This transcript has been formatted with speaker names and estimated timestamps based on the context provided and the proceedings of the meeting. **Note:** The roll call identifies Councilmembers "Combata" (Tony Khambata) and "Dennis" (Steve Dennis). Although they were not on your provided list, they were active members of the council during this 2022 session. *** **[00:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, good evening. This is the October 19, 2022, Cottage Grove City Council meeting, which I'm calling to order. Our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance, so if you please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, will the clerk please do the roll? **[00:23] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Combata? **[00:25] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Here. **[00:26] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Dennis? **[00:27] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Happy to be here. **[00:28] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Thiede? **[00:29] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Here. **[00:30] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Olsen? **[00:31] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Happier to be here. **[00:32] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Mayor Bailey? **[00:33] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I'm here, thank you. Next on our agenda is Open Forum. This is the opportunity for anybody who wants to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda; you're welcome to do so. We did have a sign-up sheet out in the entryway and we did have one, I'll say, family that signed up. So, Wayne and Angie Butt at 7405 Lamar Avenue South. So if you want to go up—come on, Angie always gets nervous with this. **[01:04] Wayne Butt:** Good evening Mayor, Council, staff, and the residents of Cottage Grove. My name is Wayne Butt. My wife Angie and I reside at 7405 Lamar Ave South in Old Cottage Grove. We are here this evening to extend an invite to the Mayor, Councilmembers, Planning Commission, EDA, and staff. Angie and I are excited—super excited—about our new project in Old Cottage Grove, and we would like to give each of you a sneak peek of Angeline at 7404 Lamar Ave South in Old Cottage Grove. We have scheduled a meet and greet with our preferred vendors on Thursday, October 27th at 5:00 PM to capture the beautiful sunset at Angeline. Why are we doing this? As a [former] councilmember, as a successful business owner with my wife Angie in our community, Angie and I have put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and love into everything we do. It shows by the folks that have come to tell us how we are doing and the love they have behind us for fixing up and maintaining old Cottage Grove. We are not the only ones that are successful business owners in the Cottage Grove area; the Chamber is full of successful entrepreneurs and we are celebrating an Evening of Excellence on Wednesday, October 26th starting at 5:30 PM by reservations only out at the historic Furber Farm. Our business was built on trust with other small businesses in our community and we rely heavily on each of them to build and maintain what we are doing. After purchasing the site at 7404 in August of 2021, we advertised on the city website and reached out to the community on social media to lease the space for their business adventure. Many ideas came to us, but no one stepped up to the plate. Our goal is to do the best we can with what is given to us. Angeline is a masterpiece of art in the historic area of Cottage Grove. How did we come up with Angeline? It's easy: Angela and Wayne—drop the 'W' and you have Angeline. We took a building that was used for storing stuff; the land was riddled with debris and overgrown with vegetation, mostly buckthorn, and we turned it into something very beautiful and desired in our community. With the cooperation of the staff, the Planning Commission, and the Council, we would love to have Angeline be a destination wedding venue for folks all over the Metro, the state, and the country that desire to have a special, intimate place to celebrate. This is what is most desired when it comes to tourism in our community. Like the movie Field of Dreams: build it and they will come. We have a track record built on this that puts hundreds of people to work in our community to live, to work, and to play in the city of Cottage Grove. We thank you for your time this evening and look forward to seeing each of you on Thursday, October 27th at 5:00 PM out in Old Cottage Grove at Angeline for a magical evening. Thank you. **[03:25] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you. Thank you both. All right, so they were the only ones that actually signed up. Is there anybody else that wanted to speak during Open Forum that didn't happen to sign up out in the entryway? All right, seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the Open Forum and we'll move on to number five, which is Adoption of the Agenda. **[03:41] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Motion to adopt the agenda. **[03:42] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. **[03:43] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, we have a motion by Councilmember Dennis, second by Councilmember Thiede. All those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. Six is Presentations; we have none this evening. Seven is our Consent Agenda. Is there anything Council would like to pull on consent? **[03:59] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Move consent. **[04:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, seeing none—Councilmember Olsen is making a motion to move on consent. Do I have a second? **[04:05] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Second. **[04:06] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, we'll do a second by Councilmember Combata. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. So if you happen to be here for anything that was on tonight's consent calendar, all of those items have been approved. Moving right along, eight is Approved Disbursements. 8a is to pay the bills. **[04:22] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Motion to approve disbursements. **[04:24] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, we have a motion by Councilmember Dennis, second by Councilmember Combata. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. Next, we're into Public Hearings. We do have two public hearings this evening. The first one is Tall Weeds Assessments, and our Finance Director Brenda Malinowski... Brenda, welcome and thanks for coming in. **[04:52] Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director):** Mayor, members of the Council, tonight, as the Mayor had mentioned, we have two public hearings. The first one is for the assessment of removal of weeds on private property per city ordinance 4-3-1. There are requirements on weed and plant height. This year in 2022, our Code Enforcement Officer under that city ordinance did send 48 letters to property owners for violation of our ordinance, and each owner was given five days to abate the conditions or the City would come in and abate those conditions. In seven instances, the owners did not comply, and so we had a vendor go out and remove those conditions. After that time, we did send an invoice to the property owner for the cost of that abatement of those conditions. Then at your council meeting on September 21st, you declared those costs and ordered the assessment hearing to be held tonight for those seven properties. As required, we did send an assessment notice to those seven owners and we did publish it in the paper regarding the hearing tonight. Two property owners did pay, and so we did remove those from the assessment roll tonight. So, we are asking you to consider holding the public hearing tonight and then consider adoption of Resolution Number 2022-137 for the assessment of the removal of weeds on private property. If you do adopt that assessment, then we put that on a one-year assessment on the property tax rolls for next year. **[06:05] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay. Council, questions for Brenda at this point? All right, seeing none, since this is a public hearing, I will go ahead and open the public hearing. If there's anybody that wants to speak on this item, you're welcome to do so at this time. All right, seeing no one out there, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing and Council, I'll look for a motion. **[06:22] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Motion to adopt Resolution 2022-137 adopting the assessments for tall weed removal. **[06:27] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Combata. Do I have a second? **[06:30] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Second. **[06:31] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Councilmember Olsen. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. And you get to stay right there, Brenda. So the next one is Hazardous Properties. **[06:45] Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director):** Mayor, members of the Council, Minnesota State Statute 463 does provide cities the ability to assess costs associated with removal or elimination of public health or safety hazards from private property. There was one property in 2022 that a notice was sent about hazardous conditions on private property related to trash removal. That property owner did not abate those conditions, and so the City did abate those conditions. Once we abated them, we did send them an invoice for the cost of that abatement, and at your meeting on September 21st, you declared those costs to be assessed, you ordered the preparation of the assessment roll, and called the public hearing for this evening. After that time, we did, as required by Minnesota State Statute 463, publish it in the paper and we did send a notice to the property owner. So for tonight, you are asked to hold the public hearing and consider adopting the Assessment 2022-138 for the removal of the public safety hazards from this property. If you do adopt that assessment, it will be added onto the tax roll for one year. **[07:46] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, again, same thing. Council, any questions for Brenda on this one? All right, this is also a public hearing, so I will go ahead and open the floor. If anybody wants to speak on this particular item, you're welcome to do so at this time. Seeing no one, I will go ahead and close the public hearing and we'll look for a motion. **[08:04] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** I'll move for us to adopt Resolution 2022-138 adopting assessments for hazardous conditions removal. **[08:11] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so I have a motion by Councilmember Dennis and second by Councilmember Thiede. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Brenda. Next on our agenda, 10 is Bid Awards; there are none this evening. 11 is Regular Agenda; we do not have anything specific this evening. 12 is Council Comments/Requests. I'll start down with Councilmember Combata. **[08:39] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Thank you, Mayor. I don't have anything at this time. **[08:42] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, sounds good. Thank you. How about Councilmember Dennis? **[08:45] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Thanks, Mayor. I will yield my time. **[08:47] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, I'm going to keep on moving down here. Councilmember Thiede? **[08:50] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Well, just as I usually do, we've got the Monster Bash parade coming up as part of the Strawberry Fest festivities, and that is on October 29th, which is a week from Saturday. I heard it's going to be nice weather again, maybe. But that's at 10 o'clock and it's down by the District Service Center. If you want to be in the parade, you can find the application online at cottagegrovestrawberryfest.com. Fill it out. It's a fantastic time. If you just want to come watch the parade—everybody loves a parade, right? So come on down and have some fun. **[09:34] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, thank you. It is a fun time as long as it's not raining or snowing. Councilmember Olsen? **[09:41] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you, Mayor. I just want to take a moment this evening to tip my cap to our Public Safety Department for what I considered to be two really fun, exciting events for the families here in the city of Cottage Grove. We had our Police Department open house followed the week after—just this last Saturday, in fact—by our Fire Department open house. Having had the opportunity to attend both, I can tell you they were both very busy. Lots of families came out to meet their heroes in the Police Department and in the Fire Department, and they had an opportunity to enjoy good food by our Cottage Grove Lions, who donated their time to cook for both events. All of the proceeds from the sale of that food, which totaled just over $1,100, is actually being donated back to the Cottage Grove Safety Board, so we thank the Lions for that. We also had the Youth Service Bureau on hand, we had Beyond the Yellow Ribbon on hand, and we had several other non-profits including the Public Safety Board, who were there selling the pink patches for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So again, really, really nice job to everybody who planned and executed the event. I want to take a minute and give special thanks to Mike Dandel from the Fire Department, because it's my understanding Mike was sort of the head coordinator for that event at the Fire Department this last Saturday. And then Dan Schoen and a number of the other police officers and members of the Public Safety Board who helped coordinate the Public Safety open house. Both were really, really popular. And then before I turn it back to you, Mayor, I just want to remind everybody that it is an election year. Not sure if you've been watching TV or listening to the radio, but if you have, you're probably keenly aware there have been one or two commercials on there. It's really important that people get out to vote. Vote however you choose to vote—that's up to you—vote your conscience, but please exercise your right as a citizen to cast a ballot in the election. It could not be easier. You can either choose to vote on Election Day or you can choose to vote early absentee in person right here at the South Washington County Service Center, which is essentially our next-door neighbor right here. It's right out on County Road 19 and you can go between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM and cast your ballot in an absentee format, which means you won't have to worry about getting out on Election Day. Again, for people who haven't been watching the last few weeks, I'll remind you that once you've cast your ballot and that gets captured by the Secretary of State, you will no longer get the junk mail and the phone calls and all the rest of it because your name comes off the voter rolls. So that means the candidates will leave you alone, and if for no other reason than that, it's probably a really good reason to go vote early. And with that, Mayor, I'll turn it back to you. **[12:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, thank you. The only item that I just wanted to bring up—I want to first of all thank my colleagues up here and also specifically Councilmember Dennis for standing in for me over the last couple weeks. For those in the public, I also want to say thank you for the many words of support regarding the passing of my dad. It was a crazy three to four weeks, or some more actually than that, but it was really nice to know that I had the support of the Council here and all of our staff and the community. The number of messages and flowers and cards and notes was over the top, so it was just very, very awesome. I want to say that, and then thank you also for stepping in on a bunch of the ribbon cuttings which, you know me, I love doing those things, but I'm sure now you do too—so it was pretty amazing. I just wanted to thank everybody out there for sharing your thoughts and prayers with myself and my family. With that, the only other item that we have on our agenda this evening is a Workshop session, which is open to the public. We will be going into the training room, and the purpose of this workshop is a city code recodification working session. For those that are wondering what does that all mean, we are literally going through—Corey's kind of laughing, our attorney—we're going through all of our different zoning regulations, a lot of our rules and ordinances, you name it, we're going through pretty much all of it. We're getting down to the end here finally. We've been working through this for quite a while, it's been really hard at work, and so we're going to kind of go through the rest of it hopefully tonight. That'll eventually come back for all the approval processes like we normally do before the end of the year. So anybody that is in the audience, if you want to come in and listen in and see what we're talking about, you're welcome to do so. There is no closed session this evening, so we won't be adjourning in here; we will be adjourning in the training room. Thank you, everybody.