[0:16] [music] [0:57] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Good evening. Welcome to the January 5th city council meeting. If you'd join me for a moment of silence in the pledge of allegiance. [1:30] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Hey, roll call, please. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Michelle Volk. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Luke Hellier. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** John Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Dan Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Joshua Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Here. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, very good. Move on to item three, citizens comments is opportunity for anybody to address council for up to three minutes. Typically, if there's an issue later on the agenda that you want to speak about, we can wait for that, too. You want to state your name and address for the record when you get up here? [clears throat] [2:15] **Alicia Schulp:** Hi, my name is Alicia Schulp and I live at 20537 Idalia Avenue in Lakeville, Minnesota. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Go ahead. **Alicia Schulp:** All right. Um, members of city council, I want you to imagine being watched photographed tracked not because you committed a crime, but because you made a deeply personal medical decision. Imagine every moment recorded, stored, shared without your knowledge. This is not hypothetical. This has already happened. In a widely reported case, authorities in Texas use a license plate from data from more than 83,000 automated camera systems like Flock to track a pregnant woman across state lines after she sought an abortion. Open to an investigation into the death of the fetus and then considered prosecuting her. A surveillance tool sold to communities as way to stop car theft was used to follow a woman during one of the most vulnerable vulnerable moments of her life. That should stop every one of us in our tracks. Flock cameras do not just capture criminals. They collect location data on everybody. Parents, students, workers, patients day after day. When that data can be assessed, retained, or shared with little oversight, it becomes a tool for intimidation and control. It turns our streets into a digital drag net and our private lives into searchable records. This is not about politics. This is about whether we accept a system that allows a government to track people's medical choices, their movements, and their lives without consent or suspicion of wrongdoing. If it can be used this way once, it can be used this way again. I urge city council to act with courage and principle. Terminate the flock camera contract. Reject mass surveillance. Protect the privacy, dignity, and the freedom of the people you represent. I do not want flock cameras tracking my or my family's movements. Thank you. [4:07] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thank you. Thank you for being here. Are there any other public comment? [4:25] **Jacob Borealis:** Hello, my name is Jacob Borealis, 20618 Captain Court. Uh, Mr. Mayor and members of the city council, thank you for the opportunity to speak today about an urgent issue which previous speaker also brought up. Uh, the misuse of license plate data collected by flock cameras and the cyber security issues with their systems. Um, and after this I will be submitting a white paper that identifies over 40 known security issues found with flock cameras. When it comes to cyber security, flock cameras have been found streaming directly to the internet with no encryption, no security requirements. Anyone can watch this footage. There are videos of journalists doing it on YouTube. These cameras reads their own security policy in front of it and the camera records them doing it. The problem isn't the lack of flock safety. The problem is cities wanting a cloudconnected AI enhanced mass surveillance system but not properly conducting their own security audits. We need to know if our IT director has seen this white paper and whether or not a cyber security audit was performed before approving these cameras. We are not alone in raising these issues. In Norfol, Virginia, two residents filed a federal lawsuit challenging the city's use of more than 17 automated license plate readers, arguing that a constant, warrantless tracking of everyone's movements violates their Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and threatens basic privacy rights. A federal judge ruled that this lawsuit can proceed, recognizing that citizens could reasonably believe their privacy expectations are being violated by such pervasive surveillance. Similarly, civil liberties organizations have sued the city of San Jose, alleging its widespread use of hundreds of license plate readers amounts to an invasive mass surveillance system, capturing and storing millions of scans and searches that concern even people not suspected of wrongdoing. We've also seen actions by state officials. In California, the attorney general sued the city of Elcohone for unlawfully sharing its ALPR data with outofstate and federal agencies, violating state law that prohibits such sharing without proper authorization. These legal challenges highlight a broader problem. Without strict limits and robust oversight, this data can be stored, shared, and searched in ways that extend well beyond public safety and into the realm of everyday tracking. That's not what residents signed up for, nor is it what this community wants or deserves. As your constituents, we ask you to resend your unanimous approval of the flock cameras and conduct a legal review of the uses of automated license plate reader data, the contractual policies, and evaluate the potential for misuse. Present your findings to the people of Lakeville and hear what they have to say. Public safety and privacy must be protected together. It's not a trade-off. Thank you in advance for hearing these concerns and thank you for your time. [7:24] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thank you. Any other public comment? [7:39] **Dane Schnean:** City council? My name is Dane Schnean. I live at 16851 Javelin A in Lakeville. Um, and for the last 18 years, I've spent my time working for aerospace and defense companies, some of the largest contractors in the world, identifying and reducing risk. And I'm here today because the risk of implementing flock cameras in Lakeville and anywhere poses an unbelievable risk to the people who live in our community and and our neighbors. The flock systems are used by ICE to carry out an abusive removal program. Okay. Reporting from around the country shows that police officers have used these systems on behalf of ICE agents to search them and to report back to them even though the ICE doesn't have the contract to use the the technology. Right? So when they say that it's only there for 30 days or it's only accessed by your your police department, Flux Safety is misrepresenting themselves and they're lying to you. There's proof of this. It's out there and we're not we're not taking ICE seriously enough in Lakeville at all. At any given time right now, there's hundreds if not thousands now according to the federal government coming to Minnesota. They're masked men carrying assault rifles and body armor and they're abducting our friends, our family members out of their cars on their way to work, where they're picking up their kids from school, out of their houses. I was a first responder at an ICE kidnapping not 10 minutes down the road from here. Over 20 men carrying guns chased people from a restaurant to their home. They tackled a man in his driveway. They kicked open the front door. They pointed guns at his family, the grandparents, the children that were in there. And they kidnapped three people out of the house. These aren't criminals. They're people who maybe their paperwork's not in order. I had children come up to me and pull me by the arm and say, "Where did they take my mom and dad? It's not okay." I hope that the kids get to see their their family members again, but they probably won't. So, we're we're asking you to help us. Just do something. We don't need automatic camera readers in our town. Our neighbors don't need them. They're dangerous. We're better off without them. Thank you. [10:26] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any other public comments? Seeing none, I would encourage the three of you—my email and cell phone number are on the city's website. I'd encourage you to connect with me so we can follow up. Thank you. Moving on to additional agenda information, Mr. Miller. [10:46] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Nothing here. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, we'll move on to presentations, introductions, and I'll turn it over to our public works director, Mr. Oehme, for our public works quarterly report. [11:15] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Right. Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. Happy New Year. So this is the fourth quarter report for public works street division. So far this snow season we had 13 call outs—that's a little bit higher than other callouts we've had so far this year—and we've used almost 1,600 tons of salt this year just because of the icy conditions that we've had. Back in our third quarter report, we talked about the staff meeting that we had with our snowplow drivers talking about our route assignment, safety, and then smart salt usage. And after that meeting, we had a behind the wheel training course at Dakota County Technical College as well. So, I just wanted to highlight that training course that we provide to our staff. Oops. Let's try that again here. [Narrator/Trainer in Video]: Today, we're working with snow plow drivers. We're doing various exercises out on the course. Mr. Byron's doing serpentine and breaking exercises. I'm doing evasive maneuvers and backing. This is important because it obviously with the skill areas that we focus on gives drivers an idea of their limitations when they're driving their vehicle and also vehicle limitations. We do various speeds out here. We increase speed, but we also decrease it so they can find out how maneuverable their vehicles actually are. [Snow Plow Driver in Video]: We're not all used to driving big trucks. It gets you to understand what the truck can actually do. It really gets you to test the truck on the power, the capability of the handling. I've been here for seven years, so it's kind of cool to do it again and just gets you familiar again and just gets you back in the groove, gets you comfortable with the steering, everything. [Narrator/Trainer in Video]: It's very important that the community go ahead and know that these drivers are trained, and these drivers have some kind of knowledge of their vehicles and what they're doing out on the roadway. It's safer for the community. It's safer for the drivers that are driving these snow plows and for anybody driving any type of vehicle at any time. Should be very important for the community. If the snow plows are working, they're working in tandem or even if they're working by themselves, back off, reduce your speed, and let the snowplow drivers do their job. It's imperative that you do not try to pass them, that you do not try to go around them in any way, shape, or manner. Make our job easier to get your garbage cans off the street in your driveway and just make sure they're behind the curb so we can get that the wing right to the curb line to make sure the road is completely clear. Same with your cars so we can get most of the snow off the road. [14:22] **Paul Oehme:** Um other activities that the street department has been working on this fall: fall sweeping, we finished that; culvert inspections and maintenance; and then also a bunch of tree removals and trimming was ongoing. We did survey about a quarter of our city streets this year to get an idea of our pavement conditions and our overall condition index. So to try to make sure that we're meeting our goal of our between 70 and 80 overall average our streets are maintained at that level. And in 2025 we did add a little over five miles of streets through new developments. This is about the average we've seen over the last 11 years. Moving on to utility department. [clears throat] Just wanted to highlight a couple things on our lead and copper program that we have. Again, it's a federal mandate that we inventory all of our services within our community. Right to date, end of 2025, we had still had about a little over 1,800 services that we don't know exactly the material that they're made out of. We have identified 28 galvanized service lines and three lead service lines and we are going to be inspecting in-house about 300 services by the end of this month here. So in total we'll have about 1500 services. So we still have to either pothole out in front of the house or figure out some other way to identify that material. Trying to have that all wrapped up by the end of the year and then have a plan to replace those galvanized and lead service lines here in the next few years. The rules say we have to replace at least 10% of those service lines starting in 2027 and then have everything wrapped up by 2037, but we definitely should have that completed prior to that date. [16:33] **Paul Oehme:** Water production was a little bit up from 2025. We produced a little over 2.7 billion gallons at our water treatment plant. Did have the sixth grade classes in Lakeville come through our water treatment plant to learn how water production and water treatment is operated and produced. There was a little over 300 students that took a tour through the plant in November. Moving on to environmental resources. Just a quick update on our MS4 permit. You can see the inspections that we've completed in 2024. Pond outfalls and environmental manholes. This is in conjunction with the utility department, street department, parks department. We collaborate together to make those inspections happen. In 2025, we had three ponds that we were programmed to clean out. Two of those ponds have now been cleaned out. The Gemini or Spy Glass pond is scheduled to be cleaned out in January when the ground freezes a little harder so we're not damaging the turf in that area. [18:06] **Paul Oehme:** In the East Lake carp removal program that we've had going on for the last two years—this was again a grant from Bowser for $300,000 where we're removing carp and installed a carp barrier in that lake. To date through the program we removed a little over 9,600 lb of carp in the pond. Eliminated 75 pounds per year of phosphorus which would help keep the water improve the water quality in the pond. Next steps: we're going to be monitoring the water quality and see how the water quality has improved with this program. And we look for additional other strategies down the road to improve the water quality in East Lake. Recycling and reduction program that we've got going on here—you can see some of the totals of recycling that took place within our community. I want to highlight the pumpkin composting: the best in Dakota County. We recycled or composted a little over 3,000 pounds of pumpkins this year that didn't end up in the landfill. So, it's a lot of materials that we're recycling to avoid landfill. [19:10] **Paul Oehme:** We have three restoration grants that we're currently working on for either wetlands or upland grasses restorations throughout the community. In total, we're working with a little under $400,000 worth of grants to improve three areas within our community. [clears throat] This past year we just wanted to highlight that we've had 67 sites within Lakeville that we've made some vegetation improvements with. This is kind of our annual program that we have. We're treating or removing invasive species from 108 acres throughout the community either in outlets or parks or open spaces along shorelines. Our landscaping for clean water wrapped up recently. There were actually 12 participants through Lakeville that attended the classes. Out of that program there were five projects that actually were implemented and those projects did receive grants through the Soil and Water Conservation District. That program is going to take place again in 2026. The introduction class will start on March 12th at 6 o'clock. You can get more information on our city website if you are interested in participating in those classes, and the Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation is upping the grant to $400 this year. [21:00] **Paul Oehme:** Moving on, the forestry department. We'll be busy again this winter removing ash trees along our boulevards and in our open spaces. There's about 35 trees that staff can't remove just because they're a little more complicated than we're set up for, so we'll have a contractor remove those trees. And then our forestry department has been actively pruning trees within our parks and right of way this fall as well. There are three removal projects and these are grant projects too that we have been working through. These are some of the totals in terms of the trees removed and planted. Forestry department is again working on the tree sale program at the Earth Day celebration in April. Tree sales will go on in February and there'll be about 300 trees and shrubs that'll be for sale at a discounted price that residents can order and then pick up in April. You can check the website for that program as well. [22:24] **Paul Oehme:** And moving on, the facility division. Couple projects that we just wanted to highlight. We replaced the snowmelting boilers at the performing arts center. This is the boilers that help keep the sidewalks in around the facility deiced during the winter months. That system was broke last year and we budgeted to replace that end of last year. City hall, as you know, has been repainted; freshen up the city hall a little bit and then the break room was also painted. And then the fire system panel at the water treatment plant was replaced. This was a code issue that we had to deal with and we needed to upgrade that to make sure that facility is under compliance. So, with that, that's my update for public works for the fourth quarter, and I'll stand for any questions you may have. [23:27] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, very good. Thank you. Any questions? **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** My question is about the tree sale. We seem to do really well every year. Have we thought about—are we kind of capped at that 300 number or is that something we could do more of? I'm just... **Paul Oehme:** Yeah, we can definitely look at that. We just have been budgeting for about 300 trees annually for the last two years. So we can definitely look at updating that. They go fast. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Yeah, maybe just a wait list to just see what the real number is this year, you know, and if we can think about it for the year after. **Paul Oehme:** That's a good idea. We'll look into that. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Thank you. **Paul Oehme:** Thank you. [24:09] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, moving on to consent agenda. Any items you want to highlight, Mr. Miller? **Justin Miller:** Thank you, mayor and council. Uh, tonight is our annual organizational meeting and one of those is the designation of the legal newspaper. That's item 6E and for 2026 that'll once again be the Sun Thisweek newspaper. And then item 6R is an agreement with Flagship Recreation for purchase and installation of playground equipment at the Lakeville Area Arts Center. And I note this because it came with a $90,000 donation from QA1 that's going to go toward that. So we thank them for that donation. [24:36] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. Council, anything that you want to pull for further discussion? And I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Is there a second? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. **Councilmembers:** I. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? Consent agenda passes. [clears throat] We will now move on to item 7A ordinance amending title 11 of the city code and summary ordinance for publication related to auto repair businesses. I'll turn over to our community development director, Tina Goodroad. Good evening. [25:11] **Tina Goodroad:** Good evening, mayor and members of the council. Happy new year. So, um it's kind of a two-part item because they're both—this item and then the next item—obviously relate to Caliber Collision, but staff is proposing an ordinance amendment. It came up with the application for a conditional use permit with Caliber Collision. Back in January, city council approved an amendment to allow outdoor storage as part of the major auto repair use within the I-1 zoning district. But when the ordinance was written, we missed a couple things. One of which is the requirement for that storage area to meet the same building setback requirements. So it really puts buildings in the position of just not having enough space if that building is approaching their rear setback. So the language in that's underlined is what we are proposing: that the fence storage area shall meet or exceed required setbacks for structures when abutting a public roadway or residential zone property. If not, then that fence storage area at a typical rear yard in an industrial area could be 10 ft. So that's the first provision we're recommending a change. And the second really has to do with landscaping. So we're requiring or asking to change it to require when adjacent to a residential zone property then the fenced area should be landscaped. Um but when it's not, that requirement is a little onerous in an I-1 zoning district. So that is the purpose for the ordinance amendment. The planning commission did review this at their last meeting and public hearing and unanimously recommended approval. And I would stand for any questions. [27:02] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Council, any questions? Seems pretty straightforward. I'll take a motion from Councilmember Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I move to approve an ordinance amending title 11 of the city code and a summary ordinance for publication. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Is there a second? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any further discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I. [27:19] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, very good. We'll move on to item B, the Caliber Collision conditional use permit. And I don't know if Ms. Goodroad or the applicant is going to... Good evening. Welcome. [27:41] **Joanie Fearhabber:** Council members, happy new year to all. My name is Joanie Fearhabber. I am the lead construction manager for Cushman & Wakefield, and I'm here on behalf of our building owner, New, as well as Caliber Collision, who is our prospective tenant. Our ask is for a conditional use permit to allow a fenced-in area where Caliber can store their vehicles that are awaiting parts delivery outdoors. The storage area will be underneath the 10,000 square foot allowance. And then Caliber has agreed that they will monitor so that there's a drainage pond behind so that we've got compliance so that we don't have any materials from the vehicles going into that storage pond. [28:28] **Tina Goodroad:** All right. Um so yes, so Caliber Collision has submitted the application. The property is located 9583 217th Street. So it's just south of 215th Street and west of Dodd. It is in part of the Outdoor Great Room building. The property is zoned I-1 light industrial and you can see the tenant space on the far west side of the building next to Dalsum and then Outdoor Great Room. The proposed storage area is at the rear of the building, does meet the new ordinance requirements and it does fall under the 10,000 square foot limit that is in the ordinance, and they are proposing total of 36 spaces or 18 tandem parking spaces. They will have a 6-ft tall solid wood or solid fence around the outdoor storage area. And access will be through two manual sliding gates. And as she mentioned, this is basically to have space to store the vehicles as they are awaiting parts and getting them repaired. So all of the other conditions of the CUP are being met and I would stand for any questions. Planning commission did review this at their December 18th meeting and unanimously recommended approval. [29:46] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, council questions. I would just say I do know there's other repair places that store vehicles that are not fenced in. So, this is a welcome change for sure. So, thank you for that. Council, I'll take a motion to approve. [30:02] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I move to approve a conditional use permit to allow a major automobile repair use and adopt the findings of fact. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. Is there a second? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any further discussion? Roll call, please. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** I. [30:41] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. Good luck. Uh we'll move on to item C. Appointment of the acting mayor for 2026. This is a person who is on the council that will serve in chair of the committee or any meetings if I'm unable to be there. So with that, I'll take Councilmember Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I move to appoint John Bermel, acting mayor for 2026. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Is there a second? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Are there any other nominations? Okay. Seeing none I'll close nominations. You accept? [30:58] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I accept. Am I supposed to abstain from the vote? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Uh I don't think so. Okay. [laughter] Roll call, please. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel. **Councilmember John Bermel:** I. [31:13] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good. 5-0. Thank you, John, for doing that. Um we'll now move on to unfinished and new business. I don't believe there is any tonight. Announcements: Our next city council retreat is Saturday, January 17th. Our next council meeting is January 20th. And with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** So moved. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All those in favor say I. **Councilmembers:** I. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed. We are adjourned. But we have HRA meeting. So I will hand the gavel over. [31:54] [music] [32:03]