This transcript appears to be from the December 1, 2020, Cannon Falls City Council meeting. Note: The speaker identified as "Neil" in the transcript refers to **Neil Jensen**, who was a financial consultant/interim administrator at the time, while the speaker "Kyle" is **Kyle Linnell** from the Chamber of Commerce. The roll call names in the transcript (Bringold, Duncan, Fiedler/GMI, Lundell, Matson, Montgomery, Althoff) reflect the 2020 council seating, which differs slightly from the current list provided in the prompt. *** [0:28] (Silence/Technical Noise) [4:31] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Good evening everyone, welcome to the December 1st, 2020 city council meeting for the city of Cannon Falls. Could we have roll call please? [4:40] **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Bringold? (Here) Duncan? (Here) GMI [Fiedler]? (Here) Lundell? (Here) Matson? (Here) Montgomery? (Here) Althoff? (Here). [4:55] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Please stand for 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. [5:10] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? [5:15] **Council Member Duncan:** So moved. [5:17] **Council Member Bringold:** Second. [5:18] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Duncan, a second by Bringold to approve the agenda. Any discussion? All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. Okay, public hearings. We're going to open up a public hearing for the 2021 final budget and Levy. Neil, you want to start us out? [5:55] **Neil Jensen (Financial Consultant):** Yeah, there's a short slide presentation that I'll uh, I'll show you guys and and then we'll go from there. Get this thing to work... I’d always like to start out and begin with a few slides that show some history... [Neil continues with detailed budget presentation through 23:48]. [23:48] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I was kind of shocked with Governor Walz today. When, you know, a few months ago we were talking 1.5 billion surplus, turned into a $4.5 billion deficit. Now he says today we got a 641 million surplus again. Tomorrow there'll be a correction. [24:15] **Neil Jensen:** Yeah, they're just projections so you just never know. [24:35] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** Mayor, Council, I just had one uh clarification in the information that City Administrator had. He had a reduction of one FTE in the Police Department for the 2021 budget... with this news, I realize it would still, you know, be a concern for council, but I'd love to have you entertain holding off in eliminating that position until you have some news from the state on exactly what they're going to do. [26:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Any comments from the Council on that? [26:50] **Council Member (Unidentified):** Well that would—I thought you were in a public hearing. Are we doing the public hearing first or...? [26:55] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Oh yeah, okay. Should let the public speak. Is there anybody who wants to talk at the public hearing? Hearing none, we close the public hearing now and then discuss it. [27:08] **Council Member Mary Jill Fiedler:** Motion to close. [27:10] **Council Member Duncan:** Second. [27:12] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by GMI [Fiedler], a second by Duncan to close the public hearing. All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. Okay, Council, any discussion? [27:40] **Council Member (Unidentified):** Well you know at our—when we set the preliminary budget we had had included the uh one Records position in the Police Department to be eliminated... I would not change anything in the budget that has been prepared. The department heads did a good job and let's let it go with that. [28:37] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** So what do we got to do tonight? We approved the levy tonight right? Or no we don't? [28:45] **Neil Jensen:** That’s next time. That's right. We're just looking at it and hearing discussion. [29:01] **Council Member (Unidentified):** I'm, I'm... you know we just talked about projections and what next year is going to be. Hindsight is 2020... I just ask the council to entertain the idea, think about it. [30:34] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Hearing none, we'll move on. Okay, consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion... [Mayor reads items A through H]. Is there anything the council would like to pull down? [32:15] **Council Member (Unidentified):** I'd like to pull down item F. [32:20] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, we'll put that under Council business as item A, Respectful Workplace Policy Amendment. Anything else? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item F? [32:45] **Council Member Duncan:** So moved. [32:47] **Council Member Mary Jill Fiedler:** Second. [32:48] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Duncan, a second by GMI [Fiedler] to approve the consent agenda minus item F. Any discussion? All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. [33:00] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Council business item A. Respect—you want to bring up a Respectful Workplace Policy Amendment? [33:05] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Yeah, uh I just wanted to you know say that the council has said before that we have the backs of all the employees... It actually saddens me that we have to put extra language in here threatening legal litigation if a citizen threatens our people... We have to put this so that we have some teeth to try to protect our people. [34:36] **Council Member Mary Jill Fiedler:** Right, and and this came up uh with our negotiations with the MNPEA union and uh and we agreed with them that we need to do a change... we cannot have these types of things. [36:00] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Any other discussion on that? Take a motion then to uh approve the Respectful Workplace Policy Amendment. [36:11] **Council Member Matt Montgomery:** So moved. [36:13] **Council Member Duncan:** Second. [36:15] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Montgomery and second by Duncan to approve the Respectful Workplace Policy Amendment. Any other discussion? All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. I just want to—kudos to Tim and the Ambulance Department for applying and receiving that $25,000 Grant. [37:00] **Kyle Linnell (Chamber of Commerce):** Good evening Council and Community. Um, we have some new exciting information for you for the holiday season... the chamber has come up with "Lighting up Cannon Falls"... [Kyle discusses the Adopt-a-Tree program and Scavenger Hunt]. Any questions? [42:24] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you much. [42:35] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** As long as you're there, do you have Nicole's report from the library too? [42:40] **Kyle Linnell:** I sure do... The reason I am doing the report for Nicole is she did have surgery yesterday... [Kyle reads the library report regarding virtual concerts and curbside service]. [45:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Finance Committee, Mary Jill? [45:50] **Council Member Mary Jill Fiedler:** I don't remember what we talked about. Go for it, Neil. [46:00] **Neil Jensen:** I don't remember! I know I'm off, I'm off quitting, resign! We had a lot of discussion on numerous things... [Neil summarizes water/sewer fee discussions]. [47:50] **Neil Jensen:** Joint Powers Trail board—anything there, Matt? [47:53] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** No, nothing. [47:55] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, um, Jeff? Anything? [47:58] **Neil Jensen:** Just a couple things. DMV has been closed for a little while... we're working on a new phone system that we approved here about two months ago with the CARES money... so that's all I got. [50:08] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Let's go around the horn. Morris? (No). Mary Jill? (No, nothing). Matt? (No). Bill? (Nope). Derek? (No). Steve? [50:20] **Council Member Steve Althoff:** Um, Nicole, hurry back, get well soon. That's all I got. [50:35] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I just want to put another pitch in, maybe uh, shop local if you can. That's a big deal. These—some of these stores are hurting... [51:10] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Public input. Citizens may speak to issues not on the agenda... [Mayor reads rules]. I don't see anybody here that would address it. So I think we'll close the public input and I'll have a motion to adjourn. [51:45] **Council Member Mary Jill Fiedler:** Move. [51:47] **Council Member Duncan:** Second. [51:48] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by GMI [Fiedler], a second by Duncan to adjourn. All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried.