This transcript appears to be from a **Cannon Falls City Council** meeting on November 5, 2020. **Note on Speaker Identification:** There is a discrepancy between the provided context list and the transcript. The transcript features Council Members **Bill Bringgold, Mary Jill Fick, Steve Lindell, Morris Matson, and Derek Lundell**, who were the active members in November 2020. The City Administrator at the time was **Neil Jensen**. I have used the names corresponding to the individuals actually present and speaking in the recording. *** **[10:25] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** We'll call the meeting to order for city council Thursday, November 5th. Uh, roll call. Bringgold? **[10:25] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** Here. **[10:25] Council Member Duncan:** Here. **[10:25] Council Member Gesme:** Here. **[10:25] Council Member Steve Lindell:** Here. **[10:25] Council Member Morris Matson:** Here. **[10:25] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Montgomery, here. Althoff is absent, right? Can we do the Pledge of Allegiance, please? 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. **[11:14] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, approval of the agenda. **[11:14] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** I'll move to approve. **[11:14] Council Member Steve Lindell:** Second. **[11:14] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All in favor? Aye. Passes. And right, we're going to have a closed session right now—or open a special session for the public hearing of Resolution 2513, certifying unpaid utility charges to be collected with the taxes. So we'll open the meeting. It's now a little after 6:30. With that, do we have anybody here that is here because of delinquent water or utility charges? Do we have anybody here? Do we have anybody here? Hearing that we don't have anyone here, I suggest we close the public hearing and go to the regular council meeting. **[11:59] Council Member Morris Matson:** I’ll make a motion to approve Resolution 2513. **[12:47] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** Second. **[12:47] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, Bill and Lindell. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Passes. With that, we have Steve Dablo here for a Historical Society presentation. **[12:47] Steve Dablo:** Good evening. I'm actually getting a little choked up right now. Um, a couple weeks ago I got a phone call from someone who had just watched a video online that Channel 12 helped us do when the trolleys were in town. And um, you know, I designed a tour—we'd never done one before—and um, imagine that, they got a little longer because I was giving it than they should, and they were back-to-back like four hours. But um, I had time after each tour to make a shameless pitch for donations. And a gentleman—sorry—who grew up in Cannon Falls and told me he was a good friend of my father's and they were in the same high school class called up and wanted to make a donation. They helped pay for the white house: fifty thousand dollars. **[14:18] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Holy moly, that is great. **[14:18] Steve Dablo:** I don't know how to... the gentleman that donated the money was Jerry Williams, and he is one of the sons of Doc Williams. Oh, and oh yeah. Um, we've entered into a number of dialogues and it's been real fun for me, especially talking a little bit about two 13, 14-year-old boys hanging around Cannon Falls and what they were doing and stuff. But um, Jerry will tell you he really appreciated growing up in Cannon Falls and was more than happy to do that. We're also going to be getting a few more of Doc Williams' items, one being a bag, some being some diplomas and stuff like that. So, uh, it's a real blessing. Anyway, um, the goal for repaying the city was $186,000 and um, with pledges and receipted money, we are now at $146,101. And Neil says that we're pretty close on the math on that, almost spot on. So um, money receipted, including this $50,000, will be $120,636. And uh, we're hoping to bring in a few more checks in just the next month or so. So um, it's been a real challenge during the COVID and um, um, I'm just happy to to give you guys that check. Um, one of the things I want to tell you about the Historical Society, because I listened to Kyle talk about the Chamber all the time and we never get a chance to talk about us a little bit, but it's been hard being closed, especially since a lot of people that would come to the museum are the high-end, most vulnerable and stuff like that, and we just haven't been able to find our way to be open, although we will meet with people. But I think because of COVID, people are going through a lot of their belongings that they want to clean up and do that, and we've had a lot of donations. One of them I'm really excited about—I chased it for seven years—it's known as the community bobsled. And I don't know, Jon, if he was here, would know about it. I'm going to be doing an interview about it, but it was a bobsled that came to Cannon Falls in the early '40s, about like a toboggan without the curl in the front, and it's got runners on it. And it went down both Spring Garden Hill and back when Highway 19 came into town—and it didn't turn on First Street, it turned on Second Street—and so there'd be a lot of sledding from the top of Mill Street on down. I think it was Jim Sole Senior told me he holds the record of making it to the band shell from the top of that hill. **[17:25] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Wow. **[17:25] Steve Dablo:** Yes, and we'll be talking about that. Um, a fifth-grade teacher in Cannon Falls for many, many, many years, Ms. Wendel Schaefer, passed away and um, uh, it's always tough to go through a deceased person's belongings, but her sister has been bringing stuff in. I've talked to a lot of people that went through her class and remembers the book, *The Boxcar Children*. You remember that? We have the book now. **[17:25] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Oh, really? **[17:25] Steve Dablo:** Yeah, the book that she read from, and that's exciting. Um, Linnea Shoquist unfortunately passed away. She was one of the Shoquist twins that before Title IX, there was no path for her athletically, but she got recruited into a program called the Redheads and went around the country. *Sports Illustrated* says wonderful things; they got an eight-page article in *Sports Illustrated* about that. Well, um, we haven't received it yet, but we've talked to Lynette and um, we'll be getting Linnea's uniform. One of them is sitting at the Basketball Hall of Fame, so we're going to have the other one. Isn't that exciting? And we wrote a series of grants—we've got a few more to go—but um, I don't know if anybody realizes how important the Mineral Spring Sanatorium was to um, the ending of tuberculosis. **[18:11] Council Member Morris Matson:** I was a patient. **[18:11] Steve Dablo:** You what? **[18:11] Council Member Morris Matson:** I was a patient. **[18:11] Steve Dablo:** You were a patient? We have a lot of pictures. Yeah. Did you get that on the camera? But um, it was, you know, I heard my parents talk about people coming from all over the world and uh, uh, I okay, so in Cannon Falls, really? But uh, it was a Mayo doctor that wanted, needed to do a test on a new antibiotic called streptomycin, and the counties agreed to do it out there, and that disease was cured first in the Falls. Oops. And so we've got people that are interested and um, we're at a data-gathering position. We've completed and received two grants and we have an author working on it. Maybe six months or more, I don't know, Zach's doing it, but we will have a nice, heavily researched book on Mineral Spring Sanatorium. And I guess that's it. I could probably go on, I shouldn't, but um, thank you for your time. **[19:43] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. You guys need anything from the museum, you let us know. Um, we're having uh, we've got another meeting coming up in just just under two weeks if you want to bring another pocket full of— **[20:31] Steve Dablo:** I just might. I just might. Thank you. **[20:31] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you for doing, uh, collecting all the money, Steve. Okay, Consent Agenda. Consent Agenda items may be adapted under one motion or presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as a council business. A: Just and correct claims accounting period ending October 29th, 2020. B: Meeting minutes for October 20, 2020 City Council meeting. C: Resolution 2514 accepting a donation of $25 from Alvina and William Schmidge for the Police Department. D: Resolution 2515 approving a cooperative snow removal agreement with MNDOT. E: Approve fireworks permit for Chamber of Commerce. F: Resolution 2516 accepting a transfer of CARES money from Leon Township for the ambulance department. G: Resolution 2517 accepting a transfer of CARES money from Belle Creek Township for the ambulance department. H: Purchase ventilator and bi-level support for ambulance department. So, do I hear any that want to come down? Nothing down? Everything's quiet. **[22:03] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. **[22:03] Council Member Steve Lindell:** Second. **[22:03] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, there's been a motion and second to approve the consent agenda. Do we have any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. That's good. Okay, Council Business A: Farmer's Market discussion. Who wants to open it up? Do you want it, Neil? **[22:51] Neil Jensen (City Administrator):** Back about three months ago, or maybe even a little more, um, this agenda item was brought before the Council and was tabled until the end of the Farmers Market season, which would be the first meeting in November. So here we are. We did have a few conversations about the Farmers Market—one with the Finance Committee—and Mary Jill actually has some ideas of what maybe would work and what maybe could be a compromise on that. I asked City Attorney Dave Kendall to put together some options for discussion purposes tonight. By all means, we don't have to make any decisions; we've got till next March to figure this thing out if need be. So, um, I think if we bring forth some of the options we can look at tonight. And Mary Jill, you may want to chime in on what you're thinking, and Dave is on Zoom—I see him up there—so he can help us out on some of the legalities of the zoning and ordinances. So I think I'll just turn it over to Mary Jill. **[24:25] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** Okay. Um, at the—actually, I thought of this during that last meeting that we were talking about this, but I didn't want to say anything because if it was a really bad idea or we'd already looked into it, I didn't want to have someone say that. My idea for the downtown market is to change its location and, if possible, the day of the week. And the reason for changing the day of the week is so that it becomes a complementary market, not a competing market on Saturday morning. Now that we don't have to do that, that's fine, but my idea is to move the market to John Burch Park and to have it at the end of John Burch Park where the band shell is. By the time the market gets going in the spring, the baseball fence is up. Um, we would also have access—not that we would have to use it or anything like that—but we could use that band shell that we so rarely use and have that going, not necessarily every week but some. We could have spoken word, we can have skits, we can you know, all sorts of things. But if we had it in an evening, say a 3:00 to 8:00 or 4:00 to 8:00, um, then it wouldn't be competing. Plus, you could be in both markets pretty easily; you wouldn't have to have twice the people to be in both. That's just my idea. I think it keeps it downtown; it's just as visible, it's nicer down there, it's shaded, um, it's pleasant. And then if vendors do want to sell on a different night or a different time, they still can go in front of the fence in the entryway there, or even on what is that, Third Street, Fourth, Fifth Street above John Burch? You could be in that corner; there's room in there. Um, but that's my idea. Gets it out of the parking lot, and but I think it takes it even to a nicer place and it's only half a block away. **[26:43] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** That's my idea. I know I've been contacted by different groups and that. I think what we really need is get together with like the Bears and them down there too. I know when you used to have the concerts or no, movies—Music and Movies—yeah, I know they said that kids would get behind and they were... yeah, but that was also at night; that was after dark if they were doing that. I hear what you're saying, so I'm just saying that I know you know, there's some good things about it and that, but I think we need to get together. **[27:29] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** No, it's a good idea. **[27:29] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** You know, see, Steve's here tonight. Uh, you know, he might have some ideas or other people. So I think it would be a good thing to maybe organize and go a step more. I mean, I think the idea is there. Like if it rains or something like that, I know Neil and I talked today. You know, bring it up on the west side, you know, the parking lot going over so you can see over the fence there, right? You know, that would be another backup for you. **[28:15] Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** What would we do in the summer? There's a lot of baseball. Um, so I just wonder is this something we could have... we probably couldn't do it if there was a baseball game going on. So how would we— **[28:15] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** There probably wouldn't be that much overlap. The games start at 7:00, so I mean you can have it from 3:00 to 7:00 on the game night. **[29:01] Council Member Morris Matson:** Okay, well, I do know that, um, a couple things. First, as far as baseball folks are concerned, I'm sure there's something we can do along that—where the right field line ends and then the rock wall and up to the thing—there is a way that we can... there'd be something to block that off. Yeah. Um, and we'd also at the Finance Committee, because we're all in favor of this idea... god, now I lost my train of thought. You know, you'd have the most of the vendors that would come there, you know, the big gate there that you walk in would bring their material or their product in with their vehicles, set up their tables and stuff, and then park across in the parking lot. There are one or two vendors that operate directly out of their vehicles. So uh, I know there's some concern there, but I think it's also a good compromise because of course, as we we're all kind of divided on this a little bit, you know, with the parking and the bicycle people. And I think we talked about a Thursday night because there were a couple other cities nearby that were doing like Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Yeah, you know, on a Thursday. And we all—well those of us who grew up here—we remember Thursday night used to always be downtown was open late and you know, that kind of thing. And uh, I don't know if next summer we could have too much in the way of uh, you know entertainment type things because of COVID. But isn't the main concern, you know, you get a couple of years to get it going and then like Mary Jill said, it would allow vendors to do both late afternoon/evening and also if they wanted to go out to Artisan? Because as I understand—Diane, correct me if I'm wrong—Artisan Plaza's Farmer's Market will now be on its own, correct? So we just have to worry about what we're going to do with the downtown market and probably something along the line of, I would think, a permitting concept. Because we all know unfortunately, outside of the parking and safety issue, we've had one vendor who has caused 99.9 percent of the problems there, and then we would have better control on that. **[31:20] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Mary Jill, I appreciate your idea of trying to come up with something that uses the band shell. I like that idea. I'll be honest, the moving it over there and then the traffic, the scheduling around you know, possibly baseball, all that stuff... vehicles in there, the football field is still there... that stuff, I think it's almost like we're... I like the band shell, everything else I think is questionable. I still sit in the camp of "leave well enough alone." I've heard from residents that say just leave it as it is. If we have two, one at Artisan Plaza, that's wonderful. Maybe the night of the week changes, but I think there's something to the charm of a Saturday morning, the people that come to town seeing it there. You know, we've got a local family who sells lemonade and they still buy a permit and they donate all their profit. **[32:06] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** No, I understand that too. I just—and kind of where it came from, the different night of the week thing, was that I'm old enough, and I know Morris is old enough and Bill, and a couple of us are old enough to remember when the Cannon Mall first opened and the ensuing years were constantly "it's better done at the mall," "no it's better downtown," "no it's..." It was a constant battle, and that's kind of where I was coming out with that. But it's, you know, it's just an idea. If you don't like it, you don't like it. But I'm also really wanting to get it out of that parking lot. I don't like it in the city parking lot. I remember being in the Farmers Market and you'd be in the market and if a vendor pulled out early, five minutes later there'd be a car in there with bikes. I mean, they don't care where you're supposed to park. Sorry, that's a vent, but um, I really I'm not crazy about it in the parking lot. But if other people want to keep it there, we keep it there and no harm, no foul. **[33:38] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** And regarding the concern with you know, the baseball and football folks, we do have to remember that John Burch Park is not a Bomber park, it's not a Bears park, it's a City of Cannon Falls park. Right. It'd be nice to have... you know, I tried a couple of years ago to get us to open up John Burch, but I got pooh-poohed on that. It's our park; let's let's put it to use. **[34:24] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Well, we're not getting on the football field in the baseball field. I think we can stop. **[34:24] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** Well, the other thing too is we could if we did do it but you know, okay so like what you just said, Matt, you like the idea of the Saturday morning market? Well, there aren't any baseball games on Saturday mornings. That's true. So we could keep it on Saturday morning and put it in John Burch. **[34:24] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** One thing too though: the fence comes down the second week of August. **[34:24] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** It was up later than that this year, wasn't it? **[34:24] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** No, that's what I talked to Bucky and he said that's when it comes down. **[34:24] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** It may have been this year because football wasn't sure. **[34:24] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** Oh, that's right, it was. Yeah, it just came down. You're right. **[35:11] Council Member Steve Lindell:** One question. That's one thing to think about. The question I would have is we would need somebody there, whether Diane or whoever's going to run it, to unlock the door. Who's going to be in charge of saying, you know, "this band can play," "this speaker"? **[35:11] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** That's separate. That's way down the line. That is going to be more work for— **[35:46] Council Member Morris Matson:** Right. And regarding the, you know, baseball fence being taken down in August some point, most of the entertainment-type things that might take place at the band shell are going to be June, July, and August usually. Maybe September and October, no, it's weather-wise not as conducive for that. And we're also not really talking about crowds, I don't think. You know, the most we ever had for Music and Movies might have been 150, and that was to see the Rochester big band play. So I don't think we're talking about just throngs of people that are going. But we can look at it, you know, even from week to week if there's a problem. I just think it's a beautiful park, it's a beautiful use of it. But we could still—and Matt, you make a good point—the Saturday morning thing's good. We'd have less trouble with baseball on Saturday morning. Would it be okay with everyone if Steve... do you want to say anything? You don't have to. I just like to hear anything. **[36:35] Steve Josephson:** Steve Josephson. I'm a vendor in the market, had been for 20 some years. I think there's a value to the city of having a farmers market in the parking lot. I know it's traditional, but I think there's a value there for the city. And I think safety is one of the selling points of having it in the parking lot because we block off through traffic four hours, 8:00 to 12:00 on a Saturday, and then we're done. Twice this year the parking lot did fill up; some of the people did go to the overflow. But I think most of the parkers of the vehicles don't know about that parking lot. I suggested we have a sign that says there is overflow parking available, but it was only twice that it actually filled up because I was there every Saturday—I looked. I think there's a value for Cannon Falls in having it downtown, and I think there's a value to Cannon Falls to have it in the parking lot. Any questions? I think that's your decision tonight. **[38:06] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you for all the stuff that you've done and all the amazing corn. You know, when people talk, you got to take the mask off because I can't see who's talking. **[38:24] Council Member Derek Lundell:** Just I want to add on to Mr. Josephson's comments there. I'm a strong advocate for leaving it the way it is. I think it's, you know, we all got the stuff in our packets; there's no way we have to discuss seven pages worth of stuff just to have a few people downtown on a Saturday morning. And if it's safety-related, you can get hit by going through your receipt after you leave Sue's garage sale or you're coming out of the back of Keith Myers'. The accidents don't care where you're coming from. They're going to happen. And as far as... I just want to leave it alone. I guess that's all I can say. I'll make a motion that we approve Option One and just keep it in downtown, the city parking lot. **[39:12] Council Member Steve Lindell:** Second. **[39:12] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Any more discussion? Option One is essentially keeping it the way it is but just adjusting some of the language? **[39:12] Council Member Derek Lundell:** Yeah, okay. **[40:06] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Hearing no more discussion, all in favor? Aye. Did you vote, Morris? **[40:06] Council Member Morris Matson:** Yeah, I voted for you. With that, I have a question. **[40:06] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** Would you be willing to change it to say a Thursday afternoon and evening to still incorporate my complimentary idea that they would be able to go to both? **[40:06] Council Member Derek Lundell:** It doesn't matter. I think if you're going to keep it the way it is, just keep it the way it is. I wouldn't move the timing. **[40:06] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** Okay, then on top of that, if you're not willing to do that, what do we do about Mr. Molly? Because he thinks he's in charge, and I'm really irritated with him, and he takes Mary Jill and I to task a lot. **[40:52] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, that is not on our agenda. If that's something that we have to deal with in the future, we'll deal with it appropriately. **[40:52] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** Then I think we can have a pre-season meeting, get all the vendors together, sit down, and just have a bowl session. **[40:52] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** Fair point. Like how much space and that? Because yes, he was one of the big violators of that space thing. Ten feet is what you're supposed to have; he was taking 25, 30 feet. **[40:52] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Really? Did he have that much? What does he sell? **[40:52] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** I don't know, I don't know real well. **[41:42] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I'll work with the city attorney, Mr. Kendall, get the language cleaned up, get some of the language put together. Okay, that's it for that one. The video server replacement, body-worn camera discussion. Who wants to? Mr. McCormick. **[41:42] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** Sure. So if you recall, on September 15th, we had a discussion here at city and it was tabled. Finance Committee met and they were split two to one on how to proceed. The two did not want to move forward with body cameras. So as this comes back, what I did was I separated the basically the two different issues. The video server, while it could be used for the new body cameras, is currently being used for our squad video. So when the city switches to the new server, we won't have video storage for that. It was not designed for that volume of data because the recommendation from the vendor was to put the police video on a separate server—one for security purposes and two for cost effectiveness for the city. So in front of you, you'll see that it's been split into two separate things. The first discussion focuses on the replacement of that video server, and then the second one focuses on the body cameras. As it relates to the video server, the city has not switched to their new server yet. When we had the conversations with a vendor on sizing that, we did ask that it be purchased to allow additional storage to be added if needed, so we could utilize that server for the video storage, but we would have to buy the additional size drives to do that. And then we would also need to purchase the software to run that video storage system because currently the server we have—when that was purchased was actually when we were running XP computers, and so it made its transition from XP to Windows 7, and then from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Windows 10 is where we started having the problems with it. And so the problem we have is we can't access it through the city's network; we have to go to a single computer to sign in. Not very efficient, not very effective. Still gets us the ability to store it and withdraw it, but we can't do it from... say, our records people have to burn CDs for defense and prosecutors. They can't do it from their desks anymore; they've got to go to this other computer to do that, which interrupts their workflow. Before they would just do it while they were doing other things; now they've got to stop, go do just that, and then go back. So what I'm recommending is that we move forward and replace the video server. What I did was I separated the proposal from WatchGuard, which included that video server and supporting software, from the parts of it that would have been body camera. That cost is roughly $13,500. What I couldn't do was split that down into what storage would be needed for just the squad, so I would expect that if we lower the amount of storage, that cost may come down. However, the storage that's there would accommodate the body camera, and so now I'll explain that part of it. Currently, we have 17 cameras. We're currently using 12 of those in an operational status, and of those 12, at the moment we only have eight that are being used. Those cameras are each assigned to an individual officer. The way the system works is a camera assigned to Neil gets plugged in, the system recognizes it and moves it into a file storage area for Neil. I plug in my camera, same thing happens except it moves it to a file storage area for my files. Laura plugs hers in, same thing except to Laura's. I can't see Laura's; Laura can't see mine; I can't see Neil's. The only ones that can see those files are admin level, and that's how we're able to make the copies necessary for prosecution or defense, but we can't alter them. The ability to track that activity exists at the server level; even admin level can't see that. What I'm proposing is purchasing five of the V300 body cameras. These cameras have removable batteries; when the batteries fail, we just put a new battery on rather than have to replace the unit. Currently, we have 17; five of those, the batteries just don't last very long. That's why they're not in an active use status. As we go into this winter, I expect that number to grow. Fortunately, we've got a few on hand that we could switch to, but I was just reviewing a report this afternoon of something that happened over the weekend, and the officer took a statement from the person, got done, went to turn it off, and discovered that it had already turned off. So that happens. I'm not going to say it happens daily, but if it happens on one that's really critical, that's not as good. What we'd like to do is move forward, replace our current body cameras, get rid of those—there may be an agency that would be interested in them, maybe there's not—and then replace them with five cameras instead of twelve or eight. The reason we can go to five is that the video management software has the ability for Neil to walk up, pick up a camera, type in the camera number identifying him and the squad he's going to be driving. It then tells that squad, "use this camera," and that camera replaces the microphone that the officer currently walks out to the squad, picks up, puts on, and wears through his shift. Then at the end of the shift, Neil comes back in, puts it back in the dock, and signs out of that camera. It unlinks from the squad, everything gets offloaded during the course of the shift, and if we ever need it, we have the squad video and the body camera video that can be displayed side-by-side with a synced audio track. That to me is a tremendous benefit as far as law enforcement tools. So that would cost us $24,500. The other part of that cost that was in the larger bundled cost before is $7,511, which is the video redaction software. Under state law, the video redaction software is not needed for the squad videos; it would only be needed for the body camera videos. And the only way that body camera video can be released is if you're a subject of the data. Now somebody can go to court and request it, and the court may grant it and order us to redact; that's when we would have to use that software. We haven't had that situation yet, but as they become more common, we expect that may happen. We could delay that until we absolutely have to do it and then purchase a company to do it for us; it might be cheaper than owning the system. But you know, it would be a cost. So that is essentially what's in front of your Council. What I'm requesting, regardless of how you feel on body cameras, is that we replace the video camera video server system and the newest version of Evidence Library that will allow our squad cars to continue to function and capture and store data. Without it, once that server goes offline, we've got about six days' worth of storage and then we've hit our cap in the squad cars and we wouldn't be able to offload it. **[51:05] Council Member Steve Lindell:** But can you add memory? I mean, you know, like banks on the server that we got now? **[51:05] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** The new one? Yes, we could do that. **[51:05] Council Member Steve Lindell:** I'm talking even the old one. **[51:05] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** No, the old one is obsolete. It's probably got to be at least eight years old. **[51:05] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Obsolete by now. Yeah. **[51:05] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** Essentially, yeah, you couldn't put the updated operating system on it and have it run. **[51:05] Council Member Steve Lindell:** But aren't you getting a new server too? **[51:05] Neil Jensen (City Administrator):** There’s a new server already in the storage room that's ready to go. The old server is on its last leg, hasn't been replaced; it should have been replaced several years ago. So the new server is there, and it's my understanding, when talking to Jeff, that you can add banks of storage onto this new server to take care of the video squad part of it. And I do know in talking to Jeff that the software, because it's been bought so long ago, is no longer able to be run on the new stuff. So we need to buy new software also. **[53:22] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** The primary advantage to not just adding additional storage to the city server is it puts it in a completely separate system. So from a hacking standpoint, that stands totally free from the city system. You don't need a firewall. The other advantage for us is we run 24/7. The city's support is not 24/7; WatchGuard support is. So the system we would be buying—$13,500—is support for that system 100%. Call them in the middle of the night on a holiday and somebody's going to answer it and help us get that system back up. **[53:22] Council Member Bill Bringgold:** What's the warranty on it? I thought I saw ten years. **[53:22] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** Five years of total support. Our IT consultant said that at the end of the five years, we probably would be much like our current system. Um, it lasted all the way through Windows 7; it wasn't until Windows 10 that it had problems. We're still making it work, but it's not working as intended. So he figured that we could probably get somewhere between seven and eight years at a minimum; 10 years is a maximum lifespan out of it. After five years, we would just have to purchase that support as needed. **[54:55] Council Member Derek Lundell:** Well, what are the wishes? Well, I think we should take this as Jeff has broken it down into two different things. The first one with the squad car video server—the $13,500—I don't have a problem with, and I would be willing to make a motion to approve that part. **[54:55] Council Member Steve Lindell:** Second. **[54:55] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** What do we get with that, Jeff? **[54:55] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** Now your video... your squad videos. So for that, what that's going to do is provide us with the server, the five years of warranty, five-year support—all of that. I'm talking about the newest version of the Video Evidence Library. That system is a Linux system, so it operates completely in Linux, but because of that, my understanding is they can create an interface to Windows 10, Windows 12, Windows whatever, and not have to rely on Windows to actually run it. All it does is just display the images within whatever that operating system is. And that would give us the installation, the support, the everything for that $13,500, which really isn't a bad price. I think it's a tremendous bargain. We've got so many years of use out of the old system that we bought in XP and it's been pretty much trouble-free. I think they build good software, good hardware, and that's why I was recommending them. **[56:29] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Makes sense. Okay, there is a motion on the floor... did it already got a second by Dere—yes? **[56:29] Council Member Steve Lindell:** No, I seconded it. **[56:29] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Yeah, motion and a second and discussion. All in favor? Aye. Past. **[57:14] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** I want to thank Council for splitting it and handling those as two separate things. Because when I bundled them together, it wasn't an intention to you know misinform you; I was just looking at a whole package. That first part definitely is needed for the squad system to continue. And now I'll welcome any discussion Council has relative to the second part. **[57:14] Council Member Derek Lundell:** Well, I wish we lived in a world where we didn't need body cams. I wish people were honest. Unfortunately, to me, it's almost like whether it's an officer who does something wrong or a civilian who makes a complaint against an officer... "Nope, we have a video of what happened." So yeah, I almost see it as an insurance thing. We've seen all the videos on the news; people have cell phones out all the time. I think it's nice to have the police perspective of video, too, if something bad were to happen. **[58:00] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** I want to just clarify something. I apologize looking at the way I wrote my memo—I did not break out the $24,500 into the two different numbers. So the cameras by themselves, without the redaction software, were $16,620, while the redaction software would have been $7,511. **[58:46] Council Member Morris Matson:** I'll respectfully disagree with Derek. A small town our size, I don't see the need for body cameras. We know even with our projected 2021 police budget, our police budget is still in my mind $200,000 more than it should be. The chance of us really needing the body camera for a small town... there aren't that many in Minnesota that use body cameras. Even our own county sheriffs do not use them. I just don't see the need to spend that money for that. Squad car thing was fine because you got to have that, but that's my opinion. **[58:46] Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Is this money already in the budget? **[58:46] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** This would be for using forfeited money. So it's not general fund expenses. It is sitting there waiting to be used for this or for some other legitimate, authorized purpose. **[59:31] Council Member Steve Lindell:** I think it's a great thing that a town our size and our location, being on the border of what's considered a metro county with Dakota... we've been ahead of the curve on this. And I think sometimes when we compare ourselves to other communities in our county and in our region, I think we fall into this trap. There's leaders and there's followers, and we have been a leader in this category for about a decade. I don't see a reason to give up on this and say, "Well yeah, we've had it since 2011, but we don't need this to continue," just as a cost-saving measure. I think being ahead of the curve and protecting our officers and protecting our civilians is a good thing, much like what Derek had said. And yeah, I understand right now we want to pay attention to costs, but if this is a tool that they need to effectively do their job... and looking at this report, I think that the Chief is being more economical with only five cameras than trying to continue limping along with something that's a handful of years old and obsolete. I think this is much like the server; sooner or later it's going to have to be done if we're going to stay this route, and I don't see any reason to not. Joe—excuse me, there's my TB again. I was going to say, my biggest issue, my biggest concern with body-worn cameras, and please correct me if I'm wrong—I've watched too many police shows—but boy, it's very selective when you turn those puppies on, isn't it? **[1:01:49] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** So our policy is written that gives the officers discretion, however our training and protocols essentially ask them to turn it on with every contact. It doesn't matter if it's a 19-year-old that's out of control or a 92-year-old that has dementia. We recommend that they turn it on, and that's actually how it's primarily used because it gets activated for almost every contact. There's also the issue of, "Well, everything happened so fast, I couldn't remember everything." Now it's, "Well, where's your body camera?" I'm glad you mentioned that. This new camera system actually is much like our squad video—it's always running and is able to go backwards and give us pre-event recordings. So if an officer gets a call, jumps out, and something really, really bad happens, and they don't get it turned on, the only thing we wouldn't necessarily have would be the sound because it's always recording, but it doesn't record with audio unless it's activated. Now if the officer responds in an emergency manner, this is going to turn on not only the squad video to start recording but it's going to turn on the body camera to start recording. The system's designed to minimize the potential for the officer to go to an emergency call and forget to turn it on. Our current system does not have that. Typically, our squad cars capture about 20 to 30 hours, and when we've had burglaries or robberies, we've gone back and pulled all the video from the squad cars for the last day and then watched that video to see if any similar suspect vehicles could be identified just from that routine driving around. Moving to the V300s gives us that capability on the body cameras as well. **[1:04:08] Council Member Derek Lundell:** Chief, how big of a hindrance would it be if that extra $7,500—that redaction software—if we just got the cameras but avoided the extra software with concerns about budget? **[1:04:08] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** My recommendation would be buy the cameras, forgo the software, and if we find ourselves in a position where we have to use it, we're either going to try to find a vendor that can do a one-time job for us or you'll see me back in front of you guys explaining why I need to spend that money then. **[1:04:54] Council Member Steve Lindell:** Well, um, I think it's my turn. I've been waffling on this and that one concern is my main concern, and I don't want to throw anybody under the bus—I trust every one of you guys to give a hundred percent all the time—but can it go dark? I mean, it's an electronic device, so could it go bad? **[1:04:54] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** Yup. We just had a squad system that was having microphone problems; it turned out it was a bad cable. These don't interface by a cable, but they have some sort of wireless connection that could go bad. **[1:05:40] Council Member Steve Lindell:** Let’s let me delve deeper into this, the darker side. Officer A, he wants to maybe talk to a citizen in a very unfriendly way, and the citizen files a complaint and you say, "Officer A, I want your body camera," and there's nothing? **[1:05:40] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** Yeah, in that situation, two things would happen. First, we wouldn't necessarily go to Officer A; we would go back to see how long ago it occurred. While the body camera is recording and you can do pulse records, it doesn't have the same capacity of storage as the squad video. On the body cameras, I don't know what that would be if it would be two days, one day. But if we had something like that happen and it got reported right away, we would go back to try to capture what we could. It would not, if it was not activated, it would not have audio anyway. But you could see the interaction. Is Matt sitting there like that? Or is Matt animated? Or are the officer's hands animated in front of the camera? So I mean, you could get some sort of idea that there was something going on, or if it was just a friendly conversation. I can tell you that in the past nine years that we've had them, the use of them has been very, very consistent, very, very good. We haven't had the problems that cities like Minneapolis or other large cities had as they adopted them. Every one of our officers started using them. When we first got squad car cameras and you'd make DUI arrests and the drunks would say something like, "I'm so drunk I shouldn't be driving," the defense attorneys hated it. But what's funny is we've had squad videos in squad cars here—they put them in in 2006. Before the 2000s, they ran on VHS tape, believe it or not. And what's funny is you still get those same statements being made today by drunks during DUI arrests. So the cameras don't really affect the people that we interact with, and the officers are so used to them it doesn't really affect the officers. From that aspect, it's a fabulous training tool. When we get into where we—thank goodness, I was mentioning this to Neil earlier, we haven't had to train an officer for a while—it's a fabulous training tool to use on an officer in training. The recruit can sit down with the lieutenant and they play back some of these contacts and they can see where they do things good, where they do things not so good. I can't guarantee you that it's always going to be there and record everything that we want, but they're a darn good system. And if they are doing something they're not supposed to be doing and the camera should have been on, they lose the benefit of the doubt that they did what they claim they did. **[1:11:27] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** We were all waiting for me to speak. Anyway, at the Finance Committee meeting when we discussed this, I will full disclosure... I was in favor of basically doing all of this. My reasoning is, if we didn't already have body cams, I might not make the leap. But boy, I know what it's like to be in any kind of workplace and then they take something away that you used to have. And anybody who's ever worked for Paul Bringgold knows he says, or used to say, "Good equipment doesn't cost, it pays." We may not need it now until that time we *do* need it, and I don't think it's that much of an investment. I would go along with this, especially given that he's pared down his request from 12 to 5. I would make a motion for the body cams only. **[1:13:44] City Attorney Dave Kendall:** Members of the Council, if you want a legal perspective on this, body cams are a good tool for hopefully limiting liability. When you have allegations that an officer did something wrong, maybe 100% of that won't be caught on body camera, but hopefully a large portion of it will be caught. And then if it is, you can either—if the officer did something wrong—address that, or if they didn't do anything wrong, you can prove they didn't do anything wrong. So it's a very useful tool from that perspective limiting legal liability. **[1:15:22] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** I made a motion—just the cameras, minus the redactions. **[1:15:22] Council Member Steve Lindell:** I'll second that. **[1:15:22] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** We will vote. In favor? Aye. **[1:16:55] Council Member Morris Matson:** No. **[1:16:55] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Opposed? So it's five to one. All right. Okay, so reports. Kyle. **[1:18:28] Kyle Paulson (Chamber Director):** Good evening Council and community. I first want to thank the entire community—the police force, the volunteers, the families, and all of the trick-or-treaters that came out for our Halloween Trick-or-Treat Trot last Friday. The estimate was over 700—I think about 720. Fantastic. What I did hear from the vendors is they felt that over 90% of the people had masks on. You could also see where the families would pause and then go forward so that they had social distancing. To me, that was a very, very successful event. Then we're on to Deck the Falls, and that is a 5:00 PM parade which we are looking for units to be in. A unit can be your truck, your car, your lawnmower with lights on it. There is no fee to have a unit in the parade. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are already on board. You don't have to be in Cannon Falls; you don't have to be a member of the Chamber. After the parade will be the lighting of the tree and the fireworks will follow that. We will be doing a listing of parking areas, so if you have other parking areas, let us know. Couple other quick announcements: Aqualand aquarium—it has been a while, but they are open. They are open Thursday through Monday, noon to 6:00 PM. We also have a new shop boutique kind of shop coming in the weekend of Deck the Falls, called "From the Heart." It has 30 vendors and will be displayed at Weikert Realty. **[1:23:08] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I just want to say about Aqualand, they're going to be bringing in people from Rochester to the cities. His story was on 50th and Nicholas in Chicago, maybe, and he's a big operator. **[1:24:40] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** Do you have anything on the Finance or Trail? **[1:24:40] Council Member Morris Matson:** Trail—we didn't meet. **[1:25:26] Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Planning Commission—we didn't have a meeting last month; we have one on Monday. **[1:26:13] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** You missed the library. **[1:26:59] Nicole Miller (Librarian):** There’s not a whole lot of update for the library. We're still status quo, but as the weather's getting colder, we're going to be doing more virtual programming. We're resuming our crafting; you can reserve a kit, and then you can watch the YouTube video on your own time. I am going to be doing the "Fit Fridays" at East Side Park. I seen now that you're going straight on late fees, not charging them? Yeah, a lot of libraries have been doing that, especially even during COVID because it's a good way to get people to feel comfortable coming back. People's incomes are really, really tight. Red Wing's doing that too. Considering our fine income is only like $2,000 a year, it was kind of weighing: Do we want the bad feelings that people can harbor toward us for that, or do we want to just say we can work around that? **[1:31:14] Council Member Mary Jill Fick:** When we discussed it at the board level, the thought was it cost so much to administer and collect that it would easily cost us $1,200 to get that $2,000. **[1:31:14] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Not city related, but another organization—the Cannon Falls Education Foundation held an event the same night as the Tricker Trot and it went very well. Also, I just want to thank everybody here on the city level, the staff that made Election Day such a success. The turnout for our town was great. I just want to congratulate Matt, Steve, Derek, and Laura for winning council seats. Morris, I will hate to see you go. **[1:32:01] Council Member Morris Matson:** Congrats to all you guys. **[1:32:01] Council Member Derek Lundell:** Thanks to the citizens that decided to put their faith in me again for another two years. **[1:32:49] Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** I just want to say thank you to Council for approving the video server. **[1:33:38] Neil Jensen (City Administrator):** Got a couple things. One of the first things that was discussed with me when I got here was a pond up by Grove Street that has trouble overtopping and running into the backyards. We got Goodhue County Soil and Water up there and our engineer, and we're in the process of looking for a solution. Secondly, our RFPs for legal services are due tomorrow. We have four right now. Thirdly, the transit bus that runs around town... Cannon Falls will be getting a new one for 2021. The cost share match on that is 10%, so expect a $9,200 bill sometime in 2021. **[1:34:23] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Public input. Do we have anybody for public input? Hearing none, special city council meeting Thursday, November 12th at 5:30. Adjourn? All in favor? Aye. Done.