we've kind of encapsulated the purpose of it, which we've exhausted all other reasonable means, but this is now our last resort. And that way then your concerns about what's the definition of "rare and extreme" there can probably be whole variety—we've eliminated that concern. So striking "rare or extreme"—that's kind of something that I'm throwing out there as perhaps would alleviate your concern about that and then also still meets the whole underlying policy which is we want to first exhaust all other reasonable means to achieve compliance, which is in there already. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Yeah, that makes sense to me. I mean, it's uh, reading it, it just seemed very—I didn't understand what "rare or extreme" meant. So, just some word in there, I think, would help make it clear, especially if you read the policy later on if somebody were to read it, like, "oh, okay, we have taken these steps and now we're at this step to go forward and fix the problem." [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Was there anything else? [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: No, was it? I thought you had something else though in another... Oh, yeah. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: So, let's—okay. Let—I think Ben was in the middle of talking, so um, let's uh, try not to interrupt. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: No, no, that help. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Well, I—I—I'm leading the meeting. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: Oh, sorry. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: So, get grab my attention and—and I'll let you come into conversation. I just want to make sure we don't get in the habit of um, interrupting each other. Um, that being said, is—um, is everyone clear what um, the suggested ch—I guess maybe I'm not clear. I don't know. Greg, are you clear on John? [00:00] Council Member John Rog: Yeah, it's—it's—it's you know, I guess I echo Ben's issue of, you know, what is "rare and extreme." So if we could do a little bit more to um, say what the actual process is for probably step by step and then this would be the final step, something of that nature. [00:00] Kristina Handt: Um, well, and just a point of clarification. So, this ordinance is really the authority to assess costs if there's an—if the council wants an ordinance that spells out what is our code enforcement procedure, aka first we do a compliance letter or how—you know, however we want to do that, that would be something separate from this ordinance. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. Go ahead. [00:00] Amanda Johnson: Mr. Mayor council members, I I what council member Cremona did suggest was just to remove that—that statement "rare or extreme," not necessarily more definitions. [00:00] Kristina Handt: Mr. Mayor council members, I did want to make that clarific—clarification as well. Everything she's described in terms of enforcement, the city already does. What this ordinance does does is lets the city recoup the costs. That's all it is. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Just to make sure I am also understanding this correctly. Uh, we're recouping costs when we have to go through all when we hit this like final thing. If somebody sends a citation, that's normal. We're not trying to recoup that. Just when we've exhausted everything else. [00:00] Amanda Johnson: Correct. Correct. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Okay. Thank you. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Um, that's all my questions. Okay. You're looking for a motion. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I'd make a motion to approve um the verbiage as we discussed for recouping costs. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I'll second that. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cornett. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cremona. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Anderson. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Rog. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Mayor Giefer. I. [00:00] Amanda Johnson: So then uh, the next document is a resolution, resolution 2025-11. And what that does is it authorizes summary publication of the ordinance. So the city doesn't have to pay the money to publish every single word of this ordinance. It's just a summary of the ordinance. It saves money. Um, so I'm looking for a motion to approve resolution 2025-11 authorizing that summary publication. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I will—I'll make a motion to approve 2025-11 for summary publication. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I will second. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cornett. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cremona. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Anderson. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Rog. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Mayor Giefer. Hi. Thank you, Amanda. New business. We've got the—we received the 2024 audit at the very last second before the meeting. So, Kim, thank you for um, working with their auditors to get that to us. And now procedurally, we need to accept the audit. And so, that's what we're looking for motion for here, unless anyone has any questions. Got Sharon here and Kim, but seems pretty straightforward accepting the audit. So, we would need a motion. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: A motion to approve the audit. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: Accept the audit. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: Accept the audit. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Second. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cornett. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cremona. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Anderson. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Rog. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: I. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Mayor Giefer. I. Unfinished business. There is none. Discussion items. Staff updates. Do we have any updates from staff that we haven't talked about? Brad, no. Looks like no. Um, I will turn it over to council members before I share my own updates. Does anyone else have anything to share or—go ahead Greg? [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I'd like to discuss McKusick at a future meeting. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: McKusick. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: Um, just elaborate with the the development happening up there and, uh, as part of the road discussion and the street and the CIP that it was adopted. I think with the development coming and the developer planning to improve a significant portion, a majority of McKusick, maybe now would be the time for the city to see if there's an ability to leverage that to get the rest of it done. Uh, and maybe this can be held for the agenda item, but are you saying um, to have this—the city order a project or um, have Brad solicit McKusick residence, which I think he did not too long ago. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. So, so you wanted to... so, Brad, can you just jump? Is Brad still on? Okay. I think Kim, I think my understanding is correctly based on your nodding. So, um, it sounds like then what you are—you would be want to discuss is the potential for the city to order um, a project... [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: Yep, being new to the council, a and b, the developer is doing a significant portion of the road—a majority of it—and we're going to leave a piece undone. I think now would be the time to at least revisit the possibility of that being an assessment project, the city participate to some extent, the developers paying a large portion. I think at least have the discussion again. I know maybe it wasn't popular before, but the structure of that road is going to get done when the development's done. Now would be the time for the city to at least revisit it in my opinion. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Yeah, that—I know McKusick has been kind of a—a unique sore spot with in the point of contention of people that live there purposely don't want it improved and because I use it as a deterrence for through traffic, yet it becomes a potential safety hazard. So I think it is something that we need to—to look at. We can't just ignore that. And um, you know, also, and Brad's not here, but we look at the amount of money we spent potholing that—is that just putting lipstick on a pig or throwing good money, however you want to put it? So, I think that would be a—yeah, we're going to add what, 12 new property owners there that are going to be using it to... John? Ben? Um, Lindsay, would—would you uh uh, feel comfortable adding that to agenda? [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: Of course. [00:00] Council Member John Rog: Agenda. Okay, we got John. Yeah. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Okay. Yeah, I think I brought that up uh, when we had the person there. Um, and then uh, we were looking at the ability for the developer, because most of the people would be going out that way where the road wasn't paved to get to Manning and they would probably be going back to 96 uh, depending on where they're going to work. So that's—that's what I brought up last time that maybe can finish—finish the road. Uh, and I think the residents on that road would probably hope that the uh, developer would finish that road himself. But um, if we, you know, did that also, I guess that would be too much, but we'd have to mobilize at the same time so we didn't have any more mobilization costs when they're paving that. They pave the rest of it somehow. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Yeah. Okay. Um, good. There. Any other updates or comments to share? No. Okay. I have a—I have a couple um, things I would like to share and get the council's input. So, first of all, I want to thank the city staff um, for their response to the storm last Monday, particularly our road supervisor, Ken Johnson. Um, Ken was on the ground clearing roads as soon as the storm passed and did excellent job coordinating with our tree service vendor Woodchuck and city staff—myself. I think Kim, you would probably agree you had a lot of calls. Um, and um, and you also um, handled numerous calls from concerned residents and did a great job um, updating the city website with um, important information including how to sign up for text alerts. Because, you know, it's kind of a problem if you're counting on an email from Xcel and you don't have power, you don't have um uh, access to your email. So appreciate that. And I also um, received many calls from residents who are appreciative of Ken's efforts. Um, I did a lot of driving around surveying the damage, myself and Grant, speaking with residents who are hardest hit and I heard their gratitude directly. So I just wanted to thank um, the city's uh, response, the staff response to that storm because we got uh, from what I heard um, talking with um, the county, Grant got hit the hardest of all Washington counties. So it was a lot of effort. Um, just a quick update um, kind of tying into what uh, one of the items that we talked about earlier was the um, ADA requirements for websites. So on Tuesday I attended um, the MACTA conference. So MACTA stands for Minnesota Association of Community Telecommunications Administrators. So basically an extended community of the cable commission. So all the cable commissions in the state met and one of the notable learnings there, just in addition of keeping abreast what's going on with other cable commissions, was as we already talked about, the forthcoming ADA requirements for websites and recorded meetings. And and um uh, one of the things that they said is that um, there are attorneys that look to find websites in you know, other other um uh, platforms that aren't ADA uh, compliant and they look to find willing partners that would sue communities. And so they said it's um, best to be very proactive there and not, you know, let any um, anything to chance there. And so we—we're already planning on that. I think we'll be good. Um, and also I think I might have mentioned a little bit earlier in the workshop too um, because of um, the continuing trend of people to cut the cord, you know, cancel their um, their uh, cable um, services and go to streaming. The—the funds that we get from our—our own cable commission are going to be slowly trending downwards. And so, one of the things that MACTA is trying to do is drive legislative efforts to bolster funding um, for stations across the state to kind of make up with that um, that decreased revenue. So, um, also kind of want to touch upon, um, some some concerns, um, shared tonight regarding the complaint process. So, without addressing any specific comments made during public comment, it does seem like there might be an opportunity to potentially either um, tighten up the complaint process or—or maybe have a mechanism for the council just to get a better understanding of the process and the follow-up um, that the city does. Because I think that um, there—the council members would like to get visibility to that. So I just want to kind of open up a—a quick discussion and see if you guys agree and then if so, like what would be next steps um, potentially? Like, do we have a workshop to talk about it? Do we—we get a um, an update email from—from Kim or—or attorneys or what? Just to make sure like the council feels comfortable they're getting the the information that they would like to see regarding complaints. So any quick comments? [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I—I'd like a little more discussion just so we feel like either there's some resolution or there's what happened to it, because sometimes we get asked, "hey, what about that?" or, you know, public comment we hear things and I don't know the process of getting it resolved, if it was resolved, if it was a legitimate complaint or what. It'd be nice to just know on the council side some resolution of... I mean, sometimes no news is good news, but I think we'd like to be maybe a little more informed. [00:00] Kristina Handt: Mr. Council members, I think where I would start—um, I'm not discounting anything you're saying, but let me send an email out to—to all of you so you know what the process is. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. That—that would be a good first step. And that's kind of what I brought it up. And so, um, I think it is a good first step. We go with that. We—we um uh, see if that suits, you know, what we're looking for and if we think that there is um, some potential changes to the process or—or whatever, then we can—we can bring that up and let staff decide the best way to handle if it's going to be um, something that they can be test discussed at a staff meeting or if it needs to be an agenda item. But just um, one one specific point to go along with the Kim and and if you um, if this is already part of the process, fine to just include it. But if not, um, I—I noticed when we're looking at the, um, the budget um, we did see um uh, a line on like legal fees, complaints, right? So, we budget money to um, address complaints from a legal perspective. But I—I've never really seen anything like a response from attorneys. So, like is there—is that part of the process that um, maybe we could improve or like how—how that all works? How do we get from um, Jack inspecting... what you—you're going to jump in? [00:00] Kristina Handt: I was just going to say, Mr. Council members, I can include that in the email where the—where that billing comes from, what—what the legal fees are. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Yep. And Amanda, do you—it looks like you might have some questions yourself on and being new to the... [00:00] Amanda Johnson: Yeah, may—maybe just if I can get copied on that email, that's probably the best way. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Yeah. Yeah. So, we can start with there and then um, get the council up to speed and if we see any opportunities for tweaking, improvement, we can go from there. [00:00] Council Member Ben Cornett: Yes. Yeah. It'd be nice if like once we get that if maybe Amanda you could give insight on like what other cities do so we can kind of see um, if we want to keep it the same, we want to make it look more robust or, you know, what we want to do um, to help kind of provide insight of "here's what's typical." [00:00] Amanda Johnson: I—if I may, one thing is Grant is small and so you have a—you have a small staff and so to be fair if I'm going to compare it to a large city that has code enforcement officers, code enforcement teams, obviously they get to do more. Um, so I'd want to make sure I'm comparing an apple to an apple for you all. Otherwise, I'm setting everybody up to fail. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Oh, yeah. No, that—that's fair. I mean, I—I—it stands to um uh, reiterate with anyone that might be listening that Grant does not proactively go out and enforce code. We rely on the complaint process and um, you know, that seems to fit, you know, the size of our community and the resources we have. And so, um, good—good call out there. I think that has taken us to the community calendar. Who would like to read the community calendar? [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: I'll do it, Mr. Mayor. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Oh, good. Because I was just going to call on you. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: No, you're going to go alphabetical or closed session, right? All right. Mahtomedi Public School Board meeting: Thursday, August 14th and August 28th, Mahtomedi District Education Center, 7:00 PM. Stillwater Public School Board meetings: Thursday, August 14th at Stillwater City Hall at 7 PM. And the Washington County Commissioners meeting: Tuesdays, 9:00 AM at the Government Center. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Okay. And before we adjourn, we need to have a closed session. So we'll be... [00:00] Kristina Handt: Mr. Mayor, council members, what we do need is a motion to go into closed session. We don't have yet. [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: So moved. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Well, I was going to just say that, but... [00:00] Kristina Handt: Okay. [00:00] Amanda Johnson: So in for the agenda, if somebody could just make a motion and read out that whole thing—a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statute for the purposes of—if we could get that full motion, that would be great. And then yes, the only reason that you'll be coming back into open session is to adjourn the meeting. There will be no further business taken in the—in the open session. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: All right. So, it looks like—and I assume I cannot be in the closed session. [00:00] Kristina Handt: Say, what did you say? [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: That he can't be in. [00:00] Kristina Handt: Oh, John can't be. Yeah. [00:00] Amanda Johnson: Is this correct? Closed session. Close. Yes. Okay. Okay. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: So, um, it looks like—the Gregor Lindsay was prepared to make the motion with the verbiage that's in... [00:00] Council Member Lindsay Cremona: Council will hold a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13D.05 subsection 3B for the purposes of attorney-client privilege communications to discuss pending litigation. Aluca versus Grant, court file number 82-CV-25-3834. The council will not come back into open session after the closed session except to adjourn the meeting. [00:00] Council Member Greg Anderson: Second. [00:00] Mayor Jeff Giefer: Council member Cornett, I. Council member Cremona, I. Council member Anderson, I. Mayor Giefer, I. All right, we are now in closed session, so we'll have to excuse everyone except for council. Thank you. Thanks. Um, can we take a—a quick reset?