all right oh it is 7 o'clock 65 very close 659 okay well close close enough um so welcome everybody um just a quick reminder if you have cell phones with you please put them on airplane mode or silent mode so that they do not disrupt our meeting this evening and glad to see so many of you here I can't imagine why all of you are here but just kidding um thank you for coming first order of business I'd like to ask that you join me in Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all all right let's see if I can do that you turn it I is that the right color there you go all right we have to turn our sign on um so with that um I'm going to start out with introductions uh this evening I'm Lisa whan I'm the mayor and to my left are council members Kathleen rekin and Peter vicory uh we have a couple council members absent this evening um an McGregor and then cath um Claudia Lacy and then we have on the end we have our city engineer Alis and fski with WSB and then we also have our director of Public Works Gary Peters and we have our city clerk or is she absent this evening she's absent I see that but I see that you're you're not in your seat either so I was confused there you go and then Ally pus who is also here she's going to take some pictures and then we have Brian Grim our finance director and David AEL our community development director and then we have our uh City attorney Sarah salala with Kennedy and Graven and then of course most importantly of course this evening we have our chief of police Paul false with us so with that um I'm going to make one slight um adjustment to our agenda we have uh Senator Morrison here this evening and so under special presentations she'll uh be addressing the council with uh some information and thank you for coming and we also have um of course prior to that we're going to be swearing in um our newest police officer so with that is there approval of the agenda as amended so move thank you Miss rekin is is there a second second thank you Mr vicory all those in favor signify with i i i all those uh motion passes 3 so we're going to do the swearing in first and Miss PA I think you'll be giving a little background yes thank you Madame mayor councel uh it's always an honor and a privilege to swear in new staff and well we don't want to lose staff so we have to do this too often um it's an honor to swear in new staff so uh officer Anderson or Tyler Anderson is actually a was our 15th officer so for the first time in our history we actually made it to number 15 as you're familiar that that was an addition to our staff as we continue to grow we need to keep up with that and so um uh Tyler was our 15th officer so with that I'll just read a little bit uh about uh officer Anderson and then we'll go ahead and do the swearing in officer Tyler Anderson began employment with the city of Minista on January 2nd 2024 offic off Anderson has several years of Prior law enforcement experience officer Anderson worked as a dispatcher and Jailer for the Lake County Sheriff's Office from April 2015 to November of 2015 officer Anderson worked as a police officer in the two Harbor Police Department from January 2016 until November of 2021 officer Anderson worked for the St Louis County Sheriff's Office as a patrol Deputy from November 2021 till joining our team in January officer and Anderson graduated from Vermilion Community College with an associates degree in law enforcement officer Anderson is currently completing his field training and he will be assigned to a patrol shift in the very near future so um as I said it's an honor to have officer Anderson with us uh it's not too often that we get an officer with such experience so that's uh really important I think he's been a great fit so far and we look forward to working with him uh his field training uh typical field training can be anywhere from 12 to 16 weeks and so his is drastically reduced just to due to his uh prior experience so he'll be on the road probably in just a few shifts from tonight so very happy about that so we are very excited to have officer Anderson on our team uh and that said at this time I'd like to invite mayor Wayan Lieutenant Squires and officer Anderson up to the podium right so I'm going to read this and you can just repeat after me okay um this is the um Min to Public Safety department oath of honor and On My Honor on my honor as a member of the Minista Public Safety department as a member of the Minista Public Safety department I will uphold the mission of the department I will uphold the mission of the department by fighting crime and promoting safety by fighting crime and promoting safety I will uphold my badge I will uphold my badge my Integrity my Integrity my character my character and the public trust and the public trust I will uphold the Constitution of the United States of America I will uphold the Constitution of the United States of America the laws of the state of Minnesota the laws of the state of Minnesota the values of this community the values of this community and the policies of our of our department and the policies of our department so help me God so help me God and welcome the GL [Music] thank you conratulations [Music] well you guys don't have to leave so with that um so our second um special presentation is by Senator Morrison so welcome Senator Morrison thank you good evening that was kind of cool to be here for that I love it congratulations um thank you for allowing me to address the council tonight um I am Kelly Morrison I represent Senate District 45 in the Minnesota Senate which if you're not aware Senate District 45 is from 169 all the way out to County Line in Minista uh it's every community that touches Lake minaka except Victoria um so if it's okay I'd like to just briefly share some of what I worked on this session tell you what my goals are for the coming session and then I'd love to hear from you um about minat trista's priorities and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any so just for your information I serve on four committees uh Health and Human Services Transportation environment climate and Legacy uh and then local state and local government and Veterans and I also serve as an assistant Majority Leader I'm also serving on the newly formed task force on Aging uh T the rare disease advisory Council the the opioid epidemic response advisory Council and also the task force on psychedelic medicine which is kind of an interesting sear conversation um one of my priorities going into the session uh last year was uh to you know when I think about the challenges that Minnesota faces I tend to put put them into three buckets Workforce disparities and water uh we have Workforce shortages in every sector of society so we need to be crafting policy that encourages our young people to stay in Minnesota and also entices people to move here I think racial disparities we have some of the worst in the country um and our young people are disproportionately people of color so we've got to change that trajectory it's about the future of our state water here we are in Minnesota sitting on this wealth of fresh fresh water um and I think sometimes we take it for granted in Minnesota that we we're fine in water we got a lot of it right um but in the era of accelerating climate change and increasing water scarcity I think it's Our obligation to be careful stewards of our water so those are big complex challenges that hit on a lot of policy issues um but they're front of M for me when I Pro approached my work at the legislature this past session um I carried more than 100 bills uh more than 60 of them became law this year and many fit into those categories that I just described um I'm especially proud of a bill to create a plan to ensure that Minnesota has adequate clean water for the next 50 years um the reproductive Freedom Defense Act which protects patients and providers from restrictive reproductive Health Care laws from in other states a ban on the non-essential use of posos forever chemicals um nalaxone or Naran in our schools so there will be no overdoses on school ground and the prescription drug affordability board which will help people access the medicine they need and decrease the burden of high cost drugs on our health care System um I also carried and past a highway safety uh a Highway 7 safety study um to create a plan to address the safety issues that we're seeing along the entire Highway 7 Corridor uh also relevant locally uh my voer education bill um was successfully passed which will hopefully make our Lakes safer and protect them from erosion and the spread of aquatic invasive species um I also secured funding for the Minnesota aquatic invasive species Research Center known as Maser uh which is doing Nation leading uh research on AIS prevention and treatment um significant increase in school funding was passed including for Min tanka Orono and West Tonka schools um and then part of the final package also included additional Public Safety funding for every community in our Senate District including Minista which I believe got $376,000 actually in 32 so the second year of the banum is traditionally a bonding and policy years so top priority of mine in this coming session which starts a week from today um will be to craft a bonding bill um to help address the infrastructure needs across the state including the one that I know you all need here in Minista Republicans and Democrats have to come together to pass a bonding bill um so it will be important for the House and Senate to work together to get that done um I'm also working on a reform of the prior authorization process so that people needing Cancer Care outpatient mental health care and substance use disorder treatment don't experience uh dangerous delays in their care um I'm also working on legislation to try to ease the discharge crisis that's straining patients in our hospital system um I we do have one uh challenge in the the Senate caucus our Majority Leader just had to step away you may have seen in the news um Carrie dii was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year was a remarkable leader in the Senate um but she has made a decision that she needs to step away so we'll be picking a new majority leader this week so there's some uncertainty in our caucus this week um but with that I will stop I'd love to hear from you all about what you're thinking about for minat Trista and I'm happy to answer any questions thanks for having me thank you um I'll start out just real quick of course um the bonding dollar um are high priority for you as you know um and just so our residents know we are seeking um about $18 million for not just roads but um that's not on our docket but for water infrastructure in order to be able to deliver healthy safe drinking water to our residents so um I appreciate your help so far and hopefully you can continue that and and as you were able to secure funding for other sources um last year we hope that you will be able to secure some funding in for us having said that I know that the governor has only proposed about $40 million for for cities and for our our needs uh Statewide do you uh do you foresee the Senate and the house coming together and maybe proposing a larger amount oh yeah I think so I assume that was the governor's um negotiating stance um obviously there are infrastructure projects across the state um that have their needs in every Community uh regardless of political affiliation so there's a lot of incentive for for legislators across the state to get projects done for their communities um I personally prioritize water infrastructure above all others because we all need water um and so minoristas is a big priority for me this year okay and then you also talked about um Workforce and uh there's a shortage and we know that um and obviously here at the city we know that there is a shortage of qualified police officers out there and it just seems like people people are kind of stealing from one Department from the other but um what we really need is some policies or some something in place that will help incentivize young people to um enter um law enforcement um and also maybe even um money for for um college and and training of those individuals because I think that might be helpful and we you know going down if you look in the future I see this becoming an even bigger problem so and then the other thing that we really need to take another look at is the SRO issue so um definitely that should be reopened and re looked at because that created a lot of problems for a lot of communities including ours so I would hope that that could be uh reopened and rethought about and then the only other thing I'm going to say real quick and I'll open it up to the rest of the council is you know the Met Council um I know that there's some talking I know that they finished their meeting meeting today or yesterday but um in their proposal I haven't seen it yet but um I think it would be a mistake to say that only elect City elected officials can serve on the med Council just because I know how much time it takes for elected officials to spend time in their own cities let alone then to have to spend an equal or even more time on the Met Council so maybe there's some kind of a hybrid involved in that and I don't like the proposed state flag that's it I appreciate perspective thank you um and thank you where I should have mentioned the SRO issue that is there's a commitment to address that I think first thing in the session and there's a group of legislators and law enforcement that are working on clarifying that resolving that issue okay thank you um that's all I have and I don't know how much sway or influence you have over the flag but I may like the flag okay anybody else well I'd like to thank you for your work on the Highway 7 uh Corridor of course who just had two fatalities there that you know drove home how important this is um going forward what what else can you do to kind of help us you know move along that safety corridor well we do have a bill to provide funding to support a Highway 7 Coalition I know you could have started to make progress um but having some funding to support that work um is important as well um and then when we see what the recommendations are from that study I suspect that will inform future legislation for making that safer for even communities all line a corridor we've seen we've seen tragedies and a lot of nesses it's it's very fening and I know that um our representative Andrew Meers supports that as well so it's good to have people in both House and Senate as well as on both sides of the aisle supporting that thanks for mentioning that and yeah we've just had one meeting so far but um I suspect we'll have more in the very near future so that would be greatly appreciated so okay what what are your plans to lower taxes in Minnesota uh well this isn't a um taxes year that'll be you know the budget the budget is set in the first year of the banm um and there were actually historic tax breaks in this last year um there were also increases particularly seniors and Veterans um saw but they still the Social Security tax and you raised other taxes most most most seniors saw a decrease or and a removal of um tax state taxes on their social security benefits how do you define most 75% you confirmed that sorry you've confirmed that stat yeah yeah I'm I'm happy to get those numbers very L how come you raised other taxes when we had a surplus uh what taxes are you refering gas tax the S City metro tax boat registration fees went up the license fees went up we had a surplus and you raised taxes well I guess it depends on kind of your perspective we have a lot of needs in our state as we emerg from Co the Boer one for example hadn't been raised since I think about 1986 was it was uh $5 for three years um we've got a huge problem with the of species in our lakes and it does take resources to address some of those needs and the Surplus wasn't adequate to do that uh well you know we've got lunches and breakfast for all kids in Minnesota we have a child tax credit that's estimated to decrease child poverty in Minnesota by 30% so I think that it's fair to say we did some good things this past year but not everyone needed free lunches for their kids but a lot did but not everyone did uh I think that the idea of all kids kind of being in the same boat at lunch is compelling you know that everyone's in the same boat together um it also that creates um less burden on families too where they don't have to pay for lunch they don't have to or make lunch for their kid too so I I'm hearing you that you don't agree um and maybe we can talk more offline if you'd like but thank you no I'm I'm just curious why you see States near us going to zero state income taxes people are leaving the state and we're not trying to do anything to keep people here we actually had a net increase this last year we in [Music] migration okay all right all right one more question you mentioned all the bills you passed how many of those were bipartisan uh quite a few actually I can I can get you the exact number you don't know off the top of your head how many I don't know off the top of my head but I bet it's um more than half but I can get you that number okay all right hi there hi I'm Claudia Lacy um can you tell me what is happening with the assisted suicide Bill uh the end of life options act um it just it had a hearing in the house um and we hope to have a hearing for in Senate thank you I guess I have one more question um in the state of Minnesota it's uh abortion is legal all the way up until birth um can you I think 70% of people even people that are um very pro-choice think up till birth is extraordinarily extreme can you speak to that I can um I'm an obstetrician geologist um and I think it's important to remember that 90% of terminations of pregnancy happen in the first trimester when they happen later in pregnancy they're overwhelmingly horrible tragedies um where something has gone very wrong with the pregnancy or the woman um and so to demonize families who are faced with the worst day of their lives um is troubling to me I think that we need to trust women and their health care providers to make the best decisions for them there are 2093 I believe that were in um past the first trimester and that wasn't the case so I I I mean up till birth just is I find it shocking but thank you for your comments okay I'm happy to have a longer conversation with you if you'd like to okay thank you very much for coming thank you for having me all right all right uh with that we move on to um persons to be heard we don't have anybody signed up so um we have consent agenda items a through I are there any you wish to remove if not then um consent agenda items consist of approve our city council regular meeting minutes from January 22nd 2024 B is a resolution to approve our claims C is approve our offer of promotion to Joshua Brown from police officer to Sergeant which would be effective tomorrow February 6th and he is approv an offer of promotion to Carter ostly from uh Public Works maintenance worker to sewer operator also effective as of tomorrow and E is approv an interim pay for Public Works maintenance worker Adam heg Holtz effective also tomorrow February 6th and then um f is a resolution awarding a task order number nine um task order number nine for will number six rehab with a2s who is our city and um water infrastructure engineering firm and G is a resolution to appre approve a street side setback variance at 920 Maple Crest Drive H is approve a resolution uh for a preliminary plat um of carouth Cove and then I is a resolution to approve a six-month extension to a variance approval at 7035 Hallstead Drive sir motion to approve consent agenda items a through I so moved thank you Miss rkin is there a second second thank you Mr vicory any other questions comments hearing none all those in favor signify with i i all those opposed motion passes 4 o so we have no public hearings this evening uh we'll move on to our business items our business items um there's one business item and it's approve our sidey setback variance at 3,800 Enchanted Lane I asked staff to put this this on our business item because of the discussions that we had previously with the other ones um so I'm just going to let um David give us a quick overview yeah thank you Madame mayor and members of council so the original application as you probably read in your staff report it started out uh when it was submitted with two sidey setback variances for the property at 3800 Enchanted Lane the original request was a sidey yard setback from 15 ft to 10 ft and then on the other side it was from 15 ft to 13.8 ft um that original request has been amended and the applicant has agreed to to move and shift the proposed home to the north which does allow for compliance on one side so you now have 15 ft on the side where there is an existing home there's a residence there and it uh by doing that though it does require a sidey yard variance from 15 ft to 8.8 ft is what you're looking at tonight what you're reviewing what ultimately came through discussions with the Planning Commission in the public hearing what their recommendation is to you as well as you'll see in your your staff report um so the council also recall as the mayor said there is some history here there was a previous application for this property and the one next door back in August of 2023 variances from the Lakeshore Street side and side yards were reviewed um back in 2023 um as the council may remember you approved a lake shore setback at 39.1 ft and a street side at 26.3 FT those were approved back in 2023 um but the sidey variances were denied at that time um further um you might also have noticed that the as back in 2023 when this application came in there was a requested sidey variance request at 3790 Enchanted Lane the property next door as a result of this the shifting and the discussions that ensued with the Planning Commission um the the applicant did withdraw the request for that variance at 3790 and does not intend to pursue that any longer hence how we kind of got to where we are this evening with only one variance being requested um there is a Lakeside and Street side approved by the Council on that previous lot as well from before which the applicant you know intends to comply with as they move forward with a with a house plan so in a nutshell um that is that is how we got to where we are this evening the Planning Commission did hold a public hearing at their meeting last month um there was some good discussion there I think mayor way can speak to that a little bit she she was the council leison that attended that meeting um but uh as a result of the discussions there the Planning Commission did recommend with a 60 vote uh to approve the sidey yard setback variances we did prepare a resolution as such and there's five conditions that go along with that um const stand for any questions and I believe the applicants are here this evening as well if there's any questions so I can give you a brief overview of the Planning Commission meeting uh there was a a lengthy discussion and um I had suggested maybe that the applicant could shift the house slightly to the north giving the um Southern eliminating the southern uh variants on the one side on which still leaves 22 ft between the two new homes and um then the other thing I pointed out is if we approve if we approve this one the home that was um shown in in the um packet is much smaller than the previous one it's um more reasonable if you will and that house would actually fit on the next slot as well with no no sidey variances required so it gives more fuel for us to say no you can't do a sidey yards variance on the next slot because you have a plan that could actually fit on that lot without side yard variances however having said that um the other thing I pointed out to the Planning Commission is that um there were about four or five uh reasons we denied the sidey setbacks before and with this smaller home and with the with with the application in front of us it really eliminates all of those concerns it eliminates the fire hazard the um drainage the size of the house and so on and so um it's really hard to say if we're going to deny this what are the r reasons you would come up with to deny it because as you know with a variance you have to have a reason to deny it and the Planning Commission discussed and talked about it and they felt that there really wasn't any good reasons to deny it questions any questions on the applicant okay all right then um I'm looking for a motion to approve um the approv side yard setback variance at 3800 Enchanted Lane with the conditions as staff presented so moved thank you Miss rekin is there a second second okay Mr vickory seconded that any further questions comments all those in favor signify with i i i all those opposed motion passes 40 and you are approved so thank you than you with that I believe uh that concludes our business items and we move on to staff reports are there any staff reports Chief Madame mayor and Council I thought I would just uh mention that uh since it came the SRO issue came up earlier that uh last week I think it was last Thursday before our hen up and Chiefs meeting we did have a uh metro area Chiefs meeting regarding that specifically uh there were a couple of legislators there uh as part of the meeting and the conversation was a good one uh there is some proposed language change that is already in motion to essentially reverse some of the concerns that we had okay uh and restore that position to what it should be essentially in a nutshell um the educational committee somehow in the educational portion of State Statute added language which ended up pertaining to sro's or police officers which is in my opinion is like hiding the you know the the manual for how to change your car tire in your refrigerator manual nobody would look there it doesn't belong there it's out of place um and it was absurd to begin with uh and so it creates a a set of standards for someone who's a police officer when they're an SRO but a different set of standards for police officers working the road so seriously that wasn't what I believe their their intention was initially so but it ended up that way so there is a the good news is there's a fix in the works and uh hopefully that will occur um we're told that they're going to meet very quickly after they resume uh and then uh address that so hopefully we'll have some good news for you shortly because me most of those schools that were or cities that were present at that meeting have pulled their SRO all together so these schools are going without SRO and they many of them had very compelling stories as to why that's that's not working it's causing safety issues and concern after concern after concern so uh we're hopeful that we can get that fixed quickly and and I'll let you know as soon as that happens thank you thank you um any other staff reports probably just or and maybe you were going to mention may just with the uh President's Day week we'll have the council meeting Wednesday the 21st and then we have the strategic planning the next the next day day Thursday the 22nd at 12:30 busy week after President's Day holiday I guess right right okay um so Council reports um any I do okay go ahead um I attended the mound Fire Commission on January 25th Jasper was there too uh we discussed how the new ESS policy is affecting the fire department uh the Fire Chiefs are lobbying the legislature to remove the requirement for the volunteer fire departments to meet this requ reement uh as firemen they already get 21 sign out days a year that don't count against their percentage that they need to meet um because it's unpaid because they're volunteers but that way it doesn't go against the percentage that they have to meet to still meet their pension requirements and everything um they they have to implement this policy it's going to cause issues with regard to tracking time off versus responding calls to meet their requirements for their response time for the on call hours um so it's causing a heada to say the least um 2023 calls for Minista were 119 this is just for the mire not St Bonnie too just so just mound area um 40 of them were fire 70 were rescue and nine were the duty officer calls which equaled 683 fire hours 1,0 rescue hours and then nine duty officer hours uh for reference we had 44 fire in 2022 59 rescue and three Duty so it all went up good amount um good news is the 2025 budget will likely go down overall because we added it to use the money to buy the stuff out right so he's expecting an overall about $100,000 down so it'll be good um the new radios that we approved uh were supposed to take six months they got them in six weeks so they've got them which is great uh Mutual aid for 20123 mound responded to 24 calls and they needed a on one so not so balanced um the fire fund balance is $393,000 um this is a lot higher than expected due to extra revenue of about 114,000 in interest or plus interest so they got extra money from the fundraisers and then interest on the account um most discussion again was around calls that they are getting that don't actually require fire men um they're getting a lot of lift lift assists from a limited group of residents um the frequent flyers we'll call them um don't live a minute interest us that's good for us but it's causing issues because officers don't want to respond at 3: in the morning for a frequent caller who doesn't actually need police Assistance or fire assistance um so we spent a lot of time talking about it and there's really not a great solution uh I asked what happens if they don't respond and the answer was they just always do I also asked Chief what happens if they don't respond and he didn't have an answer Beyond they'll deal with it so which seems to be the problem is that everyone knows someone will move this person who needs to be moved um the other item was Jasper and the other City administrators are going to be looking at the contract since it's 14 years old just to see if anything needs to be changed any new anything that needs to be changed basically so they're going to look at instead of having lawyers look at it first because then if they don't think anything needs to be changed there's no reason to spend money on lawyers looking at it if they do find something then we'll have m's attorney start the process of making any changes it fits since we're obviously redoing the one with st makes sense to look at them um after the fire meeting Jasper and I talked to Chief Falls um briefly just about the shooting in Woodland Cove and discuss the circumstances surrounding it and flock cameras which I found out about which was good um and then other thing is Ann and I attended a virtual Personnel committee meeting on the 26th to discuss the promotion of Officer Brown the promotion of the sewer officer Operator Operator sewer operator and in tray for Public Works that we all voted on earlier that's all I got nothing for the bership district okay anything thank you um so I will be attending the Northwest league on Wednesday and then um next Tuesday I'll be attending the park commission meeting and uh that's about it I think again thanks for the reminder next uh next meeting is Wednesday the 21st and then 12:30 here for the strategic planning meeting on the 22nd so with that we can be adjourned so moved thank you Miss Rin is there a second I'll second thank you Mr vicory all those in favor signify with i i all those opposed motion passes for oh thank you