All right. So, welcome everyone. Uh, this is the, uh, regular city council meeting for Minatrista, April 6, 2026. Uh, first order, I'd like to everybody reminder, put your cell phones on airplane mode or silent. And then second, would you please join me for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> So again, welcome everyone here this evening as well as those watching on YouTube later on. I'm going to start with some introductions. I'm Lisa Whan. I am the mayor and to my left are council members. They need to get their names straight. So, council members, we have CL, we have Kathleen Revkin, Claudia Lacy, and Brian Govern. And then on the end over here, um, we have staff members Gary Peters, who is our public works director. And then we have Paula Bowman, who is our assistant administrator. To my right, we have Jasper Krugal, our city administrator. Brian Grim is our finance director, David Ael, community development director, and then we have our chief of police, Craig Squires. With that, um, and then I think do we have anybody uh remote this evening? >> Uh, just uh city clerk Ann Meeroff and our city attorney. >> All right. So, welcome and welcome Sarah Sansalo with um who is our city attorney. And Ann Meerhoff is taking notes. She is our city clerk. With that, um is there a motion? Are there any changes to our agenda hearing? None. And is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Miss Revkin. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Lacy. Any further questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify with I. I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. We don't have any special presentations this evening. We do have one individual here this evening that would like to address the council. Um, Mr. Tyson, if you could come to the podium, please just state your uh name and address for the record. You'll have um a few minutes. We usually give you 3 minutes to address the council. We don't generally take action on any specific requests at this time, but staff could or council could direct staff to bring it back at a future meeting. So, welcome. >> Thank you very much. My name is Jim Tyson, 1295 Elmwood Avenue. On March 2nd, 2026, the Lake Minnotonka Advocates sent to all of you an email regarding lake improvement districts or lids for short. I'm here tonight res representing this group. I have a copy of that email here for public record. I would encourage you to reference the original email as they were many hyperlinks to support the information provided. Any questions about lids? Everyone familiar seen it? >> Right. Yep. The lids were intended to maximize fundraising and the primary goal of maximing maximizing herbicide treatment. Purpose of this email was to inform all 14 cities on Lake Minnatonka regarding lake improvement districts and the DNR rules and city andor citizens risks. We have learned through the citizen petition process offers little clarity to these rules and risks. To date, we have stopped creation of lids in Forest Lake Orno and Harrison's Bay Mound through the campaign of informing residents and cities of the lids. I would like to reference just some of the highlights that were in that original email. There's too much content, but I hope you have had an opportunity to read. The petition process lacks transparency and informed consents. Liability shifts away from the state. to put it on the residents and then shifts ultimately to the city if the lid is disbanded. >> Chemical herbicides are the default. Some are classified as PAS habitat loss and unattended consequences. You recently appointed LMC de representative Jane Anderson. She was an original organizer of the Harrison's Bay Association and a strong supporter of the creation of LID in Harrison's Bay. As I stated earlier, we got that disbanded through the city where they did not authorize its formation. Our concerns is she will attempt to create a lid in Holstead's Bay and wipe out the vegetation as they did in Harrison's Bay. >> Thank you. >> Tonight, I'd like to in addition to what I sent you previously, and I've sent all of this just today, these attachments, all of your emails, more science-based. So this really spoke to the lid and the structure and the rules DNR rules related. This is now more science-based. The DNR has a document on their website permits issued with a variance and it talks about mil foil and when do you want to go above and beyond the 15% latoral acres. If a lake is clarity as indicated by cache depth of 2 meters or less, which is the case of Holstead's Bay, it is an impaired body of water. As >> Yeah, we're we're we're aware of that as are a number of other bays. >> Yes, exactly. There's five or six of them on Lake Minnotonka. I happen to live on Forest Lake, so I'm fully aware of So, >> what I'm pointing out here is the DNR has specific guidelines for managing impaired water, >> right? And what's happened over in Stubs Bay, even though they're impaired water, they have charged ahead with full bay treatments. And it's actually, if you read the document, it's detrimental. A lot of the organizers suggest that by managing the invasives and it allows the natives to come back and they said you can check it out with the University of Minnesota. I went to the um >> I'm going to give you one more minute. Yep. >> And but I have and then I'll make a comment. Okay, fair enough. Uh, so the University of Minnesota, the invasive species research department says there's an upcoming webinar. Current efforts to manage invasive plants and lakes uh rely on repeated herbicide treatments which are costly and rarely lead to long-term control and native plant recovery. Although everyone is telling us that that's exactly what happens. >> Right. So, here's the thing. We have not had any requests at this point um for a lid within our um jurisdiction if you will. And so we probably wouldn't we we're not going to take any action. I'm not asking that you >> correct. And so and then if a request were to come in, we would then have to discuss it amongst the entire council and obviously it would be an open public meeting. We would take pros and cons, take comments from both sides before any decision would be made. But this information is good to have in advance um if that request were to come through. >> Yep. >> So, all right. Um and we have Yes, we saw your email. Um unfortunately, an email to each of us. We can't go and discuss it outside of a city council meeting. So um at some point like I said if an application were to come that's when we would be discussing it um at the council level. So >> and I fully understand that process and my intent was >> for the cities to understand the lid structure because that's clearly what we found was not happening >> right >> the petition process it does not share the information with those that are signing it. What happened in Forest Lake is 70% of the residents signed a petition in favor until a counter petition was created, 46% of those people that signed the counter petition to oppose it, >> right, >> had signed in favor of it. >> So, it's really about getting information out there is what we're attempting to do. >> Is your phone is your phone number on your letter? >> Um, no. On the sign-in sheet though, it is. >> It is. Yeah. Okay. >> And it's really just trying to offer information because what we're finding is that it is very misleading or I don't know whether it's intentional, but it there's a lot of information that's lacking as it's gone through the process. So, we've seen it go through Mound. The city mayor said something in the meeting when it got struck down there. He said very interesting. He said, "We have a $60 million water filtration issue going on in Mound. We had seven people show up at chamber the night that we had this lid that they tried to enact in mound. It was packed and the polar opposite positions people took and mound and eventually struck it down. He said if it was quite interesting that >> right >> we have this $60 million water filtration project going on and nobody shows up act for lit. >> Yeah, it's interesting. I know. All right. Well, thank you very much. really trying to share information and we sent it to all 14 cities around. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks for your time. >> Thanks for coming in. >> Thank you. >> And I can leave all these documents with who just as >> Yeah, please do um hand them over to um our police chief there and that would be great. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> We have um Thank you. >> Um we have Paul Lang >> to settle in. >> We like to move along quickly. Um, I came here last fall. Maybe some of you recognize me and I'll probably come here every few months. >> Okay, that's okay. Yes. >> Um, but we live over on Wood Edge Road, >> a little tiny road that's surrounded by >> tar, pavement, sidewalks, and we're the only road in the whole area that doesn't have tar on it. In that area? Yes. If we go out farther. >> And we're kind of just begging to try to get on the list. I saw the letter come out from the city of Minatrista and I see all the equipment will be out there. They're going to be out taring and resurfacing and everything on West Edge and I'm thinking why couldn't they have just had the equipment? >> I think >> our road and just do it all at >> do it all at the same time. So I think we you know we h asked our um engineer to give us some highle some idea as to what it would cost because I think we would have to share that with you um so that you would know what because there would be an assessment and that it can be fairly steep. I know that uh a lot of times when it goes from a gravel road to a patuminous surface um the obviously the value of your home goes up and so the assessments can be rather significant. I know the last time we did that um it was around $14,000 per and that was like 10 years ago. So, um just so you're aware of that. I don't know. Do we know where we're at? I know we talked about this before. >> Both that we wouldn't have an assessment. >> Oh, no. You would have an assessment. >> Yeah. And Well, >> yeah. >> And if I may, the actual policy for gravel to asphalt is 100% participation. So, it'd be different than the 14, you know. >> Well, we've never No, no, no. We've never done 100%. >> That's probably our policy. That's what it grab or deviated from that a little bit. Yeah, sure. Sure. >> I can't remember the the cost. I was just going to pull it up on our on our GIS just to see what if we have like if we have an estimate. I'd have to look it back up. >> I know that um Allison was going to put together some dollar amount. And obviously because it is such a small road or such a short stretch, we would probably want to kind of um put that together with another project in order because of course then you could save a little bit. But um I think it's it's what a half a mile if even that. >> Right. This this was on slated with the project right now. But when everything got eliminated off cuz we were at was it 8.8 8 million and then you guys wanted to knock it down to a third of that. So, a lot of stuff got taken off and that was one of them that got taken off too. So, >> we were we were close though. We were kind of being >> You were on the cus. You were on those. But here's the other thing, Gary. When or maybe Jasper, we have another probably not next year. Um but then so we kind of do a big project and we bond for it. Then we kind of wait a few years and then we do another big project or projects number multiple ones and bond for those. I don't think we're going to be bonding for anything for another couple years. The this is just current um situation. Things can change. It's fluid, but I think the plan is to bond again in 29. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. And then you might No promises. I'm not I don't want to give you false hope, but possibly then we could look at doing that because it's going to be >> it it's just a shy of a million dollars, >> right? So, >> to to redo that road. I mean, that would be um similar to Hallstead where a complete redo. >> It would be a reconstruct, right? >> Reconstruct. And then at that time, you'd probably maybe want to I don't know if you want to consider there's water available there. Do we want to run water up at that point? I mean that's something to consider too in the future, but just the road itself is just shy of a million dollars to redo it. >> Yeah. So keep coming. You don't have to come every month, >> but maybe every six months >> get assessed. Um if you do put a plan together and figure out what that assessment would be, would that be something that would be ahead of time? It might go out to everybody in the next three months. Here's what it might be or the next just so we know that. So the process was we really wouldn't know what the actual assessment is until we get the bids back. So you so we would do the well we we would have a highlevel idea. >> Yeah. Right. >> And then what we usually do is a neighborhood meeting and we we tell people here's the project that we're thinking of doing and here's what your assessment would potentially be most likely. And then the people can say oh yeah okay that's great. or sometimes they say, "No, we don't want to do this." Um, >> so, uh, does it have to be unanimous one way or the other? >> Well, >> no. And the city could actually decide if the city says, "No, we're going to do this regardless of whether you want it or not, we could do it." >> Generally, if there's a vast majority that don't want it, we don't do it. >> They don't want to pay that assessment, whatever. >> Right. Yeah. But then you go to the bottom of the list. So, just so you know, >> right? And then that assessment, um, if I understand those, they can be put, they put like over a 20 year >> a 20-year period. Yes. Yeah. You don't have to pay it all at once. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, and that would all be explained at that neighborhood meeting. Okay. >> And the neighborhood meeting would generally take place somewhere >> um spring fallish, well before the project would be bid and and and let So, >> well, >> okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. And things are coming again. All right. >> Okay. >> All right. Um kind of keep that on our radar screen if you don't mind. >> Yeah. I mean, if um we'd want to add it to the CIP for a future year, we could we could look at doing that. I mean, we're I just pulled up our web application for u and it's not even on there at all for any improvement. So, if we wanted to look at it, >> it hasn't been updated cuz we pulled we just pulled that off. So, we're trying to >> Yeah. Yeah. reschedu everything that was pulled off to >> right >> trying to make that work now. So, >> so it would be like a 29, >> right? Add it. And because if we're going to do another bond in 29, let's say, um, then at least it's on the radar screen and and we can look at it. Okay. All right. Um, so, um, next we have our consent agenda items. Are there any you wish to remove for discussion? >> All right. So, our consent agenda items consist of approve our work session meeting minutes from March 16th, 2026. Approve our city council regular meeting minutes from March 16th, 2026. Uh C is approve a resolution for our approving claims. D is a resolution approving the setback variances at 7041 Holstead Drive. E is a resolution to approved our text amendment to a comprehensive plan. F is a resolution authorizing the distribution of the EAW. And G is a resolution to award equipment CIP purchase for truck number two as a replacement. And then H is um also a CIP purchase. That would be truck number five also replace replacing truck number five. Any questions? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve consent agenda item A through H? >> So move. >> Thank you, Miss Lacy. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Refkin. Any further questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify with I >> I. All those opposed. Motion passes. So we had no public hearing or no business items. So we can And you are here for what? >> I would have been on time, but the fire department wouldn't let me through. >> This time we will make a one time exception. >> I know. Um are you here under persons to be heard? >> Yes. Okay. Um, then can you give us your written name and address and then you can come to the podium and we'll give you three minutes. Okay. You can add it to this one. >> I do not. Oh, Lisa's got a pen. >> Okay. And yes, there has um 110 is closed uh for a while. They think, Chief, I think it should be open again in in a few more hours. >> Yeah, probably one and a half to two hours. We're looking for sake, chief. All right. So, >> I go a long way home. >> Go a long way home. >> Yeah. Yeah, you do. But I think Hall Highland is open now. >> No, wasn't one coming. >> Well, Gary says it's supposed to be open. >> I want a card from you, Gary. >> You're going through St. >> We'll have to go to the podium there and speak into that. >> Yep. >> That's Paul. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Three minutes, huh? Yes, you have three minutes. >> All right, I'll be quick. So, when I was very young, took a family vacation to Breen Ridge, Colorado, and at a very young age on my own, I looked around and I thought, "This is really cool. This they had such a good sign ordinance that it just made the town look neat." And I don't think Minatrista needs to try to be or look like Breenidge, but it's just something that stuck with me. And there are a lot of people in Minotrista who have decided to be entrepreneurs and I'm very happy for them and I wish them all the success in the world, but I think it's unfortunate that they think being in business gives them the right to clutter the intersections with their signs. >> Okay. >> And I've done some research and I found cities and counties and a whole state that has ordinances or laws that impose fines. And I wouldn't want to do it to be punitive, but just to demon just a lot of the signs are the same people every year. >> Mhm. >> The mulch people, the mosquito spray, the gutter cleaning in the windows, and they just keep putting them up. The intersection by my house just gets full. Um, and I'm sure often, well, I know times the the top of the sign gets separated and then the wire frame is there and either your co-workers or the county gets those things wrapped in the blades of their mower. They got to haul the mower back, put it up, take the deck apart and fix it and it just looks bad, I think. So, I am very interested in encouraging the city to add fines. And the reason I think it would work is if you contact the people and say, "Hey, you know, you got two weeks to get these down." >> We don't give them two weeks. We just take them down. >> I understand, but you have to pay. But they keep putting more up. >> Yeah. You take them down, they put you don't you only do it once or twice a year, I think. >> Well, we do it on a complaint basis because or or fire and we can also ask our police if if they're cruising around, pick them up if they see them. >> They don't. >> But they have Well, the the reason being is our police have a lot of other things they need to do that are far more important. >> So, let's let's encourage these people to stop by making it clear to them. It's I'm I'm con I'm very well I'm convinced that 90% of the time it's the repeat offenders. >> Sure. >> And once they know it 90% of the signs will stop. >> Yeah. And we can look at that. >> There may be an issue with if we can impose a fine. I don't know. >> That's why I looked into it. Other cities around the country have done it. >> Edmonton, Oklahoma has a $200 fine. >> Okay. Well, how about this? We will look into this and we will have staff bring something back to a a work session so we can get all of the details that we would need. So, and I I know you're not the only one that thinks this. So, >> looks bad. >> Yeah. >> I think it would save the city, you know, there'd be a little bit of enforcement. These few offenders would find out and I think 90% of the problem go. >> All right. Thank you. >> So, we'll add that to a future work session. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean we we do have a sign ordinance that >> um doesn't allow it. >> No penalty. >> There's no penalty. Um Sarah's listening. We we we likely can't do an administrative fine for this. >> Um well, we we've went through this a few times. >> Sarah can talk. They're not really there's no statutory um authority for us to have a fine. >> So then what's the point of an ordinance? >> Well, we can enforce our ordinance by taking the sign, but we can't find them. I don't know, Sarah, if you want to weigh in on the sign ordinance and administrative fines. Um, and give a little update. It's >> fine. Can we call it something else? >> Well, how can you know Chris was just saying some other state has a $200 fine? >> Might be a different It's a different state. >> It's a state thing. >> Mhm. >> So, I tell you what, this wasn't on our agenda. There might be some more information that would be helpful. So Sarah put something together either do um something in ourformational packet or else we could bring it back for a brief discussion at a future work session. But I do know the um and then we can also talk we can have the police weigh in um what they can do what they can't do maybe public works what they can do what they can't do. So let's just bring it back if that's okay. We I think we need more information. Sure. So, all right. We'll bring it back maybe sometime in June. I mean, I don't know what we have scheduled, but >> yeah, we we'll get some information out. >> All right, sounds good. Um, I know we've had other complaints, too. Um, this isn't the first, so um, that concludes our business items. We'll move on to staff reports. Madame Mayor, members of city council, um, I don't really have much to update other than Trist the day is coming up. on May 13th, >> which is a Wednesday. >> Yep. >> So, it's >> So, hopefully hopefully the weather cooperates and we can It's a It's our first time trying it as a Wednesday, so we'll see. Everything's in order. The the police department and Amy over there have done a great job of organizing things. So, um that's happening. We're still continuing to um push and communicate with our legislators about our bonding request, and we'll keep doing that until the session ends. Um there might be a flurry of activity come maybe around May 10th, May 12th once we get getting getting closer to the end of the session when the bonding bill starts getting maybe discussed if there is one. So um plugging away at that. Um trying to think I know we had a couple couple meetings um for for fire and u well I had a meeting with fire just to kind of talk about the future of our fire partnership meetings which we likely won't have a meeting until June. >> June. Yeah. So the I think the most recent one which was next week supposed to be next week has been cancelled. Again the hiccup has been um the um relief for the the pension funds because they're different funds and so um you have to you have to by state statute have the same fund in order to merge. You know you can't have two different ones. So, we're I've even talked to um some of our state legislators to see if they can change the wording or change the law where it could be um two different ones together or that they would have some funding available in order to offset the cost of merging the two cuz there would be a cost. So, we're working on that too. Um and then I think Jasper, you're going with me on Thursday. Yeah, >> I have a chauffeur. Um, so Jasper and I are going to be down at the state capital. Um, Andrew Myers, our representative, asked if I could um testify to a committee regarding the Highway 7 um corridor. Mindot has been has asked for some um additional funding for safety um things on um Highway 7 and we're going to go down saying we're all in favor of the I think it's 11 million that they're asking for, but we want it specifically earmarked for uh roundabouts and not the um raised um median um because that would really really styy and prohibit us from um development and or even current neighborhoods. So, we will make that very very clear that we're all in favor of the additional dollars and they would be desperately needed for roundabouts which would actually help safety on on this corridor. So, that's kind of our our um thing that we're going to be saying. >> TV turned off. >> Oh. Um and then um the other thing I just want to point out um again just for general information, it's on our website. This year the open book um dates are there's multiple dates. So if you have an issue with the valuation of your property and you wish to talk to the assessor, there's um I don't know six or seven different dates that you can go to and you just look on the website. It'll tell you um where they are. It doesn't have to be in Minitrista. Um, so there might be one in Robbinsdale on a Wednesday afternoon that you could go to or maybe there's a Thursday evening or something. So just look at the dates and the time and then you can go to any of those no matter what community you're in. You might want to call the assessor a little bit ahead of time to see if you need an appointment. I don't think you need an appointment, but you might want to just call and check on that. Um there's I attended the Northwest League and um let's see, we talked about a number of things. Um uh Kevin Anderson was there. The other thing that um the chief and I signed on to a letter and it was regarding um funding for the sheriff Henipin County Sheriff's Department and we both felt very strongly that they needed to continue to fund fully fully fund the sheriff's department. And so there was a very very narrow window time frame in which to sign on to this letter and so both of us felt it was very important and we signed on to it. I won't go into all the all the details here tonight, but um basically one of the commissioners felt that um the cities the sheriff's department shouldn't be patrolling the cities. Well, they don't really patrol the cities out here, but there's a lot of other things that we partner with um the sheriff's department on. and that's DTF, that's the drug task force, there's the crime lab, there's um they come and help and support us when there's, you know, incidents that are big incidents out here. So, we really do need them and we need them to be fully funded. So, we just expressed our concern about that. I don't think that they there will be any cuts or that I don't think anything will happen. Um, but we wanted to be sure to be on record about that. Uh, that's the only thing I can think of. I'll be attending the Northwest League this week and then the meeting downtown. And >> so for the Hampton County Sheriff cuts, when Kevin was here, he said they were doing cuts. So you think they won't do them now? >> No, I think that it'll be >> 50 positions. >> Well, that's not the sheriff's department. That was something else. But >> um I think that they're going to be fully funded. the what the chatter was about um defunding or or seriously defunding it. And I think that was the the issue. Um so they might have to make some cuts, but they're still going to offer the crime lab and the um the drug task force and and the other things that they've been uh funding. One of the issues that they've had is um getting people um employees for their jails. Um, and that was the big thing last year. Uh, the big thing that ran them over over budget. So, I think they're they're in better shape this year now to be able to staff the jails with with staff. Um, last year they were so short that they had to send people to other facilities and uh contract with them. So, that's really what caused a a big problem. So hope we'll keep tabs on it and um we'll keep talking with them to make sure that because you know public safety and I I said this to um Kevin Anderson is uh please relay the message to the rest of the commissioners that public safety especially out here we value public safety and that's one of our number one priorities and so um I think he heard that loud and clear and I think he's on board with that. Um, anything else you need to add to that, Chief? >> Nope. I think that covers it. Um, you know, especially Crime Lab is massive for us. If if >> they're very specially trained in forensics. If if Crime Lab went away, we'd be relying on the BCA. And if all of Hen County relied on the BCA, it would be detrimental to the entire state. So, um elements like crime lab, water patrol, um and and you know that that that's just uh that's it it's needed. It's it's uh greatly needed. So, and we appreciate their partnership. >> And then um Kevin Anderson will be hosting a town hall meeting here in Minatrista at the Gail uh Woods facilities on June 16th. And I will be there um as as one of the hosts, I guess. I guess I'm not sure how to say that, but I'll be there probably to introduce him. So, if you have questions or you would like to attend, please feel free. Don't forget on May 5th, we have our state of the city address. I asked Jasper to get the invites out um get those printed as soon as possible. So, if you would like to send some to people you know, um, neighbors, friends, family within the city, um, let Paula know so that we can get those out. I'll be sending out some as well. Uh, so that is going to be held again at the Burl Oaks, which is now renamed to Crooked Water Golf Course, but we're just going to call it Burl Oaks for now because everybody knows that. And, um, that'll be on May 5th, I think, starting at 5:30. So 5:30 and we'll start the presentation around six o'clock. I hope you can all make it again. There'll be a cash bar. So and orves. And then the other thing I just want to mention this briefly. So you saw the um newsletter. People do read it. I've gotten several calls um positive calls which is good. But one of the things I told staff is we need to have a set size for the council profiles um because we don't want to have it seem like we are promoting one council member over the other one and I know it was rather large this last time and so we're just going to have a set size for the council profiles and everybody gets the same size and same amount >> and there was a lot of typos in it too. We'll we'll recheck the typos. So, but anyhow, just so you know, we we weren't um fair. >> It wasn't like I wanted to reclaim more space. Yeah. Okay. >> Perfectly fine with my tiny little column when it was my turn. >> So, anyhow, so we we kind of discussed that, but anyhow, no, we want to give everybody equal equal chance, equal opportunity. So, um that's all I have. Anything else? >> All right. So with that motion to adjurnn is in order. >> So moved. >> Thank you. And is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Govern. All those in favor signify with I. All those opposed. Motion passes. We are adjourned. Time for the basketball.