Good evening everyone. Uh this is the October October 1st, 2025 Cottage Grove City Council meeting which I'm calling to order. Uh before we move on, I'll just want to mention that uh this meeting is being recorded by True Lens Community Media. You can view the city's meetings live and replay them on cable channel 799 and meetings are also streamed live and archived on the city of Cottage Grove's YouTube channel. So if you're interested in that, you're welcome to do that. Uh so the next of course item is the pledge of allegiance. So if you'd please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Will the clerk please do the role? >> Council member Clawson >> here. >> Council member Olsen >> here. >> Council member Theiti >> here. >> Council member Garza here. Mayor Bailey >> here. Uh, next on our agenda is open forum. This is the opportunity for anybody that wants to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda is welcome to do so. Uh we did have a signup sheet sheet out in the entryway and uh no one did sign up and so I'll just ask one last question. Anybody in the audience want to speak on open forum. >> All right, seeing none I will then close open forum and we'll move to five which is adoption of the agenda. >> Move the agenda. >> Motion by council member Theiti. Do I have a second? >> A second. >> Second by council member Clawson. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. All right. Now, we're going to move to presentations. Uh we have two this evening. Uh we do have a guest uh joining us uh this evening. Our our county attorney uh is going to give us an update. Kevin Magneson uh is here and we want to welcome him. Uh he's going to share some statistical information and some data with us. >> For starters, Mr. Mayor. >> Yeah, there you go. >> Thank you. So, thank you for having me. Um, my name is Kevin Magnuson. I'm the county attorney for Washington County. And, uh, it's a real pleasure to be here. I don't really have an agenda other than to come and say hi and and, uh, give you a little bit of overview of what's going on in the office and maybe some of the things that that we've noticed over the last couple years. Um, so I, uh, I live in Lake Elmo in the house that I was grew up in. Um, I bought it from my dad. The house was built in, uh, 1889, so he sold it to me as is. Um, a lot of his stuff is still there. Um, he lives in Woodbury now. Um, but it's kind of held together by spackle and wallpaper and, you know, it's a it's that's kind of a hobby whether I like it or not. I know it's a bad day when my wife is got a real estate agent wandering around the driveway, you know, which happens, you know, every couple months. Um I went to Minha Academy uh Lake Elma Elementary, Miniha Academy and then went to Wheaten College in Chicago. I was in the military during the first Gulf War. I was an officer. Um my unit was in Saudi and then in Kuwait, but by the time I got to Germany to fly there after my um airborne training, the ground war was over. So I just kind of hung out in Germany for a while. When I got out, I um was in graduate school in uh Germany and Belgium. I I went to a German university to do a a PhD in philosophy and then uh actually wound up at a Belgian university in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium and I I ended up getting kind of a what would be considered a masters on on steroids there. And so then considering that I wanted a career that didn't involve me buying a Santa suit, you know, I decided to to go to law school. What are you going to do when you're a philosopher? Um I went to University of Minnesota Law School. uh went back to Belgium and uh my first job out of law school was at the European Commission in their antitrust enforcement division. So, a little bit different than this career path that I'm currently on. Um, but you know, like like all good motans, I followed the umbilical express back home. And uh I was in Minneapolis practicing complex business litigation for 20 years before my good friend Pete Orput um talked me into leaving that miserable rat race and joining the friendly confines of the county attorney's office. So, how many people knew met knew Pete? >> Yeah. >> To know him is to love him or not, you know. Um, I miss him every day and if you don't know him, I think you're worse off for it. He was he was something truly special and I've do done the best uh to um kind of keep his legacy going in the office. Our office has 61 well 61 and a half employees. Um I got half not short but half time. Um and it's about split between staff and attorneys about half and half. We got five law clerks as well, typically going in the summer and a couple of senior law clerks that work um pretty much year round. So, I I'm going to go through some of these things uh kind of quickly. Um, and so I may not be tracking with the slides exactly, but um, in our criminal division, there's 12 attorneys, um, five victim witness coordinators, uh, and, uh, and then we've got seven attorneys in juvenile and nine attorneys in our civil uh, divisions. And uh we um I just say this um and I don't say this lightly at all and um but on the looking at the criminal um work that we do you know public safety is my paramount concern and that sounds obvious but I think there's been a movement maybe in the last five years or so um where when there's an attempt to um reintroduce someone into the community, you know, someone who's an offender and there's an attempt at u rehabilitation, which I think is all very important. The reason I say public safety is my paramount concern is I don't believe the risk of that person re-entering society should be born on their neighbors. And I think it's pretty easy and was to see some of the more maybe the more progressive uh prosecutors that are are bending, you know, towards the direction of trying to get circumvent the, you know, the the prison um part of the of the of the of of the conviction and the sentence um and go straight to rehabilitation. And I just feel very strongly that the risk should not be borne on the community members that may or may know that that they're um living next to um someone like that. So um talk a little bit about um the complaints that we have. We typically go um to about we charge about 1,200 a year and we get about 1,400 referrals from law enforcement. So, it's about 80 um 85% which is is really pretty good. Um the reason that um it's stayed pretty stable and that we only have that 50% that um you know is really is really uh due to just the quality of law enforcement in Washington County. I mean, the the referrals we're getting are solid. Um and you know, sometimes there's not enough evidence. Um sometimes the victim isn't cooperating or sometimes um there's another case in in another jurisdiction. Um and then sometimes, you know, we use our pro prosecution to to um you know, go down an alterate path where person may end to go into diversion for less serious crimes and we think there's a an opportunity for someone to um you know, really get their life straightened out. But we're fortunate to have a very strong partnership with all the law enforcement in Washington County. Um, you know, Chief Kerner has been phenomenal partner. Um, I was with him on night to unite rode around and and and the mayor as well. And um, and so he's he's been great. Uh, and I think you're very fortunate to have the quality of of uh, law enforcement you have in uh, in Cottage Grove. So I will quickly I just want to point out um we'll kind of go through this quickly but the you know it's no surprise that in 2021 20 2020 and 2021 the autothefts everything having to do with autothefts just skyrocketed. The good news is that you know we're trending downwards and I expect 2025 to be about the same or lower. We're still still too high, but that hump that we knew kind of was there at COVID, it's recognizable. Um, but we're moving away from in the right direction. In terms of crimex, u, criminal sexual conduct, you know, there's a little bit of a a spike at 2021, but those cases are so it's so difficult to to pinpoint the reason why, you know, we can charge and can't charge some of those cases. It's hard to to draw a um a real conclusion from from these numbers. And then homicides, you know, they're kind of all over depending on, you know, the year that they come to us. Some they'll you'll have a number of homicides going now. You know, there's five in 2024. There haven't been any in 2025 that have that have been charged. There's some that have been investigated. So most of the stuff we're working on is past cases, but the number is a little higher than one might expect considering for a long time, you know, Washington County had one or two. Um, and I think that's just reflecting the increased population and just some changes in society that I think are is making the society a little bit more violent. And we're seeing that borne out in I think most of the the crime trends. Auto theft. So, you know, it used to be that smoking dope and shoplifting were kind of the entry level crimes and that's when people started to encounter law enforcement. You know, now one of the biggest things is joy riding. Joy riding is is this phenomenon because someone 12, 13, 14 years steals a car. In this case, the Kia Challenge here. Here you can see that the console has been torn up and they can there's a gap in the ignition where you stick a a metal object about the size of a pen drive, USB drive and it completes a circuit and start the car. Not super difficult to do in the older Kia and Hyundai. It's no longer the case. I'm happy to say because I have a Hyundai. Um, and I'm hoping some kid doesn't think it's an old one and you can break the window and try to start it. But the um um you know, somebody steals a car, the first thing they want to do is get their buddies, right? Show them what they're doing. So then they start driving around in a stolen car, doing what you do in a stolen car and has to commit crimes. And pretty soon the person that's invited along who, you know, hasn't been in a joy riding or hasn't been in this um you know in a in a in a scenario where there's um um they're committing criminal offenses. um you know, they'll they'll start to join in on the you know, whatever um they're doing and then u so you have some minor crimes there, but pretty soon they want to do the take the the KIA challenge themselves. And so you're seeing when they come into encounter with loss law enforcement, it's usually kind of at that point and at that point they've had this, you know, this journey from um the kind of things that we would think of as nor uh normal indiscretions or criminal infractions of a kid to something is quite a bit more serious before they hit the the justice system. And I I think we're seeing that pattern um is that's pretty remarkable and pretty clear. Now, I should say that talking about car thefts, I'll talk a little bit more about it. One of the things that has been really um um successful and helpful to us has been the um the automatic license plate readers. the flock cameras I think is the vendor that most of people use and I believe you're getting them if you haven't already because I know I saw the approval stuff um go through and um but they've been really successful in Woodbury you know and uh just getting a hit on on on cars with u you know with the crim um associated with the license plate number knowing where that is there's some there I'll just kind of depart from my u the stats and stuff to to opine a little bit you know there are some people that feel like oh this is you know some violation of people's civil rights and and that sort of thing. And I I mean there are ways it could be used that way. I think the normal safeguards that we had where you need to get a warrant that thing sort of thing to to use this to follow someone protects a lot of that. But what what what's interesting about this is that when there's a hit on a license plate, nobody knows the demographics of the drivers. They just know that there's a car with a file attached to it and a location. and then whatever happens from there is based on that legitimate uh tip. So if you're concerned about pretextual stops and that sort of thing, you know, that's really not the case in in when you've got an automatic license plate reader. So this is the this is the the number that really kind of blows me away and it's just I think it's just indicative of some of the problems we have in society. um don't have the answers but I can say that you know when you look at 2018 and there were 35 instances of charged of someone fleeing from law enforcement in a motor vehicle up to 111 in 2022. I mean and we we know why that is right. Um can editorialize it a little bit that you know I don't get involved in who's right and who's wrong. I will say in hindsight that the idea of, you know, not having kids who don't have a lot of structure, running around on the street with a $700 iPhone, you know, isn't the greatest thing for our society. I mean, at the time, my daughter is nine, and it took three adults to get her to do online schooling, you know, I mean, you needed that structure in that environment. If you didn't have it, you weren't I mean, not a ton of kids were just doing it, you know, for their own edification. and they there needed to be some structure and that having kids out of school I think where there's not you know that teacher or the band director or the counselor or whatever that provides some structure that they may not be seeing otherwise is really important and I think we're seeing some of the consequences of not having that. But of course the worst thing about this is just the danger that puts the officers in. So this is Oakdale PD dash cam video. >> I mean it's very real, you know, and the and the the the danger to officers, the public um is very very significant. This is in the LA Fitness on 694 and 95. >> Again, poor Oakdale officers. >> Get out of the vehicle. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. >> Get down. >> Get on the Look out, Coly. >> His girlfriend still behind the wheel. >> Get down. >> Look out, Cole. >> 65. We got multiple cars getting hit by this vehicle. get out of the way. >> So again, I show that video just you can see um I mean there is that drive that some people have. Um you know she had a serious drug um problem. Um I don't think that was her entire problem. U but uh she was convicted of a number of crimes including this one. So this uh I'm not going to spend a lot of time. This is just u from a case that we had showing the um the cell phone data, the location data and showing how we can get this with a warrant. We can get this and uh and and do the the tracking of locations. But it is important to know this is all this is pursuant to a warrant. So any of these things that could be um um an invasion or or um in um concerning privacy and has to be authorized by a judge. Talk a little bit about um our human trafficking task force. I'm really proud of it. I'm proud of um the role that Kottis Grove has played in it. Dr. Brian Campbell was a good part of it um when he was there. And now you have um Jeffrey Redee. Um I've had a chance to meet him a couple times and you know I think that that traffic task force is doing great things right now. It we've shifted the focus a little bit. still doing the stings and the recovery operations that are larger scale, but the the the sort of investigating and and tracking of individuals um that are victims or engaged, you know, on either side of it um has really ramped up and I think we're seeing a lot more um bang for your buck, if you will, in that kind of approach. you can get a number of people in a sting and it's important to do that because it sends a message, you know, that that we're out there. But where we're really seeing um these benefits are uh you know, the the recovery operations or efforts to locate someone particular with runaways. That's been a big focus of mine. You know, the um it used to be that when you're a runaway kid, they you know, you go down to the Greyhound station to look for them. Now it's their phone. I mean, these kids are on there's some sort of social media. well before they they leave and often they're communicating with someone that they haven't met met before and and that's under false pretenses. Um there was a case as you know from Cottage Grove 14-y old girl Cottage Grove's grandmother um reported her missing after about a week and um I think the officers that were contacted contacted Brian Campbell because he was on the task force and we have a lot of tools um and uh processes that that we can deploy very quickly compared to you know I think the the normal um course of business just because of the trafficking work. So, we know how to get these warrants quickly. We can get to the phones quickly. We can get the the uh location data. And and that's what happened in this case. So, they figured out that she was communicating over an app called Text Now. And there are a ton of these things where you get a free number and you know, anonymous texting. And there's some that even do geoloccation so you can identify people who are within, you know, 300 ft or half a mile. Um and it's all anonymous. Um but in this case they were able to do get the location data and um determine that she was likely at Boyd's Motel in Newport and they went there. The um the trafficker was not there. She was um she had been abused, you know, for over a week. She was sitting there, you know, um with with very little clothing and was clearly distraught um and and let me get back to where I was here. Um, you know, it seems like a long time and it is. I mean, a week that's just awful. But to get to someone that quickly means that there's a chance that you could, you know, really intervene and prevent um this course um um that's just um um kind of a a long slippery slope into just a miserable and and life and just one that's really difficult to leave. In this case, they were able to get the phone um from the girl and text the trafficker and get him to come back to the motel uh arrested. So, he was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and got 100 months in prison and will uh register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. So, I mentioned a little bit on the sting operations. Um this is kind of an older slide, but um these are Washington County folks um that have been convicted. You know, it's important that this the human trafficking unit that we have is local. It's it's centered on Washington County. And it's really important because, you know, if you're just affiliated with the BCA or something, for example, I mean, there's a lot this goes on in Henipin and Ramsey County that may affect, you know, Washington County, but having a dedicated um trafficking unit that's really well established and pretty well known is uh is is an exceptional asset to the county. Um, you know, it's a little bit like spraying your lawn. you know, the moment you stop spraying it for weeds, the dandelions come right back. Um, and that's a little bit like, you know, with the sex trafficking, um, that the moment the pressure is off, it's right back there. But because we've got 94 coming through and, you know, um, um, some other thoroughares, uh, that Minneapolis St. call is a higher trafficked area and uh I think there's some funding issues that are always present especially during time like this when it's tempting to want to cut um from this but I think that this is an area that affects a lot of um of the our efforts uh to to combat crime and particularly trafficking. So this is a slide it's a um it's the same person um from the first encounter. Now, this is a this is several years old, probably more than that, from a national charity organization that published it. Um, but you can just see the the absolute um devastating consequences of this kind of life. And when we do the rescue issues, you know, there are counselors there. We're giving them phones and and a way to to try to leave the the life that they're in. And most of them, you know, are saying right, "Yes, I need to get clean. I need this." And then within a half an hour, they're back up. their their ads are back up. Um and um if the people ask how can I help, how can I get involved in this area? Um Pete was really good at motivating people and I think Cass and some other places on the um started from some of his um talks but it's really on this recovery area where there's just so little resources u and it's an resource intensive prospect to get someone out of this life and and and do a full recovery. Now there's a new um group home that's opened in in um in Oakdale. It's just gorgeous. It's an upper middle class neighborhood. Not sure the neighbors knew what was going in there when they built it, but you know, it's uh it's it's they've been wellreceived and the um the uh um there's full-time counseling and it's it's a it's a window to the world that you could have, whereas otherwise we just have you get out, go to a shelter that's maybe a half step up from the the world that you were in. And it's sort of hard to tell someone, okay, now this is this is your this is the life to um you know, the better life that you want, and it's going to start in a in this shelter. Um and so the the the the name of the um of the um the charity is called Corey's House, the group home, and I think he's just getting the last of its state approvals, and should be operating soon, and we've already got some folks identified that that we'd like to see there. Um, I'll talk really briefly about um our juvenile prosecution. You know, the vast majority of kids do stupid things that we encounter, you know, and some of them are criminal offenses. Um, and I'd say probably, you know, 70 75% um are in that category go through a diversion program. They get whatever anger management or chemical or mental health treatment they need. Sometimes they just need, you know, a little bit of a scare and some sorting out, but they go through the program, we never see them again. I mean, it's the it's very successful on these lower level early criminal offenses uh for juveniles. And it starts to get more serious. I would say that there are probably about 10 defendants a year that cause us most of our work. And those are the serious crimes that you hear about, the carjackings, the um the assaults, um the the more serious violent crimes. And and typically at that point, this person's been a part of the system for for a long time. And that's a whole another topic. But the um um our inability to deal with u this level of of crime with juveniles is is just tragic. And um it's going to take a a whole rethinking and reorienting of the of the of the system. Um but we do certify when necessary, when the crimes deserve it. And you know, Pete used to always say the right size hammer for the right size nail. We take that very seriously. Um so again, I'm just going to point it out the vehicle theft. This is with juveniles. Um again that spike in the COVID then down to 7% or 7 last year um which we haven't charged a juvenile case um a juvenile carjacking case since 2023. We just had an adult I used to be able to say that with the adults. We just had a case a few months ago where guy calls an Uber driver at 3:30 in the morning from one of the fitness clubs, gets close to his house, tries to take the driver's phone, the driver runs out of the car. Now the guy's sitting there in a in a in an Uber and the police are coming, so he jumps in and he takes off. Um, and they, you know, let cops on 100 mph chopsticks down. But I mean that's not necessarily the the scenario you're thinking of when you think of carjacking. It's still serious, but the I think the the image sometimes we have of life um you know postco or whatever is uh is this kind of dangerous crime is lurking around um every corner and we just haven't seen that in Washington County thankfully. So here is a this was a twocar seven kids 12 to 15 were in two cars. They were Cabelas. Um squads came they rammed the uh the first squad and took off down Ideal Avenue at 110 mph. Um it dead ends into Stillwater Boulevard there. So they bailed and there's a pit maneuver there. You're seeing this kid running. He's 15. He's got a gun in his left hand and I think it's a phone in his right. Right. And um that's kind of a wakeup call when you look at some of the stuff. And again, I'm not saying that that's what's common place, but that's the world we live in and that's kind of the challenges that we're facing. So, um thank you for having me. You know, I think that the the takeaway is that we're doing everything we can to to to keep Washington County safe, to work with people, to to do as much good as we can in the community. Um and the partnership between the county attorney's office and the cities and in particular the um city law enforcement has been really remarkable. I didn't have any idea that that that was unique in many respects, but apparently a lot of sheriffs and county attorneys and or chiefs of police don't get along with uh something to do with egos and uh type A personalities. I don't know. But thank you so much for for for having me. If there's anything that I can answer, please let me know. >> Yep. Thank you. Uh thank you for uh sharing the information. I'll start with uh Council Member Clawson this way. >> Thank you so much. Um I I also want to echo what he said too is our department working well with the county attorney's office having worked with his attorney's office in a prior life, prior job. I know I could call at any time and get somebody on the phone no matter what time of day it was and they'd give me some good advice. Um, and thank you for explaining the flock cameras as that system starts rolling out. Um, there's a lot of questions the public has, you know, is this big brother? And it really isn't. Um, thanks thanks for saying that. And I also wanted to uh just comment about the quality of the um attorneys in your office. I know just thinking here real quick, I just wrote down four names of your attorneys that have gone on to be judges in the area. So, uh, that's an, uh, kudos to you. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Sounds good. Uh, Council Member Brolen, >> thank you very much. Uh, great having you here. Appreciate you coming down. And, uh, boy, you can, uh, say Pete was one of a kind all day long and still not enough. Uh, great man and and you're doing a really nice job uh, succeeding somebody who's pretty hard to succeed to be frank. Um you mentioned in your presentation that um you know the the various cities and uh you know various county entities seem to really work well together and as you were speaking about that um the drug task force >> popped into my head and I wondered if you might just take a moment or two to explain um how that really works to the public because there's you know all these various officers from different departments coming together under one umbrella but boy they seem to be pretty effective. Yeah, you know, these these crimes in general, you know, they're not fixed to a specific location and um so they they implicate the entirety of Washington County often. And so the drug task force brings in law enforcement and a member from our office um who's on the task force to investigate and then bring for charges and then and then for us to to review those charges um and then file a complaint. We're also very involved in the process of guiding the investigation in terms of you know what you can do and not do. Make sure that people are aware of the pitfalls. So help with the warrants sometimes helping with um you know maybe look at this. Don't do that. You know it's kind of a waste of time or something that we can't prove. But that um that drug task force um has been very successful and I know some of the the fentanyl um bus that we've had have been pretty >> phenomenal. >> Phenomenal. Yeah. So pretty big. >> Good. And and the other thing that you mentioned is you know trying to work on um youth interdictions and you know trying to sort of get out ahead of things and I love that the county has started to implement these embedded social workers and things. I think that's making a big difference in crime prevention versus being reactive. But I also know that um at least our department has had a lot of success working with the Youth Service Bureau. And I know that's an organization you think very highly of. And I wondered if you might just chat for a moment about some of the things that they do um as a nonprofit in South Washington County and Washington County in general to help with some of that youth challenge. U thank you for bringing that up and I really probably should have mentioned that when I talked about the success we've had in diversion. The youth service has been cornerstone for us. I mean, they're the ones that are supplying the diversion programming that is absolutely essential to get folks on the on the right track. And um you know, like you said, it's a nonprofit. Um the county and I know the law enforcement um across Washington County, our office, other offices um like our community um corrections and and some other uh departments in Washington County been really involved and u we're just fortunate that we don't have to try to try to create that from scratch that we have um you know a longstanding um organizations that's really good at it and that's why we're I think we've had the success we've have. So, hats off to to YSB. >> And we're very fortunate here uh in that the mayor actually was um you know, president of the board of the YSB locally here for how many years was it? >> Six or eight? >> Yeah, something like that. >> So, um we've had the opportunity to influence to some of the programming that is required because as times change, the programming needs to change. But, uh to your point, I think they really are a phenomenal partner as a nonprofit in the county and I know that you work with them a lot. We work with them a lot. So, I appreciate the the plug in terms of some of the things that they do with the youth in the area. And with that, mayor, I'll turn it back to you. >> All right. Sounds good. No other questions, council. Only other uh thing I'll say other than thank you uh for coming and sharing with us this evening. I know before we had the meeting or before you did your presentation and you kind of alluded to it in in some of your comments that there there is a in some parts of the metro or maybe some counties in the metro that um don't necessarily look at crime the same way if you will um maybe uh not charging people for you know uh car theft or things like that. And if I heard right, and that's why I thought I would just let you reiterate it again, you know, if somebody a kid or whoever steals a car in Washington County, with all due respect, the full weight of the law and enforcement and such is going to come down on them. It isn't it isn't what happens in some of the counties to our west. Is that correct? >> Yeah, absolutely correct. Um, mayor, it's uh I mean it's difficult enough in the in the juvenile justice system to bring consequences for actions to bear um because they are kids. And so it's kind of set up so that they're not punished in the same way as adults. But I think in in some of some of the other counties um that may come to mind, it's sort of the pendulum kind of swung the other direction a little bit. And that's almost there's almost a inclination to um to not try or to look for ways that are purely designed to communicate and understand something which is really really important. But I've seen enough of these um you know, especially particularly when they're on Zoom, you know, these hearings with the kids and they're they're sitting on the couch, they're looking at their $300 sneakers and they I mean they're just not getting it whether they can't conceive of what you know conceptualize what's happening to them and what their future is going to look like or they just don't care. It's not real effective. And so to your point, one of the things that that I've insisted on is when we do um detain, you know, arrest a juvenile, when the crime is serious enough, I I really want to make it at least inconvenient for the parents. Like you should have to go pick them up. And in some cases, like in this Cabela's case, you know, we charged them with everything we could ethically charge knowing that they would that would keep them in detention for 2 days. Now, it doesn't seem like very long, but it's a lot longer than they're getting in some other places. And um and that's about the right time because you keep them there long enough they can figure out they can do the stand on their head, you know, but there has there absolutely has to be consequences for actions whether it's on the little level, you know, the most minor thing. Um just people having the rules reinforced is really important and that goes all the way through our juveninals to our adults. The other thing I'd like to talk a little bit about is I think there's in the news there's been quite a bit of talk about um traffic crime enforcement infractions and um I think that became sort of popular um you know a few years ago to say well we think that the these traffic what they call protextual traffic stops has a disproportionate impact and whether that's true or not um and I think the data shows that it probably does but that's not fixing the problems is to say we're not going to enforce um those laws, right? I mean, if you've got problems, you address the problems. If there are people that are doing protectful stops, you better root them out, you know, and and and and solve that problem, not hiding from it and saying we're just not going to um enforce these crimes to keep our statistics in the right spot. Um and you know, these things um are happening in counties, but um you know, it stops at the border, right? This is not the way Washington County treats it. personally think that law enforcement is doing us a service. You know, when I pull this over and say, "Hey, your tail lights out." Because that's dangerous. You know, how would I know that my brake lights are out if somebody didn't honk at me or somebody, you know, didn't tell me that? And if you know, if there's evidence of a crime in the car as a result of the officer looking, I think it makes sense that that officer should be able to follow up on that with probable cause, get what they need, and and and inquire further. >> Sounds good. Well, thank you. And and my only segue or comment on that is I I do find it ironic um that I do hear from our officers that when there's either car theft or whatever happening and unfortunately I'll say that if there's a chase, we stop them because our police officers do stop them. And when they do, some of these criminals, whatever the age, says, "Well, you can't arrest me because, you know, they thought they were in Ramsey County, they thought they were in Henipin County." And the answer by our officers, which is no, you are going to jail or you are going to detention or whatever. I just wanted to throw that out there because unfortunately on the other side when there are other counties around us that are not uh pursuing these things uh to me it's like opening the gates uh and a lot of saying it's okay everywhere >> where we're saying as you mentioned earlier at your at our border uh and our border is Cottage Grove but Washington County >> uh no you you cross into our county you cross into our community and you are going to be treated to the full extent of the law if you're doing something that's illegal. Um, and so I just wanted to throw that out there. >> We had a kid a couple years ago who was heard on a jail calling some of his buddies, do don't he is a car theft uh in receiving stolen property found in a stolen car. He's like, don't come to Washington County. They're serious. I would love to put that on a billboard or on the air like he's broadcast at 24/7 because we are and see the result. Thank you very much. >> Sounds good. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> All right. We'll uh move to our second item in the under presentations which is the proclamation for fire prevention week and I did uh pre- ask uh council member Olsen uh to read the proclamation and then uh we'll look for a motion in a second. >> Thank you, mayor. As the son of a uh firefighter, I don't think he's a former firefighter. I think they're always firefighters. It's kind of like being a Marine. Once you're a Marine, you're always a Marine. Uh it's my honor to read this proclamation for Fire Prevention Week 2025. It reads as follows. Whereas the city of Cottage Grove is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living in Cottage Grove and visiting. And whereas fire remains a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally. And the presence of lithium ion batteries in many household devices introduces unique fire risks. And whereas most of the electronics used in homes daily, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, power tools, ebikes, e- scooters, and toys, are powered by lithium ion batteries, which if misused, damaged, or improperly charged, can overheat, start a fire, or explode. And whereas the National Fire Protection Association, NFPA, reports an increase in battery related fires, underscoring the need for public education on the safe use of lithium ion batteries. And whereas residents should follow three key calls to action. Buy only listed products, charge batteries safely, and recycle them responsibly to prevent battery related fires. And whereas lithium ion batteries store a large amount of energy in a small space, an improper use, such as overcharging, using off-brand chargers without safety certification, or exposing batteries to damage can result in fire or explosion. And whereas the proper disposal and recycling of lithium-ion batteries helps prevent environmental hazards and reduce fire risks in the home and community. And whereas Cottage Grove first responders are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires through prevention, safety, education, and community outreach. And whereas the 2025 fire prevention week theme, charge into fire safety, lithium ion batteries in your home, serves to remind us of the importance of using, charging, and recycling lithium ion batteries safely to reduce the risk of fires in homes and communities. Now therefore, the mayor and city council of the city of Cottage Grove, County of Washington, state of Minnesota, hereby proclaim the week of October 5th through the 11th, 2025 as fire prevention week and urge all the Cottage Grove residents to make sure their homes have working smoke alarms and to support the many public safety activities and efforts of fire and emergency services passed this the first day of October 25 by Myron Bailey mayor as the undersign behind. And with that, mayor, I would make the motion that we accept this proclamation declaring October 5th through the 11th fire prevention week. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh, Council Member Rosen, thank you for reading the proclamation. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> Second. Uh, Council Member Garza. Uh, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Thank you again. Uh, we'll move right on here to seven, which is the consent agenda. Is there anything council would like to pull on consent? Uh, council member Olson. >> E, please. >> You want to pull E? Okay, good. Any others comment? Council. All right, so we'll move right to E, which is the Cottage Grove Lions fitness equipment donation. Council member Olsson. >> Thank you, mayor. I pulled this item because um the Cottage Grove Lions Club, of which I am the current president, is very proud of the work that we do with our public safety team and the city here in Cottage Grove on several different fronts. Um I I wanted to point out that uh this is our latest donation, which is a donation of fitness equipment in the amount of $4,997.30 30 cents for the workout room here in Cottage Grove uh at at city hall. Um just to kind of make a brief statement that this money was actually raised at the hometown heroes golf tournament that we had this year in partnership with our um Mississippi River Valley Beyond the Yellow Ribbon team and the Cottage Grove VS VFW. Uh this was, you know, the Cottage Grove Lions portion of the proceeds from that tournament and we're very proud to be able to take that uh round up $5,000 and donate it back to our friends here at the city of Cottage Grove uh and specifically to um our public safety team and our first responders who I know use that workout space. Uh this is just one of those things where as we mentioned earlier about the YSB uh local nonprofits giving back to the city. Uh this is an expense the city doesn't have to incur because we were able to fund raise this money and donate it. So uh I hope that um everybody here at city hall and uh anybody who works for the city will enjoy the new equipment. I know Captain Peterson from the public safety team uh really spent a lot of time and effort trying to ascertain the right equipment and find the the pricing that we needed and uh work directly with our Lions Club to make this happen. >> All right. Thank you. So with that, um I'll look for a motion to approve consent. All right. So we have a motion by council member, second by council member Garza. >> Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. See awaited all that to hear. So everything in the consent agenda have been approved. So thank you. >> Thanks for being here. >> All right, council. We'll move to number eight, which is 8A is to approve the bills. >> Move the bills. >> Pay the bills. >> All right. I'll grab Council Member Garza's uh the motion. Do you want to do the second? >> Sure. Council member Olson, do the second. Any further discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I I opposed. Motion carries. Uh nine, we do not have public hearings. 10, we do not have bid awards. 11, we do not have anything on our regular agenda. We're all the way down to council comments or requests number 12. And I'll start with uh Council Member Clawson. >> I have nothing tonight, Mayor. Thank you. >> Awesome. Sounds good. Council member Bolson. >> Mayor, I'll be brief. I've uh had a lot to say already this evening, but I wanted to take a moment here to congratulate the public safety and parks department on what appeared to be a very very successful public works and park open house last week down at the um public works facility. When I got there, uh they were already parking cars across the street. Um and mayor, I know I I saw you there and I understand council member Garza was able to go as well. Um the place was a zoo. It was packed. There were lots of families there. Um really fun seeing all the kids who, you know, were climbing on the trucks and what have you. I also want to thank um the uh union that represents our uh public works team down there, the 49ers union for bringing their digger that the kids can actually sit in and operate and um they get to move sand from point A to point B. Uh that's always a very popular thing at the openhouse events as well and of course all the other nonprofits that showed up to partner with us including Pineriidge Garden Club who was there and some others. So you guys did a a really phenomenal job, Ryan and Zach and your teams and it was certainly a lot of fun being there and uh even more so seeing all the smiles on people's faces. They they really enjoyed it and you guys did a great job putting it together. Thank you. The only only piggyback I'll put on there, Zach, is I think we've realized now that all you have to do is put a big pile of sand and some buckets and holy cow, there was a lot of kids in that big pile that was out there. And that's all it was. >> Young and old. >> Yeah, it definitely was bath night for a lot of people. >> It probably was. >> Uh, counit. All right. Right. Well, I'll just mention that uh the Monster Bash parade is coming around again October 25th and it it runs from uh the uh down by the administrative the center for the the school district on uh East Point Douglas Road and uh and goes down to the uh by Applebees and such. And it's always a good time. It starts at 10:00 a.m. and hopefully we'll have some good weather the way the weather is going right now. It uh you know, you never know. We might be able to wear shorts and during the parade, but uh so it uh it should be a fun time. You can obviously get information by going to the Strawberry Fest website and so forth. There's information out there also. So, fantastic. Council member Marca. >> Thank you, Mayor. I will mention a couple of events and I will save the rest for you. I'm too. >> Oh, so there are always a lot of fun things that happen here in Cottage Grove. And just in October, we still have a lot more fun that's going to be coming. So, um, Locally Grown Theater, they are showing Dracula October 7th three 17th through the 19th at the Cottage Grove City Hall amphitheater. So, that should be a lot of fun. And then our um Cottage Grove um ice arena is having the skating spooktacular. So that'll be on October 29th and there's two sessions for that and it's only $10 per skater. So I think that will be a lot of fun. And then of course we have our pumpkin chunk that comes up right after Halloween where you get to get dispose of your pumpkin in a fun way by throwing it off of a fire ladder or down a hill or like there's all types of ways that you can chuck your pumpkin. So it's always fun. Um I've gone a couple of years now and I've always enjoyed it. So with that, I will leave the rest for you man. >> Okay. decade. So, uh, real real quick on some of the interesting ones. So, on you you talk about fire prevention week, uh, which is going to be next week compared to when you watch this, uh, or I should say from this council, uh, meeting, but on October 7th from 5 to 7, which I believe is a Tuesday, um, at the central fire station is the fire department open house. So, encourage everybody to uh, come out um, see the vehicles, have some fun. They got some things where you shoot the hose, all that kind of stuff. I know they have like hot dogs and things like their uh those items there too if you want to have something uh for a quick bite date. It's always a great turnout seeing the kids there at the fire station. And I also should mention just want to make sure I get Yeah, this so it's not going to it's not necessarily coinciding with the fire department openhouse, but there is a fire department coloring contest uh which uh artists from ages 3 to 11 uh can celebrate Cottage Grove fire prevention by entering the coloring contest. Uh coloring sheets are available on the public safety Facebook page. I think I saw that actually earlier today or at city hall or at the central fire station. Uh deadline to enter this contest is Monday, October 13th. Uh there'll be three winners that will be chosen and invited to the fire station for a pizza party. So that's kind of cool. And then I also wanted to mention uh mayor for a day because that obviously is coming up here uh in uh early November. Mayor for a day. Mayor for a day is um if you're interested, you just send a picture uh or attach your handwritten essay. Uh and you can send it to communications at cottagegrovemn.gov uh by Friday, October 17th. Uh just include your name, age, grade, and school. Um the honorary mayor will be picked up uh by the the police chief in a squad car. uh get a tour of public works, the fire station, uh ride or drive the Zamboni, which I have not even done yet. Um and uh and of course then they get to um come up here and uh co- uh co- do a meeting if you if you will here. Uh and so and have some pizza. Uh so I just wanted to throw that out there. every year that we've done it. Uh even earlier this year at the food truck festival, our previous uh mayor for a day came up to me and literally said, "Hey, mayor, how you doing?" I said, "How you doing, mayor?" So, it was kind of cute to see uh how they they do truly cherish that opportunity. So, I wanted to uh just mention that. And then lastly, again, depending on when you're if you're watching this or watching live uh right now, uh this coming Friday night is homecoming uh for Pike Park High School. They are playing Rapids. Uh for football, uh there is a parade uh prior to um uh the football game as normal. And the parade starts at uh the crossroads on the corner of 80th in Jamaica and goes up to Park High School. Uh and the parade, I believe, starts at 5:00, I'm thinking. >> What's that? >> 5:15. >> 5:15. Yeah. I knew we have to line up like at 4:30. So, um I know some of us alumni for park will be uh in the parade, but uh if you want, there's going to be candy thrown and it's always a good time to celebrate our local high school and hopefully they can uh take home a win. Uh so that was it for me on that. Um next item on our agenda is a workshop which is open to the public. Uh and it is to discuss the Ravine Parkway which is 85th Street to Keith Avenue, the feasibility report. Uh we do not have a workshop that's closed to the public. So we won't be adjourning in here. Uh we will be adjourning in the conference room. So with that everybody have a great great week and go Wolfpack.