[0:40] Mayor Luke Hellier: Hello. Hello. [0:56] Mayor Luke Hellier: Good evening and welcome to the November 17th city council meeting. If you join me in a moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance [1:23] All: ...to the stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all. [1:25] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay, Ms. Orlofsky, roll call, please. [1:40] Ann Orlofsky: Councilmember Bermel? [1:41] John Bermel: Here. [1:42] Ann Orlofsky: Councilmember Wolter? [1:43] Dan Wolter: Here. [1:44] Ann Orlofsky: Councilmember Volk? [1:45] Michelle Volk: Here. [1:46] Ann Orlofsky: Mayor Hellier? [1:47] Luke Hellier: Here. [1:48] Ann Orlofsky: Joshua Lee? [1:49] Joshua Lee: Here. [1:50] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Um I'll now move on to item three, citizens comments. There's an opportunity for those to address the council for up to three minutes for an issue on the agenda or not on the agenda. If you have anything to say, you're welcome to come up, state your name for the record, and I've got my trusty stopwatch up here. [2:18] Bob Ericson: Mayor and members of the city council, good evening. I'm Bob Ericson, 1908 Indale Drive. I'm here this evening uh in light of the uh notice that the agenda includes the um cup for the mosque as a consent item. If that's going to continue, that'll be a city council decision. There were a couple of outstanding issues that evolved from the planning commission public hearing that was a very meaningful exchange by all parties respectful of everyone's interests uh including mine which in initially began in July will go very quickly and uh in July uh as a former schoolboard member I had heard that there's a religious group uh considering the purchase of the building so I stopped there was no one at the building at the time so I reached out to the fire chief uh regarding occupancy because as a schoolboard member, I I learned that the lower level had exiting issues and it couldn't accommodate public occupancy. Uh and I was assuming that there might be an interest in using that space for public use, public occupancy, and that prompted me to seek that information. I don't know if that's been resolved. Uh, I know there's a they're seeking occupancy of 143 persons and that would necessitate the use of the lower level and so I'm sure that's a building official issue under the codes uh that needs some consideration. Also at the meeting there was discussion and an inquiry not by myself regarding uh public prayer in the outdoors and um that was addressed uh very appropriately. But is there a more definitive need for a defined process that would require and necessitate like you have in the agenda this evening for another local entity that's seeking an outdoor uh use of the public expression and maybe if someone could clarify that but neither of these items are completely defined well enough in the findings of fact which I think is important for the uh requesting uh group uh the Muslims uh to be respectful of their rights and interests uh and I think the findings of fact could be uh added to or or or subsequently altered to represent both interest. Thank you so much. [4:53] Mayor Luke Hellier: Thank you. Any others? Hi. You can pull the mic down, honey. [5:02] Noir Nesro: Good evening, council members. [5:05] Mayor Luke Hellier: Good evening. [5:07] Noir Nesro: My name is Noir Nesro and I live at 7682 207th Street West, Lakeville, Minnesota 55044. I am 9 years old and homeschooled. Please give our mosque the permit as it is where I learn, play, and worship. We really deserve a mosque in our city. Thank you very much for listening. [5:32] Mayor Luke Hellier: Thank you. Any others? Hello. Go back. Go back. You can bring the mic up. Thanks. [6:10] Audrey Aronson Johnson: My name is Audrey Aronson Johnson. My dad, Leo Aronson, was mayor of Lakeville. I think he hangs in those photos. from 1958 to 1969. I have been a resident in Lakeville nearly all of my life with my late husband Brad Johnson. We began our apartment real estate business uh back in 1966. Doing quick math, that's just a year shy of that makes me sort of an old lady now. We continue to operate these apartments and here tonight um two village joins the uh Muslim American Society of Minnesota building and then just across the 10th Street is our very first apartment development. [clears throat] Those two are of concern to me and I do appreciate the opportunity to briefly talk with you. I have just three main points. Um, my first concern is that this change in use will substantially increase traffic in the parking lot at times both before and after sunset. And this would result in vehicles with headlights lighting up windows [snorts] in the apartments. And because some of the gatherings are at uh different hours, uh I'm concerned about residents sleep being disturbed by the lights. Uh the application indicated the facility will host five daily prayers, some of which are outside of daytime hours. Uh the city's reviews seem to focus on the Friday gatherings. Um but also there are everyday gatherings and so my concern is mainly will our residents sleep be disturbed by the gatherings— [8:48] Mayor Luke Hellier: —About 30 seconds. [8:49] Audrey Aronson Johnson: Uh so that's my first concern. Second concern uh generated during again time hours um traffic noise, car doors slamming outside talking among the attendees and particularly any broadcast sounds that would be a part of the uh routine. Um the applicant has made statements that five daily calls prayer will not be broadcast outside of the building. Um but I I wonder if there's been adequate inquiry into what kind of system they would use should they decide to do broadcasting. It's really an important issue and feeling like tenants will leave our property if sleep is disturbed whatever other hours there might be gatherings. [10:04] Mayor Luke Hellier: I'm going to ask you to wrap it up. Okay. [10:07] Audrey Aronson Johnson: Pardon me. [10:08] Mayor Luke Hellier: I'm going to ask you to wrap it up. Okay. [10:10] Audrey Aronson Johnson: Yes. At the very [clears throat] minimum, any conditional use permit issued should expressly include the condition there be no broadcasts or other sound amplification outside of the building or at the nearby apartments. Uh, and so I request that the city, you know, really look into that to be sure that that would not drop because of sleep disturbance. I guess I have just one final point and it has to do with hours of operation compatibility with the residential use like we could have in our case. And I wonder if this consideration of um restricting hours has been made by the by the city. I'm hopeful that you will choose to take some additional time to take a look at these issues um to to prevent potentially significant negative impacts on the neighboring residential properties like village and village dweller. [11:46] Mayor Luke Hellier: Thank you. Thank you. [12:23] Mahin Manip: Good evening everyone. My name is Mahin Manip. I live at 16097 Canard Court Lakeville. I go to East Elementary. I am 7 years old. I want to participate in masjid programs near my home and I want to be an active part of Lakewood Muslim community. Please approve this masjid. Thank you for your time. [12:42] Mayor Luke Hellier: Thank you. Any other public comment? [12:47] Emily Taylor: Yeah. Emily Taylor, 15946 Kenddale Circle. Um I'm here in favor. Uh my neighbor asked and kind of was brought forward. I think that a lot of our neighbors, they work among us, they go to school with our kids. We have an opportunity to go to houses of worship that are close to us. I don't know why Lakeville, we should be open to allowing them that as well. And I was also brought to my attention that to circle back to what our two people ahead of me had said about the call to prayer. I guess there's already been an email sent that that won't be public outside of the building. So, that was someone's concern about the apartment complex. It's already been brought forward. I guess there are seven other mosques in the Twin Cities that do not do that and that is their intention. So, I just am pro for my neighbors to have a safe local place to worship just like so many of us have in the community. [13:34] Mayor Luke Hellier: Any other comments? [13:37] Resident: Evening. [13:39] Mayor Luke Hellier: Good evening. [13:40] Resident: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Uh, thank you for allowing public comments this evening. Uh, it's been since December 2016, I think, that I spoke in this room. Um, it's been a while. It's been almost a decade. Um, I'm so proud of this city. It's my hometown, Luke. I know it's your hometown, too. I'm so proud of of how far this city has come. Who would have thought we would have this many people in Lakeville? Um but it the you know this uh CUP reminded me of one debate we had and this was many many years ago but we were trying to revitalize downtown Lakeville and there was a time when this city didn't allow outdoor patios and that was very controversial. Um, but the thing about this city is we always advance. And I think about our slogan, position to thrive. That slogan applies to everybody here. Um, not just certain people. And so I'm so proud of of this project um and the diversity that Lakeville has brought in uh the community members that are giving back to this community. So, um I've never spoken before this uh this body before since I left because I know it it can feel a little awkward, but I thought this was very important because this is this is America. This is the country where freedom of religion can be exercised and logistics have never stopped this country from any sort of problem. So, I'd ask that you approve uh the conditional use permit tonight. So, thank you for hearing my comments. Would you like my address, Mr. Mayor? [15:28] Mayor Luke Hellier: Because of who you are, I'm not going to make you say it all. Appreciate that. Thank you, sir. [laughter] [15:33] Imam Hassan Jama: Good evening. [15:34] Mayor Luke Hellier: Good evening. [15:35] Imam Hassan Jama: Hello, city council. Thank you for your service. Uh I am Imam Hassan Jama. I live 20220 Holland Avenue. My house is in between the city council and the mosque. This is just a few blocks from my house. I serve as a Lakeville envisioning task force. My daughter, she's the current chair for Lakeville youth committee. I think this is a guaranteed way for all Americans to practice their religion to express their feeling. I ask you kindly to approve and respect all these uh neighbors and residents. I call myself everyone here as a neighbor I respect and this is the city we love. This is the city we care and this is where we chose to raise our children. My children goes through different schools here in Lakeville and they are really very happy when they saw the mosque nearby our house. Uh they walk from home to mosque as they wish. Thank you so much. [16:49] Mayor Luke Hellier: Any other public comment? Okay. Thank you for those who came today. Moving on to our next agenda item. Additional agenda information. Mr. Miller. [17:01] Justin Miller: Nothing tonight, Mayor. [17:03] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Um and now we'll move into presentations and introductions. Uh item A, our business spotlight video about Sweet Harvest Foods. And Miss Goodroad, our community development director, will tee this up for us. [17:16] Tina Goodroad: Thank you. Good evening, mayor, members of the council. We are pleased to present the Sweet Harvest Foods business spotlight video. Sweet Harvest Foods opened its Lakeville warehouse and distribution facility back in 2020 in the Launch Park 2 building occupying 100,000 square feet. And just in June 2024, the business hosted its ribbon cutting for their new facility. They constructed a 360,000 square foot building, which happens to be the second largest building in our industrial park at the intersection of Cedar Avenue and County Road 70. Um, this building now houses the company's corporate headquarters, recently added manufacturing operations, and serves as its primary distribution center. Between the two locations, Sweet Harvest Foods distributes 100 million gallons of honey a year right out of Lakeville. Um, thank you to Katie Bachmire and our communications team for preparing this video. And I would like to um welcome Pashan Pubar, the chief operations officer with Sweet Harvest Foods up and also um provide um this plaque um as well as the video. Um the video will be shared on our social media um after this meeting. [18:35] Pashan Pubar: Thank you Tina, members of the council and mayor. Um Tina, thanks for the introduction. That was half of my talk, so I won't take up too much of your time, but we've been a part of a part of the community for the last 5 years, and it's just been a great privilege to be part of Lakeville. Everyone is so supportive—the fire and uh police that we support and they support us by doing our checks and getting us certified uh annually and uh the community around us. We are a global company. Um, and so we've had number of customers and buyers, suppliers from around the world come into Lakeville, this town, and provided so much feedback to say that they didn't realize how close it was to Minneapolis and the airport, and that attracted them uh to here and be able to do visits uh here uh regularly, but then also the infrastructure, the community uh and the restaurants, and they actually stay here in Lakeville and not by the Mall of America when they come visit. So thank you for creating that uh opportunity in uh for us. Our mission uh as Sweet Harvest Foods is to be the leader in honey u by innovating from the hive to the table. And so we have beehives. We're the largest beekeeper in the United States. We are the largest packer of honey uh in the United States. Um and we have the number one brand, Nature Nates. It's the bright orange uh label bottle in the honey aisle. Um, and so that innovation is key and your support of welcoming us into the community has helped us innovate within the four walls. And mayor, you've been here, you were there about a year and a half ago or so. Um, and I welcome you to come back and all of you to come back in March. We're bringing a lot more robotics um, and automation to our facilities to be able to continue our growth. And uh when we started five years ago, we like Tina mentioned, we had five employees in that 100,000 foot building. Today in our 360,000 foot building in 5 years, we have 70 people from all from skilled labor, uh as well as professionals, uh food scientists, innovation labs, and things like that. So, I welcome you uh to our site anytime. Um the mayor, Tina, and Katie, they know how to get a hold of me. So, if you want a tour, just feel free to reach out. Thank you for having us. [20:46] Mayor Luke Hellier: Thank you sir. [20:58] [Video Narrator]: Sweet Harvest Foods began with beekeeping in the 1900s and has grown to become the most trusted honey company in the world. The business first opened its Lakeville warehouse and distribution location in 2020 in 100,000 square ft of existing industrial park space. 5 years later, Sweet Harvest Foods is now operating out of its own newly constructed 360,000 foot facility near the intersection of Cedar Avenue and County Road 70, increasing the business's Lakeville footprint by an impressive 260%. [21:28] Pashan Pubar (Video): Yeah, we chose Lakeville for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons was it's close to I-35. So, the primary reason of moving to Lakeville initially was for warehousing um operations. And so I-35 was a great corridor for our trucking um as well as the infrastructure that Lakeville had already established uh from restaurants, gas stations, the community, and other businesses that we could utilize as we're operating here. [21:55] [Video Narrator]: The new Sweet Harvest Foods facility houses the company's corporate headquarters, recently added manufacturing operations, and serves as its primary distribution center. The Lakeville facility offers a wide variety of jobs and has even doubled its employee count over the last year thanks to its fast growing local manufacturing division. [22:16] Pashan Pubar (Video): Yeah, we're the largest uh honey producer company in the United States. Um we have three sections or sectors of the business. Our first one is our business-to-business where we provide great tasting honey to our some of the iconic brands that you'll see on the shelves of your local grocery stores and um other industries. Uh we also have our own brand which is Nate's Honey. And the third business which we recently got into uh is our Nate's Ice. So, we own apiaries across the United States. Um, and we're one of the top US apiary uh company. We have our own bees and our hives and produce our own honey. [22:58] [Video Narrator]: The company takes purity very seriously, tracking every drop of honey from hive to home and tests every barrel to ensure a top quality product for its customers. Nature Nates honey products like raw unfiltered honey, hot honey, manuka honey, and honey minis can be found in all major retail stores in Lakeville and nationwide. Just look for the bright orange labels. As a leader in US honey production, Sweet Harvest Foods also likes to lead the charge to revolutionize the honey industry by incorporating robotics and automation at its plants in order to provide a safer environment for its employees and reduce repetitive motions. The business is also actively looking to support and improve honeybee health and habitats through its Nate's hives research grant program. The grant program seeks proposals to advance research for honey, honey bees, and beekeepers. Thank you to Sweet Harvest Foods for choosing Lakeville. [24:01] Mayor Luke Hellier: Very cool. It's It's really hard to fathom 100 million pounds of honey. There's just so much product. So again, thank you for choosing Lakeville. We appreciate the partnership. All right, we'll move on to uh item B, our fire department quarterly report, and I'll turn it over to our fire chief, Mike Meyer. [24:42] Mike Meyer: There we go. Good evening, mayor, council members. I'd like to present the third quarter report for the fire department. And I'll start with our mission statement. The Lakeville Fire Department is dedicated to serving the community through the protection of lives and property by providing public safety education and a professional emergency response. looking at total incidents. So three-year call comparison. So on the left side you can see total incidents that occurred in the third uh third quarter by breakdown by year. Uh from '24 to '25 roughly about 150 calls difference. Uh but breaking those down by the month in the third quarter you can see July and August were uh busier than previous years. Uh September comes back to kind of normal and that's what we're experiencing today as far as just a little bit slower in the fall than it is during the summer. And obviously July has Pan-O-Prog and all those do affect us as far as volume go. A breakdown of those uh incidents by uh in the third quarter. So 1144 calls uh and then obviously rescue emergency medical services. So that's car accidents, medicals uh are about 60% a little over 60% of our call volume and then they're broken down from there. Uh fires is at 26 which was down quite a bit compared to last year this time. So that's a good thing to see. And then we look at overlapping calls. So out of those 1100 plus calls, we had 403 overlapping calls that occurred. Uh normally not a big thing. You can see, you know, 126 of those roughly are two incidents occurring at once. Uh it's when we start getting multiples of those, you can say like July 4th, which I wouldn't uh doesn't shock me, but we had eight incidents going that was just a one occurrence, but that's July 4th. We expect to see that and we staff up accordingly. anytime that we run into multiple incidents and start stressing our system and then start relying on our auto and mutual aid partners is where that comes into play. Then just a heat map to kind of show the breakdown of that. So I look back at 2024 as far as total incidents at 2700 uh versus this year we're at 3113 today. uh it's about a 13% increase and then just a heat map to kind of show where those calls are located. Uh just as we were kind of seeing things go, but station two and station one are about 50% a slight slightly more than 50% of our call volume. Uh station three is kind of the next in line where station 4, even though there's a lot of population around it, we don't get a lot of calls from that area strictly. Uh we average 10 calls per day. uh that's running between those two staff trucks. And then just to show you kind of a breakdown of that. So on the left side of the bar graph, you can see uh as we staffed engines, we knew that our station call outs would go down. Uh and you can see that that reduction over a three-year period. And then obviously the staffed engines are going up as far as that call volume. And the pie chart on the right just shows a breakdown of what engine one, engine 4, what that volume is that they're handling out of those 1,072 calls. And just to highlight a couple of the uh responses that we had in the third quarter, uh the picture to the right says vehicle fire. It's actually an electrical fire in a vehicle. Uh it's not an EV vehicle that was on fire. Uh the middle picture is an ET trailer fire that we had. Uh kind of an interesting thing is that our engine 4 was responding to a medical in the area, noticed the smoke from this fire and then obviously diverted to that and found uh the whole side of the trailer home uh on fire. It started on where you can see the firefighter standing started on the deck and then went down the outside of the building to an outdoor shed next to it. Uh the top left picture is a hotel uh ice machine that caught fire. So this occurred I think it was early morning hours, so 2 a.m. roughly. Uh the interesting thing is that the system did what exactly what it was supposed to do. The fire alarm and the sprinkler system triggered and kept the fire in check before anybody knew what was going on in the hotel and obviously we responded and it was a pretty insignificant fire due to the fire protection system. Uh the bottom picture that's Key West Court is uh we've had a rash of these but if you look on the floor it looks like a bunch of batteries. That's actually a lithium ion battery that was on top of the chair. uh the battery hadn't been used in about three months and then uh at that point it discharged and became a fire hazard. So response time. So something that we always keep an eye on. So looking at the the top two the EMS and structure fire. So these are emergent responses obviously and just looking at response times. Uh EMS they're pretty even across the board from previous uh quarters and years. uh we're just over total response time we're just over 12 minutes with the two staffed engines and we're pushing at 14 to 15 minute response on a if we're bringing in a station and then structure fires those times are reduced but it's typically the same or first arriving second arriving and a third arriving unit. So first arriving second arriving is the two staffed engines. The third arriving is coming from a station response. And then the bottom one just shows uh all responses. So it doesn't matter the call type or whether we're responding lights or sirens or uh routine response and our call the the the time response remains the same. And then just for your reference that out of the medicals we're arriving 60% of the time in front of the ambulance. [30:26] Mayor Luke Hellier: 60%? [30:27] Mike Meyer: 60%. Fire prevention and community events. So I'll start on the left. So just events that we were out and about. uh National Night Out, Mighty Trucks and Library, and then touch a truck at Fleet Farm, fire safety talks, which are occurring daily with us, but uh daycare station tours, safety camp, and then we had crews out at Dakota County on fire prevention day. Uh in the middle, fire prevention talks. So, we had 14 elementary schools. This is part of fire prevention month, which we actually we start in September with that. Uh and we touch all the kindergarteners and the fourth grade as far as their poster contest. We're in there talking to those students about that. And then just to highlight food truck inspections. So as those continually increase, uh we are seeing a lot more of those. So the events that we see happening are obviously Pan-O-Prog, Fleet Farm, other businesses. A lot of school events now are bringing in food trucks and then park events are picking up with that as well. Looking at inspections in the third quarter, so we're just short of 300 in the third quarter. And you can see a breakdown as far as those types. uh the annual or the general inspection is the most common one. Uh it'll be interesting to see next year because we broke these down further than what they used to be from a category side. Uh the one piece that I'll that we watch closely is the incident follow-up. So when we respond to a fire alarm in a commercial business, our inspectors go out to make sure that the system is back in line as far as everything is back where it should be. And then the pictures to the right are just some examples of what we find when we're out doing inspections. Again, our staff is always out there to educate first before we start worrying about the violation and such. So, we try to get them to correct that without any writing up any violations and such. Training. So, we had a number of trainings occur in the third quarter. Uh I won't go through all of them, but I'll just highlight a couple. So, we had all of our medical training that occurred in July. Uh live burn ability test. Rescue swimmer training. So, we certified 18 of our full-time firefighters and then also two pay-on-call firefighters. And then we're up to nine full-time firefighters that are car seat safety certified as well. Uh I don't know if it belongs on the training side, but uh we also had two teams compete in the Ragnar 200 mile relay race. [32:30] Mayor Luke Hellier: What's that? [32:31] Mike Meyer: It was a very hot uh weekend for that. So we all made it without any issues. [snorts] Uh looking back at Pan-O-Prog, so obviously the waffle breakfast is a huge event for us. Uh we served over 2,000 plates of waffles. Uh and then just the other things that occur through that fireworks parade, family funfest, ping pong drop, and then food truck inspections. As I mentioned earlier, I think we do about 75 food truck inspections just for Pan-O-Prog alone. Recruitment of pay-on-call firefighters. I won't go through the entire timeline, but know that we have six pay-on-call going through the academy currently. They've passed their medical certification for EMR, which is a baseline, and they are now well into fire one, fire two. Uh actually coming in December, we'll start doing live burn training with them at AEL. We had one retirement in July, Paul Ellen, who started in 2005 and obviously retired July of 2025. Uh he was one of our engineers at station 4. So, we just want to highlight him and thank him for his service. And we'll be back actually in December to present him and three others with their shadow boxes. Some public safety events. So, uh obviously we had the 911 ball. I did not have any good pictures that I took from the event. Uh and then followed that with the fire department family picnic and softball game, which we had to reschedule the softball game because I think we had one batter go up and then lightning came. Mhm. [34:01] Mike Meyer: Uh the results were still the same and I won't say much beyond that. [34:03] Mayor Luke Hellier: Yeah, Chief Paulson didn't want to talk about it. [34:06] Mike Meyer: Uh and then we did our annual stair climb at Lifetime Fitness. So, as you can see, participants go in full gear. Uh some carry hose, but we climb 110 floors. Uh I just want to say thank you to our sponsors, Lifetime Fitness and the Fountains at Hosanna that brought us some drinks and food afterwards. That concludes my third quarter report. I want to thank you for your support to the fire department and our staff and I'll stand for any questions. [34:39] Mayor Luke Hellier: Great. Thanks, Chief. Any questions, comments? Thank you as always. Strong report. Okay, moving on to item six, our consent agenda. These are more routine items for the council. Um, Mr. Miller, anything you want to highlight? [34:50] Justin Miller: Thank you, mayor. One item tonight, 6D, is an acceptance of a donation from the Lakeville Public Safety Foundation. This is around $2,200 that'll go toward our K-9 fund of the police department. We appreciate that donation. [35:05] Mayor Luke Hellier: Fantastic. Council, any items that you would like to discuss further? If not, I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. [35:12] Dan Wolter: Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. [35:14] Michelle Volk: Second. [35:15] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. [35:19] Councilmembers: I. [35:21] Mayor Luke Hellier: Opposed. Okay. Moving on to item seven, public hearing to reassess special assessments for removal of a hazardous building. Finance director, Miss Stahl. [35:45] Julie Stahl: I'm just going to wait just for a moment for the um property owners to come in so they can hear everything. [37:37] Mayor Luke Hellier: I could just have everybody if you're if you're going to leave just quickly exit. Go ahead. Yep. [37:47] Julie Stahl: Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I will give some background on this property. It um did have a fire in 2016 at the home and the property was abandoned by the owners at that time. In November of 2016, the city council approved a contract with Lloyd's construction for the abatement and demolition of the house on the property. In May of 2017, the city appeared before the district court to request an approval of expenses that the city incurred for removing that hazardous building. Um the court directed the city to recover the costs and those costs were assessed to the county assessment rules. We had a public hearing notice sent in June of 2017 for this assessment and then council called the public hearing on June of 2017. We held the public hearing in July of 2017 and the assessment rule was approved at that time that was covering the base removal cost of 44,300 plus interest. And then in October of 2017, the council adopted the resolution to assess the legal costs that we had incurred and that was also approved by the courts. We have the 2018 Dakota property tax statement for this parcel and all of these assessments were listed on there as well as a delinquent utility amount of $189 and then a street reconstruction installment. In October of 2022, Dakota County notified the city that there was an upcoming forfeit sale and they confirmed the outstanding assessment balances with us. At that time, all of the assessments totaled 70,134. In taxes payable 2023, there were additional assessments on the property for code violations in the spring and fall of 2022. In July of 2025, Dakota County sent us forfeiture sale tax proceeds that could be applied toward this parcel. This was the first indication the city had that the parcel was sold to a private party. We did receive the city received additional funds that represented our 20% of the remaining sale proceeds and that was also applied to the outstanding assessment balance. We were informed also by the county—and we got this information from the county on July 22nd of this year—that we could assess the remaining assessment balances that had been um cleared off when the property forfeited to the state. In October of this year, we sent the public hearing notice to the paper and we also mailed it to the property owners. We had a data request from the current property owners of the lot filed through our website and we completed that data request for the things they asked for on November 4th. So at the November 3rd meeting for the city council, we did call this public hearing um to reassess this assessment and we this follows the Minnesota statute 429.071 subdivision 4. What the city is seeking to do is recover the cost our cost for removing this public safety hazard. We believe that this burden should not be passed along to the Lakeville residents. Um with that, I will answer any questions that council may have with this process. Um if you have any and ask that you open it up for the public hearing. [41:31] Mayor Luke Hellier: Council, any questions? Councilmember Lee. [41:33] Joshua Lee: Uh thank you. Just one clarifying question. Can you tell me when the purchase agreement for this was completed? [41:37] Julie Stahl: The sale—I don't know about a purchase agreement. I know that it went to the forfeit sale in February of 2025. [41:48] Joshua Lee: So it was sold from the forfeit at what point? [41:52] Julie Stahl: At that February 10th um sale. Yes. [41:54] Joshua Lee: At that point, there is no documentation of a lien against the property in February. Correct. [42:01] Julie Stahl: The county puts out the notices for the foreclosure sales and this particular property fell under the—I'll get the right terminology—they have two different groups of properties that they are selling and I'll get the right one. Sorry. Too many papers. So they listed—there's properties that they sell depending on the time when it forfeited, they fall into two different categories. So, this one fell into the category where the county lists an estimated market value, but in their notice, they say the assessment—there could be assessments that were cancelled with this forfeit and that the property owners that are looking to buy a forfeited sale or forfeited property need to make sure they follow their due diligence and see about any canceled assessments. And so this property is in that group. Um I say that clearly enough? I'm sorry. [43:18] Joshua Lee: Appreciate it. Thank you. [43:19] Michelle Volk: So just to be clear, so the total of the 49,000 that's made up of the cost that the city had incurred to tear down the building and everything. [43:30] Julie Stahl: Correct. [43:31] Michelle Volk: Correct. And then so that was it looks like 18,000 something. [43:35] Julie Stahl: That was the 54,000. So the 44,300 plus interest of [clears throat] um one and a half% per a month. Um that was the 44. Sorry. Yeah. Got it. Got it. Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you. [44:26] Mayor Luke Hellier: Other questions? Yeah, this is a public hearing, so I will now open the public hearing if there is anyone that wants to talk. Yep. come on up and just state your name and address for the record, please. [44:42] Von Chan: You're nerve-wracking, so if I— [44:44] Mayor Luke Hellier: That's okay. [44:45] Von Chan: Not loud. Um, please let me know and I'm just going to pretend nobody's listening to me like [laughter]—that's what I would do. Thank you. Um, good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Von Chan and this is my husband Pat Chan. Um, we are here to respectfully object to the proposed assessment of a 2017 demolition cost of $49,254.95 for our property at 6649 167th Street West. We purchased this property parcel in good faith at the county um tax forfeiture in February 2025. At the time of sale, there was no disclosure of any outstanding special assessments. The deed and official sale listing confirmed there was no delinquent taxes or assessments on the property. We believe that this assessment is legally and procedurally flawed for several reasons. Under Minnesota statute 429.061 requires that assessments be certified and included in the tax role. This charge um was not certified or included in any tax statement from 2021 to 2025 and therefore cannot be enforced. Um additionally, if the assessment role had been properly certified, it would have appeared on the tax role, property tax statements, um forfeiture certification, sale sheets and deed sheets. um there was no indication um of that assessment. Additionally, under statute 282.005, the minimum bid for tax forfeited property must include all delinquent taxes, special assessments, penalties, interest, and costs assigned to the parcel. The statute also states all parcel offered at a public auction are sold to the highest bidder. The first partial listing is for the minimum bid. The minimum bid is the basic sale price that is equal to the sum of delinquent taxes, special assessment, penalties, interest, and costs assigned to the parcel. Um, it further provides that any assessment that survived forfeiture, whether levied before or after, must be listed under the subject to reassessment section. Our parcel had no amount listed in that section. Further confirming that no such assessment was outstanding or applicable at the time of sale and I had also confirmed that with the Dakota County staff member because we were nervous. Um the parcel was listed with no surviving assessment. The amount being assessed is nearly the full value of the land um which is in violation of the proportionality requirement under statute 429.051 which states that an assessment must be in proportion to the benefit received meaning the assessment cannot exceed the property's increase in value. We purchased the land for $31,750. Um, a $49,254.95 assessment is nearly the entire value of our parcel and far exceeds any land value increase. We humbly and respectfully um request that council deny the proposed reassessment um and confirm that the city will not retroactively enforce unrecorded demolition charge that were not included in the tax for sale. We also have um a buyer under contract who intends to develop the land which would bring long-term tax revenue and value to the city. enforcing this assessment could jeopardize that opportunity—especially when the husband lost his job as well. Sorry, I just—thank you. [48:54] Mayor Luke Hellier: Thank you. Did Did you want to comment as well or— [48:56] Pat Chan: No. [48:57] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. [48:58] Joshua Lee: Can I ask them a question? So, can you talk to me a little bit about the Dakota County staff person that you spoke to? Someone at the sale or was it a separate conversation? [49:13] Von Chan: It was Deanna. Um, super nice lady. Um she was I believe she was also the one who conducted the auction as well too. Um and and I know I had also tried to reach out to the city of Lakeville just to try to get any information. Um but there was no disclosure. Nobody knew about the assessment and it was a surprise to us too. [49:40] Pat Chan: Yes. And it also did not show um property tax um statements from '21, '22, '23, '24, and '25. Um so there was no indication that amount was um a part of the parcel. [50:11] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Anybody else have questions for—okay, you guys can take a seat. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to us. Is there any other comment for the public hearing? Okay, seeing none, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. [50:28] Joshua Lee: Motion to close the public hearing. [50:30] Dan Wolter: Second. [50:31] Mayor Luke Hellier: All those in favor say I. [50:33] Councilmembers: I. [50:35] Mayor Luke Hellier: Opposed. Okay, the public hearing is now closed. So, [clears throat] I'm trying to figure out what our legal situation is because I I totally understand how you could be frustrated and confused, especially if this is not a normal business dealing for you. Well on the one hand from our perspective like the taxpayers put up the money to do the work and so we have to somehow be recouped and I don't know what that answer is. Um, I also don't like to just point fingers at other jurisdictions, but it seems like this is something that we have to weigh in on, but we're really not the ultimate we are not the record holder, right? We don't hold the land record. So, I'm having a hard time um justifying where we should go with this because it's we're kind of stuck in between the property owner and the county and I don't really know. [51:24] Joshua Lee: Well, as I was reading the letter that you sent, I'm seeing a lot of references to state statute, and maybe our legal council can uh at least give some uh some idea. Is there a a district court remedy that or some kind of action that could be filed? [51:48] City Attorney: Like any other special assessment, the uh property owner can bring uh an action within 30 days uh with the district court to appeal. Um but from my observation of the record that the city has, the city complied with all requirements related to this reassessment, the original assessment and the reassessment. In talking to the county, they indicated that the statute that the property owners are relying on is not the statute that they were operating under and that this was not a minimum assessment. It was a market value estimated value uh sale. So it was based on that and they indicated that they properly followed the requirements as well. So, I don't know that I can provide you with much more information than that, but I would say that if there are any issues with this, it would be with the— [52:57] Mayor Luke Hellier: What is the city's um recourse? It's not reassessed and we assess the county essentially. Is that an option? [53:07] City Attorney: That is not an option. [53:09] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. And why is that? [53:13] City Attorney: City has only the authority provided by statute and the statute only provides for assessment against the property and the reassessment provision which you followed here. [53:31] Dan Wolter: My followup to that is at what point in this process—and I don't know who uh should answer this question—At what point in the process would a buyer know about the assessments and what process would they have to go through be specific to this one? Because it seems like there's maybe a gap here. Where would they have found that information um in that process? [53:56] Julie Stahl: At least um it would be as the county had indicated that it's up to the buyer to essentially do their homework, which would mean contacting the taxing districts to see if there's any and we've gotten—the city staff has gotten lots of requests for this same property over the years. In 2020, there was people looking at it and our staff—because they would call the county first or check on the county website and the county website directs them, you got to check in with the city and see if there's anything. So, when they contact the city, we have held this on our books and we still have it on our books and that was disclosed to the people at that time and at any time after that if title company calls, hey, are there assessments on this property? And we give them all of these balances. [54:50] Mayor Luke Hellier: And so that's an important clarifier to me. So this property has been the data requests have come in in the past and we have had that on record for previous inquiries. [54:58] Julie Stahl: Yes. [55:00] Mayor Luke Hellier: So it's it's not that it it wasn't available. It was that the fine print somewhere says you have to go to the cities to request that information. And in this particular case that wasn't done. [55:12] Julie Stahl: Correct. As far as we know that we have no record of anyone contacting us at this February time frame or January asking about any assessments for this property. [55:23] Joshua Lee: and it's not the responsibility of the county to to know if there are additional assessments. [55:30] Julie Stahl: There was so much activity with this. I would be surprised if the county wasn't aware of it. I mean, but again, when they had the forfeited sale, when the property went into the state um ownership, at that point in time, the state needs a clean uh deed. So, then all of these assessments, anything outstanding on it would be wiped clean. Property taxes assessments are wiped clean so the state can have a clean deed. And then it's at that point—and we got the information from the county at that time in 2022—you may reassess these if it is sold to a private um individual and per this statute that we're referencing now. Um, and that's where we're just following what our ability is to do. And the county did find the land auction notice because the county states in there that um the balance of any special assessments that were levied before forfeiture and cancelled at forfeiture are not included in the base sale price and may be reassessed by the municipality. These special assessments are shown on the list of tax forfeited land under the column entitled subject to reassessment. So, and the county gives notice on their website about any tax forfeited land that people are looking at to make sure they do their due diligence and contacting um the municipalities for any of these canceled assessments. [57:15] Joshua Lee: They don't give an amount with that? So you read that statement—and maybe I misunderstood the statement—but the statement says something to the effect that if there was an amount due—do they give an amount? Is there a place on the county's website that shows the amount that we would have had to wipe for the state? [57:32] Julie Stahl: Not on their city website on the land auction report that they post. They list these two different types. So they've got the properties that need a minimum bid and that's—this property did not fit into that category. This one fit into the appraised value. And so the county had an appraised value of the property of $20,000, but by saying it's the fair market value of the parcel determined by their assessing services. Um but then they have the disclaimer further down saying you need to check because it is a forfeit property. There is more than likely um canceled assessments because the property owners—they don't list them on a website or anything. Not at this point in time because in 2022 when it went to the state and is in the state's ownership they all get cleared to zero and then—I know it's— [58:24] Joshua Lee: So they get cleared to zero and we carry the balance no matter what— [58:29] Julie Stahl: —until because of the process with the forfeitures and how long between a forfeit and then when they have the auction sales this there's a whole like two three years sometimes longer um and that those rules or those laws have changed. They're shortening now. But um there's this time frame where it's kind of like a void and everybody's on a waiting for something to happen. And that's where we didn't have any choice but to just sit on it until the sale to a private owner happened. [59:17] Joshua Lee: This is November. And the sale took place in February. And so how do we how does the city justify the amount of time? [59:22] Julie Stahl: We didn't get the proceeds until July of this year. Till July. And that's the time frame. So the sale happened in February. The county gets their distribution, sends it out because a portion—the state keeps 75% of those forfeiture sale proceeds and the remaining 25% then gets divvied up to the county, the school district and the city based on those allocations that we normally get like our property taxes. So we got a piece of the remittance. Um and that again is all by statute and and what the county is following. They're following the right procedures. [1:00:04] Joshua Lee: I don't disagree with the idea that we should be getting this money back somehow. I'm disagreeing and having a hard time with the timing of the practice of when the um assessments are re-done. Um, I don't know if this is a loophole or if this is typical. It this is new to me since I've been on council, so this isn't something that we do very often. Um, but there just seems to be a need to be a way to assess it before the sale. I'm not feeling comfortable with assessing this after the sale, even if it is legally something that we can do. [1:01:04] Mayor Luke Hellier: But I would say the frustration for me is that the county puts a fair market value below assessment. It's frustrating. [1:01:10] Julie Stahl: Right. If I may to that point, if the city didn't take care of of demolishing the house, paying somebody to do that and the house was still sitting there, burned out house on the property, whoever brought that property would have to do it themselves. And so, but because it was a hazard, it was a safety public safety concern. That's why the city had to step in and do the demolition. But you've got a pad-ready lot. All of that stuff was taken care of. So all the remediation, soil remediation, all of that after the fire, everything was done per code by the contractor that the city hired. [1:01:50] Joshua Lee: So if it wasn't a public safety hazard, that building would still be there. [clears throat] And because I'm looking at the uh the estimated building value is zero. No building, but it has a land value at 58,600. So that estimated building value probably would have been the same thing, but the people who purchased the building would have had to have abated. [1:02:18] Julie Stahl: Correct. If we hadn't stepped in, yeah, it would still be there. The house would be there for them to then have to take care of before building on it again. [1:02:28] Mayor Luke Hellier: Yeah. So, I mean, the one thing that I have in my mind is I wrote down a number that was minus the proceeds we got from the sale and then removing the interest that was accrued and changing the assessment—let me just say for future properties we need to have a conversation with the county on hopefully that there's there's some more notice. I'm guessing that these guys wouldn't have bought this property. Um, but again, at the same time, you do own it and the city did pay to have the building removed. So, we're in a bad spot. You're in a bad spot. And I'm trying to figure out what makes the most sense. I don't know. [1:03:25] Michelle Volk: What was the number that that came to? [1:03:31] Mayor Luke Hellier: 37,370. [1:03:35] Michelle Volk: I'm sorry. And how did you do that? So that's what we assess right now is 49, but it's taking off the interest that has accrued over the last 10 years. Maybe propose even splitting it from there—compromise—because I I agree with you conversation I think needs to happen but with the 37,000 in half— [1:04:13] Julie Stahl: Setting a precedent. Just letting you know it's— [1:04:14] Mayor Luke Hellier: Yeah. I mean, my—I don't know. [1:04:22] Michelle Volk: Someone had to take care of cleaning up that property. Somebody had to do that. We were left with that responsibility. So, it cost us money back when we did it. I think what the mayor is trying to take off the interest, you know, try to come up with a way, but the city still had to pay to get that house off of there. So, we're still on the hook for that. And I don't want to split it when unfortunately they do this all the time. You have to look at the small print at any time forfeiture sale. [clears throat] Know what other things you're going to be responsible for. It's not just a clean "I bid this and it's yours." [1:05:16] Joshua Lee: Another council uh question. How does any decision here change the ability for the purchasers to take legal recourse on any adjusted amount versus the full amount? Does that have any impact? [1:05:33] City Attorney: Uh no, they they still bring an action uh in district court within 30 days based on whatever us— [1:05:43] Joshua Lee: and that's 30 days from from from today— [1:05:46] City Attorney: —the adoption of the resolution. [1:05:47] Mayor Luke Hellier: I see. Councilmember Wolter. [1:05:52] Dan Wolter: This is definitely an unfortunate circumstance. I however feel that we have a fiduciary responsibility here um on behalf of the taxpayers to recoup the money that was spent. Um I I would think that there would be laws in place that would require a little more transparency in that process, but I feel like that's something that needs to be worked out in a district court. So support the resolution in front of us. [1:06:21] Michelle Volk: For the full amount or for— [1:06:24] Dan Wolter: Full amount with the interest. [1:06:27] John Bermel: Yeah. I um this is this is a difficult one. Uh this house was—the problem was mitigated several years ago um before anybody who's going to buy it knew it. Um so this isn't you know it's—I agree with the term fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers who bore that burden at the time that it happened. Um I feel horrible for you too. um that uh that this just wasn't out there. However, there has to be, you know, that's a process that needs to be changed. And I I don't feel like this is a last stop. I feel like part of the process of you cooping this money or some of this money starts here, but there are remedies that you could seek outside of of our decision. Um, so I feel I I I feel like uh it would be responsible for us to to lay the assessment now. Um I'm open—I don't know where the interest goes. um I'm in favor of supporting the assessment. Um this isn't something though that uh I feel real good about. [1:09:33] Michelle Volk: I'm confused on how you came up with the number— [1:09:37] Mayor Luke Hellier: So the 44,300 demolition charges—I want to tell you the exact number. You take you just take away the county payment from the base. Don't even look at the interest if you were—well, the 49 is already left. Um, it's initially 56,184. 56,184 is what you went with. Um, so, and I think that's where I'm getting confused. And so, and I don't know what the right answer is, but if you're taking the interest off, you take it off or the payment and then you minus the payment. I don't know. [1:10:30] Julie Stahl: So otherwise I was just dealing with the 44,300 minus the 6,930 but the county received the six— [1:10:48] Michelle Volk: We did? [1:10:49] Julie Stahl: Yeah. So what happened is they sold the land at auction. State takes 75% of that revenue. The remaining 25% gets split between us and the school. [1:11:05] Michelle Volk: Ours was 6,900? [1:11:06] Julie Stahl: Correct. [1:11:07] Mayor Luke Hellier: Technically, if you want to think about it, they've already paid that 6,900 because it came out of the proceeds that they paid. Right. So, the number that I had was—if you take the interest out—37,369. Council. [1:11:35] Dan Wolter: I'll move the resolution to reassess canceled special assessments for removal of a hazardous building. [1:11:47] John Bermel: Second. [1:11:48] Mayor Luke Hellier: Any further discussion? [1:11:49] Joshua Lee: Well, that's for the full amount, correct? [1:11:51] Mayor Luke Hellier: Correct. Roll call, please. [1:12:18] Ann Orlofsky: Bermel? [1:12:19] John Bermel: Aye. [1:12:20] Ann Orlofsky: Wolter? [1:12:21] Dan Wolter: Aye. [1:12:22] Ann Orlofsky: Lee? [1:12:23] Joshua Lee: No. [1:12:24] Ann Orlofsky: Volk? [1:12:25] Michelle Volk: No. [1:12:26] Ann Orlofsky: Hellier? [1:12:27] Luke Hellier: No. [1:12:37] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Any further discussion or current agenda item? [1:12:43] Michelle Volk: Um, I'll make a motion—don't know what the right terminology is—the resolution reassessing canceled special assessments—okay, thank you—Resolution reassessing canceled special assessments for removal of hazardous building in the amount of 37,369.95. [1:13:14] Mayor Luke Hellier: Is there a second? Okay. Motion did not receive a sufficient second. So it does not carry. Any further discussion or motion? I mean we denied the reassessment. So I guess we denied the reassessment. So there's no further action. Okay um I don't think we have anything in front of us right, it was denied. So okay we'll move on to unfinished and new business. See none announcements. Next work session is next Monday the 24th here at the conference room in city hall. Our next council meeting is December 1st right here in chambers. And with that I'll take a motion to adjourn. [1:14:24] Joshua Lee: I move to adjourn. [1:14:26] Michelle Volk: Second. [1:14:27] Mayor Luke Hellier: All in favor say I. [1:14:28] Councilmembers: I. [1:14:30] Mayor Luke Hellier: Opposed. We're adjourned.