please stand under God thank you roll call please here councilmember schweer here councilmember Wong here council member nordby your mayor monkey here to adopt the agenda anybody some moved so moved councilman schweers second second second council member Cole's in favor say aye aye aye thank you thank you bear we have a few presentations this evening and starting off with the Century College presentation of 916 student-built home interior design I believe Tom Spen is here for that hi Tom okay thanks for having me back again um so this year's projects on Eldridge Avenue as you're well aware of um I was kind of recounting back I think this is our 12th home we've done in the city of North St Paul and so the property was removed excuse me the house was moved the property back in August era and then I believe we dug the foundation around October 7th for that project we're still a few weeks behind schedule unfortunately we had some bad weather kind of get in the way but we're diligent on it currently the as the project sits it's drywalled cabinets are being installed May 1st by Saint Paul colleges cabinet making program and I hope to have completion towards the end of June first week of July and so that's where we're currently at with the project any questions about the scheduling or anything all right um at this point I think I'm gonna turn it over to Catherine good evening we're so happy to be here tonight um I we have a script even um hello and thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak to you tonight and for this amazing Amazing Project we all feel extremely fortunate to be involved um with it not only for the direct experience it gives the students both Tom students and my students and the and the Saint Paul College cabinet students um but also because there's such a great effort on the part of the city and its residents the steps you are taking to improve the community are tangible and meaningful so um can we put our slides on we did okay there's the address and then the next slide okay let me introduce myself and our team I am the Century College instructor for this interior design course and my name is Catherine Harrington the phenomenal students can you tell they wrote this script phenomenal students this semester include Amy Kaufman Eileen gorbanova Janelle Kali Jill Reagan Scully and Liliana Rodriguez the first class met at the beginning of our semester this year on January 12th and my students will take it from here through the presentation starting with Janelle I'm short so I'll do that okay and I'll stand on my tiptoes so um as Tom already mentioned the project got kicked off in October and as ongoing um so the 2500 square foot home that includes the main level in the lower level finish square feet it has three bathrooms and four bedrooms next slide please we wanted to share just a couple of photos of the job site when we visited on March 30th it was very exciting for us to finally see the real house after dealing with only those two dimensionals over there um and uh then on the next slide we just have a few candid shots of the phenomenal team she was telling you about that um when we were there visiting and we had a chance to go over even some details of material selection and meets one of the work Crews so that was really fun for us next slide please so I'm starting off by just explaining a bit of our process in class and our overall design concept so our goal for Designing the Interiors was to create an elevated look with unique materials while being mindful of functional needs of the future owners as well as the budget so our design took its inspiration from many elements the style of the house is squarely in the transitional Camp because it has a mixture of traditional and updated features even though it's a modest size it has an open concept and it boasts an attached garage a mud room and a main floor laundry room so we embraced the Cozy space and we're guided along the way by the design concept we called the modern Cottage we chose a soft green exterior siding to be harmonious in the neighborhood while also having a little bit of a subtly distinctive color so along with our Cottage theme the beautiful countertops that were generously donated by Innovative surfaces in Hastings guided our color palette our intent was to choose colors with broad appeal while also creating a warm and cozy space the decision to have a rich brown flooring on the entire main level and a warm beige carpet on the lower level creates an uninterrupted View and an open spacious flow even in a relatively small space we introduced texture in the wood grain of the cabinets and the flooring and even in light fixtures and their materials and kitchen backsplash tiles the warm wall colors and textured visuals add to the Ambiance of our modern Cottage we are confident that 2701 Eldridge Avenue is going to be a lovely home for its new owners and we're excited to walk you through more details of this charming design next Amy Kaufman will give you more details on the exterior selections a Furniture layout and our color palette next slide please hi there as Janelle mentioned we chose an understated green exterior siding and shakes with white trim that will blend with the natural elements while also being subtly distinct color Choice the rich brown finish and elegant black hardwood hardware will make the front door an inviting focal point coordinating simple black light fixtures at the front door and on either side of the garage provide harmonious accents next slide although Furnishings are not in scope we wanted to create a layout to give an idea of how the space could be set up to highlight how our selections will complement the future owner's interior in this depiction of the main level the open concept living has been set up um with a comfortable conversation area in the living room the island in the kitchen provides work and Gathering space and includes some beautiful hanging pendants for task lighting we have created separate coffee bar and microwave area here which can alleviate congestion in the kitchen work area the dining room has a centrally located Chandelier and will be able to accommodate a good sized table potentially with seating for up to eight people the primary bedroom suite has space for a king-size bed and nightstands as well as a side console table if desired and we didn't include dressers in the room since the adjacent walk-in closet will provide enough storage space the second bedroom can accomplish can accommodate a queen bed and two nightstands there will be room for a dresser but the generously sized closet might make that unnecessary next slide this is the lower level the lower level includes a family room two additional bedrooms and a bathroom we use carpet here to give it a cozy warm feel and easy care vinyl flooring for the bathroom the family room will be great for movie Nights games crafting activities as well as a playroom comfortable sectional seating a TV shelving and a table with chairs are easy placed in this versatile space and the two bedrooms on the lower level have room for a single or double beds and dressers as desired by the homeowner next slide here we have brought our color selections and finishes together to demonstrate how they coordinate and created harmonious palette and style and we stated our color story with the kitchen countertops which include Granite island with brown black gray cream tan rust and gold the Cabinetry in the kitchen combines painted upper cabinets in a natural finished Alderwood for the base Cabinetry when we found these tiles we knew they'd be perfect for the backsplash we've slightly distressed they have slightly distressed and irregularity that creates texture and interest and they'll be placed in a semi-random pattern that Echoes an irregular Stone and plaster surface we chose wall colors that are neutral enough to have broad appeal while also creating a warm and cozy space the brown flooring in a luxury vinyl plank has subtle variations of light and dark in keeping with our Cottage theme creating a unified look on the main level the bathroom and laundry countertops are Wilsonart laminate in the travertine marble design and we selected matte black finishes and natural wood elements for most of the light fixtures and bathroom hardware and the lower level a durable textured carpet continues in the warm color tones of beige and tan and the bedrooms are painted in a slightly color for flexibility and Decor but will keep with warm color story the basement bathroom has a coordinated look combining dark gray laminate slate countertop natural Alder cabinets and a mosaic tile and vinyl with both of these colors on a creamy background next up is Jill Reagan Scully and she'll walk you through the selections and design for the main level foreign as we enter through the front door This Charming fixture hangs above the foyer our view from the living room to kitchen and dining area flows naturally with the foundation of beautiful flooring the worm wall color is the continuous backdrop for all of these rooms adding to a spacious feeling the unique chandelier hangs in the center of the dining room its natural wood frame and slim black candles create an attractive focal point in this Gathering space oh thanks these elevation renderings of the kitchen give a genuine feel for what the room will look like when it's completed the contrasting cabinets kitchen backsplash beadboard Island and coordinating vent Hood create a customized look the distinctive Island pendants provide task lighting while beautifully coordinating with the other black fixtures and dining room chandelier the coffee bar with coordinating Stone countertop and tile backsplash not only offers additional storage and a place to accommodate a microwave but also gives an elevated feel the kitchen includes stainless steel appliances and fixtures thank you the kitchen includes stainless steel appliances and fixtures including a glass a gas slide in range vent Hood French door refrigerator and a double bowl sink the cabinet door style is pictured on the upper right and paint samples for both cabinet and wall colors are on the upper left the black cabinet hardware and faucet fixture coordinate with the black accents in the island and in the light fixtures a small flush mound to light provides illumination above the sink the perimeter countertop material consists of Caesar Stone quartz Taj Royal and the island countertop will be fabricated from Yellow River granite Alder Wood will be used for the base cabinets along with this beautiful beautiful luxury vinyl tile across the main floor simple profile baseboards will be finished to match the flooring you will notice that irregular surface and unique glazing on the backsplash tile yep moving on to the primary suite and the guest bathroom in the main hall here is another collection of pictures and samples the black fixtures are repeated here including faucet shower head Hooks and towel ring the shower surround toilet and sink will be all be a soft white paint samples for the vanity in the walls continue the warm tones from the other rooms the laminate in silver travertine pulls all the colors together our favorite design element is the full wall mirror with brush gold sconces positioned directly on the glass this unique placement creates additional reflected light the hardware on the vanity drawers and cupboards also in a brush gold unifies the elegant built-in vanity and is another customized feature that is beautiful and functional the elevation in the lower corner of the slide gives a better idea how this installation will look the guest bathroom is similar to the one of the primary Suite with a few differences we selected black fixtures and Hardware soft white for the shower sink and toilet and silver travertine marble laminate for the counters beautiful pendant lights and with mixed metals of black and gold will hang from the ceiling on either side of the vanity again creating that reflective light and here's an elevation and here's an elevation to show how the pendant lights on either side of the vanity mirror will give the space a unique and elegant look and next we have Liliana Rodriguez to finish up the description of the main level and take you through the lower level hello um this elevation next slide please there okay these elevation renderings of the laundry and mudroom depict the unique details of the space it conveniently located main floor laundry room and mudroom adjacent to the garage entry we were really pleased to find this compact stacking washer and dryer set from LG and a soft green color that was in harmony with their color palette next slide please we choose this creamy white for the beadboard back wall of our custom bench and shelving a great drop zone for coats shoes and bags that has cabinets Hooks and Cubbies we repeated the silver tab retain marble laminate for the laundry tub cabinet counter and of course a soft white a soft warm wall color in this room too next slide please as we move downstairs we have a storyboard with samples of the finishes and materials we chose for this area it's a kind of Clean Slate space that will be flexible and we chose simple ceiling mounted lighting to allow for different configurations the lower level has two bedrooms and a full bathroom here is a sample of the beige and tan texture carpet that will be the flooring throughout next slide please in the bathroom natural Alderwood Cabinetry will be topped with contrasting dark gray slate laminate this nicely complements the vinyl flooring and the black Hardware the light fixture above the vanity provides a simple light source with pretty glass globes that have an irregular surface that is beautiful and hides dust next slide please the elevation here shows how the light fixtures in Cabinetry will look in the space next slide please as a quick review we have gathered the lighting selections throughout the house to demonstrate how nicely they work together to create a unified style while bringing a variety of shapes and textures into different rooms next slide please here we've gathered the cabinet finishes and countertops the colors and textures are soft and restful neutrals that still have enough variety to create visual interest next slide please as mentioned we made the decision to use rich brown floorings and the entire main floor and warm beige carpet on the lower level to create an uninterrupted View and an open spacious flow the mosaic tile design for the lower level bathroom is a durable sheet vinyl that adds a fun accent as we said in the beginning our design goal were to create an elevated look with unique materials while creating function and budget in mind we've done our best to give that to you we'd like to thank our team member Elena gorpanova for moving us through the technical and visual parts of our presentation in conclusion we are very grateful um for this project and for the opportunity that we've had to collaborate with Catherine and Tom and all of the vendors who helped with this effort we thank you and we'd be happy to answer any questions don't you just want to move in right now makes me want to pick out a house this is just such a wonderful program we really admire you and everybody should be doing this right [Music] we'll have these um I don't know where we we're not leaving these here or are we okay we have to go to my house yeah thank you so much for your presentation good Ness all right at least you have something all right next up is for presentation is Ramsey County presentation on County hre Levy welcome Victoria thank you I'm really pleased to be here this evening and really appreciate the invitation to come back I remember the first time when we were first looking at the HRA and everything was virtual at that point and it was quite the discussion that I know the the previous Council had a couple of members are the same but um anyhow I'm just I'm here to introduce not only the HRA chair commissioner Mai Chong Zhang but also give you some information on what's been happening because when we were here before we were talking about what we wanted to do but we didn't have results yet because we didn't have our HRA Levy in place didn't know what was going to be coming didn't have the arpa funds there were a lot of things that were in flux at that point so I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised or not really surprised I know I wasn't surprised by it but the work that's been done and how quickly we have made such progress in moving forward and I have to tell you that I think you'll find as you are looking through this and I know that you have a decision not to make tonight about whether or not North St Paul wants to join in the HRA Levy and I will tell you from my perspective the amount of money that is going to go in from North St Paul you're going to get a lot more than that back given some of the things that need to be done across the Suburban areas but the idea with the HRA Levy was that half of it would be in the city of Saint Paul half of it would be in the suburbs and I think that we've got some great opportunities for North St Paul and so I'm really pleased to be here to introduce commissioner she is the hrh Housing and Redevelopment Authority chair and I am the vice chair of that and we've been having a great time once we got the HRA Levy in place and some of the other funds and really um just having such a robust program we have incredible staff and you'll hear from them tonight as well thank you all right um good evening mayor and council members what a privilege and an honor it is to be here and thank you for having us um I'm my chong chong newly elected to the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners and also elected as the chair of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority it is truly an exciting time and I hope that you will be pleased from tonight's presentation too I just got an updated report and also presentation today this exact same one today and I was just very overall very pleased and just excited about the amount of work and collaboration that can happen across our County I ran on an affordable housing platform because I heard from my constituents and people that I spoke with that housing is getting expensive from our homeowners to our renters it's to a point where it's unsustainable and that's also due to the lack of housing that's being built right all across the state so as with many of our communities Ramsey County has a growing need for affordable housing our neighbors are paying too much where 65 000 households in the county pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing that means that those disposable income are not coming back into our communities here they're going to pay for the rents and to the mortgage companies right they're not being used on Main Street they're not being used and invested into our communities and so while 30 000 households pay more than and then 30 000 households pay more than 50 percent of their income on housing so it's truly unacceptable at this time and that's why you know I'm so passionate about it and so glad that the county um got this tool we have another tool in our toolbox and another um tool to be able to invest in truly affordable housing um and what I had mentioned is just what this means what these numbers translate to is just housing instability overall where One Missed paycheck could result in an eviction or homelessness and what ends up happening is we as a community we pay for it right we pay for the housing instability and then on that back end with like emergency rental assistance and also needing to support with legal aid services at the County so I just know and believe that as you as we are unified we are able to invest and Achieve that Vision to make sure that all members of our communities are safe and are housed but then um the work here still needs to continue we still have at least we still need at least 15 000 units of deeply affordable housing for the County's lowest income residents and that's at 30 area median income and we know that this need is growing and so so far Ramsey County has already invested in 3136 000 units so far oh 3136 units so far and that's about 15 21 of the 15 000 needed units that we need um but that is a huge increase in local Investments over 30 million in 2022 alone so that means we just have a huge opportunity to partner with one another and be unified um and also be a model um nationally too and thank you to my colleagues here who are very involved in both our local Association of counties as well as National where I just am hopeful that we can be a model and show that as unified all across our cities in our County that we can build affordable housing together um again we need upwards of 11 800 more units to cover the existing Gap in deeply affordable housing units and we cannot build more affordable housing without our whole Community um so that's why I'm so hopeful that here tonight um you will see that our talented dedicated and caring staff who have been really thinking through these policies and also seeing the amount of the results of their work that I'm just so proud to help support and lead with them alongside with them so I will now introduce I'm Carrie Collins our director of community and economic development who will walk through our PowerPoint here as well as her staff here thank you all right good evening thank you Commissioners Reinhardt and commissioner Zhang good evening mayor members of the council I'm Carrie Collins I'm the director of community and economic development and at Ramsey County and proud North St Paul grad gopolars so happy to be here it's always like just brings me back to a lot of good memories when I'm traveling around North St Paul I just wanted to walk you through the first year of the HRA Levy so I recall too it feels almost like a lifetime ago coming onto the screen it was a virtual meeting to talk about as commissioner Reinhardt mentioned the plans to enact Ramsey County Housing and Redevelopment Authority you'll recall historically we've always had an HRA but this 2022 is the first year that we levied for critical housing infrastructure so a little bit of background so as as mentioned I think it was early 2021 we brought to you a presentation at that time the city council considered it and decided to opt out for the first year and to kind of understand what was it that the the city council wanted to do with its HRA and you know look to see how the Ramsey County HRA was going to kind of unfold during these kind of unique times so at this time the area of operation is all of the county with the exception of North St Paul the city of Saint Paul in 2021 did opt-in to be considered into the Ramsey County HRA as far as the HRA Levy goes Minnesota statute allows counties and cities to Levy for low to moderate income housing for both the preservation and the construction and also for blight prevention and blight mitigation and removal so that means dilapidated structures whether that be commercial or residential that you can use those funds to either rehab Rectify demolish create new really intended to revitalize communities downtown and critical corridors and of course create a deeply affordable housing infrastructure as part of this HRA Levy our goal was to provide flexible programming across all of Ramsey County we know that the unique needs of you know Gem Lake may be different than the needs within the city of Saint Paul the needs within Arden Hills may be different than that of city of North St Paul each Community within Ramsey County has a different look feel landscape and certainly a different housing stock and therefore there may be some need for new construction or there may be some for naturally occurring affordable housing for preservation to invest in what's currently there or it might be down payment assistance for first-time home buyers to gain access into home ownership and so and and then of course deeply affordable housing infrastructure that 30 to 50 percent Ami level is critical in all parts of the region as well so we wanted to create a flexible funding source to meet the needs of the kind of diverse needs of Ramsey County and we also wanted to make sure that we had flexible funds prior to the HRA Levy what we had available to us were Community Development block grant and home dollars through the federal government through HUD and these are entitlement programs for Ramsey County historically has passed through funds and North St Paul has certainly over historically made application for these funds and has been the recipient of some really great funds for projects that qualify but that was the extent of our disbursement historically up until both the a trade Levy and also the American Rescue plan act funds that the county received as well uh so our spending plan has kind of been uh used as a road map to kind of use the the intersections between critical corridors like North St Paul's Main Street to ready it for affordable housing uh to find kind of mixed land use corridors that may be ready for the new construction of new residential maybe that means affordable home ownership maybe that means multi-family but again to create flexibility around what's possible at the time of these conversations in 2021 it became very clear that our city Partners said how do we make sure we see a return on investment and both Suburban Rams and counties said we need to make sure 50 of what you collect is returned to Suburban Ramsey County conversely the city of Saint Paul said we will agree to enter into your Ramsey County HRA so long as 50 returned to the city of St Paul we said that sounds great so uh it you know in in terms of that balance between suburban and city of St Paul projects that is something historically that Ramsey County has done in terms of balancing investment through our environmental response fund and other programs throughout the county so it wasn't unique to us although we understand in order for us to achieve that parity as we'll talk about in a few slides later there needs to be of course applications coming from a wide array of communities every year and then lastly we made a commitment to communities that we would not exceed 10 percent of the HRA Levy for administrative costs our intent is not to Levy for affordable Housing and Redevelopment efforts and then just to pay for staff so we wanted to commit that 10 percent would be the cap associated with admin so that communities could reap the benefits and see that return on investments when they make an application for funding to Ramsey County so this is a little bit about again the funds that are available to for affordable housing at this time at Ramsey County we talked a little bit about Community Development block grant and home again those are that's a federal program Ramsey County receives an allocation the city of Saint Paul receives an allocation because it's based off population size and so we function as a pass-through agency of those federal dollars to communities when you make application and then the environmental response fund is really there for when you have a Redevelopment project and you anticipate or what's discovered is um you know soil contamination that fund it comes in annually and it allows for us to kind of write down the costs associated with environmental cleanup so that you know all of Ramsey County for the most part is built out so everything's a Redevelopment project and therefore having these cleanup funds is essential to making sure we can Revitalize our communities as we're talking about today the Housing and Redevelopment Authority Levy that brings in approximately 11 million dollars or it did this year or 2022 it brought in all about 11.1 and this year is about 11.3 and so of course that's a levy that is available to all of Ramsey County with the exception of North St Paul and we'll talk a little bit about why that became challenging in terms of promoting programs there were many many times where North St Paul residents would try to take advantage of our programs but we would say not quite yet but maybe in the future and then lastly our arpa funds Ramsey County received a arpa allocation and 37 million or almost a third of that allocation was dedicated to deeply affordable housing infrastructure so through inclusive Housing Development solicitations we've had spent quite a bit of time obligating and deploying those funds because those funds have to be obligated by the end of 24 and spent by 26. so arpa has really been a really great release valve or relief valve if you will when we haven't had resources in the past unlike our other Metropolitan Partners or County Partners in the Metro who have been levying for decades Ramsey County has not and so this arpa investment has really functioned as kind of a bolus dose to really try to make an impact in the data that you heard from commissioner Zhang in terms of the number of residents that are currently housing costs burden all right with that I'll invite deputy director Josh Wilson up to talk a little bit about 2022 spend thank you Mr mayor council members uh quickly Josh Olson deputy director within our community Economic Development Department at the county um as as Kerry alluded to um in those first few slides um housing infrastructure was a primary goal of the use of this These funds and so the graph that you see on the screen really does bear out this past year where our Focus has been nearly 70 percent of the funds that we receive were deployed into projects that were affordable housing infrastructure focused we did enter introduce two additional programs well one new program and one revamp program one is our critical corridors this was a new program that was in response to predominantly our Suburban Partners requesting more flexible dollars going towards early planning stage work things like pre-development planning some commercial Corridor work and so we introduced that program in in the third quarter of last year and then lastly on that third or that fourth column I just point out wealth generation this is an area this is a growing bar for us and this represents really just about three months of our work within this wealth generation area this is associated with our down payment assistance program so Kerry spoke briefly to home which was a federal and Taiwan program as one that we focused down payment assistance on that's a program that has over the last several years and I think we we do have a slide on this had seen waning participation mostly because the HUD rules were really restrictive and prevented a lot of folks from taking advantage of down first home buyer Tom bombing assistance so we've kind of retooled that moved it into a much more flexible spending source um so just quickly on this slide um just you know ensuring HRA funding um be seen as an important and sometimes critical resource to closing the gap on affordable housing infrastructure and advancing exciting projects along the implementation Continuum from the beginning as I noted in those pre-development all the way to the final like Gap financing of a project has been a real predominant Focus for us here in 22. I'm pleased to say that even just in one year we had nearly half of our Ramsey County jurisdictions participating in this HRA Levy I will preface that by saying if you apply that with the other funding streams that we did at the exact same time of American Rescue plan even some cdbg home we're well over that half that's just a testament that both the marketplace responded to this new tool in the toolbox but two that we were doing our best to make sure that our city power Partners we're fully aware of what offerings are available not just through typical City means but also to their residents so that was that was a an early learning process for us but one that we caught on definitely towards the end of the year um as as Kerry kind of spoke to you know the the primary emphasis of this uh these and and Commissioners um in in not just the number of units so we have a we definitely have a mismatch in the number of units that are at affordable um we also have a very deep mismatch in how affordable those units really are um and so what a big critical change that we've made since the HRA Levy has been introduced within the county is that we've taken what was normally a kind of a directive or a desired was to create or impact as many affordable housing units as possible with these new funding streams we've been able to kind of do that but also be really intentional about targeting our funding towards deeply affordable units so in Prior years where we may have seen between zero and five percent of the total units we impacted to be at that 30 level in 22 over 20 percent we're at that level just within HRA Levy funding so if I could show you some other additional slides on arpa you'd see a much greater share of that so Carrie [Music] so down payment assistance really is a huge wealth generation program that we created through the HRA Levy we heard quite a bit about you know what do we do with this aging single family housing stock how can we rehabilitate it and make a way for incoming affordable homeowners and you know we really had limitations as mentioned within the home program through HUD uh they had they set these kind of blanket Federal standards that don't create sometimes a mismatch depending on the community so at the time of the change the maximum valuation of a home that could receive home funds for down payment assistance was about 247 000 and when we did a search of suburban Ramsey County that at the time considering the kind of Supply shortage yield about five homes and so we moved it out from underneath our home program and put it underneath our HR Levy we made changes structurally so that more individuals could take advantage of the program in terms of the grant allocation associated with the down payment assistance and we elevated that valuation to be 372 000. so this really hits the 60 to 80 percent area median income homeowner and we have two different types of programs now one is first-time homeowner and then one is first generation homeowner and we have a lot of individuals in Ramsey County who have not been the recipient of a legacy of intergenerational wealth building and so most of the individuals that have received assistance have been those first generation home buyers so again it was it was a matter of doing maybe two to three down payment assistance loans a year through the federal home program and now we're doing dozens and able to get more individuals into homes creating greater stability within a neighborhood and also for the homeowner um so um as part of this particular program I would say in in terms of the kind of Suite of programming of programming available in addition to critical corridors the down payment assistance is probably where we heard most from residents within North St Paul wanting to gain access I had our homeownership specialist kind of you know do a tally and she said it was about 11 individuals over the course of the last uh six months from North St Paul we're trying to gain access to the down payment assistance program so it's just something to be mindful of when when considering you know programs at the municipal level or entering into Ramsey County programs the kind of array of opportunity available for the residents here um in terms of critical Corridor here you can kind of see the breakdown between Saint Paul and and Suburban Ramsey County um you know this this Suite of programming is really we we base this programming off of City feedback that we heard um through our kind of qualitative interviews with our Community Partners and our Summits to say you know where would the cities like Ramsey County to come and support and we heard flexibility we need flexibility when we have a project that's coming in it might not fit you know the Met council's program or this program so we need kind of an array of offerings and so as Josh previously mentioned we do have this kind of we've got pre-development planning we've got planning funds um so if you know for example you may have heard of the rice larpenter Alliance that you know between three different communities a grant went to them to do the planning up and down that Corridor so that that Corridor can continue to thrive and seek reinvestment and then all the way from development and infrastructure how do we again create and remove uh remove barriers to create greater access to jobs greater access to Transit and to housing along our critical quarters and Ramsey County and then lastly what's available to Suburban Ramsey County is a commercial Corridor initiative and so that's where many cities within Ramsey County have a main street and we you know we have been going like gangbusters trying to work with our small business Community to really get through what they're calling this fourth wave of economic recovery you know how do we sustain our small business Community how do we grow our small business community and how do we create really vibrant commercial corridors that really allow communities to thrive so you don't start to see vacant storefronts and you don't start to see some of the issues that go along with that and so that commercial Corridor initiative is part of that Suite of programming as well so here again you can see the kind of balance between investment of Saint Paul and Suburban Ramsey County and with that said across multi-family Investments down payment assistance and critical Corridor we really took our commitment to the cities very seriously in terms of parity and geographic distribution in terms of who we're investing in how we're investing and tracking it against of course our economic inclusion plan and our Equitable development framework so that we're growing livable jobs and we're you know growing really a suite of a range of housing infrastructure and we you know achieved a 50 50 balance this year and I say that's awesome and we can celebrate that and that's wonderful and And I stress that you know that might not always be the case in years to come we do need to make sure that there's kind of a healthy degree of applications coming in from every community that that you know is a part of this Ramsey County HRA that every Community sees okay what's the next project on the list that can benefit from the Ramsey County HRA and this year we had an overwhelming response from our city Partners so we're very pleased we are able to see you know get the parity that was required of us and we will continue to do that on an annual basis and so with that oh the few more North St Paul kind of specific slides here so in 2022 you will see that the programs that were available to North St Paul that the city of North Saint Paul was able to benefit from that there were there was a a homeowner a resident that was able to come in as we were transitioning from first home which is the down payment assistance to the HRA Levy they were able to come in and benefit from one of those last loans and so North St Paul was the recipient of that some additional mortgage assistance and then a grant for a 75 000 grant for environmental response and there you can kind of see the profile associated with a five-year kind of investment of the resources we've had to date across both renter occupied our first home Energy Efficiency our you know CEO next and some of these are General Levy programs some of these are HRA programs now for example CEO next and open a business these are county-wide initiatives where businesses can take advantage of technical assistance and if you're a smart or a startup business that's looking to grow to a second stage business you can participate in a cohort through the CEO next initiative so North Saint Paul hasn't certainly shied away from taking advantage of programs in the past and so we just wanted to make sure you saw that that spread as well and we will pause for any questions at this time any questions thank you for your presentation today um I'm just curious on how the decision making is made and how it may or may not include the municipalities yeah yeah absolutely so um when we enacted the HRA Levy there was a statue that indicated that all communities that created an HRA after I think it was like 1974 but don't quote me but it was in the 1970s all communities that came in after the creation of a Ramsey County HRA which is when our Authority was established that if if the county decided to Levy it would be subject to that Levy there were two communities that established its HRA prior to the Ramsey County HRA and that was the city of Saint Paul and North St Paul so it was part of that because the of the early creation of the HRA it was through a resolution of support you can opt in to be a part of the Ramsey County age array that doesn't mean that your Authority somehow merges into that of the counties it just means that you're saying yes the county can can Levy within your area of operation nation and so at the time of 2021 the city of Saint Paul took it under consideration and they passed a resolution of support nurse St Paul vote I don't know if it was a an official memorialized Vote or not but they chose not to pass a resolution of support at that time and so that that was kind of the impetus for that if the city of North St Paul wants to take this up for consideration this year for tax year 2024 or for subsequent years there you can pass a resolution of support you would have to do that by July 1st to be considered into the next year so for example if you wanted to be considered into 2024 programming you as a council would need to pass a resolution of support by July 1st of this year so you mentioned was North St Paul and Saint Paul so if we opt in does that mean we have to stay in because then we're as far as that so is there if we didn't if it didn't work out how would that work uh so comparably if you opt in and this is the question that both St Paul and North St Paul previously asked as well if you opt in and you determine you know while we're not seeing the benefit of joining um you know we don't want to be a part of this in the years to come you can pass a resolution opting out essentially you comparably would need to do that by July 1st of the next taxable year because it's assumed unless you take action that you will be in the area of operation each subsequent year thank you appreciate it thank you all right next up for our presentations is tax document financing or Tiff and Dan Winnick are fine instructor is here to speak to that foreign council members uh that's a tough act to follow I got to see the design of the beautiful home that's being developed and then we get the HRA leveling so and I get to do Tiff um it's it's uh somehow it's just not really fair um but I guess that's uh that's life sometimes so I thought I'd uh start out a little bit uh differently today because Tiff is is simple from a concept that um Tiff is calcul or tips are calculated when you receive Tiff basically because something meets a butt four clause in other words without Tiff a development wouldn't occur so but for the assistance of a tax increment District you wouldn't have a project and uh so in certain ways it's it's pretty simple from that standpoint it's also pretty simple from the standpoint of what's the tax increment that that district is going to generate because at the time that a tax increment district has created um whatever the tax that is currently being collected the value of that property and the tax that it generates stays set at that point in time that'll still keep going and being distributed to the Colony the city the school district and the municip and the miscellaneous taxing districts that are included in a unique taxing Authority any growth of value will then end up creating that difference and it'll be collected as tax increment which will go into the tax increment District itself to pay off if there's any obligations so that part of it is simple the rest of it requires us to really have a tiff consultant and a legal we use Taft and Associates for our legal and we use Baker Tilly for our Tiff and so this is really meant to just kind of give a higher overview if we have more specific questions on things then we would end up contacting our our Tif consultants and and our legal but this is just kind of um just to try to get kind of an overview for the council members so if I can get this slideshow to start here and I'm seeing my well I'll just have to take one at a time so the purpose of this Tiff presentation is just an overview of the tax increment financing how a tip district is created what drives the need for financing the types of Tif districts eligible costs common methods of financing options North Saint Paul Tif districts and expiration dates kind of show you where we're at right now what type of districts we have when they're estimated to be expiring last year the city went out and authorized the pooling of some unobligated tiffs funds and for in three districts the total amount was 1.1 million dollars we have not designated the use of those funds in any way shape or form it was through the use of some special legislation that had occurred during the covid time frame which really was really kind of I think intended more to spur on economic development and the economy create new jobs and so we have an opportunity with that 1.1 million dollars to utilize it to help another TIF district to help a development occur again if we have some sort of idea of how to use those funds it would require city council approval so it would be brought back in front of the city council for your review and your approval at that point in time the funds need to be spent by the end of 2025 if those funds are not spent they'll go back to the original Tif districts they'll remain in those Tif districts until we decertify or the expiration of those Tif districts and then those funds would end up going back to to the county to be distributed to all the taxing authorities um kind of look at the general pooling Authority and then really we have a recommendation I think that the city really doesn't have a tiff policy and the city really should develop a tiff policy in which to help staff make decisions and to have better communication with developers on whether a potential project site would be eligible and whether you know in in that the city council would be you know in agreement with the development of that Tiff um so you know what is it it's a financing tool that was established by the state legislation through statutes how was it created kind of went through that with the original tax capacity into the you know time frame of of the growth of a district that we captured that tax increment financing there's kind of a little graph to kind of show you the the basics of it there's a base taxes again that's captured at the point in time a tax increment district is created then there's the incremental taxes that goes towards paying off of the Tiff eligible expenditures and then after the tax increment district is decertified all of that new tax base then gets you know taxed so then it generates um and and helps lower down the tax rates in a community um how is a TIF district created there's a project area the city of North St Paul is one big project area and then we have separate Tiff districts and there's a lengthy process into developing a TIF district itself there's has to be a specific project that's identified there's a tiff plan that's created there's a budget a geographical boundaries there's a purpose there's a whole public hearing process that needs to take place there's notification that needs to go to the county to the school district so that they can weigh in on that TIF district because they will not be receiving any increased property taxes until the decertification of that Taft TIF district and then there's a certification process um what drives the need for public financing it can be extraordinary Redevelopment costs it can be extra ordinary affordable housing costs you can have a property owner that's holding out that wants additional funds for for land there's development needs that that you just can't pay for so there's a gap that's identified you may have a project where you are spending more to you know build infrastructure for future development so again driving up those costs the developer wants less risk and more return than a typical market conditions and then just purely the market competition that's out there not going to go through all of them but there's there are five different Tif districts there's an economic development there's a housing there's Redevelopment renewal and renovation in soil conditions each one of them by Statute has a different length of number of years for a duration and they have different qualifications in which they there needs to be met um eligible costs that are covered that you can use the Tiff funds for public improvements land acquisition soil Corrections soil correction and site grading site preparation and demolition relocation cost of qualifying housing financing fees capitalized interest and administrative costs um some common methods for financing options are up front and that's where the city could go and issue tax increment bonds they can be you know if it's it's less than 20 percent of The Debt Service cost there doesn't need to be a referendum if it's higher than that there has to be a referendum to issue those bonds there can be an interfun loan or risk mitigation factors upfront costs put more of the risk on the city the next option that you see as a pay as you go puts the risk in the Developers here it's attack if we do the up front then if the tax increment that we receive is not enough to pay our debt off we still have to pay our debt off and so we take the risk with that as you do if you do a pay as you go which are known as paygo notes then the developer pays the cost and we're basically reimbursing the developer over time through a percentage of the tax increment that is collected in the year and usually they receive two payments a year so the majority of financing that North Saint Paul currently has is on a pay go note with the exception of the 7th Street and Margaret TIF district and that one we actually went out and issued the tax increment bonds for we currently have a total of eight active Tif districts and you can see their expiration dates at the end of last year we did decertify a tax increment District that could have gone to 2037 now again if you remember the reason for decertifying is that all of our obligations had already been paid off um and there was no more need to be collecting that tax increment and so we decertified that so that increased value of that development will now be you know go out onto the tax rolls for pay 2024. actually I think it we met the deadline at the end of the year so it's actually it will be in this current pay 2023. um I kind of spoke about the pooling of Tiff um of three Tif districts without an advocate unobligated tax or increment again the funds need to be used by the end of 2025. you can see some of the purposes of the pooled funds so it pretty much gives a lot of a little bit more latitude than we're going to see in the next slide that talks about some of the general pooling requirements in uses and again I think this the special legislation that came in was really as you can see is really to kind of create jobs especially during the covid period and then the general pooling Authority for a portion of Tiff dollar spent within project area subject to limitations below that if the the district was created and just to see just one more of the complications if it was after July 1st of 1990 or 1982 but before April 30th to 1990 there was no limits that were imposed on the pooling um than if it was between April 30th of 1990 and June 30th of 1995. it was 25 of all types of districts you could use the unobligated um tax increment to be pooled in other words when you pull it you can utilize it for other tax increment districts and then after June of 30th 1995 that 25 percent of the Redevelopment districts and 20 percent for other types of districts and again that needs to be used on on Tif eligible costs and when we do have an idea or a thought that we're going to utilize Tif dollars it's really important that we consult with our Tiff consultant and also with the with our legal and make sure that we're meeting all of the complex statutes that are related to the to diff districts and then again staff really believes that the city should develop a tiff policy it will assist staff in achieving the city council's vision and goals for the city it establishes the city's position related to Tift for development it is this assist staff in conversation with developers on Redevelopment projects it helps to ensure Tiff assistance is used in a consistent and Equitable manner and in in the policy that gets developed should be flexible to allow the city to evaluate evaluate projects on Merit and kind of went through this material kind of quickly I don't want you to be here all night and Brian always goes like this okay kind of cut it a little bit so open for um some questions and discussions and um there probably will be questions I can't answer but certainly we'll get the answers back to the city council there's also and I will email it tomorrow morning they're actually the state auditor's office just last week as I've already published this had a nice little it's about a half an hour presentation on Tiff so it kind of goes over some of the basics and so I'll send that out to all of the council members so you can you can see that it was actually I should have just used that and but yeah right so if you have any questions or any discussions any questions um I just want to say thank you this is something I asked for just to help us make sure that we're making smart informed decisions in the future going forward if we decide to use it so thank you very much I appreciate putting this together you're very very welcome and so it was kind of dry material so we just have to end a little bit and have a little bit of fun so can I have a tea can I have an eye can I have an F Tiff here we go that's right thank you very much responsibility for those all right move on to the consent agenda yeah thank you mayor up next is the consent agenda item a is April 4th 2023 Workshop minutes Item B April 4th 2023 regular meeting minutes item C General claims of one million 306 894.4 cents item D HRA claims thirty five thousand four hundred and sixteen dollars and fifty eight cents item e purchased two three-phase fuse cabinets and five single phase fuse cabinets item F solar powered LED crosswalk signage um just to remind you guys those one will be in front of the post office and then the other two will be on 11th Avenue where the bus shelters or the bus stops will be um item G terminate the city of North St Paul's covid-19 operational policy item h building permit report for March 2023 and itemi resolution accepting donations for March of 2023. thank you Brian anybody like to pull anything at this time nope how can I have a motion to adopt the agenda please some moved so move council member Cole ah no Ty goes to the senior dad at the age remember Norby all's in favor say aye aye Gary all right thank you okay next is uh meeting open to public so please keep within three minutes um Sue springboard come on down foreign president of North St Paul historical society and I had no plans of coming here tonight until excuse me I looked at your agenda and I terminate the city of North St Paul's covid-19 operational policy and it reminded me that when covet started I as president of the Historical Society said this is history I went to our 1918 newspapers and found practically nothing and now we don't even have a newspaper so I was determined to have a coveted file well I've put like six pieces of paper in there that's my covert file so um I just wanted to mention that because we no longer have a newspaper so we won't have anything and there are stories out there I did have Linda Baumeister who was the one of the photographers for the Lily newspaper I asked her to go out and take pictures because if you remember there was closed signs up everywhere so I thought those would be interesting to have because right now is tomorrow's history you know just as we look back at 1918 pandemic people are going to look there's going to be another pandemic so people are going to look back at this one and I just thought it'd be nice to have stories happy one sad ones whatever there are story so I would like to encourage anyone that has a story to send it to me you can get a hold of me probably through the city or through my email online on the city website um even if it's a little bit like this just a little anecdote I think it'll be interesting to people in the future and I think that should be one of our jobs is to document what's happening and what has happened so and while I'm here I'll just mention that this kind these kind people most of them have responded to me about our Tuesday April 25th general meeting at the Historical Society and everybody enjoyed having those of you that came last time and now we'd like you to come to the meeting again and Brian invited you also if you don't have to come but you're invited um just as a very informal how are things going you know everybody wonders how are things going I realized one day that there isn't this is probably the first time in maybe 40 years or maybe ever there I don't believe there's anyone on the council that grew up in North St Paul and that's different it's different for this little town I think it's refreshing not that the other people weren't good at what they did but I think new things can be refreshing and good for us and challenging more challenging for you maybe but sometimes well that's the way we always did it doesn't mean it's the best way of doing something so I love I love this I love it so anyway that's that's my story and I'm sticking to it you got it thank you and we also are are posting it because there's going to be a quorum there so we're right right I appreciate Kerry mentioning that so we got that out so we're good to go yeah we're not going to ask you to rule on any so can I bring my gavel or not no all right he's behind actually thank you appreciate it thank you John schmals please yeah hi John mayor Aaron Council John Schmall 2750 Chisholm Avenue uh the subject is uh notifications on the email that come by email of the meetings and what they contain and the last time the last meeting I this is what occurred but I didn't have time three minutes so you can't you got another subject you can't have too but anyway the time before the meeting was a lot going on the big snowstorm and all that I didn't get to read it about the meetings the emails until Monday and the reason I read it was that there was a notification that there was a change to the workshop so immediately I want to know what the change is so I went back to the Friday notification email and said okay this is what this looks like and now what does the new one look like well you couldn't do it because there was no longer any uh the documents it wasn't there or the change there was no change so what had happened was when the change was made it updated the original document with the change so you had no idea what the original document was and what was contained in that original document I had to sit there and go I had my desktop lit up I had my laptop lit up and I had my phone to see what the email said and tried to figure out where was the change and after 20 minutes which was longer than the council meeting that night I just gave up I couldn't find it and in talking to Jenny she suggested to me that in the future I print the documents that first come out and then I would be able to say oh here is the change I don't think that is the correct way of doing things there's something wrong with your program that updates the original file based on the updated file so you'll never know what the original was when there is a change so that's bad software somewhere along the line thank you oh thank you do we have anyone online today I don't even know okay thank you all right next item thank you mayor next up is the city business action items and recommendations uh IMA is participation in the new National opioid settlements as you may recall round one was with the manufacturers of the opioids round two now is with the Distributors of them so it's like a Walgreen um you know Walmart places like that that uh have that um so it is requested that the city council approve a resolution uh which is a memorandum of agreement authorized in the city manager to execute all necessary documents to ensure the city of North St Paul's participation in the multi-state settlement relating to opioid supply chain participants and in Minnesota opioid State subdivision memorandum of agreement so requesting to prove the resolution please request to approve the resolution so moved so move council member Norby second second council member Wong all those in favor say aye aye aye thank you thank you next up is the request of the Independent School District 622 for two school resource officers we have Chief Batman Roth here to discuss along with a couple of Sergeants thank you city manager frandel Mr Mayor City Council thanks for having us here tonight I have here with me officer Joe Allen who's the current SRO in North High in 62 and Sergeant decori who was most recently uh the SRO and 622 so happy to have them both here with me to start off just wanted to provide excuse me a little background on screen there we go just to provide a brief understanding I think occasionally there's confusion on what a school resource officer actually is so I wanted to set the foundation it's a licensed Minnesota peace officer two of them are are here who are school resource officers or were so in Minnesota to get a peace officer license you have to have a college degree minimum minimum of an associate's degree you have to pass a Minnesota peace officer education program a thorough background check a psychological examination medical examination and a drug test we also have a lot of training throughout that program and ongoing training some of that includes Crisis Intervention and mental illness crisis conflict management and mediation recognizing and valuing Community diversity and cultural differences to include implicit bias we're trained in communication skills de-escalation ethical reasoning critical thinking logical reasoning problem solving and decision making we're also training Firearms with less lethal fourth Force options active shooter response autism spectrum disorder adolescent brain development and establishing and maintaining successful relationships with diverse students trauma-informed practices and supporting students with disabilities as well as state federal and city ordinances so what does a SRO actually do their main goal build relationships and trust with student staff and parents and these two are fantastic at that they Mentor students they investigate crimes prevent crimes they create a safe learning environment they're positive role models in the schools they de-escalate situations they act on information tips and threats they intervene engage stop acts of violence in the schools and they absolutely serve with Integrity courage empathy and respect so a little research on schools that was done in a partnership between the U.S Department of Education and the U.S Secret Service back in 2002 to develop accurate and useful information about prior School attacks that could help prevent some future ones from occurring was the purpose of This research initiative their findings the safe School initiative indicate that incidence of targeted violence in schools were rarely impulsive uh students who perpetrated these attacks usually planned out the attack in advance with planning behavior that was often observable prior to most of the attacks other children knew that the attack was going to occur taking together these findings suggests that it is possible to prevent future School attacks from occurring and efforts to identify assess and manage students who who have intent and capacity to launch these attacks is a good strategy for prevention fast forward to 2021 there's another study done by the U.S Secret Service on the Homeland Security they analyzed plots against K-12 schools from 2006 to 2018. these findings determined individuals contemplative violence also often exhibit observable behaviors and when we discover those behaviors that's how we can prevent the next tragedy so in the report there were 67 plots analyzed would occur in her former student plan to attack their school what was halted before the violence actually occurred the main takeaways from the findings schools should seek to intervene with students before their behavior warrants legal consequences students were most often motivated to plan an attack based on agreements with classmates students are the ones best positioned to identify and Report concerning Behavior displaying displayed by their classmates removing the student from the school does not necessarily reduce the risk of their attack targeted School violence is preventable when communities help identify the warning signs and intervene and school resource officers play a critical role in school violence prevention couple other takeaways from the 2021 study 84 percent of the schools were targeted by violence was stopped where high schools 15 percent were middle schools and one percent elementary schools of these attacks 96 percent plan to use firearms in the plots and 70 percent of these cases The Platters had access to a family member's firearm 63 percent had unimpeded access to those firearms 42 percent of the thwarted plots were initially reported to law enforcement or the SRO uh also parents who learned of these plots that reported the information to the SRO and students view the SRO as a trusted adult to share plot and information with and 95 percent of the plotters were current students five percent were former students so focusing in on 622 and the safety concerns that we've seen throughout last school year in the current school year some situations that we dealt with there was a student armed with a handgun loaded handgun in a classroom this we learned that this student intended to shoot and kill another student at school this day to the officers who stopped this student and had to fight with a student to remove the handgun or sitting right next to me we also had a student several students with firearms on school grounds who played a game of moving it from back back to back back and trying to hide it from teachers five students were arrested in that incident each student had the weapon in their possession while they were on school grounds we've had the ATF canine out here twice to search the school for firearms in the past few months about a bomb threat school shooting threat domestic terrorism investigation uh we had North High students pointing handguns that other students as they were walking from a building to building six students were arrested in that incident two handguns were found a significant amount of Controlled Substances found in the vehicle a student attempted to attack a school administrator Joel prevented that assault and arrested that student investigations of students posing with pictures of firearms on social media in those situations we had met with parents prevented the violence and potential victimization severe several mental health incidents where Medical Transportation was required often there are fights in the school we've had handgun one that's to read this one was recently a handgun point out students as they were leaving the parking lot and then incidents of students destroying a classroom threatening staff staff not able to control that student so we are there to assist here's some stats uh you can see the biggest concern is uh the call volume at North High with uh uh it almost more than doubling uh throughout the past three years so uh that is alarming to say the least a full breakdown of that of those calls so there's actually 105 calls in this school year I removed so to get to that 88 I took out 14 of them were calls that showed up and they were off duty incidents so when we we show up to work a basketball game or a football game we'll pull a number and put ourselves on the board they'll show up as calls I took those out to get to that 88 uh the other calls I think I broke down so a lot of those calls four assaults three weapons 18 investigates or ppvs 10 juvenile incidents fights or DLCs a bomb threat a robbery a person in crisis the other calls that are listed that make up the 88 are a lot of Medicals a lot of assist citizens uh uh a small amount of alarm calls um assisting other agencies community outreach events uh missing person so uh most of the calls are concerning there's a huge number and that is uh and and that's not to mention a lot of the calls are never actually reported I might have mentioned that to you all in the past but there's a handful of almost every single day the sros the SRO and the school Joe is handling incidents and he's solving the problem before it ever turns into creating a call because he's there and he's preventing things from happening that never amount to him having to get on his radio and ask for backup because he's already there to stop the fight to break up the fight to de-escalate the shouting match that's going on so that never so the actual call volume would be likely double of the 88 that we already have documented for the year here's a comparable District breakdown so I reached out to the other police Chiefs and got some stats from them related to how many schools they serve how many sros they have and some of them gave me their contract costs so you can see 62 that's us Maplewood Oakdale we have a combined total of two sros in the three cities for sros the school's percentage of 14 that is the lowest among all of the schools listed all the all the other districts here's a little further breakdown on what those actual schools are so there's Maplewood PD they have three elementary schools one middle one Alternative Learning Center they do have one SRO and Maplewood PD Oakdale has two Elementary one middle one high school they have no sros we have three Elementary one transition ALC and one high school we have one SRO that brings our total of 14 Schools and two sros White Bear Lake PD five elementary two middle schools two high schools one ale ALC they have two sros with 10 schools New Brighton PD six schools three sros uh uh Ramsey County and District 621 provides service in three elementary schools one Middle School one high school they have three sros miles upd also on six two one one Elementary School one Middle School one Alternative Learning Center one srls that brings the total of the 14 Schools and seven sros Roseville PD three elementary schools one Middle School one high school one ALC for a total of six schools with two sros and then Ramsey County also serves District 916 which consists of two ALCS and they have two sros in those schools so as you can see we have the lowest percentage of sros in the districts compared to the amount of schools that we have so we're not comparable to as a district to providing safety through sros to the other districts who are they have many more as their roles than us we're also not comparable when it comes to funding the current contract for this school year is 77 868 dollars total annual cost of an SRO position including salary and benefits is 131 300 with the school year being approximately 291 calendar days uh or 79.73 of the school year you apply that to the salary benefit cost of an SRO and that amount is a hundred four thousand dollars 600 104 685 at 49 cents uh I averaged out the costs or the amounts that I got from other school districts for their sros that equated to 97 156 dollars looking at six District 621 specifically uh uh the city New Brighton has a contract worth 318 thousand dollars 318 uh a thousand seven hundred nineteen dollars for their three sros and they also get three thousand dollars for the squad cars and 750 for technology and equipment so we're not in uh comparable range when it comes to uh amount of sros or funding in the contracts for sros so ultimately uh we absolutely love being in 622 and the relationships that we are are having in the schools and the school staff they're fantastic uh we we work alongside of them very well um but our SRO has absolutely prevented fights crimes violence in school buildings it is a it's it's a dangerous job there's no doubt about it and they're uh Joe and Amber in her time in the building they they deal with a lot uh and that's why I'm here saying we need another SRO in 622 and I'm hoping to have your your support to recommend that to 622 to fund that this would absolutely allow us to further our ability to prevent violence assess threats conduct investigations when incidents do occur continue building positive positive relationships for all students staff and parents that additional SRO position would allow us to do that and increase the safety of everybody in the building I do want to ask you guys if you wanted to I'm very glad that they came out I think it's very helpful just for them to be able to share some insights for what the day-to-day reality is of their experiences working in the schools instead of just listening to me talk about research and funding they can paint what it is on a daily basis a lot better than I can working in 62. evening uh officer Allen um currently up there at North High this is my second stint up there I'm actually a graduate of North High class of 99 go ballers [Laughter] um on a day to day up at north um like Chief said um there's not a lot of need to pull a case number or necessarily write a report on something that we do up there but you'll see a kid who's in crisis who wants to get to another uh kid or somebody who's having a bad day he might pull him aside or start uh moving them to an area where he could or they I'm sorry they could get some help as far as preventing something else from happening uh a lot of times like I asked the chief I'll activate my body camera but I never pull a case number just so that interaction I'm having with that with that particular kid that particular day can be absolutely documented um there's multiple files I have no case numbers for because I'll hit it it will deal with the situation as far as what's going on get them to a room where they could talk to a social worker talk to a principal assistant principal talk to a health care worker to help them out um be their their anger that they they just they're seeing red and they can't um get over that it's nice to be there to to recognize that and call that particular person down uh it might be a simple fact that you see them rushing for another child and you can stop them from doing that get them separated or put them into a safe room where they can kind of get their anger out and figure out what's going on well the the North High staff that that we work with there I can deal with it uh North High staff that I do work with tremendously supportive great people they're great at what they do sometimes they look at me and say I can't believe you do what you do and sometimes I look at them and say I can't believe what you do what you do so um but we definitely work pretty hand in hand close together sharing ideas talking about what's going on communicating I recently came back from some time off I walked through the door on Monday uh to three kids fighting on the floor in front of me so I mean you kind of hit the ground running when you get into school from there you go people are asking you about looking at camera work for a hit and run that occurred a couple weeks ago through our investigative skills we can we can figure that stuff out which we did then we're Fielding phone calls from parents telling us that the local tobacco place is selling the kids what are you going to do about it so it's it's taking in a lot of in information from the staff the T the kids there and kind of um disseminating it to figure out what's going on so yeah we don't normally pull a lot of case numbers for that stuff that happens but the stuff that we do uh the the reports of guns we take very serious um the the kids had a bad weekend we need to touch base with them see what's going on um social workers will come to us and say hey I just had a conversation with this kid and something doesn't feel right next to you know you're calling for an ambulance for a mental health evaluation uh because that's exactly what they need soul I mean that's some of the taste of what we deal with daily hi I'm Sergeant to Corey um I was also an SRO for about I think five maybe five or six years up at North hi he actually trained me in and then when I left he came back in so it worked out well um one of the things that stuck with me as an SRO was the statement that I had it said 57 or sorry 15.7 percent of students carry weapons gun knives or other weapons on at least one day in the past month I I that was something that I always carried with me because that meant that at any time a student was walking past me with with the weapon it seems a lot right like is that true it is true I do believe in that so I knew that the relationships that I had with those kids were important so we didn't sit in our office we were in the hallways we were talking to kids and SRO day starts before school starts we have to be there before the kids get there um North has more than one school so oftentimes that means starting at one school and oftentimes ending at another school so we're there from before the kids get there and oftentimes we're there after we're there for after school activities we're there for games we're there on the way weekends where they're at dances because we have to be because building those relationships are vital to us solving crimes and preventing crimes I wrote down something it said that uh someone asked me how often I work and they ask about my hours and I remember having to look at hours and it would be 80 hours sometimes and I'd be like oops because I would stay after because a parent would say I have to work and I can't get there during the school day can can I meet you after school those are the things that sros do I did not know how hard this job was going to be I watched TV and the sros are always reading books to kids in class and they're doing they're dancing in the hallways and it looked really fun and I'm like I got that I got the dance moves for this I can do it it was an exhausting job it was a rewarding job because to this day I still run the kids daily who say officer K oftentimes the relationships that we build their lifelong they will continue to ask where's officer Allen where's officer K they remember sros that I'm like when did they work here I don't know who is because we talk with our kids we do welfare checks with our kids the majority of the Intel that we get when it comes to retrieving Firearms off of kids which we do we I don't even know how many times we've had to we get Intel from kids about a kid with a knife who showed it to them in the class and they come and they whisper it to us because they they're scared to tell someone um I would say the majority of the times that we took loaded handguns off of children was because a child told us but it was happening um and on outside of that it was us being trained to watch the signs to know something was wrong I know something's wrong because I know you and today you came and you're wearing sweat clothes and today you came and you didn't make eye contact so I pulled you into the office and I asked questions because I know something's not right because that is what we do we often laugh when people say people ask you what you do for a living we don't always get to say I'm an officer because we know sometimes that perception isn't great so we always say I'm a trained Observer which is code word from a police officer but that is exactly what we do and it's your head is on its level all day long I'm one officer and in that one school we had over 2 000 kids I'm not talking about the elementary schools that I honestly felt like I didn't get a chance to go to and meet with those kids you know I tried to go as often as I could but taking a step out of that high school made me nervous so that but for me having a second SRO was invaluable being able to feel like we then could do the investigative work that we have to do it's it's it's ongoing we have our cell phones which is separate I keep two of them they ring all weekend um thanks to social media we are constantly on there we get that's a lot of our tips is Snapchat Facebook you name it which is why my three kids who are all high schoolers don't have Facebook because of this job it's it's a very hard job it's a very demanding job and to ask one officer to float through all the schools that we have at North is I'm going to be very honest and possible I did this job with five for five years and you really have to be a special breed of Officer to go into school every single day and and really know your kids he talked a little bit about an incident that we had where we retrieved I mean there's there's a few where we achieved the gun off of a student that one sticks out to me because that student was new so there wasn't a connection formed so people ask like how did that happen well because I didn't form a connection I didn't know who the kid was and I'm nosy I'm paid to be nosy I enjoy my job so I ask questions well who was that and why is he in why is he in the office and that led to the discovery that he had unloaded handgun on him again I'm one officer who was fighting this kid for a very long time unable to call out for help I don't know what I called out on my radio but he heard something and he knows me and he knew that whatever was happening wasn't good and he rushed to my side and I will always say that that officer Allen saved my life that day but he definitely saved that kid's life the kid left there that day and and hopefully got some of the resources at that time that he needed um moving moving forward from there but those are the connections that we have with staff we know when the atmosphere is wrong we can walk in in the morning and I know this sounds if you have kids you know there's something about those teenage you walk in you're like something's not something's not right and some kid will tell us this is what's going on or they'll say hey check check the Snapchat real quick and we prevent a lot of crimes I wish that we only had 88 reports that would be lovely I'd be able to read to the kids and be able to do the things that I really wanted to do and the connections that I wish that I had made unfortunately I would say that number is if not double triple or the amount of calls that we're unable to to put in because not everything has to be documented right I'm stopping a fight if I'm preventing something my job is to do that and not always track those numbers so that people can validate why I'm in those schools but we are needed and and not just one several of us don't need to be in that school so foreign thank you guys for sharing that uh definitely open it up for any questions also might have got some marijuana yeah thank you for your presentation today and your work in the schools um it is uh very apparent that the youth especially are having a serious mental health crisis more than ever post pandemic um so thank you for your work there um I'm just curious on what the school districts wants are I understand that sometimes there's desires for more um social workers or school counselors and things like that and so what are their wants are they asking for an SRO as well or you know what is that conversation like uh kind of in the middle of it so we've had a couple of discussions with them meeting with them again in on the 20th so uh yeah the conversation's ongoing it's going to continue it's uh you know and I'm sharing with them the exact same things that I'm sharing with you all right now so uh we'll see how that conversation goes so they've not like expressed their need or like have they expressed a need for an SRO or is this just you the school is absolutely not ask me can I get another SRO in the building no um so as far as the the North St Paul police they have the social workers are provided by the school the police as far as the um the police officers are the full enforcement and uh right now how is how are you doing with your mental mental health we talk about everybody else's mental health you as being the one policeman there and at that time you know how how is it gonna look like maybe burnout in that kind of position I mean how was how was your how are you doing um you know I'm doing good uh I have four kids at home that make me smile every day so that's number one and number two I just got done with that good ice fishing season and the good summer fishing here so that kind of melts that away uh but all jokes aside uh um I've been doing this for 16 years I'm one of the senior officers here at North at North St Paul so it's a little bit easier for me as far as that aspect of it and I appreciate your your question it just um you you do have bad days and then you have bad days and then there'll be a good day that'll that'll Bring It Around um I've befriended a kid that that's there that all he wants to do is talk straight fishing and every time I see him I kind of just laugh at myself and go wow this kid's Relentless cool but we talk fishing so those things I can think about and share with you and smile uh and then there's some kids I look at and I go I don't know what it is but so he and I are going to Pat the cross paths someday and some of those have come true unfortunately not because I've seeked it it's just the way it is the Intuition or you know whatever it has to be so as far as my mental health I'm I'm hanging in there you know I'm doing I'm doing just fine but you can definitely definitely see the the covid reaction that the kids you know being away from school online now they're in school and you know it's just something about this group of kids right now that they're just wild and you just got to stay kind of hyper Vigilant on that um it's it's almost second nature like like Sergeant Decor he said you know you watch them and you're like man that kid never ties his shoes knows his shoes are tied and he's dressed kind of different so those things you know you you just gotta see the path and and stay hyper Vigilant when it comes to stuff like that and to be honest with you when I go home you know I step back into dad role you know and when it comes weekend I step into crappy crappy mode so you know that's just the way it goes sure and but then come Monday I'm you know I'm I'm strapping it back up so and there's two floors to the school or three there's three there's actually not a lot of people unless there's a fourth floor it's a hidden floor but it's only gained access to by the janitorial people so if you if you know somebody they'll put you up there but there are three floors of classrooms on one side and the main Wing is on the main floor second floor with a in well the EC as well uh I'm sorry off our Sergeant Decor is right the uh the other school that she's talking about that we have to go to is called the EC Ed Center is out on top of the hill the old North High that's on third floor we don't necessarily go to the other two floors but it's on the third floor if we hit the run up there so I mean you'd be down on how did people get a hold of you if there's a situation in the building so I I uh the school does provide me a walkie Chief and I do have a walkie Chief has a walkie in his office and I got to tell you there are a lot of times where I don't they just call out and I just have time to go and Chief and the troops come around and so but they do provide me with a school radio that that handles that within the school um and then I have my normal uh Squad uh radio on me as well so if I need help I can call I can Bonk on that so so you're walking down the floor let's say you're walking down the first floor you know how many things do you run into during that I mean kids doing this and that you pretty much as you walk down the hall have to speak to the students yeah you know you'll see that off hey no play fighting play fighting is real fighting you know guys you know you can't walk down that hallway without saying something new no and sometimes to be perfectly honest with you and I'm I'm not bad mouthing 62. I love 6-2 I grew up in 622 I'm six two two three uh through and through but sometimes you'll hear the language of the kids and I'll make a sailor blush so sometimes you're like hey could you please keep the language down um and maybe sometimes that's just the way some of the kids Express themselves so you got to take that into recognition you'll hear the racial slurs which I absolutely hate because I hate come on keep it down uh you know play fighting is is real fighting you know sometimes you'll recognize a kid that's going on you'll say hey man how's it going uh basketball kid ask them all the basketball team uh team is doing stuff like that so those are a typical walk through a hallway um to be perfectly honest with you I I like to be um kind of the fly on the wall I'll stand my post and watch what I need to I don't want to intermix too much with that because I don't want to maybe me my presence there might make it feel uh make a kid feel unwelcome you know we hear a lot on patrol you know you never don't drive down my street well every time I drive down somebody else's street it's for a reason like there's something going on so if you haven't seen a cop in a while not to say we're not controlling your street because we are but that's a good thing so for me not to go down that hallway they don't see me it won't trigger anything for them won't set up any bad memories or anything else that might be going on I'll just I'll stay in the background until I need to be to the foreground but when I need to be in the foreground it's there so I don't necessarily walk through the hallways but I'll have the kids pass me I guess the better answer your question you want a certain floor at certain times how does that work I can't really I can't really share that with you because it's kind of a super secret cop stuff but yes at certain times at certain at certain days I'll need to be places where I know that something might pop off or something that I need to observe I might be in the lunchroom uh one day for a particular I like to mix it up I don't like to do the same thing all the time and sometimes the kids will be like I didn't know you were here you're like I've been here the whole time would it bring you peace of mind to have another officer in there that's doing the same thing I I couldn't tell you you know when when Chief approached me and asked me what I thought about that I was I was overjoyed just for an example if dekori and I were in uh in in the school together and something were to happen and maybe it has to do with a female student that may connect better with her than me and I can go take over where I need to or maybe that situation hasn't calmed down where she needs to restrain somebody then I can go into that situation and help that or if there's a call at an elementary school where we need to go I don't have to feel bad about leaving the high school like hey guys I'll be right back I have to go take care of something at elementary school and they're like well we're just about to start lunch and the day's been kind of pretty wild so it doesn't it makes me feel it would make me feel a heck of a lot better knowing that that somebody else was there that I could radio and talk to to know if something else was going on like a jet Barry back there or if um we're in a situation where maybe uh they ask us we get this a lot requests that come and speak in the classrooms which we absolutely love doing uh kids can ask us because they're goofy questions and and we can help answer that but while one of us is taking care of that another one could be taking care of something else somewhere else in the school if if they need that so to have that as a second option or have somebody else there where we could um you know take team a call or help take care of a situation or just by by the most part it's just in our use of force continuum is just being present just being there kills a lot of the the action oh man I'm sorry Alan's here you know I'm not going to mess around you know I can't even get pushed past them there's no way I'm gonna get to that kid so so those type of situations were in my mind especially with these 88 calls that we've been a part of that I've been a part of to know that maybe if I had another officer there with me at that time probably wouldn't have gotten that worse or probably wouldn't have been generated that number would probably be a heck of a lot lower yeah we would still have that part where we need to hit our body camera and record but maybe have not generated a case number an arrest and a transport or a case number arrest and then have them go home with parents or me just been a trip to the hospital for somebody because they need that help so to think about that particular option I can't tell you the sky's the limit it'd be awesome they do it a lot of times kids will tell themselves if you pay attention they'll tell you what's going to happen we have kids have patterns when you're in a school long enough you know the days that are fight days you know what happens over the weekend that Monday and Tuesday are going to be pretty hard and then Here Comes Friday and we know what happens on Friday because now I don't get to see you over the weekend when we have those fights in the morning as he said he walked into school on Monday and the fight was right there because we've been kids kids you know they spill over I can't I can't hold my anger I can't de-escalate I can't self-regulate so those kids those fights happen sometimes right away they happen at the lunch time what happens though it's not that the fight happens and now the rest of the day is great once that fight happens the rest of the day there's going to be another one because now the friends who saw the fight want to continue the fight and oftentimes I've had to call Chief and ask if I can get um another officer to stand by um officers will sit in front of the school in the squad car just so that kids can say oh there's another officer so maybe we don't fight today so we often have to have our day crew come into the school and stand by or come and kind of hang out um and we have to have that present that's the only thing that has what I've seen really work to help de-escalate the potential of a secondary fight and sometimes it's an after-school fight when we have those fights we are on alert the entire day and if that fight happens on a Tuesday we are on alert the rest of the week because there's going to be a follow-up um with that fight most of the times at the school or it's in the parking lot or sometimes it skips over to Maplewood Mall but it does happen and so that is when having the second SRO is so vital because again I've had to ask um officers to come in and I just say I have lunch time and lunchtime North High is close campus so at the time it was so you know that's that's up to 500 for lunches 500 plus kids for lunch that are in a very small room um a lot of hormones it's a lot of anger a lot of Happiness whatnot so I have another office or just in the building so I can be in the lunchroom it's pretty vital it's pretty important and not to not to keep this going but to jump on that sometimes after the fight is done it's not done the parents will show up and they'll be heated so to think about all right so Amber's taking care of the kid and now I got Mom and Dad heated coming up here now I can deflect them into my room and now I can explain what's going on there or or I can sit with uh administrative staff while they explain what's going on kind of calm them down so they don't get it all amped up again so it's not always the kids sometimes I mean people are very passionate about their kids I would be my my oldest son is autistic so I you know if something happens I'm always fired up because I want to know what the heck's going on but the thing is is um there may not be a fight maybe a teacher gave him a bad grade or something happened in class or the teacher and this happens a lot may have said something wrong or didn't know what they were saying about that triggered the student next thing I know I got parents calling or parents showing up and they're fired up uh now North High has done a great job with their additions as far as the security measures to get through three doors to get inside I can't tell you how many times it doesn't matter how many doors you got somehow in some way they find a way to come in so anyway so on that um so yeah so sometimes it's the parents that we have to deal with yeah sometimes they're worse than the kids so it's not always the kids you know but you know you have 1600 kids you're going to have 3 200 parents and sometimes they're not gonna like what you say or you're not gonna like the situation that the school is dealing out um and the do the school does a great job supporting us as far as if something happens if the kids need to be expelled or moved on they do they're they're very quick they're very good at what they do and I think that's why right now the relationship with 62 is so good um they listen to us listen to the chief um and they they take into consideration what we have to say and that's huge is that partnership so I by all means I'm like I said I'm never dogging 622 the admin that I work with are fantastic um but like I said I can't I can't do what they do and they sometimes say I can't believe you do what you do so you said 1600 students is that about what it is yeah around there number of yep 1600. so I know when that school was built they took down some houses and built the school and I was told right from the beginning the school was too small after they built it well um how is the hallways in crunching 1600 I look at that building to me that seems a lot for 1600 kids you know kids kids keep it moving I mean they do a good job I I like I said I do see the hallways on cameras and I do watch that stuff but it doesn't look like they're you know they're scrunched in there I had to go back when I graduated from North I had two years at the old school and two years at the new school and at the new school we could actually use our lockers now we do have lockers at North but none of the kids that I know of use those lockers they all have all their stuff on their backpacks and they're always moving class to class to class so um the thing is is I did kind of hear that rumor when we got out of there I think my class was a 216 and now classes that are graduating are like six seven eight hundred so they're they're big the school the school is doing they're doing a huge addition on to have that like the the um the classes in now so next year there will be no need for the E of the the Ed Center there's no need for the kids to walk back and forth which is a nightmare um and and next year will be the first year where they have everybody enclosed in the school and that they had that a really long time couple more examples of anything okay so as far as the um the um I met with the superintendent tried to you know talk a few things um this is I guess when it comes to the students and and safety I I lost my son from a virus I can't imagine losing a child at school from violence anything like that so it's just beyond for me I you know the security part of it was and I know Phil had a discussion last year and it you know it didn't seem to be going so we were trying to just get to the bottom of it we met with Oakdale right everybody oops sorry we brought everybody in Oakdale Maplewood Chief we brought in the mayor of Oakdale just to kind of talk about 622 in in general so it's not just us that have been trying to understand and figure out to make sure we have the right safety procedures in the number of people we need mental health is huge and and you know that but we have to have it safe before we can do mental health and that's where I want to make sure we get that base first as far as you know then we can work our way in make sure the teachers social workers parent everybody is is safe so I appreciate the the work you do and understand you know multiple floors on buildings can be difficult because do the teachers how do they get a hold if they have a situation in the classroom how do they get a hold of of you so um there are teachers that are strategically placed around the school that do have access to walkies um and there are also the teachers have a number they can call the behavior team there's a behavior team that comes out in um that we call them the yellow team so yellow team will call on the radio if they need something I will listen to the radio because I have my own uh and I'll say um I better go to that all right I better start kind of heading that way something tells me something's going on there or I'll hear the the fighting in the background of the of the radio and you just go so we do have certain code words certain codes that we use um but sometimes it's just something that you're like oh maybe I better go just walk down there in some in and the kids will be fine sometimes they'll be fine until I get there and they're like oh you had to call the cops I'm like I just my own volition I'll walk away gladly so you know sometimes I can amp it up it doesn't happen that often but it does happen or I'll just walk away I'll just go around the corner I won't go away but I'll go around the corner so but they are uh there are ways they could call me they can email me if it's an emergency they can call the the yellow team or they can they can use the radio what do what do you wear when you're when you're patrolling so um Sergeant decorate uh took took the um the the way of wearing her uniform um I like to be a little bit more comfortable I saw I wear uh what I'm wearing now is what I wore at school today I do have my my my firearm and everything else I do have tools in my pockets and I do wear my bulletproof vest over this so this is what you look like when you're walking the Halls today yes uh I do have my badge I had my second badge here um I don't necessarily wear a a placard on the bat on my back that says police um Chief has uh let me kind of relax that part so we could help it helps me better do my job kids I tend to like my my shoes I'm a shoe guy oh it kind of gets me away in to to talk to him um and and gets me to relate to the kids but this is primarily what I wear um things um are obviously very different as officers and height and everything else so there was a strategic reason why I wore what I wore I did not wear this full it was modified I had different color pants and oftentimes I would wear my hoodie um I kept my best on me there's a reason why I have a very strong stance on this I think that students who see me in the summertime need to feel comfortable with me so oftentimes for me if I dressed in a way that they didn't recognize me in full uniform in the summer I was not approachable I wanted kids to feel comfortable approaching me in full uniform um on on school grounds and off so I made it a point too at least during my week I would modify it I didn't dress fully all the time but you if you were at school like you supposed to be you would see me in full uniform and out and that was strategically because I wanted to again we don't stop seeing our kids in the summer as a teacher you get to have those three months off we don't get them off we work straight through we work the entire year so in July when I'm running into my students having an issue he's this he no longer sees this so she no longer sees this because she's numb to it I am officer K and now I have a problem and I want to report it to you and I know you because I saw you all the time and so I didn't want to then have them be shocked by seeing a uniform that they have not used to see and so we do tend to modify depending on what we're we're doing but I don't wear I wouldn't wear all of this it definitely what could be this with a hoodie I wear a lot of North gear I had a lot of I'm I'm stocked with a lot of North hoodies that I wore and oftentimes I would have a vest underneath my hoodie and I would have my badge stuck to the outside of my hoodie too so we're pretty we we dress a way because we know it's important for kids to to be able to come to Joe wearing that or come to me wearing this so anybody else um thank you so much for what you do I can't say that enough in the conversations that you're going to have um if you can request this is there any hurdles besides budget that you foresee coming or in the opposition uh yeah I don't I don't see the district jumping immediately on board at the thought of having a second as a role despite all everything that you just heard and the absolute need for it not only for the safety of students staff parents anybody coming in the building but the safety for our Joe our current one SRO there's no doubt a second uh SRO would absolutely be an enhancement to his safety in a time where our our profession has unfortunately seen a lot of assaults and having one officer killed in the line of duty just this weekend it's a dangerous profession so there's an absolute desire our portion of it is to make sure Joe and the SRO stand safe in the building but uh yeah I can't say how the conversation is going to go I'm going to present the same amount of information same type of data to them but ultimately it is their decision on whether or not they're gonna be willing to fund it appropriately or staff it appropriately that's all up to 622 as far as their budget it's there they can say yay or nay whatever they need to do as far as that but we've had a discussion that was brought up to you know as us in general a couple times about the safety of it so I appreciate that everybody was able to come in and understand where everybody's coming from on that and to be able to decide you know to be able to show support as far as going forward it's their decision we can do due diligence on what we see and I hope that you know anything else you have life insurance you have insurances having another officer you don't know what you guys you walk down that Hall you don't know what you stopped today there might be a few things that you saw but there's things that you didn't see so God bless you because it's you know you don't know what what anybody's thinking as far as that so but I think as us as far as where we are you know it's just nice to be able to understand where where it was coming from and understanding the needs that you see in the school what we perceive to them they have to decide on their section of it if I'm correct correct yeah but having your having your support and this recommendation would be helpful does the district make you aware of any expulsions in other schools are you speaking of which of someone's expelled and then they come to our school we know about it yes I I don't know if it's changed um generally speaking we have a really good working relationship with our school district fantastic so those are conversations that we have uh pretty frequently I know that some school districts uh depending on their their relationship with their SRO they may not uh tell them that hey we have a kid who uh May thought a staff member or was expelled from from Stillwater and they're starting on Monday I would say that that at at our school um at least for that's how it was they'd let us know and they specifically come and find us to let us know uh that's a that's a that's a hot topic for me right now I'm giving the recent events at Harding them not having an SRO and I stand by this statement and I'll say it all day long had that school had an SRO and that communication been completed uh that I don't believe there would have been a loss of life that day those that communication that you have with the schools and with the students is vital and it absolutely saves lives and 62 definitely works really well with us they trust us because they don't have to tell us a lot of the stuff that they do tell us but they usually tell us right away that hey we have a kid coming in I just want to share this with you this is what happened in the past so they might be if you could if you could stop them with them we get asked all the time hey can you speak with this kid this is what happened here a year ago and just want her to know she's got someone on her side or someone on his side so there's a there's a beautiful communication which sticks she's showing us that's great student was expelled from North was that correct or not the one that went over to Harding that was stabbed upset her answer to you um school will will tell us hey we got XYZ coming in um I'll I'll do my research on it they've done the research on it let me know so now it's my turn to do my research on it and I can try to find what I can I'm not gonna lie to you there's nine times out of ten I'll end up seeing that kid and I'll say hey are you new and they're like yeah I just started today oh I'm Joe nice to meet you on the school resource officer you need anything up here you let me know right away I'm your guy and they're like cool things so there's another part where we make our connection but school has done their part to let us know which is huge they do a great job doing that and now it's my part to kind of finish that yeah they may not know what's going on behind the scenes but we should take care of that when I see them see them him or her be like oh hey you're a new student I haven't seen you before and then we able to talk to them introduce ourselves so sometimes it bears fruit sometimes it doesn't foreign so as the mayor said we've had meetings with 622 and they've expressed their concerns as well for the mental health of the students I mean they've said that they have five counselors two social workers two nurses and two third-party counselors but she also said that they had six security guards and I don't know if that's a total that they employ or is there that many there every day and if so how do you guys work together I was just wondering how that worked so uh that's that's what I refer to as our yellow Team behavioral team so they'll be uh I don't necessarily think that they're six all the time there but they definitely uh they they they're definitely there four or five you know on a day um one will take the third floor one will take the second floor I want to take the the the first floor um during passing time what not we'll we'll stay in strategic places they help with that so there there's what I I'm sorry they uh there's one there what we I consider or what we consider the yellow team Behavior team behavior intervention intervention that they help out with a lot of them are on um as as far as the behavior team they'll help counsel some of the kids or they'll be the ones that'll help escort after a fight or something else that's going on that they recognize that'll be their intervention they're not they're not really automatically think of like security or something like that so yeah I'm like no they're not walking around these are individuals that are hired generally will have some background in education or de-escalation skills so their job is to make those connections with those kids they work with them with their homework work with them with their expulsions they are not actually that I know of as far as our school North works I know the other districts Oakdale has had security officers who's legit warned security uniforms at a time or two they've tried that we have not had a person head north in full-on security outfit but they do work and they do and their job is to be on the behavioral or what we call it yeah they wouldn't break up fights or anything like they do so they do have that they can do yeah yeah they're just not dressed up like a mall security like a mall cop yeah and a radio in there and that's your only job this teacher they're pulling out of a class to do this their job is to do that so they'll uh if they need someone like uh if the assistant principals need uh someone to go get a kid out of class they'll help with that if they need a kid escorted from one place or another like they may have lost their Hall their Hall privileges they'll take care of that um they do a plethora of things for the school on on their side they just they uh I guess um they are considered security but they're they're not secure like they are security but they check doors and stuff like that but they're not Mall Cops like I am five two plus on a good day um I I work with uh with with people at that school that are hold on what am I gonna guess six four nine I'm in full uniform I have more Authority than a lot of people left at school so when you see me coming down the hallway with my voice saying you need to stop and back away uh because I'm in uniform and because I have that Authority I mean with the de-esque leader situation a lot faster than someone who doesn't have it and kids will and kids are brutal they'll tell you if you have to have very thick skin I've gone home and been like do I really look like that like you know you have to you have to have thick skin so having the officer it's the presence and and they know they know we have the authority to stop the situation and we have authority to say hey we're going to remove you now not um if you're a teacher at the school or even staff you don't always have that same Authority so it's nice to have them there it's nice for them to to step in um but oftentimes with them if there's a risk they can choose um they choose and they have and I and I and I would too they've chosen not to because they're that this could this could inevitably result in um their injury or a Kid's injury because they don't always have the training that we have um so I respect their decision sometimes to often they'll take a step back because they don't want to be hurt so appreciate it or anything else any more questions no Chief thanks uh there's a lot to unpacking while you just went through um greatly greatly appreciate everything I like thank you for the added yeah that the ad Pages you added answered a lot of questions for me as well so sincerely appreciate that um your group's awesome they're a complete asset to the city an asset to the school um a couple questions is this a time-based decision do we need to do you need an answer tonight um and I'll explain why I would love to hear uh what the school district may have or not have to say first off and the second part is um this doesn't ensure that we get a second Sr when school does it this just it's basically the city saying we we support the direction of moving that way but they can still say no correct they can still say no we we have a contract with them uh that we do have to sign um so we can either sign or not sign the contract based on what's in that contract um but yeah ultimately the school would have to if we propose a contract that says uh here's the here's this is two sros and at this amount and the school could not sign or sign so it has to be you know both both sides on board from the language of the contract is this doesn't guarantee no this isn't you know we could say here's here's how we want the contract which is kind of what we would be doing if if the council decides to vote on uh making this request but then they could not sign it if that's the language that we have in the contract so yeah it has to be uh mutually agreed upon contract okay and then because the other piece of that onion as you peel it back is is the cost um in you know looking at it you know the it we are being under the city is being underfunded for the research that's currently being provided um so you know wholehearted wholeheartedly agree with that as well so um I mean I other than that I really don't have a lot of questions other than I would love the opportunity to to give the school district the opportunity to talk um if they choose not to that's entirely up to them um but if it's if it's a decision you know and so table it for tonight but if it's a decision that needs to to be made um that's fine as well so uh time definitely is of the uh importance with their their school budget cycle uh is a little different than ours and I think theirs has to be finalized uh early June uh I'd say you're more than happy to attend the meeting that uh myself and the other police Chiefs have on Thursday if you'd like to participate in that conversation um but we have we've met with them uh city managers met with them the mayor's met with them we've I've met with them and had discussions about this issue so I'm pretty confident I know where where they stand on this I'm also aware that they might be getting a lot of funding coming their way from the state which does kind of take it would I would imagine take funding out of the uh conversation as to a reason why not to fund even the one position appropriately or fund the second position I don't think funds would be an excuse why to not do it and thanks for saying that and I absolutely agree Amber and Joe are some of the best uh there is and the compassion that both of them had in their voices telling you stories they truly are I mean watching that I'll show up on a call and whatever the incident is going on and and uh with Joe currently and Amber when she was in there and it's it's amazing watching them work they just they solve problems they stop fights they prevent fights they're connected to these kids they know uh probably almost all the kids in the entire school by first name they know their parents they know their siblings these guys are members of the of the school and it is uh it is it's it's awesome watching them work they're they're great cops and and even better people and they do amazing things for that school district and any school district would be happy to have them as their SRO and I'm absolutely happy that it's uh 62 and and or St Paul that that has them another quick thing from our meeting that I wanted to mention is Oakdale did not have a an SRO they had uh plea it was a full police officer he worked for the police department that's correct is that correct yeah Oakdale didn't have a license at all and there's and they were having trouble so they they had their you know on which what's the word you call it referendum or I don't know how you phrase the what we're doing tonight it's kind of a memorandum thank you I couldn't think of the word so they're going for the the two full-time so after the meeting is you know we we had a good hour and a half conversation with and the Maplewood police chief also was there and he said we don't have a high school but you know if they gave us one for an SRO we give it to you know one of you either Oakdale or Tartan because you guys have the high school kids so he volunteered to give his if they would have got one as far as Maplewood because he sees the need for it yeah just a little more background in what we discussed with that and they passed there is at their last council meeting um last weekend I think it was so thank you hey Neil all right thank you you wanna put that to vote for a resolution that works I would like to move to table it because I I do have concerns about the school not wanting I think that's that says I just want to understand a little bit more why I guess I mean why is there such a strong stance of I rather not or whatever it is yeah I mean I can only speculate as to why not given all the data um that we have and and the qualitative stories that we just heard you know I I hate to believe it would be any uh anything along the lines of what Minneapolis St Paul did to get rid of all their school resource officers or any kind of uh anything related to that notion that would be unfortunate but if funding is not a question or not an issue based on state funding coming in for all the public schools in the state you know given the data we look at that and it's it says that the need is there and it's our job to make a safe environment for schools and kids and parents and teachers in North St Paul that's what it's telling us that's what the stories of all the things that happen are saying here's how we accomplish a safer environment so I don't know what other data I could possibly provide to paint the picture of what's going on anybody else have any concern for moving forward or vote I mean I still wouldn't mind hearing from the school district I didn't realize there had been as many meetings as ahead so thank you very much but I mean I I mean I I too would love to hear what they have to say um I kind of already know where my head is on the on the topic but in order to make an informed decision you like to hear both sides for me well part of it is our recommendation as far as what we see as a city am I correct with how I'm looking at that anybody so Lisa moved to table it but I haven't heard a second I would move to vote to approve okay I apologize I a lot of my realm here as far as where we move to what proof so you second my motion um I don't know how that works yeah um sorry you got a new mayor here uh so the couple of things so first off you're a move to table um move to table means put off till later in the meeting I believe you probably meant move to postpone which would be to put off until a future meeting um we would then need to deal with that which means either if there's no second then there's no vote on it or if there's a second then there would need to be an up or down vote on that meeting or that motion before we then move to a motion for a vote okay so it's it's uh council member Juan that's first one so we the same video gonna second council member Wong is what I'm hearing I'll second councilmember Wong okay now do we discuss how do we already vote go to the law book I believe we've we've had our discussion so I believe now it would be a vote on the motion to postpone okay all those to vote to the motion of postpone say aye aye aye all those vote against say nay nay three to two okay now we have to move a motion for now I move to approve so you would uh move to approve the resolution yes the resolution sorry okay um council member Norby moved to approve resolution second by council member schuyers all those in favor say aye aye those against nay nay all right four to one thank you for your time appreciate it thank you very much yeah the next city business action item and recommendation is the housing Park cart reconstruction project so back in February 7th uh the city council authorized advertisements for bids for the housing Park construction project um when they came back they were about seventy five thousand dollars over what we thought they were going to be so we were looking to put that off until next year um Brandi has done good work with the putting a request into the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for the outdoor recreation grant program which has the potential of paying for half of that project and just a reminder this project is uh improvements including courts that will accommodate four pickleball courts including net system and fencing to account for potential future tennis court play concrete Walks from Charles Street to access the playground and court and an alternate for Ada walkway and a pertinence work so right now we're asking Council to accept and reject all the bids that came in and put this off until 2024 rebid it took us two years to get here before we motion is that allowed are there are there any safety concerns that this project we're going to address that are going to need to be addressed if we reject all bids I'm going to turn that over to Brandi uh I turned it over to Ron and he assured me that no there are no safety concerns so the words are sold then I move to approve the motion it's too much I all right next up is reports of city manager and departments we have uh John Wick here for electrical director to discuss hey John thanks for staying to the end yeah appreciate it thank you for having me [Laughter] yeah I will update on our department here um job director light tests Beyond is that better you got it um and then so I'm John Wick the electric director and uh eastendale is the superintendent just a little bit about us we have 6637 meters in service of those meters there are 546 commercial meters 6091 residential meters roughly 74 miles of distribution lines within the city limits and some in Oakdale some Maplewood that all stems from one distribution substation located on in Oakdale on the just off of Highway 120. our distribution line voltage is 13 800 volts we currently staff seven line workers uh two of which are apprentices and five of which are journeyman we also staff a utility locator for the underground electric and water and sewer myself and the superintendent are also both qualified journeyman line workers to be alignment with the city some of the basic qualifications you need to have a high school diploma you need to completed a line worker training program there's three of those programs in the state the closest being Dakota County once you're hired as alignment with the city you are required to complete a four-year apprenticeship we recognize that year of training as a part of your apprenticeship so it's really three years with the city and then once you're a journeyman you go through ongoing training with the organization mmua that we're a part of Minnesota Municipal utility Association um our group is very tight-knit and they built a lot of trust with each other it's a line of work where you're you're working with things that are potentially hazardous and life-threatening and you're working across from someone that you need to trust that they're they're looking out for your best interests they're not going to do something to put you in danger and you're not going to do something to put them in danger that's why part of our apprenticeship is you're not touching the high voltage lines for the first year to two years until it's been recognize that you're trustworthy and that you're someone that we believe can do the job safely right a little bit about our system uh we currently have 12 solar customers that's actually it's 12 this year at the end of last year we were at 10 so that's already two more this year um seems to be a pretty much a trend of three to four a year we're gaining on the system they range in capacities those numbers probably don't mean much but on the low end you're talking about like one residential house roughly up to the high end where you know it's potentially more than that um the application process with the contractors that build those solars uh we have a rebate system they send in the specs for the solar panels and then our power agency calculates a rebate based on those those specs and then it's uh credited to the customer's bill they're also given a credit for the production of the solar meters towards their power bill it actually the power bill is bunched in with all their utilities so it's credited to everything um the one hiccup with the solar is the high upfront cost there are a lot of programs out there to bring that down But ultimately it's a long period of time to regain your investment that's kind of the seems to be the hang up right now I'm gonna go to the next one kind of a brief description of some of the upcoming projects for this year and really it's um just outlining some of them we have on the docket right now the Lily Redevelopment Chippewa beam Indian way area we're relocating overhead to Underground 7th Avenue Avenue lighting that's what's currently going on right out in front of the VFW there we took down all the lighting the contractor is going to put in new conduit new bases and we'll reinstall the lighting pull in the new circuit it'll all be controlled off of one one lighting controller I'll touch more on that in a little bit 17th and Delaware something that we have a plan for I've heard that there's development interest there and there'll probably be a need to relocate the overhead lines Silver Lake there's some old decorative lighting up there that needs to be upgraded we have all the stuff in inventory to do so and then shirelle's Cafe is just a smaller project that we've had on the docket as well I'll touch on that later uh with the Lily it's a it's a major job behind the Lilly Redevelopment there is a main feeder line that's we have four main feeders in tone that each feed about a quarter of the town in order to relocate that line a lot needs to be done we need to install padmon equipment have conduit board in we need to pour pull in all new circuitry um transfer it over to that and then the building itself is going to require a substance excuse me substantial Transformer once that's complete though we would wreck out the overhead lines and once the existing utilities on those poles are gonna remove those poles as well here's a just a brief overhead map on the next slide uh probably a little hard to see up there but it's basically from North Saint Paul drive to the post office that all the polls would be going away yeah Chippewa beam Indian way it's a project that we actually started I said 2022 on there but it was really fall 21. because of supply chain issues we weren't one of the things that was on the consent agenda was the fuse cabinets we have fuse cabinets coming in for that job but they were almost two years from when we ordered them to when we could get them they've come down on those ones at least we're able to give them about six months now um but once we've installed those fuse sectionalizing cabinets we'll be able to finish pulling in The Wire transfer to the new underground and wreck out the uh the old overhead kind of the area there you can see it's from about beam to Helen uh or beam down beam to Shoshone McKnight to Helen that area there on that one is what we all we currently have about three quarters of it done we're just waiting for those cabinets uh the 7th Avenue lighting I kind of touched on that already but um yeah we'll be as soon as the contractor installs the the needed conduits and the bases will finish the rest of the job 17th and Delaware there's been development interested interest in that lot it's another feeder line that would need to be relocated as part of planning for the Lily job we kind of planned ahead for that as well and purchased enough conduit and wire to replace that as well those fuse cabinets that we were purchasing will supply that area as well we'll uh we'll have to bore in the six inch conduit on that job as well it'll be on the north side of 17th from about first to um McKnight Delaware actually excuse me uh you can go to the next site Carrie next one Silver Lake uh I don't know if how many you guys have been up there uh recently but there's old concrete lights that are kind of not strategically placed anymore they had a purpose when they were put in that way but they don't really serve a purpose anymore they're kind of out in the middle of nowhere so we would we would install a new run of conduit putting all new light bases along the walking path and install our Green Hall of Fame lights the same ones that are downtown and then we would upgrade the lighting circuit uh right now it's uh it's all direct burying this would all be in conduit and that's kind of the scope of the area there we'd actually on that map there we'd actually have one more light uh to the west of the tennis courts as well on the trail and then shirelle's Cafe is a uh it's it's a pretty minor job but it's an area that's been a frequent flyer for squirrel outages and tree branches taking out the primary and and with those businesses being there um it's it's a common occurrence we relocate the overhead line there install some underground conduit and uh the only places that would really be affected would be shirelle's Cafe and then the residential home to the north 5061 it's in Oakdale yes yeah that address probably throws you off a little bit there's the there's a visual of it we have two phases that run back there because there's a they need three-phase power and to generate three-phase power you need at least two phases of primary voltage so we need to bury two phases um some of the concerns I see coming down the pipeline for our department uh supply chain it's affected everybody but especially with our some of our crucial equipment Transformers are pad Mount Transformers are about two years for new ones you can scrape by with refurbished ones but you're kind of rolling the dice there with what you're going to get um we've also had to Branch out to Distributors that we just have less history purchasing from you kind of know what quality of product you're getting from the people that you've worked with in the past and uh just because of the the lead times we've had to Branch out to companies that you know they're saying they're going to supply the same product but we really won't know until it's actually here we've also noticed a lack of bids and quotes just because the Distributors can't Supply the inventory that we need a lot of the bigger utilities have a side quota that's put aside to them and they can just dip out of that and as a municipal we have to kind of fight for ourselves to uh to get what we need requires a little bit more planning ahead this what you need is just not readily available so trying to look forward a year in advance and a lot of the things that I've been asking for as of recently have been trying to secure our inventory moving forward excuse me um another concern with that would be that when the availability does arise there's a lot of competition for it and not a lot of time to make a decision on what you want to buy it's not on everything but it happens uh with wire Transformers things of that nature and and from what I can tell this this is probably the foreseeable Norm for I don't even know when things will be back to normal again so it'll just be a lot more planning ahead than what we're used to yeah do we need more storage as far as buying things ahead and keeping it in stock and we have something like that or how do we if you said it's going to keep coming how are we going to be prepared for sure but we do keep a decent stock of the Necessities at our shop there have been Distributors that have offered to if we can make a commitment to them put aside stock for us but then you're not locking in a price it's whatever price they're going to offer you when the time comes that you need it and then when we're shopping around trying to find the best deals you know these Transformers in in the cost of equipment here they're going up double triple in price in the last year we purchased Transformers in 2020 for anywhere from 1500 to 2500 based on the size and we're getting quotes back anywhere from seven to nine thousand dollars for a single Transformer and I think it's all due to all the supply chain issues uh and the core materials there's a competition for the core materials amongst the automotive industry right now they're basically it makes more sense to sell to them for what they're making return on investment just isn't the same when you're building a Transformer core um so it's just yeah there's a lot of competition with that and and these manufacturers aren't pumping out as many Transformers as they used to we have seen though that other materials are starting to stabilize I don't know if that's a turn in the right direction uh we don't use a lot of lumber but PVC has come back down uh substantially and we use a lot of PVC conduit in our line of work when we're relocating the overhead lines for a while there I mean a 10 foot stick of two-inch conduit was like fourteen dollars for one stick and we were buying it you know two three dollars a stick you know two three years ago so it all adds up really fast but it's starting to come back down answers your I kind of rambled on there but it answers your question yeah everybody talks of every commercials electric car electric discs like that and you're telling us that it's hard to find supplies and everything else so it's kind of I do have my heart sink a little bit thinking about a vehicle charging stations coming up as well um it's actually my next slide uh I we have been planning ahead and a lot of that's thanks to you know Brian's my predecessor he had the foresight to be able to see that you know we need to be prepared this is something that's coming there's no no way around it so the whole downtown has many runs of extra conduit throughout it for running so powerto wherever it's needed really the only thing that's a concern is having to either upgrade existing equipment or add completely new power sources you know One charging station at least in my eyes can be equivalent to a single-family home service or 60 amps a leg for a charger at least the ones we've been dealing with as a recently so I mean they demand a lot of load and you know some of our Transformers are already maxed out so it'll be you know upgrading those Transformers to accommodate those needs or adding a second Transformer in that same circuit we have the means to do it it's just going to be a you know an expenditure that's needs to be attempted to plan for at least um a lot of residents are putting them in their garages it has kind of cooled off lately we haven't had many requests for it most electricians want to see a second service run to the home just for the car charger just because of the demand on that charger itself and we can basically just treat that as adding another home to that Transformer in our in the calculations for what size Transformer needs to be there and so as that continues to grow there may be need to upgrade Transformers and then with the downtown I don't see an issue currently with how we have it set up but you know continues to grow we'll have to keep accommodating the need a pretty short and sweet opening up to questions and then if there's any you can think of after you can always feel free to reach out to us and we can point you in the right direction or try to answer it for you [Music] any questions thank you for your presentation I'm just wondering what number of EV Chargers the new infrastructure downtown can hold or what the capacity yeah I couldn't give you the total off top of my head right it's I mean in the if you want to go back to that previous slide Carrie um currently we're planning for wants to go in in the new parking lot buying KJ catering and then uh when time comes to do behind Newman's we're planning on putting two there as well at least that that's the initial planning at this point um I don't see any issue with that and like the new developments have been talking about putting charging in their parking lots it's all stuff that'll be just on a as it comes in we can address it type of thing um okay thank you yeah that's about what I could tell you at this point yeah I just didn't know if it had like some Ratio or something like that of I don't have the magic numbers right now yeah that's that's all good and I was just wondering thank you the one in front of city hall there's is that charge one or is it more than one vehicle dual charge I know Osiris is always sitting in a spot so I don't know if it's taking up a there's only one spot there or what I think Brandy must have left I think she uses it oh God I'm just wanted I'm glad it's dual because I always see that car sitting there I think is it blocking it the whole time for people that want to use it that's good thank you sure councilmember Norby thank you very much for your presentation um as a new cult and soul member apparently I had a misconception um I assume that our utilities were the same boundary as our city but because we were working on Cheryl's Cafe I just realized that's not how was what you service determined uh well the boundaries were have been established long before I was any of us were present here um you know we service from going into Oakdale all the way over to Granada on the north end of town from about 40th up to um it's like 50 52nd yeah upper 50 seconds something like that so it's it's a substantial area in Oakdale probably like a quarter of the north end of their Town something like that and then a small part of Maplewood as well it's just that's how our service territory expanded we're about to our limits there's really no room for expansion Unless somehow Excel was willing to give up something we're to our borders surrounded by them completely that distribution substation that we come out of we share with EXO they're on one side we're on the other we have one distribution transformer that feeds the entire city and our whole territory we're in Maplewood is the is the Border Maple I mean Oakdale how far does it be is it South Maplewood like down by Hill Murray or is it no no it's very small over in Maplewood where um you know McKnight to the west of McKnight um we go up to like beam oh just kind of fill in that little hole over there there's a hole over there and then as you get over towards like Maplewood Public Works we Supply Maplewood public works with power yeah that's about the border to the to the West thank you yeah I also had some pictures if anybody wanted to see them I don't know it's appropriate to approach the bench just some the guys at work stuff like that I don't know if anybody cares to see them but yeah feel free to check them out here also I'd like to while you're walking that's fine I just want to tell you how we appreciate our electrical service uh the dentist that's in the medical building here lives at Oakdale and he looks over his power is out and uh and North Saint Paul is up so you know the tree trimming the the stuff you guys do with the wet snow we've had this winter you know with the limited amount of issues we had that really is a testament to how you guys take care of stuff so it's very greatly appreciated to all for all of us something I could briefly add to that is oh yeah I don't know if anybody was familiar with the incident on Highway 120 last week with where we had to close the road down that was a poll that was hit by a drunk driver XL Energy on the pole we used the pole to cross into Oakdale so we had customers out of power on that pole and the way XL Energy kind of operates is they send a troubleman out to assess the damage he dispatches a crew or recommends what's needed in that instance they switched out their line and the recommendation was to have a construction crew set a pole and to reattach their phases they needed traffic control and they needed a crew out to dig the hole and fill the hole it took them roughly four hours to get the poll set in that time frame we could have had a dozen polls said it's just a little bit frustrating we had about a seven hour outage due to that situation and that's something I would say residents in the city are just not used to that and it probably frustrates them greatly when they're out of power that long maybe not used to that and I think it's just a testament to the response time of our guys that are on call and uh I mean if we have an outage over a half an hour people are surprised so well and there's so many people that use cpaps use oxygen use all these other things where they can't be down so that is you know we're an older community and there's a lot of different people that need you know power for for life saving so thank you yeah that's definitely uh it's we used to be able to just you know walk a block to take the power out real quick and it's not the case anymore we people do not want their power off at any moment so it's definitely a hurdle that's uh it's a risen since covid yeah yeah did a nice job for first time congratulations good alrighty got about a half an hour worth of questions so just you bet we're going to 10 o'clock so just we're making to ten we're gonna do it no John thank you Austin presentation you're right we are spoiled um by being in North St Paul and I was really hoping you're going to come in and Bash the predecessor and what a rotten run a rotten rotten thing you inherited but you know you took the high road so I got to applaud you for that yeah I definitely uh Brian really if Brian uh wouldn't have remained in the city it would have made taking this job on a lot more difficulties major resource to us because he knows he's been there before he's done it also your Dakota County graduate too yeah 96. I was on the low voltage oh I was one of the inside what's this all from us exactly I was down the road inside oh good not at all all right thank you very much um thank you all right um reports for Council commissions and committees councilmember nerby um the the Planning Commission met last Tuesday they are reviewing the comprehensive plan and the current zoning plan and are working on the recommendation on how to align the two they needed a little bit more time and research so um it's going to be the same agenda for next week but should have it to you um hopefully in April nice thank you council member Wong yeah the arts and culture commission has been pretty busy they've posted um well Carrie posted I should say um the the voting for the utility boxes and a big thank you to John too he took me and another commissioner around to learn about Transformers and all these types of different boxes that we can wrap so I'm really looking forward to seeing what the results are I think we've already gotten in over a hundred responses so I think that's really great engagement for our community we'll start with two boxes and then there will be phases to follow and then sue springborn was really helpful too in identifying some historic photos for the boxes outside of Roddy's so things are moving along and looking really good and yeah really excited about your first two downtown yes uh yeah one will be downtown two rotties and then one will be one of the larger boxes what is that called brand switchgear outside the mni homes yeah for long you'd be climbing the poles with the guys all right let's do this that's you in those pictures we'll see up there council member sure I am I get to meet with the team next Wednesday so I'm looking forward to that other than that I don't have anything until the next meeting thank you councilmember Cole I'll keep it quick uh Eda their meeting last week the primary topic of the Eda meeting was fall around the parade um and just the far under Parade's Been a long-standing North St Paul tradition over the years the event's been hosted by the history Cruisers as well as the Business Association and um there's some challenges taking place um the state auditor is is kind of poo-pooing on the fact that cities would fund celebrations um and the lawyer's not in his head which isn't always a good sign either but thank you um so Carrie and Brent Geary had a made a presentation to the Eda um there there is a way that we're hoping that the Eda can fund this event um as a as a way to bolster the the city now not necessarily as a celebration but as a marketing tool because I think Kerry said it and I agree that we're going down if this goes down it's going down with a fight so next meeting is Wednesday the 9th three o'clock in council chambers I heard that fireworks are allowed for uh fireworks are supported but not parades during the parade would it work yeah would that cover us all right well I skipped town last week so thank you for the update on the EA because I did not make it so I appreciate it so any other General business councilmember Norby councilmember one yeah my guess Betty mccollum's office has chosen one of our our bills for the community center specifically and it will go up for discussion now so um we're one of 15 projects she's chosen or she chose 15 of probably very a lot so um it looks really good for us and hopefully things go well we can work on that Community Center thank you I've got one and I'll probably repeat it again um next time um as many may or may not know St Mark's church across the street from the high school does host a space for police officers on duty um providing them with food beverage just by just to sit down and rest for a little bit when they need a break there was a note in the flyer this past Sunday that they are looking again for more donations for the police officers anything single serve um you know cookies crackers whatever in a single serve type package as well as any type of Beverage water soda juice you can drop off donations at the at the church office and just write down North St Paul police department on the on the donation if anybody chooses to drop off we saw that we're right along so it's just a nice spot they have the toys there for kids if they have our blankets it's just really neat what St Marks did so it's really a welcoming for the officers and if they need things for families so it's really a great great opportunity to help them out anything else as far as that can I move to adjourn anybody move it so move your honor not some members were here she's not for it there you go back again oh council member Cole all those in favor say aye aye we need adjourn thank you everybody it was a long night I appreciate everybody