[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening everyone welcome um tonight is Monday February 10th 2025 this is a regular meeting of the mitaka city council I will call this meeting to order and um I will ask that you stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance 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 thank you everyone and a a quick comment I'm coming to you remotely I had a few traveling challenges in my effort to get back for the meeting this evening so I am uh coming to you remotely and that's a little awkward but I think we will make it work so with that um I will ask that the role be called Foster Bolton here sha here Wilburn here Calbert here R here kley here where's some here um next item is approval of the agenda and it looks like there is an agenda Mr Funk uh thank you mayor weome good evening Council there are a couple items for your consideration for tonight's agenda the first one is related to item 11e which is a resolution for the minona boulevard Trail project staff received public comment after the distribution of the packet and that correspondance is included the second item for your consideration is regarding item 11f which is funding agreements for Metropolitan Council livable communities demonstration account or L lcda affordable home ownership grant program for homes Within Reach and Habitat for Humanity in the staff report there is a recommended action for this item and staff is proposing to change the recommended action from motion to approve the agreements and sub subrecipient agreements to the following which would be a motion to adopt the resolution as this item requires a resolution and there's a resolution in your packet of material so adopting that resolution as suggested covers all of the approving agreements that were noted in the original staff recommendation and then last is related to item 13 C which is a resolution approving the final plat of Mills Town Homes at 13231 minetonka Drive 3521 Baker Road and 3522 L Wayan and three adjacent unaddressed properties staff did receive public comment after the publication of the packet and that is also included in your denda correspondence so with that mayor and councel I turn it back to you for consideration and approval of the agenda thank you thank you Mr Funk um so I would be looking for a motion um on the agenda as amended mayor I'll make that motion all right Council mayor Calbert I will second second and member Wilburn yes thank you so so motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member Wilburn and and who's calling R tonight please mayor this is manager Funk Kelsey England is sorry Kelsey Larsson my apologies Kelsey Larson Miss Larson well thank you um sorry about that okay Miss Larson please call rooll Foster Bolton yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes R yes kley yes weome yes motion carries next item is approval of minutes and we have uh four sets of minutes um I think we can do those all in one motion well let's see um yeah let's let's do those all in one motion and um um any if there's anyone who wasn't there including me on January 27th I will um I will note that so um is there a motion uh to approve the four sets of minutes or any changes to those before we uh uh make a motion mayor it's council member Calbert I make the motion to approve the January 27th 2025 regular meeting minutes the January 27th study session minutes the January 6th study session minutes and the December 9th 2024 study session minutes thank you thank you council member Calbert is there a second I'll second this is ky Council me member cley thank thank you council member kley so we've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member kley um Miss Larsson please call Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes where some I will vote Yes on the January 6th and the December 9th minutes I will abstain from uh January 27th and um both sets on January 27th so I believe I believe we passed those so those are approved um next item is special matters and I want the first item is um a report from hopen County Commissioner Heather Edon so um commissioner Edon I want to welcome you to mitaka I'm sorry I'm not there with you physically but um we look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your service to our community uh thank you mayor um and it's good to see you I'm GNA not look at you otherwise I'm G to have to look backwards um hello council members uh and mayor um my name's Heather Edon it's good to see all of you uh so um quick little let's see do we have the Powerpoints yes okay I got this we can this is a lot to navigate here oh boom okay we're good okay all right so my name is Heather Edon I am your henen county commissioner I was elected on May 14th then um subsequently after that there was multiple other elections now I would just not recommend that for anybody else that was not fun uh but I'm really proud to represent you um at hennipen County um I came to hennipen County uh in running for the seat because of my own story using County Services when I was growing up um I also represented Edina and yes Edina I know how we all feel about Edina when I'm visiting all the the cities um but I represented Edy at the Minnesota capital for six years and so had decided to not run for re-election so when the seat opened up um I was talking with Jan kison if it would be a good fit and because it's a lot of Health and Human Services and my background was as a prior mental health therapist I thought it was a good fit too so um with that uh just a little bit other personal things about me I have three sons and two just got their permit and they're driving which is scary I see a lot of officers uh we have the stickers on our car and they're carrying their permits so um but I'm I'm nervous about giving them rides and then um and then we have a 12-year-old who always loves to play uh basketball and his biggest challenge of course is Hopkins and minetonka and wetta so it's always fun to be like I well I care about all of you so all right well let let's go through this so my goal is to go through the deck and make sure everybody understands a little bit of what hen County does and now I'm almost 9 months in so bear with me I don't know all the things but I'm trying and I'm a policy dork so this is this is all great um all right so here we are all right so there's a picture of me uh do I look the same probably not pictures always feel like make you look better um I represent district 6 and that's 182,000 people hen county has 1.3 million people uh there's 16 cities I'm one of the lucky ones that has 2 16 um and then there's others have uh significantly less cities but densely populated um T and are the most populated cities and Mr Funk and I were just going back and forth on which one is most populated we're going to leave it to you guys to Google to figure out which one um all right so with that our commitment is to providing good quality services in the areas of Health income Justice education employment housing and connectivity over the past several months I have had a meeting where we pulled together all of the mayors of district 6 um Mayors and and city managers as well as the police Chiefs and Fire Chiefs we have um oh goodness what else have we done we've done a EMS meeting um and we really are trying to get feedback to figure out where there are issues in the community um Mr Funk actually recommended very good and I think we're going to do this is do a study on our EMS services to see where there's gaps and um I was just talking to our our city administrator today um and it kind it was wild that it came up as a suggestion at the very end when Mr Funk was not feeling well he joined us uh but as well as the May and I think it's going to be something that will be really helpful for us to look at there are gaps um from what we're hearing um but also had up an EMS is doing truly the best job they can they're Staffing up and I really feel like uh we're getting to a better place so always better and more work to do so hennipen county has a $3.1 billion budget so this last year um we adopted a 5.5 Levy increase and just for a point of reference other counties across the state of Minnesota Ramsay was at a 4.75 little lower but a little smaller um of a county Anoka was at 16.9 Dakota 99.99% Levy increase and Washington was at 5.9 I think just like City councils the count is really concerned to make sure that our Levy increases aren't such a burden to our our residents and so we're really cautious about that um one of the things that we're being careful about and also just a a picture of what that looks like for the 3.1 ion that you'll see on the screen onethird of that is coming from property tax dollars the other 2/3 are federally uh F federal and state funds that are coming through and usually they have with them specific mandates that we have to do things that we're required to do and so hopefully I'll tell you a little bit about those there's seven lines of business which you'll see here broken up um the pie uh so Capital Improvements Public Works resident services Human Services operations and disp reduction health and then law safety and Justice uh you'll see that Health and Human Services is about 42% of our budget it's a Big Slice of the pie Human Services uh so thinking about we just had a call uh last week uh uh commissioner gatel and I I still want to say representative coming from the capital for so long but commissioner gel and I had a call um with people from the community and there were several menot talk residents on that call talking about disability waiver Services right now um right you have we help with the with the state of Minnesota to um to certify people that have disabilities now we'll certify them for a year but a year from then they have to come back even though they might have a permanent disability and they have to be certified again and so right now the state is going through this um uh waiver is reimagined it sounds really good except we're there's a lot of struggles and so right now they haven't fully implemented it uh we have people on the county that are really looking at how this is going to work for people's lives but this is a huge service that we provide uh for henpen County and for all of our residents um and this is counties across the state are doing this work so mental health um a few things just to highlight cope um is our mental health response team that's able to be called onto a scene we also um they operate a 247 crisis line for youth to also be joined and that's run by Nexus who is going to be the operator of our crisis youth facility that we're opening up at 1800 Chicago that I'll talk about um a little bit later on uh we also take all of the child abuse and vulnerable adult calls uh was actually one of my first areas of working in policy was I was a hampen county Guardian at lidom when I was just 24 years old um I was I was a henen county gardan lium just because of the the things that I experienced as a child knowing that my mother loved me but we struggled and that just because you struggled doesn't mean that you shouldn't be with your parent and so trying to really look at how do we keep families United is really important for me um economic supports is just right there at the top of the screen I just want to I'm showing you this graph because I think it's important to see um from 2020 to 2023 we have seen benefits or people uh requesting benefits more than double um and so what's happening here those are cash benefits food assistance child care assistance housing supports and so we're trying to get in there and see what's happening how do we help people we know that there's a lot of issues in terms of getting employment if you've maybe had a past criminal history so we have the pathways program we're always trying to identify issues that we can uh we can do as a county we can leverage to help make people's lives easier and now public safety are the next two slides so there's things that the county does on its own and then there's things that sheriff and the County Attorney do so hen County public safety so us on our own we run the peace app line so that's going to be when you call 911 and you're connecting to dispatch um that County run and then we have right there the county leasons which minona has one which is increasing our um our relationship to have a more positive relationship with communities all throughout um the the city and then the growing mental health needs I'm kind of going reverse my apologies um but I already mentioned the 247 copine as well as the youth but the embedded social workers uh is something that's very positive I remember meeting with the minetonka police chief early when I was running for office and he was saying that the motanka um social worker was really a huge benefit um and I know that there's a process right now where you're thinking about bringing I don't know if that's begun yet or where that is but um the social embedded social workers is really a program that's working I would love to see that continue to be expanded and then Department of Community Corrections we uh have we supervise 22,000 adults and and youth um on probation at any given day and we also own all of the jail facilities that the sheriff operates so also the Adult Correctional Facility which is um thought of as the workhouse and then I'm not going to touch on them too much because they're duly elected on their own but we manage the budget for um I mean they're managing their budget we approve the budget excuse me for the sheriff and the County Attorney so for when there's instances where we maybe have to go over one thing I just like to highlight right now is for no fault of her own um henen County Sheriff um is experiencing think we're having more people um come into the system that we're able to staff and the demand is there um we're trying to figure out how to have that balance and so we're having to Annex um people and so uh that's it's a challenge that we have a lot of people working overtime and so we just recently last week did a hearing on that trying to figure out what are solutions we had a study done um with some good good ideas that I know the sheriff will be looking at um so housing is one of the big things that the henen county um henen County does last session and I think it was 2020 actually it's 2023 session um we were able to pass the Metro sales tax which funds a percentage so it's directly going to housing and that has been a huge benefit for our County it will be a b very big uh benefit for residents one of the things that this uh right now is already going to is the repair and growth program so our affordable housing developers are struggling financially to maintain there's unforeseen cost and so they're not building as much as we'd like to see them build um we're able to use some of these funds uh which is projected at about $20 million for the county to say for instance help with that $14 million onetime fund to really stabilize um organizations like Aon and so uh we also have a shelter all policy that I'll just highlight uh is making sure that no child sleeps outside so if you ever see a family and you wonder do they have a place to sleep tonight I generally will be giving you my cell phone at the end of this for those residents at home as well um to make sure that they know you know as well that you can call me and we can make sure that we get a hold of somebody right away that we can get that family a place to sleep um that within hours to make sure that we don't we don't want kids sleeping outside as a 16-year-old I know that there was questions about where I would sleep sometimes and and that's not nothing a us should go for go through um okay and hennipen County highlights for this one I want to just draw your attention um to the ballpark sales tax the EMS working group I mentioned uh we're working on that so hopefully I think the next meeting Mr Funk is that April feels right um ballpark sales tax extension which is the B the twin stadium is paid off and we uh we really could use the some of those funds to come to the county then to help us you might have seen in the Star Tribune recently um they're talking about this big project well we're we're planning it into our budget but right now our mental health facilities at HCMC um impatient and outpatient facilities are old they are not great for accessibility um and there are not really places in spaces where people can go and get better and so um looking at that sales tax is looking at how do we stabilize two facilities so it's HCMC as well as North Memorial um and have it go to stabilize those systems that are Serv serving um a population where there's a lot of uninsured and underinsured and making sure that they get the same quality care as anyone else um uncompensated care I mentioned there is also growing it's a grow it's a nationwide issue we're seeing across the state or across the nation and so um that is something that we're trying to address uh the medical examiner's office right here in Minon if you haven't been um I am offering the summer to try to bring people over there to to come and see it it's um it is a part of Public Health we track when um when deaths are happening there for um for unnatural causes um and really trying to see what trends and making sure that we're staying in contact with public health to to look and intervene when we can um the hopan opioid response your police chief actually was the one that hosted here um and brought together hanban County uh health and a lot of others to really bring um awareness around opio addiction and um it happens all over in the suburbs too so really making sure we know about that and then the last point I would just highlight here is the mental health response we are right now currently building it should be online probably in the next two months um the crisis youth stabilization that's a tough one to say youth crisis stabilization Center 10 and 15 beds in the next two months it's 15 million it's a lot of money but right now we don't have places and spaces for kids to go that have complex needs and these are kids with complex mental health needs that are cycling through our juvenile justice system and it's not that's not okay and we have to figure out the pathway off we are also working with other set the other um six counties in the area to try to come up with a collaborative that we would be able to have as the next step for youth to go and by the way I'm happy I have questions at the end so everybody can bring me the questions um education we are partnering with the henen county attorney's office there's the be at home um or be at school program uh where we're trying to identify youth treny at school is also linked to youth crime and so we're trying to be proactive there to see how do we get in there and help a family health the youth before they're actually interacting with the the Juvenile Justice System but we also have cost sharing around um School Mental Health and Social Services are identified if a family needs it where our County social workers are actually going into schools to make sure that a school is supported and youth are are um remaining in their home uh remaining whole as much as we can possibly um have family students that okay let me catch up with myself just a few more slides I know this is a lot you guys um okay and then resident services there's 41 libraries 10 are in district 6 two new libraries are Idina Southdale and West Tonka currently under construction right now and then our one of our busiest busiest service centers is Ridgedale which people always give really good compliments on getting in and getting out if you hear that not to be true call my cell phone let me know and I will honestly get on however we can fix things um their elections the hanen county um what we what we do is we provide you with all of the the little whatever they are the you know voting machines and we provide those to you at no cost we buy them all we drop them off your staff obviously are are watching and doing the election um running the election but we are we are purchasing and dropping those off and also providing you with any updates that you have to do of course your again your lovely city employees and volunteers are helping run that but um that's one way that we help with elections we also drop off the ballots pick them up um we do Assessment Services now that's something that we're we're working on with our larger cities and you have a really good city manager by the way he's he's on it um so we're working with him right now to try to figure out um how we can resolve um the larger cities like minona Iden Edina Edom Prairie want in on the assessments or some sort of reimbursement if they're not getting it and I think that's a good discussion to have so um we want definitely to have a good balance there we also provide translation services so if you're thinking you need a translator for um a situation to make sure that somebody gets the services they need uh definitely let hennipen County know two more two more slides um Public Works you should have Pro been provided a sheet with all of the lovely Transportation projects that we're doing I think there was eight in your District um so any henpen County Road or bridge in your District if there is a problem with it please let me know and uh I will make sure that we have staff to address your concerns um there's uh making sure we also have a lot of collaborations with met Council so we're trying to do the best we can to ensure that uh Mobility is really working um I know uh several Council me council member will burn and I are on um excited about the green line extension making sure that that's accessible um we're looking at we're helping with Waste Management so we work with mpca to make sure that we're getting waste reduction goals and then um trying to meet our climate change uh goals and planting I think we have a goal where is it uh a million trees by 2030 okay and then last one is the hen County grants so if you haven't applied for these I would just talk with City staff and make sure that uh your getting um access to all of these uh County grants and I truly want to make sure district 6 is one of the top requesters of the grants um just to make sure that we are are getting our proportion in terms of of making sure our community is taken care of and with that council members I'm happy to take any questions Council your questions for um commissioner Edison don't be shy Cony thank you mayor uh and thank you commissioner Alison this was really informative it was a lot so I'm looking forward to kind of hopefully having access to the the slides and kind of any follow-up questions because I'm sure they will be there um I don't have any specifically at this time I think maybe some of my colleagues might but really hoping really thankful that you're on the uh the commission and that um on the board and and looking forward to looking at the information further and following up for my part other questions I don't really have a question uh per se but I will just uh thank you for um your attention on EMS because it is getting better but we have ways to go so I think that's an area of sort of continued collaboration and um uh and I too am really excited about the green line hopefully we can um hope I'm hoping to take it to work one of these days but um but the only other things you were talking a little bit about calling you or your office about um you know if we if if we come upon a family that's experiencing homelessness and I will say that we do have a program here out here um that is sort of in its second year of its of its pilot um where we provide um some of the services because what I'm sure you're familiar with the fact that if someone is experiencing homelessness out in the suburbs they they have been in the past compelled to go downtown to access services and they have to be down there for some time which might take a family away from their school their support network their job and so um we have a partnership with his house um and uh so we try to uh fill in the Gap so that people can stay out here in the West Metro while um we start working on services and um his house is run by Martha branon and um I'm sure that our uh wonderful Community Development staff can um get you up to speed on that but it's a it's been a wonderful program and we have served I believe 56 individuals including men many um youth um that were experiencing homelessness so um it's been a really successful program and there's a really uh strengthening partnership with law enforcement here in menaka um doing the same kinds of things that you're trying to do in your office you know eliminating the barriers figuring out you know how do you identify people what exactly do they need what is the best way of responding um and I think our social workers also uh really you know has been a huge help with that but it's just it's just something that we're doing here that a lot of suburbs aren't that I just wanted you to be aware of and I love that council member I think that's really fantastic and I would love to be connected if if anyone on the council's connected to his house and I I feel like um another council member brought it up to me I was G I thought it was you thank you council member WF um but yes I think that's something that we should look at I mean I want you to know I am all about collaboration I love to get people in a big room all of us and just talk try to solve problems um versus having smaller meetings I think that's how we we really solve The World's problems and so I would love to I mean I would love to see a shelter in the western suburbs and and and a lot of it is just being able to keep people in their communities and not force them to uh you know uh disrupt you know especially with kids just keeping everything as stable as possible so that's that was kind of the goal and I think it's been really successful so I will we will get I've got your cell phone number no worries we'll we'll get together um I believe Mr Funk did you you had a comment you wanted to uh share oh yeah thank you mayor council I also mayor uh Council mayor kley has her hand up if she would like to go okay very good thank you mayor go ahead Mike and then and then councilor Co thank you I just want to say thank you for coming out tonight and um just sharing everything that that the county is doing I really appreciate it and then um one of the the things I really care about is mental health services for Youth and so just to hear um about what the county is doing on the youth front is really good to hear and um just hoping that we can build that collaboration and um more of a relationship you know um and would love to sit down and talk with you personally I know that um you sent the email out to some council members I don't know if I received it or not and I might have missed it cuz sometimes I miss emails but would love to sit down and have a conversation with you about some things that um we're doing out here in minetonka um as a city council member but also um on a larger scale just being in different cities and knowing different Youth and um really U mental health is you know is really rampant in Youth and so just really want to talk more about that so thank you for all that you're doing I I would love to have I will reach out with you tomorrow I will have make sure that we reach out and and connect cuz I would love to talk more about mental health and collaborations and if I could give my cell phone number now I feel like this would be a good time um is 651 785 8696 and genuinely for those at home are for any council member again at 651 785 8696 truly I am about collaboration and seeing how we move things forward together thank you very good Mr fun go ahead and then if there's any other council members who have questions um we'll get them done all right uh thank you mayor I'll I'll be very brief I just want to submit to you Council and uh appreciation for commissioner Edelson has been very um collaborative I know you've used that word a few times this evening and but her actions speak to her words uh been refreshing uh from a staff perspective that as we've um partnered with the county on so many different has had a lot of conversation commissioner edon's been extremely um responsive willing to be partners collaborative and so anytime we've needed a chat she's been easy to pick up the phone or share a message so really appreciate you representing motanka and hanban County and look forward to the upcoming years of working together so thank you for everything you're doing thank you it's my honor thank you all thank you um well before you go oh okay I'm coming back I'm coming just a quick one okay the council got all their their shots and and um I just want to say um commissioner Allison thank you so much for everything you're doing for us um the county and the city um um we interact in so many ways but but I really appreciate uh two things that were noteworthy tonight I mean your enthusiasm for your role and your your passion um in terms of your approach to the job but also your care and concern for people in need um I know that um is driven largely by much of your life experience but you know as we've talked about I mean we talked about homelessness tonight we talked about mental health tonight I mean the county has um 42% of um your budget goes to Health and Human Services issues and I don't know many families who do not have needs that are touched by um by the county so I just want to say thank you we want to collaborate that's a big word for us too and uh thank you for being here tonight it's much appreciated it's my honor mayor thank you so much okay thank you all right all right thank you commissioner Edison I think we're done so we'll go to the next item and the next item is a retirement recognition for minaka police dog Duke and um I've got if I can pull it up here I've got um something that I'm going to read and then uh um we will ask some members of our um police force to uh come up and comment too but uh Duke is retiring can9 Duke joined the city of minaka in 2014 and his and his career career began with a bang literally on the day Duke met his Handler officer Joe mace he leapt out of a second story window thankfully Duke was unharmed but but officer mace probably wasn't he would say it took years off of his life um and set the tone for their adventurous partnership Duke and officer mace began their formal training at can9 School in September 2024 graduating on November 26th of that year excuse me I said September 2014 pardon me 10 years ago um Duke was trained as a dual-purpose canine and certified through the United States police canine Association uspca he made an immediate impact earning the prestigious titles of top rookie canine in both his narcotics and Patrol certific ations during his first year Duke even went above and beyond earning a rare certification in tracking a skill not required by the uspca but one that would define his incredible career over his 10 plus years with the city Duke responded to more than 400 calls for service contributed to over 40 fines and arrests thanks to his outstanding tracking abilities he participated in countless narcotics um searches building searches and article searches two standout moments highlight the depth of Duke's skills and dedication in one instance Duke was called to locate an 11-year-old autistic child who had run away using his incredible tracking skills Duke found the child safely hiding in a fort a few blocks from where he was last seen in another remarkable case Duke tracked a suspect wanted for felony Des domestic strangulation the chase LED through waste deep swamp water where Duke tracked the individual to a hiding spot where he was submerged up to his face with Duke's help and assistance from a state patrol helicopter the suspect was Su successfully and safely apprehended Duke's talents are were so respected that other agencies frequently requested his help on challenging cases particularly those involving missing missing persons or dangerous suspects over the years Duke and officer mace put in over 1500 hours of training and spent more than 21,000 work hours together officer mace Finly fondly describes Duke as an exceptional partner who always made him look good while Duke was all business on duty he had a softer side during his downtime he loved spending time at the cabin with officer mace and his family swimming to his heart's content whether it was chasing his Chuck it ball leaping off the dock or playing with his favorite Kong toy Duke knew how to enjoy life off the clock as duke transitions into retirement he will be moving to Texas to live out his golden years just being a dog a well-deserved reward for his years of dedication and service the minaka police department and especially offic off Mace will miss him deeply Duke has been more than just an asset to the department he has been a trusted partner a loyal companion and a true hero thank you duke for your remarkable service we wish you a happy and relaxing retirement so please join me in giving Duke a hand for his outstanding service and then I believe some people who know Duke well wanted to say a few words so officer mace um if you are interested in coming forward are off also Captain me if you want to say a few words um officer officer mace thank you for being here thank you mayor thank you council members I want to thank everyone for their continued support uh for the K9 unit over the many years um I want to thank adman uh for picking me uh to be in K9 and for the continued support uh over 10 years uh with Duke um my wife and family she had to run out with the two little ones I want to thank her for all the uh training hours and dedication that she allowed me to put in uh long nights going to certifications and uh above all I want to thank Duke for always making me look good so thank you mayor and council members I also want to Echo Joe and thanking you all for your support of our K9 program for all these years I also want to say that Joe and Duke were an incredible team um every time you saw them together they uh they did the job and they did it very well and very professionally we're always proud of Joe and Duke and we're certainly going to have miss having Duke around um but he is going to a much uh more fun place probably where he can hang out with other retired police and military dogs um so thank you very much to Joe and to Duke for all their hard work and we are certainly going to miss that dynamic duo than captain man and uh clearly clearly these Canan officers are are special parts of our police force and our city so I just want to again reiterate our thanks to Duke for his outstanding service and for his handlers and and and human officers who um um made him helped him to be so successful the next item on the agenda is uh um the Black History Month Proclamation and I've asked council member Wilburn to read that Proclamation council member Wilburn city of menona proclamation Black History Month February 1st through 28 2025 whereas in 1926 Dr Carter G Woodson a Harvard scholar established the observ of African-American history to reveal the contributions achievements and involvement of africanamerican people and the development of our American democracy that were overlooked ignored and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and whereas the month of February has been officially designated as Black History Month a time to honor and celebrate the profound contributions of black Americans to the cultural social political and economic fabric of our nation and whereas Black History Month reminds us of the enduring Legacy of resilience Innovation and Leadership within the black community and challenges us to continue advancing equity and Justice in all facets of society whereas the month of February gives us a chance to honor the many Heroes who are unknown and unnamed who have contributed to the struggle for freedom and justice for all and whereas the city acknowledges African-Americans who call minetonka home those who work here as well as those who visit and recreate here and appreciates their contributions to the success of our community whereas motanka is committed to True inclusion and continuing to create Community where all people feel safe and respected and diversity is celebrated now therefore be it resolved that excuse me that the city of now therefore be it resolved that the minona city council does hereby declare the month of February as Black History Month in the city of motanka thank you council member Wilburn um and I just want to um add to this a little bit I mean Black History Month is important for all of us we need to understand our history and um and as the proclamation says um in the past too much of black history was ignored by um by our society within our country and black history month is important if we really want to understand who we are and so um I join my fellow council members in uh recognizing black history month and I would urge our residents to learn more about black history there are so many um black people in our society who have made such tremendous cont contributions to our um our history and the quality of life that we enjoy in our country and I think it's incumbent upon us to all learn more um about the black history that has been experienced in the United States so um Council M Wilburn um thank you very much for reading the proclamation the next item is an update on the Strategic profile which um for the fourth quarter and our year end report and Mr Funk has that report and again this is this is um a report on how we are performing against our our strategic plan and how we um how we are you know measuring and working uh toward achieving the objectives that are stated um and in the Strategic plan that have been created so Mr Funk take it away thank you uh mayor we're and again good evening council tonight I have the privilege of presenting the yearend strategic planning results as noted by mayor woron for 2024 so we call it our quarter 4year end report which marks the culmination of our current strategic plan this plan if you recall was approved in 2021 after an extensive and thoughtful process and has served as guiding framework for the past almost four years helping us align our priorities allocate resources and remain accountable to the community that we serve first and foremost I really want to express my gratitude to the city council and our previous city council that adopted this plan in originally in 2021 your vision and Leadership Have Been instrumental in shaping our strategic Direction and your steadfast support both financially and through our operations have enabled staff to focus on delivering meaningful results I also want to recognize our department directors our team leads on each of these pillars and our employees who commitment to this plan has translated to strategic goals into tangible processes and outcomes looking back I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished together through our Collective efforts we've strengthened minat tanka's position as a thriving High performing community and organization one that Embraces Comm continuous Improvement you've often heard me talk about the Baldridge model and the Baldridge model is one that emphasizes a systems-based approach to achieving EX Excellence aligning closely with our efforts to Foster Innovation efficiency and a meaningful impact as we turn our page to the newly approved strategic plan for 2025 through 2027 we affirm our commitment to accountability adaptability and sustained success strategic planning is just not about setting goals it's about ensuring that we deliver on them and I look forward to sharing the results of our work and the lessons that will shape our future efforts with that I'll dive into we've got 22 slides um so I'll try to move through these quickly I think Council you've seen many of these in the last couple months but really for our listening and watching audience I want to touch on uh as the mayor noted the work and the body of work that we have done over this version of the Strategic plan and I will summarize that here in these coming slides first and foremost we want to talk about our mission statement our mission statement is to provide quality Public Services while striving to preserve and enhance the distinctive character to make menaka a special place for everyone uh we've had that mission statement uh in place again since 2021 and it will remain the same mission statement with our new strategic plan refresh next slide please our vision statement and I think of your vision statement as something that we aspire to be and motanka is an inclusive community committed to Excellence where all residents workers and visitors are welcome in a beautiful sustainable Place supported by quality Dependable city services we have four guiding principles I won't read through all of these because they're a little wordy but really want to highlight the Bold phrases in each of those that we're a beautiful sustainable and healthy environment where we responsibly deliver excellent public services and provide affordable opportunities we we ethically uphold Community Trust through proactive inclusive public engagement we Nimble lead our city into the future by anticipating Community needs pursuing service Innovation and the adaptation of new technologies so those are our guiding principles they are all that with our mission our vision our guiding principles are really the structure and the the framework that really begins this journey of our strategic plan so the plan and again I know you've seen this slide many times uh again for those that are unfamiliar to our plan we call um our strategic plan a three-level plan so we have six strategic priorities and those are going to be more noted in the coming slides we have then 16 key strategies that support those priorities and then for operationalizing that staff had identified in 2024 90 plus action steps uh supporting that are performance measures and metrics and in my coming slides I'm going to touch on just a couple of those but in essence we have close to 45 metrics in our current strategic plan I'm really going to highlight just a couple again for each pillar more information about our metrics can be found on our website that I'll touch on here at the end strategic priorities again I often refer to our team leads and so with our our strategic priorities I mentioned there are six of them uh each of our six strategic priorities are led by a department uh are led by those that are noted on the slide uh for financial strength and operational excellence that is Darren Nelson our finance director safe and healthy Community is Scott Bor booom our police chief sister sustainability and natural environment is led by Leslie yetka our natural resources manager livable and well planned development is led by our community development director Julie wishnack infrastructure and asset management is led by our Public Works director will Manchester and then last Community inclusiveness is led by Jace Alexander our senior Dei coordinator when you look at the report in the packet again it's a lengthy report there's uh 30 plus pages of really comprehensive data and I encourage anyone anyone that's listening tonight uh to go to our uh packet on the website or you can go to our strategic plan on our website it's in a couple different places to really view the more detail and the granular detail of all of the progress for nice purposes um keep it at pretty high level and really kind of starting off with this slide so as I noted there are six strategic priorities um and know it notes 21 key strategies it's really 16 key strategies and then how we measure that throughout the entire plan is through this dashboard uh proud to report tonight that 70 um about 78% of the plan is is 100% complete 90% was in progress uh we had some disruption this last year and I'll just touch on that here in a few minutes so as I noted the 2024 strategic profile neared completion with 90% uh efforts were made to enhance public participation increase affordable housing engage diverse communities and maintain sustainability in our operation ations multiple projects were near completion some initiatives were supported by additional funding and approvals from you the city council and so when I talk about your support your support is critical in achieving the success some of the other accomplishments to note is the completion of programs to diversify housing and again increase affordability options we also had significant funding approved uh to support those efforts we did hire a new Dei specialist position or that was approved through our budgeting process financially we maintained our AAA Bond rating and completed the annual comprehensive financial report with honor and distinction enhanced police and fire collaboration and conducted a comprehensive training for safety and preparedness we also expanded recreational facilities and affordable programs with Community participation and as you note on this dashboard there are uh the yellow represents some disruption there's some programs that might have been discontinued that really kind of speaks to some of the challenges and this is kind of evident of any strategic plan you you really never get to 100% because you always have some disruption along the way that incurred in some of our project timelines really attributing to some of our staffing changes as we looked at our new uh climate action and adaptation plan and having Staffing in place for that uh we also had a decision not to proceed with our software implementation with our Erp and human Capital Management plan uh with some of those technology updates and then we also had a few environmental and sustainability initiatives on hold uh again while we had some staffing put in place and and but now that's Full Speed Ahead for 2025 next slide please as I really kind of break down the the remaining slides into those six major pillars first is financial strength and operational excellence I won't go through every one of these bullet points but I think you can read through those yourself and really kind of capture some of the highlights from this last year I've already noted that the city's maintained our AAA Bond rating we talk about that a lot here at the city now not many cities in the state have a AAA Bond rating that speaks to our financial excellence and is a real indicator of our performance I also want to talk about uh the levy that was approved for 2025 as youo Council we spend a great deal of time with our budget and our leving uh this last year we did uh rece uh approve the 2025 Levy uh which did align with our community needs and our strategic plans we also approved our 5-year Capital Improvements program and our economic Improvement program we also did long-term Levy projections for financial uh excuse me for financial sustainability so we do that financial management plan uh as an effort uh as we look again at our forecasting to ensure our long-term financial success uh we also completed a recreational facility study so we're taking a look at facility needs with the marsh the Willison Center the community center and also Glen Lake Activity Center the next bullet point highlights five elections this last year I know you know that that was a big year for our election staff and certainly completed those five elections with integrity and high voter turnout then last uh just noting um and I'll say this here in a few minutes our minak Academy we did this last year we always love participating and engaging with our residents and so that was also noted as part of this pillar some of the performance metrics again as I said here a few minutes ago we have over 40 metrics on our uh on our dashboard I'm just touching on a few here this evening uh one of those noted on here is our fund balance percentage that's always ke key as we look and manage our financial performance through the fund balance that's noted on the the graph on the left hand side then certainly our certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting that's uh received by the city this last year and of course our AAA Bond rating moving on to safe and healthy Community uh number of things noted here under safe and healthy Community one is we evaluate our Patrol services for efficiency enhanced departmental training programs we conducted training on Mental Health response and autism awareness Ness collaborated on public awareness initiatives and created a new Communications role adapted fire department Staffing and response plans so looking at added fire Personnel we engaged design Professionals for fire station evaluations and that as you know is coming up in 2025 for further conversation and then we implemented new crime prevention Technologies that's the axon project uh progress police officer hiring and received the grant for our Cadet position again you have action later and consent that adds to that Grant we also completed a recruitment video and establishment of the student Multicultural advisory committee implemented safety campaigns and provided transparent crime data and all the dashboards that Chief bboom and his staff have implemented this last year completed training for our city departments on preparedness and develop joint plans for mass casualty events so again a lot of work behind the scenes as we prepare as a community for any type of emergency that will that might hit our city and then last worth noting is enhanced Recreation facilities and providing a variety of affordable programming so it really speaks to Mr ode and the work being done in our rec department some of the performance metrics are noted there on this slide um I would maybe turn your attention to 2024 health and wellness opportunities just really the work that's being done to expand and enhance our program so 28 unique program types were evaluated this last year and then from a from a health and fitness standpoint just really looking at the work that our staff does to uh create and have participation to Fitness classes every single week we hundreds of classes or 100 classes really offered on a weekly basis next sustainability natural environment uh the cap plan as we've talked about a number of times so that was approved the climate action and adaptation plan we became a low salt design pilot City through the 9mile Creek Watershed District a wetland prioritization scheme was developed using our GIS we also made progress and in expanding the city storm water infrastructure inventory uh we did a third annual electric event that was held at Ridgedale mall and then the city partnered with henan County and better Futures to allow for building material donations as part of the City's spring Community drop off event at Public Works some of the performance metrics noted here uh we look at storm water inspections every year so we really want to make sure with our storm water plan that we are um inspecting our system and then pivoting just with trees I know trees is such an important important of our identity here at the city of minona we do track how many trees we plant uh in 2024 trees sold planted was 951 slightly below the the previous few years uh and I should note that those are just through our annual tree sale it does not count the other trees that are staff plants uh on public properties moving on to livable and well planned development a number of items noted here is completed programs and policies to diversify housing and increase affordable housing options City Council approved additional funding for the pathways program and down payment assistance programs and you worked with uh Miss wishnack through our study sessions last year on those programs developed an apartment manager newsletter and an interactive housing story map and that's been instrumental as minona has showcased and highlighted our efforts around housing and affordable housing we approved the Amman construction Rolland twin home project so a city initiated housing and affordable housing project did a business community survey uh we also did placemaking designs for the Opus area and that transformation is nearly complete and then we updated minona matters to enhance public participation in development process so we've migrated a lot of our website what used to be on our website project information over di minaka matter so that's been a strengthened tool with our engagement activities some of the performance metrics are noted here just with our Thrive newsletter and the amount of mailings that we do the subscribers we have continue to increase year after year and and then all of you are aware of our housing data I know you've seen that a lot lately and that's noted also on this page turn our attention to infrastructure and asset management couple noteworthy projects one was the completed the Hopkins Crossroad Trail project that was a a very big project for the city this last year uh in total that was a $7.6 million project approximately 5.25 eight of that was grant funding or non- city use funding so really a large portion of that was through sources outside of property taxes so very proud of that effort by our staff uh we also then uh did as always a number of maintenance projects around our city just really related to roads roads are important to us and we want to maintain a high rating on our roads uh as noted here approximately 24 Lane miles of In-House payment Mill and overlay work was conducted uh so pretty significant roadway maintenance last year we also then installed the first city-owned rooftop solar and that happened on fire station number one and then some other notes on other potential projects that will are likely on the horizon and then as you know as well Council this last year very active when it came to RightWay permits uh we administr administered over 400 City RightWay permits for all the private utility work that's being done in our city we anticipate more of that happening then again in 2025 some of the performance metrics there is um I noted in the previous slide about roads this uh graph talk we do track new miles or new Trail miles constructed so from 2020 through 2024 really five new miles of trails constructed I had a council member asked me what's the cost of construction constructing a trail and it varies it depends on the size and scope of a trail project but a mile Trail uh as we look at our Trail Improvement plan uh ranges anywhere from a million to $2.5 million do and so it is it's an expensive Venture as we get into trails and Trail funding we also note here in our 2024 construction projects it was a busy year for our engineering uh staff uh 26 projects were uh completed last year and then last noting Community inclusiveness uh we launched the Dei commission so a huge effort by Jace Alexander our senior Dei coordinator on working with our new Dei commission we reviewed some of our hiring language uh which is uh important to our internal recruitment efforts we implemented sensory spaces at multiple City events and I think Council you noticed those throughout some of our events um Summer Fest was one of those and then some new events this last year uh were our inaugural Black History Month celebration the Hispanic Latino Latino um x uh events and then pride month Community celebration so certainly our community inclusive efforts uh were increased significantly this last year really through the work of jce Alexander and a lot of our staff coordination included in that some of the metrics are listed there uh really related to language accessibility um you can note that on the slide just really the work of our staff ensuring that we have language available whether it was through um any of our elections um really kind of noted here is our election um uh the five elections we had last year and the work of our staff and working to make sure that alternative languages were included in our elections I'd also note that on the upper right hand corner of this slide that our HR team and others attended 16 career fairs in 2024 so really as a city we're out recruiting spending our time uh finding a new generation of worker outside of our traditional methods we also then note on the right hand side of this slide just really how people find out about working here at the city um a few years ago if we were went on the clock uh we were at a a higher turnover rate and our turnover here at the city is is very low at at 7% so really proud of how we've been able to implement some new strategies the last couple years on on our retention and our recruitment efforts and then last I'll note is our community dashboard we often often reference our community dashboard it's it's uh up to speed uh we updated every quarter so Council whenever you get an update a quarterly update from staff we update our community dashboard lots of data there so everything that I'm trying to quickly go through here this evening anyone in our public listening and watching can go to our city website find our dashboard get greater detail than what's being described here in all the metrics that associate our our efforts with our strategic plan and then the very last slide is as you know we have transitioned from the current strategic plan Council you spent a great deal of time with staff this last year I think six different study sessions framing up our revised strategic plan that's the 2025 through 2027 strategic plan you approve that uh just last month January 13th and your first quarter report will be coming to you on April 21st 2025 so with that I think I will pause there see if there are any questions and again appreciate your support uh city council as we have partnered together with staff and Council on the city's vision and carrying out that vision for a successful minaka so with that I conclude my report thank you thank you Mr Funk uh Council any questions for Mr funk we've uh We've we've seen a lot of that before but I think it is um the the metrics and the work that goes into this I mean this is the kind of the the skeleton and structure of all the work that City staff is doing and and um reflecting the values that we have as a city so Mr Funk thank you very much for your report um next item is reports from city manager and council members so um Mr funk I will let you start and then Council um please add as you need to or uh would like to Mr Funk thank you mayor and Council I still have the microphone but I'll try to be brief uh appreciate the time here just for the next couple minutes just a couple things worth noting first our pruning Crews have been out so our public work staff have been out uh Crews have had some time this winter less snowfall um so they've been able to complete 27 Lane miles of RightWay tree pruning so important work because often times you might hear where branches will um block signage stop signs and so we're out actively doing some pruning so that work is is done and being done our forestry straff is meeting with applicants of the relief grant program to assist in choosing a replacement trees for those removed due to disease so we're gearing up for that uh spring uh sale and our staff is working to on that program next thing I just want to mention is uh the minaka Academy I noted that earlier so the minaka academy is now accepting enrollment and so anyone that's interested in our community all ages are welcome uh we often see um most residents that do the minak academy or over the age of 55 we would welcome more ages uh all ages are welcome so it's your chance to go inside City operations a little bit we spend uh Tuesdays February 25th through March 2 5th from 6:00 to 8 uh going through our operations and so anyone that signs up to participate will get a chance to get for firsthand information from staff we really uh present some really good information just about how the City Works and give people a really in-depth look at what we do here at the city so encourage anyone to go on our website enroll uh for that coming up also want to note that uh jcece Alexander again I mentioned his name a few times tonight that he has coordinated with the City of Hopkins for the expressions of Blackness uh that is to celebrate Black History Month and so I appreciate that partnership with the City of Hopkins that will be February 20th so that is coming up in a couple weeks actually very in 10 days I shouldn't say couple weeks uh from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Hopkins Center for the Arts so with that mayor and Council I turn it back to you thank you thank you Mr Funk um council members um any things that you would like to report mayor C Cal thank you I have a few uh just a couple of things so first of all I just I should have said it while officer mace was here but um I took minona Academy and I took minona police academy and officer mace and Duke Duke took me on my first ride along and it was actually a very busy night and it was about this time of year and as I Rec call is 19° below zero so um it was quite an exciting night and he really was an impressive K9 and officer mace was uh an extremely professional uh police officer so um I I'm sorry to see Duke go but I mean he must have been a brand new our brand new police dog that year I'm pretty sure so [Music] um also I attended um um The Last Winter Market of the Year here in um in the community center and I just really want to encourage people next year to go I had a hard time not like emptying my bank account because everything there was either incredibly delicious or was just you know very fine arts and crafts and um Goods um to buy and um it's just a good way to build community um many of the vendors are you know residents here right in minona and so I got to you know meet some constituents and talked to staff um and I was really grateful that we were continuing our sustainability work there with some staff talking about our um home energy Squad um energy Audits and so on and so forth and I also went to the Min Min the mlc legislative breakfast which is the municipal League um legislative breakfast where the focus was on affordable housing and I just want to compliment um Julie wishnack for um her very concise and extremely important overview of what we do here in minona and some of the challenges that every city faces we had a panel there talking about affordable housing and every Community has a slightly different set of challenges but um by and large the challenges are all the same and it was very gratifying to see professionals up there talking about you know some of the ways that they are solving um the problems and removing barriers um to uh building and living in homes so um and I just want to say how it was also great to see um some of my colleagues at the at the breakfast and I know that mayor couldn't be there cuz he wasn't there but we were thinking of you so thank you thank you counil m Calbert I I did I did make it to the mlc breakfast for the East which was um because I knew I'd be out of town for this one so um I I I dislike missing that meeting I did get a lot of the content from my attending um but I did not have the opportunity to to uh be with my fellow council members and with the legislators from our part of the uh of the Metro so anyway but it's a great event I think the I think uh um those mlc um those Municipal legislative commission legislative breakfasts are very valuable and I appreciate the opportunity to go anyone else yes mayor Paula ra here council member ra um yes thank you mayor I just wanted to also uh thank all the uh elected officials who were at the M breakfast and for bringing up some very good points as well as um at our state level as well as at the local level and also to uh give my compliments to staff uh especially the recreation staff for the wonderful uh Kids Fest event which was the weekend before I think it was extremely well attended I don't know if it was a record breaker but it was pretty darn close and um I think everybody was having a really fantastic time um there was lots of great events and and uh crafts and and uh just the vendors uh the people helping and the staff who came and took a Saturday to be there and uh put this on for families in minona uh just highly commend them and thank them thanks thank you anyone else uh CB kley thank you mayor I also want to just say um I appreciate um Julie for putting on the presentation she did a fabulous job I was well I can say it here now you know but um at the um breakfast um it was good to hear what minona is doing around affordable housing because when I was running for state house I heard so many times how minaka was not doing enough and I was just so excited to hear and see the work that we've been doing in our city and I just really really want to just say thank you for the work and thank you for being able to display that minaka is doing good work and we are uh making sure that we address affordable housing in all kinds of ways and um we did something that other cities haven't done yet and so I just really want to commend um the work and really for Julie really just being able to show it the way she did and everyone just loved it and I was just smiling I was I wanted to jump and Shout so thank you thank you council member kley um anyone else all right well um I will just say that um I I've been in a lot of housing meetings and I just wanted to I what I want to thank council member kley for her comments and I want to thank Council um Miss wishnack for the great work that she does she and her team in terms of promot promoting affordable housing in our community and a lot of the programs that were created in minona um I've talked to other Mayors and other cities about and I know the mlc is interested because we want to uh we want to help other communities um learn from some of the things that have been successful in minaka and perhaps Implement some of the types of policies that we have in minaka that have been very successful at driving the development of housing spe generally and affordable housing specifically so I think we can demonstrate some leadership there and I think the good work that our staff and uh Miss wishnack um have shared um across the region are are very helpful so I'm I I appreciate your com your comments Council M kley and U I think mitaka is a leader in innovating in new ways to um successfully Drive affordable housing and I'm proud of that so those are my comments if any does anyone have anything else or we'll move on all right uh speak up otherwise we're going to move on to the next item and that is item eight is a citizen's wishing to discuss matters not on the agenda and this is an open mic I item if you have something please come forward and uh state your name and address and share your issue or concern the council will not take action on that issue tonight um but we will turn it over to staff and they will report back to us and we will um we will uh share that um at a future meeting so is there anyone in the audience um who would like to share something with the councel is there anyone I'm not seeing anyone come forward but if there is please come forward otherwise we will move on to the next item all right seeing no one stepping forward we will move on to item nine which is bids and purchases and we have no bids and purchases tonight that takes us to item 10 which is the consent agenda requiring a majority vote consent agenda items are typically routine so the council in its preparation for tonight's meeting has reviewed the staff reports and um I will read these into the record if anyone either a council member or a someone in the audience would like one of these items pulled we will pull it um then we will vote on the remaining items and then um and they will return to the um item that has been pulled for comment um by the individual pulling it and then we will act on that item so I will read these items into the uh record item 10A is a resolution for Police Department roof project item 10B is appointment of the City attorney item 10 C is an ordinance repealing section 1110 of the minaka city code relating to campaign disclosures and item 10d is a conditional use permit for a Veterinary Clinic at 1809 Plymouth Road so first I'll ask if anyone wants to pull any of these but then also um I don't know if um council members um don't want to pull something but may have a comment that they'd like to make on any of this I I'll um I'll I'll ask for any comments first and then um do you want to pull anything and then we'll we'll take it from there so um are there any comments that anyone would like to make on uh any of these items 10 A B C or D or would somebody like to pull one of those items or any of those items seeing neither would someone like to make a motion for the consent agenda items 10 a through D mayor I'll make that motion council member Shaq thank you council member sha would and would someone like to make a second I'll second council member um is's that Foster B oh excuse me sorry council member Calbert so we've got a motion by Council M sha and a second by council member Calbert um please um Miss Larson please call Ro Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes M yes kley yes where some yes motion carries um item 11 is consent agenda items requiring five votes and we have quite a few of those tonight which is rather unusual so the same rule apply I will read these into the record if someone would like to uh to pull an item they're welcome to do so and otherwise we will act on them um if something is not pulled we'll act on them in one motion and if um if something does get pulled we'll uh treat that separately so item 11a is an agreement for the Groveland storm sewer improvements phase two project um item 11b is the intensive comprehensive police officer Education and Training icpe Grant agreement item 11 C is law enforcement therapy dog Grant agreement item 11e is a resolution for the minetonka boulevard Trail project and item 11f is a funding agreement for the Metropolitan Council livable communities demonstration account lcda affordable ownership grant program for homes Within Reach and Habitat for Humanity so um would anyone like to pull any of these items yes mayor yes uh mayor I'd like to p item uh 10 or 11e the resolution for the minona bouevard trail project very good is there anyone who would like to pull any other item from the from um item 11 all right then I will seek a motion on the items that have not been pulled mayor I I move approval of agenda items 11a 11b 11 C 11d and 11f and this is council member Wilburn thank you council member Wilburn um and is there a second I'll second mayor all right thank you council member Foster Bolton so we have a motion by council member Wilburn and a second by council member Foster Bolton on items 11a 11b 11 C 11d and and um 11f um Miss Larson please call rooll Foster Bolton yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes weome yes motion carries so then we will return to item 11e the resolution for the mitaka boulevard Trail prog Project M or council member ra excuse me thank you mayor uh yes I just got some several emails in the last day or two regarding this project and uh just wanted to confirm a couple of things um first of all that this is the design phase um and maybe Mr Manchester can uh speak to that and some of the other things that I think I brought up with Mr Funk this morning and this afternoon yeah absolutely council member melee mayor and Council uh the action tonight for this project you know the project proposes an 8ot Trail along the north side of minetonka Boulevard uh from Tonka wood to the marsh tonight's phase is the feasibility acceptance and so if Council chooses to move forward tonight it's not the final approval or final design by any means uh the project would move into the design phase um another action tonight would be uh Excel Energy to bury power lines it takes about a year ahead of a project so that would begin is one of the actions as well but we are familiar with some of the concerns uh there's one Crossing proposed at Sussex we do understand that the homeowners association uh does not necessarily like that Crossing so there's plenty of time this is a 2026 project um we would work with the neighbors still on during final design to talk through any concerns folks have so this wouldn't come back to council um if they chose to go forward until likely the end of the year so design would occur essentially from now until potentially December uh with lots of time to kind of work through the design and any concerns folks have we would at that time bring something back to council based on conversations and Council would an opportunity to consider that as well if that helps yes thank you uh very much and then just to kind of reiterate uh or or respond to another email uh from a w 3 resident that was regarding um the need for a trail to kind of hook up basically what this does is going to connect the the recently constructed Trail along minat Tonka Boulevard um you know pass GR in school and going down that way um down to tonkawood and then take that trail all the way to the marsh so unlike the trail on the other side of minona Boulevard which you know kind of eventually gets you all the way to exceler this stays along minona Boulevard which the other Trail doesn't so just to clarify for that for some of the residents who are contacting me or who uh made comments to the package just so that's kind of clearly understood so thank you Mr Manchester thank you councilor R and Mr Manchester um does anyone else have any comments on this otherwise we could seek a motion um on this item but Council M mey yes I'll make the motion mayor to uh on on uh item 11e the resolution for the minetonka boulevard Trail project all right and a second council member calary yeah I'll second and I just want to make one quick comment about the other consent agenda items which is I just want to compliment staff writing grants takes a lot of time and um and then implementing them and I know they are reporting requirements so I just want to compliment staff on going after the grant dollars because um it it benefits our taxpayers um so much and so I just want to say how much I appreciate seeing all these Grant dollars in our consent agenda packet and I make the mo and I second all right well thank you thank you for your comments are there any other comments anyone else would like to make I didn't didn't want to um jump over that all right I'm not seeing any so um we have a motion by council member ra and a second by council member Calbert uh Miss Larsson please call Ro Foster Bolton yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes where some yes motion carries um item 12 is Introduction of ordinances and we have none and that brings us to item 13 which is public hearings and uh we have a good number of public hearings tonight so um the first one is bear with me I've got to pull this up quickly um the first public hearing um is an ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property at 13 231 minona drive and Miss Thomas I believe you have that report uh yes Mr Mayor and with your approval I'd like to present items 13 a b and c um all together that sounds great to me okay um but I but I will ask a process question then um and perhaps someone can weigh in on that um if they're presented together can we are they still separate motions and separate uh I assume there're separate public hearings we don't do them all at once correct uh mayor weome uh actually you are correct we do need separate motions on these items only the vacation of easement requires a public hearing the other two items the ordinance authorizing sale of city-owned property and the final plat do not require a public hearing but I would suggest you just open the public hearing at the end of my presentation for commentary on the ease vacation thank you I appreciate that clarification um Miss Thomas it's all yours okay thank you you'll recall Council and uh Mr Mayor that uh you approved the Mills Town Home Development or twin Home Development excuse me back in May of 2024 and these next three agenda items are really the final steps that are necessary to create the Lots on which the town homes will be located I want to emphasize for anyone watching this evening there are no changes to the actual proposal these are the the final I would say housekeeping items to create uh the Lots so the first action then is an ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property it's uh the area shown in a red outline on uh the map on your screen typically when the council acts on this type of request the city is actually in possession of the property and and your transer offing ownership that's not exactly the case here and I would suggest this is a more of a recordkeeping item uh nearly 50 years ago the city did enter into a contract uh for deed for the Old Town Hall property and then we executed that a warranty deed a decade later when the principal balance that had been owed by the church uh to the city had been paid for that property um during our review of the twin Home Project we found that the deed from the early 80s was not properly recorded it lacked some necessary information so what staff is asking uh the council to do this evening is first to adopt an ordinance essentially reaffirming that sale from the 1970s and 1980s and reaffirming uh the actions taken by the prior uh City officials in approving and executing that contract for deed the second action then is vacation of easements and termination of uh easement rights and first right of refusal over those easement areas the easements are for Ingress and egress uh drainage and utility areas and right of way those though these will be vacated under this action new and necessary easements would be platted uh under the final plat which is in fact then uh the third action here this is a little bit disorienting in that on this plan North is on the left hand side of the page um I don't have a mouse in front of me but uh this is the the final plat it essentially conforms to the uh plat that you reviewed in May of 2024 with the inclusion of area to ensure that the town home area which I'm trying to highlight here with the mouse this twin home area is at 2.5 acres in size so this development is considered low density which was one of the the vital parts of uh the council's approval of this project so with that uh I would turn it back to uh the mayor again asking for three um actions this evening and actions in this order thank you Miss Thomas um I will first ask the council if they have any questions regarding your presentation and I I did want to comment and and thank you for a very succinct um and straightforward presentation but Council any questions for Miss Thomas mayor I'm mayor this is Dub so uh council member Calver so just very quickly I I believe um I'm trying to remember I think it was 13A it there just wasn't there there wasn't a map of that specific it's the whole thing okay uh Mr Mayor and and council member Calbert this was the area that that again um the city entered into a contract with the Mills church back in the 1970s for purchase of uh the church did pay that pay the city for that property um and we executed that warranty deed in the 1980s was simply not um recorded with correct information I just want thank you thank you I just want to make sure I understood that right so actually mayor I did have one quick question as well this is um thank you Mike I think we talked about this a little bit this afternoon or this morning just wanted to kind of confirm any right first right of refusal for the Old Town Hall um if something should happen that uh the city would have first right a refusal on that mayor members of the council council member ra um the 1971 contract for deed included um provision not a right of first refusal with respect to the property but it does include a requirement that if the church should ever um determine that they no longer need the building they must donate the building to the city the city has six months to move the building um so that it could be retained for historic purposes um the ordinance provides that's before you provides that um the mayor and manager are oh uh that you're approving the sale in accordance with the contract for deed so the deed of conveyance will include that requirement it will be a covenant that will be in place for 30 years under state law that Covenant will expire after 30 years okay and then if at that point what happens it expires okay we wouldn't have it would be up to the church to they would no longer be under a legal requirement to offer it to the city they certainly could okay but they would not be under a legal requirement to do that and currently it's on the register of historic places I believe is that correct it is it's on the National Registry of historic places okay thank you um thank you um Miss heiny um are there other other questions Council all right I'm not seeing any so um let's see as I understood uh the what Miss Thomas told me is that we can deal with these all in one um one action however um we do need to hold a public hearing on item 13B which is the resolution approving the vacation of easements at the address is shown and if that is indeed correct and the council has no more questions um I will open the public hearing for comment on the vacation of easements at 3522 El Lane and an unassigned address and approval of easements and rights of first refusal is that is that indeed the uh the public hearing we need to open correct all right so I will open that public hearing and I will ask is there anyone who would like to come forward and comment on these items is there anyone I'm not seeing anyone but because I need to ask three times I will ask one more time is there anyone who would like to comment on this action all right seeing no one I will close a public hearing and I will bring it back to council for comments or for motions yes uh can you just make sure you do them separately the action separately it just will make a cleaner record for us on the I'm I'm happy to do that awesome thank you and we do have it on the screen for whoever's making the motion on the first item all right um so um we um I will take a motion on on the first item um regarding the um author authorizing the sale of city-owned property at 13231 Matan minaka drive so and the so it's so the staff re please do thank you mayor it's paty council member fosterer I make a motion to adopt the ordinance author iing the sale of city-owned property in accordance with the contract for deed and ratifying the actions taken by prior City officials in approving and executing the contract for deed and I will second council member Wilburn all right well thank you we've got a motion by council member Foster Bolton and a second by council member Wilburn um Miss Larson please call rooll Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes Co yes where some yes motion carries so then we will go to um um 13B which is the item we just had the public hearing on and um we uh we need a motion on that if you could put that on the show that again I I can't see it here there we are so if someone would like to make this motion I'll make the motion uh mayor this Council thank you um I make a motion to adopt the resolution vacating easan authorizing the termination of easement and rights of first refusal thank you counc is there a second I'll second all right and uh thank you that's Council M Foster Bolton so we've got a motion by council member meley and a second by council member Foster Bolton Miss Larsson please call roll Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes weome yes motion carries and then item 13 C is a resolution approving final plat of Mills Town Homes at 13231 minaka Drive 3521 Baker Road 3522 Elm Lane and three adjacent unaddressed properties would someone like to make that motion I will make the motion that we adopt the resolution as read by the mayor council member Wilburn thank you council member Wilburn is there a second I'll second council member Shaq thank you council member sha so we've got a motion by council member Wilburn and second by council member sha Miss Larson please call roll Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes weome yes motion carries so that takes us to um item 14 and that is other business and we have no other business um under item 14 it takes us then to item 15 appointments and reappointments and um we have um uh bo boards and commissions appointments and so the recommended action is to Appo approve the appointments to the sustainability commission the economic advisory development commission uh edac and the park board and Senior Advisory board so I will read these into the record um and the appointments are for Scott Anderson to the edac to serve a two-year T term effective February 11 2025 and expiring on January 31 2027 um appoint Nicole jyn to the edac to serve a two-year term effective February 11th 2025 and expiring on January 31 2027 um appoint Ellen Ingam to the sustainability commission to serve a one-year term as a young adult effective February 11 2025 and expiring on June 30 2026 an appointment of Jennifer Christie to the park board to serve a two-year term effective February 11 2025 and expiring January 31 2027 I'm an appointment of Brad lman to the park board to um serve a two-year term effective February 11 2025 and expiring on January 3 31 2027 an appointment of Caleb Schultz to the park board to serve a two-year term affected the same dates February 11th through 2025 through January 31 2027 an appointment of Karen finny to the senior Advisory Board to serve a two-year term starting tomorrow and expiring on January 31 2027 Janet Snell to the um senior Advisory Board to serve the same term effective tomorrow and expir January 31 2027 and finally Bob Cohen to the senior Advisory Board to serve a two-year term effective February 31 2025 and expiring on January 31 2027 so I will make that motion is there a second I'll second mayor uh council member Calbert thank you Council M Calbert so um the mayor made the motion and Council M Calbert made second um Miss Larson would you please call r foster Bolton yes Shaq yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes R yes kley yes weome yes motion carries the final item is adjournment and is there a motion to adjourn I move adjournment council member Wilburn thank you and is there a second I'll second council member ra okay and because I am not with you physically um I am emotionally with you but um not physically we need to do a roll call on that so we have a motion by Council M Wilburn and a second by Council M ra um Miss LaRon please call r foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes kley yes weome yes we are adjourned all right thank you all however we're not done yet we have an Eda meeting and um I will call that meeting to order um it is still Monday February 10th 2025 um this is a meeting of the minona Economic Development Authority again I'll call this meeting to order and uh Miss Larsson please call Ro kley here Foster Bolton here sha here Wilburn here Calbert here ra here weome here um next item is approval of the agenda um and uh Miss wishnack is that you uh no changes thank you all right is there a motion to approve the agenda some go ahead go ahead Paul I I'll move to approve the agenda council member ra um commissioner ra commissioner ra is there a second commissioner Calbert seconds thank you commissioner Calbert so we've got a motion by Commission commissioner R and a second by commissioner Calbert Miss Larson please call Ro kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes weome yes motion carries next item is approval of minutes and we have one set the January 13 2025 Eda minutes is there uh are there any comments or emotion uh commissioner Calbert moves approval of the Gen anuary 13th Eda minutes thank you commissioner Calbert is there a second commissioner Foster Bolton seconds all right we've got a motion by commissioner Calbert and a second by commissioner Foster Bolton Miss Larson please K kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes R yes weome yes motion carries next item is business items and we have one business item tonight and that is the Mills Twin Homes revised form of contract for private development and miss wishnack you have that report thank you uh president and Commissioners this is just a small change to the contract that was originally approved in May of last year um the whole contract though is being readapted it's really about the dates uh the start date has been pushed back to September of this year and then have the whole project completed no later than September of 2028 as you can tell from Miss Thomas's report there's been a a lot of title work and a lot of uh information uh hashing over um to get this prepared for development so uh we are at staff comfortable with those dates changing and with that we would recommend approval and ask that you adopt the resolution thank you thank you Miss wishnack nice to see you this evening um so Council are there any um questions or comments regarding this action all right seeing none um Commissioners is there a motion I will move uh adoption of the resolution for the Mills Twin Homes revised form of contract for private Redevelopment commissioner Wilburn thank you commissioner Wilburn is there a second I'll second Shaq um and but excuse me was that commissioner Calbert commissioner sha oh excuse me commissioner sha I'm sorry the screen's a little small um anyway so we have a motion by commissioner Wilburn and a second by commissioner sha um Miss Larson please call rooll kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes weome yes motion carries final item is adjournment is there a motion to adjourn commissioner Wilburn moves adjournment commissioner Calbert seconds all right we've got a motion by commissioner Wilburn and a second by commissioner calfor again we will call roll Miss Larson please call roll kley yes Foster Bolton yes sha yes Wilburn yes Calbert yes ra yes weome yes motion carries we are adjourned thank you all very much and um my apologies for not being with you I I gave the old College try and it just didn't quite work out so uh sorry I could not be with you tonight [Music] [Music]