we're going to call the meeting to order and since our city clerk is out I will just note that all council members are present now will you please stand and join me in the pledge of IED of the United States of America and the republ for which it stands one nation of God indivisible and justice for all all right item 2 I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the regular city council meeting on September 10th 2024 second I have a motion is second all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries the minutes are approved item three adoption of the agenda we have one change we're going to pull item 4f resolution authorizing an agreement for audit services that will become new 8A if there are not any other Corrections or amendments to the agenda I would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda motion a second all those in favor say I I any opposed we have an agenda item four consent agenda I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda mov second have a motion to Second all those in favor say I I I any opposed consent agenda is approved all right item five visitors and presentations a firefighter appreciation month I have the great privilege now of reading the proclamation recognizing October as uh firefighter month fire service month in white be lake so without further Ado I will read that now whereas fire prevention month is recognized each year in October to raise fire safety awareness to educate families students and communities across the United States whereas we remember past firefighters who have lost their lives while serving their communities to Express gratitude to those who have served in this line of work and to show support and appreciation for those who are presently serving whereas regardless of the language a firefighter speaks or the country in which he or she works or resides all firefighters fight against the same enemy fire whereas firefighters follow a long line of tradition and honor that inspires them to help colleagues neighbors and strangers alike whereas at a moment's notice firefighters are quick to respond to uncertain situations to mitigate danger and combat the threat of destructive fire in order to protect individuals families and economic well-being of our community whereas the demands of firefighting are accompanied by both personal and physical tolls that all firefighters knowingly accept while risking their lives to protect the lives of others now therefore be it resolved that I Dan lewism mayor of the city of Whitebear Lake Minnesota do hereby Proclaim October 2024 as firefighter appreciation month and encourage all of our citizens to show support and appreciation to our firefighters who protect our lives and property so diligently throughout the year and by remembering past firefighters who have dedicated their lives to preserve our safety and I will sign that now and I will just add my thanks to the all the firefighters in our our whole firefighter department but particularly those that are here today we thank you for all that you do to protect our community we know it's a dangerous job and often times a thankless job but I am proud that our community is pretty darn good at recognizing all the good work that you do so with that I know the council will join me in standing and giving you a round of applause for all your service thank you all right very good and with that Chief Peterson I believe you have an update for us on the fire department so please I do thank you mayor Lewis Menon members of the council I've got a a brief update here for everybody to kind of let you know what we've been up over this last year so as a reminder to everybody uh that might be here or listening not aware we cover the city of White Bear Lake Whitebear Township Delwood Birchwood and Gem Lake it's about 35 square miles it's a pretty large area and a lot of people aren't aware of that it's a beautiful area we really enjoy serving here and between both the citizens the people that travel here visit here and work here serve over for 40,000 people so there's quite a quite a responsibility that we take on um each year one of the things that happened if you remember last year we received this award from the Minnesota emsrb so we have to meet nine different criteria by which they have to we have to exceed highly in each of those criteria in order to re receive this Award of Excellence and so this is two years in a row now that we've received this award uh we provide very very good medical care to the people that we we encounter and treat and even recently we've had number of significant medical events and the crews have done an outstanding job um of of taking care of people there's three uh Cardiac Arrest saves just in the last couple weeks and also we delivered a baby so uh it's been kind of a crazy couple weeks lately but uh they continue to do great work one of the things that I introduced early this year was that we're going to be div purchasing ultrasound devices um and this is what that device looks like um and we use iPads instead of phones but we use this device to look at how people's hearts are Contracting and so we have a number of our paramedics that are trained on this device now so before we could put them on a EKG Monitor and you know see certain heart rates and rhythms and so on and we could kind of tell what was going on but you didn't really know how well the heart was perusing or Contracting until you can visually see what's going on so this is another tool that we can use and see the valves of the heart and the Heart itself and how it's working um and so it's a nice advantage and then that helps to guide the medical treatment that we use to um when we're dealing with cardiac type patients so also whether or not they have a pulse sometimes they have a rhythm on the monitor they can't really feel the pulse but it might be a pulse um or it might be so faint you can't feel it we can stick the probe onto their chest and be able to see whether or not their heart is actually beating or not so it's it's a pretty useful tool we've had a little bit of change uh for the last year so this was uh in May of last year and you know we took down the old building that was uh built in ' 61 occupied in ' 62 and we took it all down and relocated everybody and I still get questions about this like where did you put everybody um and so just as a refresher if people are out there it's still curious so we we kind of crammed a bunch of people and stuff into Station 2 um and then we had a crew at Public Works and I'm very thankful of the public works for allowing us to be there and being good hosts um and it worked out pretty well we had some of our apparatus there we had some of our apparatus at the old Public Works and like I said we had a whole bunch of stuff down on Station 2 and so went through a lot of that in the meantime we have this wonderful new facility that was built for us uh which was a great addition for us um and we really appreciate how it turned out um it is now far more efficient and safe for all of us to work out of uh and we're pretty excited to be there still kind of literally letting the the dust settle um but we're getting there and as we go through the weeks and the months we'll continue to kind of make it a little bit nicer and a little more homey if you will for all of us but we definitely have a great base and we appreciate the new facility so thank you we also got a new fireboat we had uh This Crew uh take it out one day um and it's the council members you don't if you can't see that so in the mayor um and so and Lindy it was a lot of fun um it's a great addition to what we had before uh we had before basically we worked off of our work barge uh that Public Works has um and that really didn't fit our needs and so this new boat is very very welld designed very thoughtfully designed um we keep it in the marina um so it's ready to go on white be Lake most of our water emergencies in this city are on the city of on on white burlake so it also a new addition you can see the picture on the right we're using the fire pump to spray water the previous boat that we had even before the work barge was not capable of doing that um and since my time here as Chief we've already had one uh boat that caught fire in the marina um and that while that isn't a lot it's kind of one of those classic cases where if you didn't have the capabilities of doing it and then you need it and you can't uh then people ask you well why didn't you you know why weren't you prepared for that cuz that's what the kind of the business we're in so we can use it both in the marina or boats that are out on the water in Cas they in case they catch fire and then we can also use it both on the the island in the peninsula as another water source if we need to obviously during U Open Water season so a lot of functionality to it we have a lot of um Advanced sonar um devices on it so it can use it to look for things that are under the surface of the water and it's something that a rescue swimmers use um when whenever they can he got a rescue basket on the back of it so we're very um happy with it and it's worked out well I'll talk about a little bit more about the rescue sumers later another thing that we went through this year was We got a new fire marshal um and so unfortunately when we lost our previous Fire Marshall it was a bit of a a gap it was challenging um you really uh the mayor talked about sometimes a thankless job you know going out and doing inspections is a big deal and the businesses rely on us to do that um and we have to make sure regulations are followed but that is a very specific skill set for people to have um in in having somebody in that position is a big deal and I understood that it became very real when I had to lead that uh after the fire marshall left uh and so while I have some experience and knowledge in that I did not have I do not have the this the same level of which we lost so we hired a company called inspectron to kind of help fill the gaps I worked with other Fire Marshals and Fire Chiefs in the area to help do so that we continued you know the inspection process it didn't come to a screeching halt but it was uh it was challenging for a while so our new Fire Marshal's name is Josh waylander you met him earlier this year um he has been working hard to get caught up on things um and is doing a great job uh one of the things though that a fire marshall has to do is get um delegations both both through the State Fire Marshall's office and the Department of Labor and Industry to do certain typ of inspections um and he's been able to accomplish all of that already in the last few months uh and get checked off on everything so we can have him um you know in that position able to do what we need him to do and less Reliance on an outside company to perform those inspections so that's worked out really well we also um with that decided we needed to have more inspectors so that it wasn't so much pressure on one person and so earlier this year I had assistant chief Schmidt and then the captains the full-time captains go through basic inspector course so for some of those followup or you know easier type of inspections we have a better bench strength in order to be able to help out with inspections so that was another thing that we changed and is working out well we hired some new full-time staff since I was last year uh Ella Devine and anaise Casa are our two new full-time firefighter paramedics anaisa is working today but she and her partner out on a call right now so um they uh both of them have worked out great and we hired a part-time firefighter paramedic by just recently by the name of Ryan bradrick and a firefighter EMT by the name of Jack Cole so those are the the so we had two full-time addition people and then two more um part-time employees that we've added since that was last year so excited to have all of them as part of our team so getting back to the rescue swimmers I brought this up a little bit earlier so the picture on the left uh if you can see kind of in the background there is a car um with the roof of the car sticking through the water and some car seats on top so somebody um had launched their vehicle into um Goose Lake and somebody walking by saw that called it in um and the car seats weren't on top of the car when we got called so uh our rescue swiers you can see they're the ones in the red um are part of that crew working with the ram the county water Patrol what they're doing there is a line search but even before they had done this line search they went out to the car um firefighter paramedic hindes asift sorry I thought I saw R um was part of that crew he went out to that car um and it was able to break out the windows and search the inside of the car very quickly and pulled the car seats out luckily didn't find anybody in the car but without having that type of training and the right suits and so on they wouldn't be able to do that in a hurry so um the picture on the right was actually the first time which happened already this Summer that we used the boat to provide a water rescue so they were out training on the lake in the boat so it was a good timing uh for this patient um and what had happened was a young man had a rope wrapped around his arm which got sucked into the intake of a jetski and then he was pinned underwater uh and couldn't get himself free because how hard the was squeezing his arm so fortunately for him he was able to kind of and it wasn't a very windy day so there weren't big waves um he was able to kind of barely get his mouth out of the water and breathe um but otherwise he was trapped he could not get out from underneath the ATV or I'm sorry from from the The Wave Runner um and so our crew you can see the crew that was the crew that did the rescue they were out on the boat when this happened um we able to race across the lake very quickly then everybody there was how fast they got there um you know sometimes you're lucky um and so they got there very quickly um and we able to get you know put on the snorkel and the fins get underneath it take a knife and cut the rope and able to free him um and so we added three more rescue swimmers this year um to the staff that we already had um and so that program we continue to develop um and it's already paid itself off and been used multiple times since we put it into into um play a couple years ago now as far as other training we've been up to uh we did early this spring we did some water relay training and we invited our neighbors um you can see that is monina one of mon amina's tenders there um we had different departments join us uh to help move water in a rural setting if you will where we don't have hydrants and move it from you know one vehicle to another vehicle to different pools and then we were supplying our uh ladder truck with it so it's a big with a lot of different people different agencies the picture on the right we are able to get our hands on a semi uh which we don't get to drill on very often um and so we're able to do that again working with Public Works help we took the car there a couple of cars that actually you can't see the other one from this angle of the picture but flip the semi up onto its side and then practice okay if somebody's stuck in that vehicle how do we get them out and how do we stabilize the semi and how do we all do all these different things talking about the structure of the vehicles and how to remove a patient from the semi from the cars and so on so it's a good drill um for everybody to be part of some community outreach stuff that's new uh so some of you have been around long enough to remember that we used to have a Citizens fire academy that took place um and we haven't done that in some time but we plan to to start that again so we're going to do that in the spring um and get that started again uh so we're pretty excited about that kind of like the the citizens Police Academy um it'll be similar I didn't want to run them at the same time so I know the police academy is going on right now in case people are interested in doing both so we'll do that in the spring another thing that initiative that we're working on is working with a company by the name of trellis um and they have they focus they have a large grant that they received and they are focused on Elderly Care needs so patients 55 and older um what what services might they need and so we get some patients occasionally where there what we refer to Is frequent flyers so we go to the same address over and over and it might be similar issues that they're dealing with you know we can provide certain levels of care and transport and help them out but maybe we identify that okay maybe they can they need some little more help so all the things that are listed here from you know needs assessment to different resources that they have and different referrals for uh aging and fall prevention and then setting up service is in completing forms which can be daunting um so all of that so we'll be working with them um it is a they op in type of service and so we will go to their home if we if it's a frequent flyer we recognize that this might be a useful resource for them we'll say is it okay if somebody from there contacts you um and then they'll they'll give us permission and then we'll send the information to Trellis and then they'll have somebody contact them um and so it's a another option another venue for people to use so it is fire prevention week coming up here in a couple weeks um this year's theme is smoke alarms make uh make them work for you so cooking fires continue to be the leading cause of of uh fires and in in deaths within the the country followed by heating or careless smoking those top are pretty much consistently the top three already so just a reminder to everybody to make sure that they work we harp this all the time but we've been to many fires where you have a smoke detector yeah would they're not the batteries are dead or they took them down because they were annoying or or whatever the case is so um including fatalities that that we've run into o over the years so just a reminder to everybody and then with that we have our open house coming up uh it's on Tuesday October 8th um from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at our South fire station so we're trying to remind everybody of at our South Fire Station you say well why would you do it at the brand new facility cuz it's a beautiful facility it is but the site is so limited because of of how we operate that we couldn't set everything up at this site um and so we want to continue where whereas you know station 2's got a lot more open parking lot and we're not competing with with anybody else as far as space needs go so um we'll continue to host it down there uh it's a lot of fun get to do a lot of different things including a live fire demonstration extrication spraying of bar bounce house all kinds of fun so just want to remind everybody of that so that's what I have for tonight any questions thank you for the report Chief council do we have any questions or comments council member Edward Chief um just curious on an update we you give us a lot of good numbers how are we doing on um numbers of uh uh Health Care calls uh are we still pushing toward 5,000 are we over what's the trend line there and then the second question in back of that I don't think we've asked this before um maybe I'm just more present to the information because I receive it more frequently how are we doing in terms of the numbers of actual fires any fire fatalities Etc where does our community sit uh in regards to those kinds of metrics sure uh counc edber the so to your first question our run volume is a little bit under 5,000 this year um I always I don't like to predict it before the end of the year but it's a little bit under that this year I would say a few hundred under that um in regards to your other question about fatalities and so on fortunately the only fatality we've had recently was last May um and so in general this the state though in general is running higher than average in terms of of death and and that a lot of that is attributed to um careless smoking um and people not you know paying attention to what's going on which is very unfortunate it it's hard to and it the the the U the commonality and all of that is elderly people that are smoking is a lot of what the fire deaths are um as far as a state view goes thank you Council any other questions council member Walsh uh thank you Mr Mr Mayor uh maybe I wasn't listening and maybe you didn't say it but the the trellis um service are we paying for that is there a fee there so we're not paying for that so how do they how do they make money are they funded are they so the the the way they explained it to us was they got a large Grant to allow them to do this program obviously I would you know if they get people into their system and into their program I would imagine that at some point there might there might be billing I I don't know know a whole lot of details of that you know as far as what that threshold is uh but we at least it's a way to provide better services and a connection with them yeah I I like I like it anything else all right thank you Chief thank you mayor if I could just add um my appreciation for the fire department and for chief the level of professionalism and expertise that you provide not only to the community but to all of our neighboring cities and those that you serve is is very impressive so thank you very much for all that you guys do very good all right we'll move on to item 5B legislative update from Senator gusterson Senator whenever you're ready step up to the podium thank you for being here thank you for having me um my presentation be much shorter um I think that uh there isn't as much to maybe present on as uh p s it was a policy year and so a lot of the work that we did was um just either whether it move policy or stopping policy but um we hope to work on a bonding Bill if um if we can do that this next session since we didn't weren't able to complete one um but just a few updates on some of the things that are happening locally here in the community from our last budget year um White Bear Lake Schools is now in their a $9.1 million increase from what we passed in the bayum um in 2023 and um so we'll be seeing that as well um I was able to tour I think I've toured it several times so I didn't uh catch the last one but the tour of the new high school which is beautiful um and really well done so it was really nice to see that in place um I was able to tour almost every single White Bear Lake School on the first day of school um and got to talk to some parents and teachers and administrative um and and it was great it was really nice to hear from them and everybody was feeling really good and energetic and we'll see how long that that carries out before everybody's burned out but uh that's the teacher and me talking a little bit um going forward uh this next session um it will be a budget year um I plan to author another $300 million Public Safety bill that was a one-time funding it was the first time in Minnesota State history that we had ever done that um I'd like to bring that back the goal someday would be to make sure that that's ongoing as it is now it's something that to be introduced every budget year so I will be um bringing that forward again um I say that with the caveat of we don't know what the forecast looks like yet we're not sure what the budget will look like yet so my goal would be the other another 300 um but we'll get you as much as we can um uh other things I'm working on that would be relevant to the city um lowering the cost of before and after school care um that continues to be the average family in White Bear well the average family in Minnesota pays about $25,000 a year in child care we'd like to do what we can to try to lower those costs um again pending budget um also uh preventing fraud and identity theft in small business I had a business owner who came to me from vness um and I'm not sure who here is a business owner but this will make you very wary I former business owner and it scared me too but um what happens is when you get your um ID issue through the state if you need to change anything including the owner of the company um you just call in and uh you make that request and it's pretty easy to do so um a man a man who owns a trucking company in vanness Heights had that happen to him where somebody who wasn't him um contacted the state and they um were not him and they were able to take his name and access his bank account and purchase a bunch of semi trucks and equipment in Florida so um as you can imagine that was very scary and so we're going to be working on some of that to make sure that we can protect some of our small business owners um Equalization and education funding continues to be something I'll Champion I think that that will be a long-term goal um it is a bipartisan issue so I know that I do have folks on both sides of the aisle who are with me on that unfortunately most of them are um in the suburbs and so there's only so many of us um that we can keep championing that and advocating for it but it you know we'll keep working uh but that does I think makes it relevant for um a lot of increases that you will see with uh school funding and then that bleeds into any other levies um that the city does and so we the the goal is to try to keep things as uh property taxes as low as possible for our residents um and then um staying Vigilant on housing bills uh last session we saw a house some housing bills that were going forward um I did not support those in fact I sit on local state gov and while I take no pride in being a a person who kills a piece of legislation um it was something that all nine of my cities did not like and so that's my job is to represent my nine cities um and uh so we were not I was not able to vote Yes on that when it came to local state government and veterans committee um I continue to be a no vote on that until I see some changes um I am working with the league of Minnesota cities this summer to try to or fall I guess it is now but to try and work on some housing plans that we can do that would be a little bit more um in line I think with what you all um carefully put together in your comprehensive plans and your planning commissions and I truly believe it's a local control issue so I I you know unless there were major changes which I don't see coming um I really don't believe in Statewide uh regulations on housing or zoning so um so we'll just be vigilant of that um I want to compliment your city manager who is one of the best that I deal with every day don't tell the other cities but um she continues to be organized um she comes in with um making an excellent case that also um gives voice to the other cities not just in my district but across Minnesota as well so compliments because um you know just it's I rely on that communication and again you you know um you don't want to I don't like to when I'm in the interm I spend a great amount of time in the community but when you do go into session you do find yourself kind of locked in and Committee hearing Ing and on the floor and I don't always know what's going on so I really do appreciate whenever anybody reaches out um and I I hope you continue to do so um it really it is helpful good things and bad I you know of course I um hearing the problems is my job but I um also encourage you to share with me any good news that happens to because I know a lot of good things happen here as well and I would love to celebrate those two on the floor so let me know um and I believe that's just an overview of course this probably won't all be all the bills that I carry but this is what I'm kind of focusing on right now um and again always always happy to meet with any of you um if you have questions and if you have questions now I'm here too very good uh thank you senator for being here and giving us the report uh council do we have any questions for Senator gusterson all right really nothing you got off easy tonight yeah I guess thank you again for chiefers we appreciate you taking the time yeah thank you appreciate it mayor if I may Senator gipson thank you for being responsive um to wiper lak's needs not only to housing but um you know a couple sessions ago regarding cannabis as well as our license bureau um and I know we owe you some information about our license bureau um but really appreciate your responsiveness and um I know that I can say that I think on behalf of the C of of the council and as well as our department heads so thank you all right item 6A Birch Lake improvement district service charge certification Miss Kinser when you're ready good evening Mr Mayor members of the council today is our annual public hearing we have for the Birch Lake improvement district um just as a recap from what you've heard on previous years Birch Lake Property Owners created a petition in 2006 to form the Birch Lake Improvement District the district's purpose is to develop finance and Implement activities to improve and protect the quality of Birch Lake the district holds an annual meeting each August this year their meeting was on August 21st to approve their next year's budget so on that evening they approved their 2025 budget um to support their budget the district is asking the city council to approve a special service charge that is handled like a special assessment in the um this Levy is in the amount of $ 23, 355 this will be for certification in 2024 and collected in 2025 the annual service charge per property is $376 70 the city mailed out a public notice of the proposed annual service charge to the affected Property Owners to notify them of this public hearing tonight and those property owners were all um properties that have access to Birch Lake that was mailed out on August 27th 2024 in addition the city published this the public notice for this public hearing tonight in the white bear press on September 11th 2024 so tonight the city is hosting a public hearing on this proposed service charge Levy so any prop owners who have any questions can speak to the council um staff recommends that the city council approve the resolution certifying the service charge once the public hearing is complete um Birch Lake Improvement District Board member Mr VGA is with us this evening to answer any questions the city council or any of the public or property owners have regarding this Improvement very good thank you Miss kiner at this time I will open up the public public hearing for anyone that would like to speak to this issue I do have a name on my list it can happen during the the public hearing if Mr vag if you have anything to say or if others want to speak to this issue all right seeing none I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the council uh Council we have a resolution before us what would we like to do Mo appr second motion to Second any further discussion on this seeing none all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries the resolution is approved okay if you have some words to share Mr Vega please now is your time thank you very much for having me uh today um as many of you know Otter Lake Road has experien a a Improvement uh of the the paved from 90s uh Highway 96 to 4th Street and many of the residents are extremely happy with the work that's being done and um since I've joined the the the district in 2019 I've seen an increased um member participation in our annual meetings and during that meeting a lot of the discussion even though it's not related primarily to the lake was related to the the street um and uh we have drafted a resolution uh with the approval of all the members that I'd like to read to you today uh whereas Burch Lake Improvement District um is committed to preserving the safety quality of life and environmental Integrity of Birch Lake area for all residents visitors and future generation generations and whereas Otter Lake Road is currently designated as a County Road and is expected uh and is experiencing a significant increase in semi- TR traffic which has raised concerns among residents regarding noise safety air quality and potential environmental impacts to Birch Lake and its surrounding areas and whereas as that the increased heavy traffic on Otter Lake Road poses a risk to the safety of pedestrians cyclists and other motorists as well as contributing to the deterioration of the road infrastructure and whereas the district believes that the local control of utter Lake Road would allow for more effective management of traffic patterns enforcement of weight restrictions and implementation of traffic calming measures that are consistent with the community's goals and priorities and whereas the city of Bear Lake has a the resources and their jurisdictional capacity to Take Back Control of Otter Lake Road between Highway 96 to 9th Street uh from the county which would enable the city to address these traffic concerns in a matter that aligns with a community's vision for a safer safer and quieter neighborhood now therefore be ITB resolved that Birch Lake improvement district formerly requ uh requests that the city of Whitebear Lake pursue the transfer jurisdiction over the over OT Lake Road from the county to the city and be further resolved that the Birch Lake improvement district urges the city of Whitebear Lake to prioritize the issue and to work closely with the county officials to facilitate the smooth and timely transition with the goal of implementing traffic measures that will that will reduce semi- trck traffic and enhance the safety and livability of Birch Lake Area thank you very much appreciate you being here thank you I will clarify for for the record that that is going to happen and has been in the work for works for years quite frankly we wanted the county to fix a very expensive road before we take control so we'll take the shiny new road back very soon thank you thank you very much all right item seven unfinished business we have nothing scheduled item uh I'm sorry uh I skipped over item 6B an important one first reading of an ordinance amending the municipal code to adopt a new chapter regarding alcoholic beverages Mr Crawford whenever you're ready we can keep going if You' like no I'm just kidding like that please jump in um so chapter 101 and 10002 are the city's uh ordinances for Rel regulating the sale of alcohol um as we said uh at a at the August 27th meeting currently those ordinances are not very descriptive as some comparable cities and certain Provisions actually do not align with Minnesota state statutes uh chapter 340a so therefore uh the city council staff and the City attorney have um discussed amending the liquor ordinance at work sessions in March of 23 February 24 and July 24 excuse me this item was brought to the August 27th uh council meeting as it relates to just a um the conclusion of sales so not an ordinance this is your first reading tonight but um you had requested to hear from business owners regarding the sales um um potentially ending at 1:00 a.m. instead of 2: a.m. um based on feedback um the ordinance in your packet includes descriptive definitions and requirements of various types of licenses including mandatory accompanying licenses allowable combinations of licenses and references to uh State statutes it's more uh detailed in the application process the fees needed to align with the eligibility criteria of on sale licenses and there is no uh proposed change to the sale of um to the hours of operation so um the 1: a.m. provision um was not included in this version that is before you tonight um and that was based on feedback uh that you had received and that you had given um to me so the proposed ordinance uh includes a penalty schedule for violations which outlines fees suspension length and period between offenses um to create consistency um so uh to be used you know Council you can use that as a tool um should you need to hopefully you don't ever need to but um right now the ordinance that we have in the ordinances that we have in place just aren't very descriptive um in many of these areas so rather than bringing you a Redline version of the existing ordinances um it simply was was easier to override um the existing ordinances and put them into one and bring you a new uh clean version we did I should say the city clerk um worked extensively on this over the past year um I'm very proud of the ordinance that is uh before you and I know that she wishes she could be here to you know to present it to you um but she um she is home now for a little while so um congratulations to her PS and and um so I don't intend on going through this um line by line there is something that the City attorney and I did notice that we do need to amend um be before you adopt this at your second reading and that is on page 20 of 24 under the enforcement and penalties section so you'll see timing of violation for the first violation that says 24 months whereas all of the other sections the second third and fourth violations say 18 months so that should be consistent and it should read um 18 should the council wish to do that um set that at 18 I believe right now it is set at 12 um so 18 um is is stricter um than what we what we currently have we I am also aware that there are a couple of spots in the ordinance that say you you know date to be inserted that's intentional um to be left uh blank until adoption um so but you know with that the City attorney and I can expand on this it's really um this is our tool this is the city clerk's tool and my tool and quite frankly the police department's tool as well as yours um regarding liquor and how uh how we administer license and and enforce um liquor laws in white Fair Lake which are very nuanced at the state level and and bringing it down here um we felt the city clerk and I um felt that this needed to be um kind of overhauled so that's what we've been working hard on and and have for you tonight for first reading as well as public hearing thank you thank you m Crawford um at this time I will open it up for a public hearing I don't have any names on my list but if anyone would like to speak to this issue now is your opportunity seeing none I will close the public hearing bring it back to the council um so there's no action item we've we've we've accomplished our first read I will just compliment our city clerk miss long and DJ along with Miss Crawford and the rest of the city staff this was a long project and I think pretty laborious but one that was necessary I kind of I file it under a great big housekeeping item because we were um a lot of whack with state law it was in much need of an update um so I'm satisfied with it is as written um with a couple of Corrections that Miss Crawford pointed out and I don't have anything further to say if anyone would like like to speak to this now or Reserve comment till the second reading it's up to you all right very good let's move on to item seven unfinished business nothing scheduled item 8A resolution authorizing agreement for audit Services Miss kins vder Mr Mayor members of the council it is time for us to review our audit Services as we prepare for the upcoming year end the city Charter and state statute requires the city council to appoint an auditor to provide an annual audit review of the city's Financial records the best practice guide from the government Finance Officers Association recommends multi-year agreements of at least 5 years to maintain greater continuity and minimize potential disrup disruptions from constant changes in Auditors the city last did an RFP process in 2021 um when preparing the RFP this best practice was put into place so that the auditing Services um the RFP was for auditing services for years ending December 2021 through 2023 with the option to renew the contract for the three subsequent years of 2024 through 2026 in 2021 the city council authorized an audit service agreement with ABDO with the option to renew for three subsequent years due to the prior authorization of the option to renew the contract at that time the staff this year um requested contract audit Service pricing from ABDO for the years ending 2024 through 2026 the threeyear proposal cost received from ABDO includes um the annual audit cost the required management Communications the reports the presentations and then the general Consulting throughout the year um with anything that would relate to the audit or any Financial issues The Proposal before you from ABDO um is a total of 24,500 uh that breaks down to 38,500 for 2024 41,500 for 2025 and 44,500 for 2026 in reviewing where the city has been in 2023 and 2024 budgets the budget allocation for audit Services was 42,4 so that took care of the audit services and then any gby implementations and through this time we had a single audit because um single audits are required if we re receive federal funds of more than 750,000 I take it's not if we receive it if we resp spend that within a year so when we've got the arpa funds how we spent that each year would um dictate whether we needed to have a single audit so in 2022 we did have a single audit um the 20125 budget holds the budget amount at 42,4 this estimate was used um prepare when we prepared for that because the budget was prepared before we got the request um for cost back from ABDO so that would include your auditing services and the implementation of any government Accounting Standards Board standards and increases in the auditing Services related to a new contract so as we look at we've talked about what their proposal was what our budget was for comparison purposes when considering the proposed fees the actual cost paid for auditing during the last 3 years which was 21 through 23 um was a total of 104,7 78 um for details on that in 2021 the cost was 31,000 in 2022 the cost was 39,2 64 that was the year where we had the single audit and there we implemented one of the new gasby standards was for lease accounting um that was a large project to take on in 2023 we estimated that we were going to be having a single audit but in the end based on how the monies were spent we moved some of the Monies to 2024 so we didn't have to have a single audit so that cost was $34,500 the option to renew the auditing Services contract in 2021 however um council member Walsh did have a question about auditing services and how it related to the office of the state auditor so to um get an answer to council member Walsh's questions I did reach out to learn more about their services so the office of the state auditor primarily audits counties it audits the three first class cities of Minneapolis St Paul and duth and then they audit um government agencies that are related to those cities and then there are some other um Regional organizations or entities that are required by Statute to be audited um I asked if the office of the state auditor did audit cities and the response I received that is the state auditor made audit smaller cities but those um services are typically um entered into an agreement because either there's a petition from voters who are questioning the um Financial activities of the city and so they offer a petition to have the state auditor audit them or um there are some smaller uh cities that do request to have a small portion or some of their audit done um these petitions from the voters or requested audits from councils are relatively rare which average about one a year these audits [Music] um though those audits that's what they um that they can do it they are available to do it but they as I mentioned they were rare So Minnesota stat statutes generally requires that the office of the state auditor charge a fee to cover the cost of their services provided so when the office of the state auditor is going to do work they sit down and work with the council that is requesting the audit they figure out the um what the kind of an overview of what the project is and then they determine their cost staff did not seek an audit Services price from the office of the state auditor I had just gotten the information on what they do so given this information staff recommends the city of council adopt the attached resolution authorizing the mayor and the city manager to enter into an agreement for audit services with ABDO for the three-year period 2024 through 2026 for auditing services and I can take any questions thank you Miss kins counc any questions council member edberg thank you mayor Miss kins um well first of all to council members I'm the council member that asked that it be pulled from the agenda I did that because the excuse me pulled from the consent agenda I did that because this is one of the only forms of an external monitoring report that we have access to that uh is an external party speaking directly to us about the performance our financial performance and it struck me that that is not um because it is in my mind so important we should act on that specifically we should not schump our way into it with an administrative recommendation that is UN undiscussed by the council so that's why we are having this discussion it's because of me and others want to join me in the future on that conversation have at it um I'm not going to oppose the resolution I I've been um I would welcome what do our councils look for in audits what what are the things that we feel we need in order to have a proper investigation a proper review and the proper statement of our financials and it's like I don't recall hearing that in the past that we've had much of that discussion so that would be something for us to think about maybe when we get next year's audit would be give us time to think about it we don't need to have that tonight uh Miss kinwat I do want to have a qu I did have a question about the proposed audit fees so if I'm understanding correctly and I'm going to distinguish what we budget for All expenditures versus what the bid is or what the um estimated cost that ABDO is charging for the audit Services specifically not the additional stuff my understanding but I could be wrong is that we have a basic fee for service and then there's additional services that are provided throughout the year and so our budget includes more than just the audit service itself am I correct in that or am I mistaken the uh Mr mayor council member edberg so the the budget that um how should I say first the amount from ABDO includes all of the services for the year the add-on would be if there is a single audit that is needed for the year so given the years where we've had those um expenses where we've gotten the arpa funds and there was a chance that we'd have that single audit we included that amount um I used that same amount going forward in the 2025 budget to be conservative um I wasn't sure where their costs would be I know that um Auditors as in every you know like the city government and us finding employees Auditors are also having trouble finding employees so I wasn't sure what their increase was um so to be conservative I held the number the same going forward but the cost that they gave us would be the cost for all of the services except for if we needed a single audit and at this point um I don't believe we'd be needing a single audit and I'm totally fine we we can't predict exactly when our uh Federal dollar are going to trigger the audit I U so I'm I'm totally fine with that we don't we we'll deal with that as it comes if I heard your your numbers correctly the amount that ABDO charged us for this current year or the the last year of their current agreement was 345 is that am I did I hear that correctly because their first year of their next one is 385 and that's over a 10% increase so I'm just trying to get my head around the what's the trajectory of their increases certainly that is a that is in excess of of inflation years two and three are are a lower percentage rate um but do we have any insight uh on first of all are those is that assertion correct that 10 plus perc Mr mayor council member edberg um yes in the cap in the calculation I came up with that is the increase that was in there um the [Music] for I apologize I don't have what their quote was I have what we actually paid them for um so looking at that is at 34,000 so with that I'm thinking there are that that increase would include all of their costs plus they have the gby standards those are that implementation so that takes extra I know there's another um standard that's coming out that we need to implement and then with the Staffing so that would be my understanding of why that increas is there but I could check for if you wanted further no I'm satisfied for now I guess my my take-home is if we I think we should approve the recommendation I also think we should uh plan on doing a now none of us may be here at that point in time uh three years now when we have the next when this current uh resolution is not in effect I think we should go out for bids uh the next time around and not uh rely on simply extending a a current agreement uh to just keep everybody honest with that mayor do you want a motion I would entertain a motion to approve approval of the resolution I have a motion of second any further discussion on this council member wall uh thank you Mr Mayor just a couple things just to answer your question council member edberg I thought I thought when the Auditors were here we had a pretty robust discussion about the audit so he asked about like what kind of things we looking for me I thought it was a pretty good discussion and my big question which was answered very well was just is it truly an independent look I mean do they do they just take F from City from us and just check it out or do they really are they going to the bank you know we I got really satisfactory answer that it really is an outside uh independent look which makes me feel feel good so I I don't know that's that was big for me um and I just want to say appreciate the research on the state auditor that was really really interesting um and I it's just weird because it was a maybe it's just my legislative memory but the a state auditor used to audit a lot of cities and then that that changed over time I there was some politics involved and that the the office was diminished in power U but it's interesting to know they can still do it if they want to but nobody's nobody's using them so that's interesting and I also agree uh to go out again after this three-year period uh I think I've said this before my dad's a CPA and he would always say you know you want to switch Auditors you know on a cycle you know just it's good practice you know it's a big enough firm that we probably don't have to worry I mean like you I think you had the memo that we're getting different people I think it' be very difficult uh but if but uh still I think good practice so we should take a look at this in three years thank you all right I have a motion to a second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I any oppose motion carries the resolution is approved for the record schlump means to move in a lazy way I had to Google that great use of the word SCH word of the day well done well done expanding vocabulary is one of my contributions to the world it can also mean a slovenly person but in that context I think it's the latter definition that or the former definition so all right did you call me you're the one that directed it towards you I don't know what frent thing is going on there but we'll move on to uh where are we here uh item no no not quite yet uh item 9A the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources outdoor recreation Grant update of Lakewood Hills Park and trail Mr Copy there we go uh mayor members of the council uh staff wanted to just bring a quick update uh regarding the uh DNR grant that Council authorized staff to apply for back in April um as we were going through the uh budget here in the ne in the last couple weeks uh realized that uh we had um um not provided probably the detail we should have back in April um staff was still um just starting to uh hit the grant deadline so uh some of the details were uh missed in that memo uh so we just wanted to bring it back to council before we are um before the final agreement is brought to council for approval here hopefully in the next couple of months um so we where we are at staff applied for the grant um based on uh a budgeted item that uh we had our Council approved for Lakewood Hills trail Paving uh so we had $225,000 uh budgeted for Paving approximately half of the trails within the Lakewood Hills Park um just to kind of um help move some of the money around between our different Parks different sides of the Town um so we uh uh picked out about half of them to stay within the uh budget that we have to work for uh well still doing other maintenance in our Parks um that said staff applied for the grant using that total amount asking for a matching Grant of that same amount so that would bring the total project up to 4 48,000 $280 so that being said uh that number was not uh changed within the uh uh current budget documents that council's been reviewing um so staff just wanted to bring it back to council right now it's the uh Grant is going through final review by uh the Department of Natural Resources and any of their grants have to go through a ship overview or state historic preservation office review uh before they can submit the grant so they do a review the property in the park to make sure that there's no um Hoops that we need to jump through regarding historic preservation so that's where we're at we're that's a 60 90day review process so we're where we're at uh this season we're anticipating um still a uh a final Grant agreement that we would bring before Council um yet this year and we're we would have to do a 2025 project so that's where we're at um but staff wanted to confirm with Council that they are uh comfortable um and I'm going to flip to a map here so the uh red is the boundary of Lakewood Hills Park the yellow lines are all of the unpaved trails within uh the park and uh we've been moving things around um doing Paving in different Parks we've done some in West Park we've done some in Hidden Hollow park recently uh we're moving to do some additional here in Lakewood Hills Park to provide accessibility to Residents who uh and and visitors who otherwise wouldn't be able to get through our Parks so it's an important uh component that we identified in our comp plan um to uh provide that access um so the original $225,000 would have allowed us to pave approximately half of the trails within Lakewood Hills um accepting the Grant in its entirety U moving that project to that 200 or 448,000 um number would allow us to PVE all of those yellow Trails uh shown on the map here so um staff just wanted to uh touch base with Council before we were to bring a final agreement here in the next couple of months as soon as the uh reviews are done and the DNR processes it uh so the really the options are is uh continue uh option one would be to accept the entire or the Grant and its entirety and do all of the trails within Lakewood Hills Park at that cost of 448,000 um if staff or if IL uh direct staff we could accept a lesser amount of that Grant keeping at that budgeted amount that was in the budget at that 224,000 or we could obviously reject the Grant and and rep propose it but that poses some risk to Future uh um uh um applications uh the the DNR could say you know we're uh you know we denied the previous Grant and and maybe not get awarded future Grant so uh based on our review and what we had budgeted for the project staff would recommend option one and and have councel uh when we bring it back except the the Grant in its entirety um and it would be that higher um project cost of 448,000 and that would allow us to pave all of those Trails within Lakewood Hills Park be happy to answer any questions um and uh turn it over to council thank you Mr Copy I want to make sure I have this straight in my head so we budgeted about 224,000 and Hope that we'd get a grant for about half of it and we accidentally applied for the full amount which would allow us to do the full project that we want to do anyways so now we're faced with a decision of should we just spend the money that we already budgeted for we were fine spending even if we didn't get it subsidized by the state and instead we can complete the whole project and be done with it that's option one that is correct okay I my suggestion would be we go with option one that's where I stand council member West um I agree um I also think we should um go with uh option one I think it's really important that we are trying keeping our focus on our Parks um you know I have had a resident who has reached out to me and had concerns about the upkeep and sort of the overall um up toess of our Parks um in the city and as somebody who recently moved here was um kind of concerned that we weren't doing as much as we possibly could about it um so I I appreciate um that we can um complete complete all of that in in one thank you anybody else has a have a comment on this or are you opposed to option one council member edberg I'm inclined to support option one Mr KY is there are the yellow lines all of the trails that are in liid kills is there a purpose of value in not Paving some um some portions of Trails um in part because it's slightly more natural do we need to pave everything I recognize that there's an accessibility trade-off but if we're making good faith efforts in making other parts how how do we how does the park staff and how do you think about that conversation U mayor members of the council as far as Lakewood Hills goes and the usage and the uh I'll call it sheer size and and whatnot um staff would recommend um Paving all of them um and it was reviewed and uh we do our Park tours uh with our Park commission um so before we move into any of these projects we take our parks commission through the park uh review our Capital Improvement plan walk the trails uh we have our meetings um at the parks that were proposing upcoming um uh so this would have been I think in 2023 we met at Lakewood Hills Park we're obviously doing uh we had gotten the Lions Club grant for the all abilities playground and uh just hearing feedback from the community um our Parks Commission also does um annual um Park inspections so they go out and they tour our Parks they talk to Patron and users of our Parks um and kind of all corners of this um you know if you look at uh the uh even some of the access routes through the uh kind of more natural areas they are leading out to because the park is so large it leads out to access points to the park um uh there might be a couple little areas that we wouldn't pave um at the same time we have other Parks throughout Town Rotary Park for example that is a more natural uh that we're not proposing the pay all of those Trails so each Park provides a little bit different um um amenities and experience for Park user so um based on our review based on uh Parks commission's review and and discussions with residents we would recommend Paving all that Shan if I could continue one more question sure so clearly we are also building a budget base for the the more stuff that we pave the more stuff that needs to be repaved X number of years down the road um and so we are adding to our expenditure base presumably there's value and the evidence that you just provided from our citizen comments and in the commission says yes um do we have a sense of what our how how do you think about those future obligations that that we are taking on and the expectations that we are that we're setting by uh by Paving these and other trails in their Parks uh mayor members of Council um yes you are 100% correct that it does add um an additional asset or additional additional piece of infrastructure that the city um must maintain must maintain um I'm going to go back to the you know obviously the feedback that we park submission has gotten uh in Outreach to community members throughout um you know Market Fest the park tours and it's a huge um um uh drive people continually use this it's an asset for the community and and again it's yes there is a cost um but the uh Community is very supportive of it um so hopefully you know bringing it in front of council that and and we presented it to council within cips and uh um welcome that feedback and and uh again our recommendation is that it's an acceptable uh amenity that we're adding to our parks and and we'll look at Future expenditures for maintenance anyone else have a thought we just looking for feedback right there's no there's no there's no action item it's just should we direct should we direct staff to bring us the resolution for the counting issue seems like a no- brander to me okay anyone else have a thought yeah sorry mayor I'd rather go with uh B um it's $200,000 and last time we were in here was in here complaining about the cost of all the things we were doing and I was looking for money and there it is um I'm just not convinced that everything needs to be paved um I think there's going to be plenty of accessibility with half of it done and we can look at doing that in the future and not this year okay it sounds like the consensus is option one to bring to us but we'll have to discuss it further when it actually comes to the council thank you all right item 10 communication from the city manager Miss Crawford thank you mayor members of the council just one note that the um Fallen winter newsletter um did hit mail hit mailboxes um Again full of really good information and I council member um edberg and council member West were were saying that just before um before we got started so again shout out to all of our staff and especially um city clerk long and Dyke um for really pulling this all together um it's again beautiful and full of good information so um that's all I have tonight thank you m Crawford before we adjourn I see high school students in the audience and it's been my tradition to address you folks now I will say a first happened at the beginning of the meeting that's never happened before um for those that may be watching it home the high school students need to get a piece of paper signed by someone at the dis after the meeting and this clever batch of high school students sought a signature before the meeting started clever uh to the teachers that may be watching I refused they did stay for the whole meeting and they will get their signatures they've earned their signatures thank you all for being here and staying through you don't have to admit to it I wasn't going to call it a names but but thank you yeah as punishment I need you to step up to the mic tell us your favorite branch of government and why no I'm kidding I'm just kidding you don't you don't have to do that you don't have you asked the wrong guy you should have asked me I would have signed him listen you got off easy this was an hour and 10minute meeting depending on how long I sit here and talk I might milk it a little bit no um I will hold the vote when I'm done talking uh no but thank you for being here uh I've said many times the council's tired of hearing me say this it was 21 years ago now that I sat where you were and attended a a city council meeting and it made a significant impression on me and I don't think in any small part that that that contributed to why perhaps I'm sitting up here today so I hope you got something out of this and even if you didn't I hope it it just being here Illustrated the importance of local government it's water police fire sewer our roads it's all the things that touch our daily lives um and sometimes what happens at the federal level or the state level you don't really understand what's going on that's not the case with local government so I hope it encourages you to participate in local government in some capacity throughout the duration of your lives and again thank you all for being here and sticking with it you you will get your signatures momentarily all right with that I will entertain a motion to adjourn do I have a second second all those in favor say I I we're adjourned