Here is the transcribed townhall with speaker names added based on the context of the dialogue and the roll call provided in the text. **Note:** Based on the transcript audio, there is a **Councilmember Connie Carlson** present who was not on the initial list provided, while Orin Kipp and Carl Bliss are not mentioned in the dialogue. *** [1:58] (Silence) [2:28] (Silence) [3:58] (Silence) [4:58] (Silence) [5:28] (Silence) [6:28] (Silence) [6:58] (Silence) [7:28] (Silence) [7:58] (Silence) [8:58] (Silence) [11:27] (Silence) [11:57] (Silence) [12:23] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** They usually show us everything we need. Did you bring yours in, your iPad? What you—they said they could actually use it somewhere else if they can figure out how to crack it, so you should bring it in. Yeah, bring it in because I don't know, he's—he doesn't know what password, he can't get in, right? Well, mine just doesn't want to get in but yeah. Didn't you have a use for it if he could bring it in, Matt? [12:45] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** I'll bring it. [12:47] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, awesome. Not okay. All right. He's giving you a thumb. Okay. Usually puts a little sign out or something. Okay. All right. Call to order the February 5th, 2024 meeting of the Bayport City Council. And now we will all stand and do the Pledge of Allegiance. [13:11] **All:** 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. [13:25] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, Matt, you want to do the roll call please? [13:28] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yeah. Councilmember Carlson? [13:30] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** Here. [13:31] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Gilmore? [13:32] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Here. [13:33] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Hill? [13:34] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Here. [13:35] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Mayor Hansen? [13:36] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Here. [13:37] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Uh, John Doe is absent due to uh, sickness. [13:41] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right. Um, does anyone want to make a motion to approve our agenda? [13:45] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I'll make a motion approving tonight's agenda, February council meeting. [13:51] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Sounds good. [13:52] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** I second. [13:53] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks Katie. All those in favor? [13:55] **All:** Aye. [13:58] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay. All right. Proclamations, accommodations, petitions, and announcements. The January recycling award recipient is uh, the Swansons, Susan and Christopher at 514 Prairie Way South. They'll be awarded for their recycling efforts with a grant from Washington County. And then we have the open forum. It's a portion of the meeting to address the city council on subjects that are not part of the agenda. The city council may take action or reply at the time of the statement or may give direction to staff regarding investigation of comments. A total of 15 minutes is allotted for public comment during the open forum. I don't think either of the Chiefs are here for that, so guessing there isn't anyone here. Um, and then the consent agenda. Um, we're going to consider resolution adopting items 1 through 13: January 8th, 2023 Workshop minutes; January 8th city council regular meeting minutes; January payables and receipts; January building, plumbing, mechanical, and zoning permits report; donation of fire suppression tools from Minnesota Masonic Charities for the fire and police departments; appointment of election judges for 2024; proclamation of No Mow May for this year; and no waiver of statutory tort liability limits for city insurance coverage; special event application from Andersen Corporation for a picnic on August 9th and 10th at Lakeside Park; special event application from Bayport Community Action League for the 2024 community events; a special event application from Kinney Croy Girl Scouts for Twilight Camp on June 13th through the 16th at Lakeside Park; authorization to apply for a water efficiency grant through the Met Council for 2024 to 2026; and a request from police officer Britney Leowski for postsecondary education tuition reimbursement. Do I have a motion to adopt this resolution? [16:18] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I move to adopt the resolution approving the consent agenda as presented. [16:22] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you. [16:23] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** Then I'll second it. [16:24] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, thanks Connie. Roll call vote. [16:28] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Carlson? [16:29] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** Aye. [16:30] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Gilmore? [16:31] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Aye. [16:32] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Hill? [16:33] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Aye. [16:34] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Mayor Hansen? [16:35] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Aye. I think it's great that Britney wants to get some more education. A psych degree would be really helpful. Okay. And then also the grant, I know Simon's not here but I think he's been doing a lot of helpful things. Okay. So the public hearing for the Fourth Avenue North Street Improvement project is next, and Matt's going to present this item. [17:05] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, as you recall this project includes um, a portion of street reconstruction, mill and overlay, and stormwater improvements to 4th Avenue North, which is adjacent to the Andersen Corporation building um, and leads to the city boat landing. The current project estimate cost is $344,000 approximately um, and AMS would cover roughly $172,000 of those costs, 50/50. As I indicated, Andersen Corporation is the only entity being assessed for this project. Um, they’ve indicated via email that they have no objection to this project moving forward. Um, public hearing is actually for any person who wants to provide comment related to the work and/or the assessment. Um, only adjacent properties who are affected by the assessment received notice, which Andersen Corporation did. Um, after closing the public hearing there is no further action needed tonight. Um, a resolution accepting the plans and specs and authorizing um, to move forward with bids will be presented at the next council meeting. [17:51] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, thanks Matt. Um, so then we need to open the public hearing? [18:00] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** I'll make a motion opening the public hearing. [18:02] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks Connie. [18:03] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Second. [18:04] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you, Katie. Um, all those in favor of opening the public hearing? (Council responds Aye). Do we really have to do that? Oh okay, seems like technically you should. Okay, so public hearing's open. Again, Chiefs, did you want to talk about it? Okay. Do we have a motion to close the public hearing? [18:36] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I'll move to close the public hearing. [18:38] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** I'll second it. [18:39] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, Ethan and Connie, thank you. So we're done with that, right? You don't need any more action, correct? Unless anyone has questions or comments they want to make about it or whatever, right? [18:50] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yes. [18:51] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, it's all good. We've talked about it before, we're good. Okay, there's no unfinished business so we'll move on to new business. Consider adoption of a drug, alcohol, cannabis employee testing policy to comply with state and federal law, and our attorney Christina Benson is here to help us with this. [19:24] **Christina Benson (City Attorney):** Yes, good evening Madame Mayor and members of the Council. Happy to be back here in Bayport. Um, before you is the drug, alcohol, and cannabis employee testing policy that was drafted by your staff. The memo pretty much hits on what this is. There's a new cannabis law that you already adopted a policy on in December and this just allows testing under that policy. Um, this is especially applicable to cities like yours that have a police and fire department who are not allowed to use um, under this policy, cannabis even off-business, um so that if you know, they test positive, the city can still choose to take action. Um, the penalty I suppose, consequences for testing positive is um, to go through a treatment program. So you don't have very—you have very um, positive and um, cooperative um, draft before you tonight. Um, obviously DOT testing is a whole different animal. Um, everything that's included in the policy is required by Minnesota and um, federal law to be included in your policy and um, it allows the staff to take proper reports that are required by statute as well. It has all of the details so that staff can use it um, to comprehensively enforce it as well. Uh, with that I stand for any questions that you may have um, on this policy. [20:55] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right thanks. It’s very comprehensive, very long. Um, and I—I guess mostly because it's repetitive because we've got the non-DOT and then the DOT sections. Um, one question I had because cannabis is part of this now um, and testing for that is—is difficult because of the amount of time it stays in your system. So what—how does that actually work just to help me understand? Is there like a threshold amount that has to be in your system for it to count against you or how—how do they actually do that? [21:42] **Christina Benson (City Attorney):** So if the city um, does a test that is for cannabis, then it will either be paired um, for a non-DOT with a Reasonable Suspicion test. So that's really what um, the cannabis concentration metabolites that come up in the test would um, confirm. So there isn't any way to know how recently they've used the cannabis but um, for—for that type of positive test there would be that Reasonable Suspicion report that together would—would come to the conclusion that they had been impaired by cannabis. If they had tested positive also for alcohol or another drug, then there's no way of telling, but what the city would act on is that you had a positive test and reasonable suspicion. And then for um, your safety-sensitive and your law enforcement, fire, working with children—I'm not sure who all you have in your staff—um, there's a couple other list of items that are... if they test positive for cannabis um, they can't—um, they also are not eligible for hire. So it's only those positions that have um, pre-employment testing, and then non-safety sensitive do not test for cannabis on pre-employment. And with DOT you just aren't allowed to test positive at all. Any sort of metabolite present is um, in violation of DOT federal regulations. [23:14] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay. What about random testing? [23:14] **Christina Benson (City Attorney):** Random testing is only subject to your DOT employees and that's something that's a requirement by the federal government. So again, if you test positive, there's no way of knowing when um, cannabis use occurred, but if you have a positive metabolic test, the federal regulations require you to take action on that. [23:25] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, so it goes hand in hand for the non-DOT people with having some kind of a suspicious thing happen that makes us feel like we should be testing them. So therefore it probably is enough in their system to cause some kind of impairment, or there would also be positive alcohol or positive other drug use that something was in their system causing an impairment. Okay. I did have a few tiny little like typo things that I sent to staff that they will fix. It didn't affect like the content at all. Well, depends on how you interpret some of that stuff but you know, it should be fine. So Matt said he'd make those changes or staff would. Um, does anybody have any comments or questions outside of what we just talked about? [24:14] **Councilmembers:** No. [24:15] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** I mean a lot of it we kind of just have to do, right? [24:18] **Christina Benson (City Attorney):** Right. [24:19] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** My gosh are we really going to go home at like 6:20? Okay, really I mean there's not anything that the city adds beyond federal and state guidelines, it's pretty straightforward? [24:28] **Christina Benson (City Attorney):** Correct, yeah. [24:30] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay. All right. So thank you Christina for all your work on it and for summarizing it. [24:34] **Christina Benson (City Attorney):** Yeah. [24:35] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah. All right. Um, does someone want to make a motion? [24:47] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** I'll make a motion to adopt the drug and alcohol cannabis employee testing policy to comply with the state and federal laws. [24:54] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks Connie. Second anyone? [24:56] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** I second. [24:57] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right thanks Katie. All right and uh I guess all those in favor? [25:02] **All:** Aye. [25:04] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Anyone oppose say nay? All right so that passes, we have a new policy. All right city council liaison reports. Ethan, you want to start? [25:12] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Sure. Didn't—that's easy. That's really easy. [25:18] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** How about Connie? [25:19] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** Okay, the library met and um, we're moving ahead with the strategic plan. We'll meet next Tuesday, it's a week early on the 13th, um and Amanda from the Fast Forward Libraries, who's kind of taking over that or implementing the fast—um, the strategic planning, will meet with us after our meeting. Um, Jill's busy working on the annual report and then she just wanted to say that um, at the end of the month they're going to form some focus groups to—if anybody has opinions or ideas of what they want to see at the library, that they should um, check that out or talk to her about or coming to it. [26:15] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Are they going to do any formal recruiting or they'll just— [26:21] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** Well I think she's just going to... sound like she's just if you want to be part of it let them know. Okay. Yep. And she didn't give me a date. I—she doesn't really have a date yet she just said at the end of the month. So maybe more after we meet with Amanda from the Fast Forward Libraries. And so that's it. We'll meet next—a week early on the 13th. [26:45] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Great, thanks. Yeah, Katie? [26:48] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** And um, so the meeting last month was um, pretty fast. They went through um, all of the dates, made all the dates for the community events that they're having um, the farmers market and the Easter egg hunt, bar crawl, the garage sale, ice cream social and the Derby Days, and then lighting of the green. So all those dates are in and into the city to reserve, so that's good. Um, we are looking for volunteers so you can reach out to BCAL if you want to either volunteer for an event to help or become a member to BCAL. Um, and the next meeting is on th—this Thursday um, at 6:00 p.m. at the Legion, which is a great place to learn from if you want to be in it. [27:45] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, good point. Show up at the meeting and learn more. All right, so I have luckily also a very short report. I was gone for most of the month of January so um, I missed—on January 8th we had our council meeting the same night as the Fire Relief Association which is Mile's on appointment. Um, looks like their investments are performing well or did well in 2023, so that's good news 'cause you got to keep the money in there. And then um, the service time letters were provided to each member and each of them met the requirements for members in good standing. Um, and then on uh, January 15th I went and represented our city by stomping snow for the world snow sculpting championship on the—their city council's team or their city staff team too I guess it was. And I wanted to just give a little shout out to First State Bank in Bayport and also Mabel's. So the—the bank hosted um, Team Funland from Finland for the snow sculpting championship and they actually gave them um—while I was gone they asked if I could do it but I wasn't here to give a tour of the city for them and kind of show them what Bayport's all about. And then Mabel's had some um, features like a special Finnish coffee drink and some other specials, which was really cute. So I was happy to see that the Chamber had reached out to Bayport as well to kind of get involved with the snow sculpting championship. So—so that was—that's it for me. Um, do you want to move on to staff, City and Staff? [29:15] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you Madam Mayor. Reports um, Fire Chief Eisinger. [29:21] **Chief Eisinger (Fire Chief):** Good evening Madam Mayor and council members. Uh, for the fire, call volume for January was 100 calls compared to 89 in 2023. And I just want to let everybody know that I've been in this since 1977 and this has been the best winter ever. You don't realize that how many times you have to go to car accidents and snows there and all that. It just—like responding to calls down south. So didn't even think about that. So that's our—our year-to-date total. Also our monthly drills were hand and power tool use and maintenance and our quarterly EMR review. And also fire inspections are ongoing as well as plan reviews. Our meetings at Washington County Fire Chiefs, uh the Minnesota Fire Department Association, uh Salvation Army came and toured our facilities. The Stillwater Area High School mountain bikes uh safety meeting—I don't know if you're aware, but they have—do their... is it motocross or what do they call it, bike cross or whatever that uh out in Oak Park Heights? So they do have incidents out in the park so we need to find them um, so we've met with Lakeview and a bike team. We did provide coverage for Lower St. Croix Valley Fire Department, they had their annual um, Christmas party so we covered for their area. And then we had Washington County Air Chiefs leadership training school at the Stillwater Middle School. With that, I stand for questions. [30:52] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** When we cover them, do we have to have more—more people on call or do we just have the same people and we just cover their area? [30:59] **Chief Eisinger (Fire Chief):** Yeah, we just have it—it's with the new dispatch systems we switch to alternate uh coverage. We work with the Auto Aid in the uh county dispatch, so when the 911 call comes in they program the hours that they're out of service or if we're out of service and then they just hit their fire department tone and so they're going automatically right away. Oh, so it—it works out uh a lot better than having to mobilize our staff in our engine and mobilize them down there and then we have to have two staffs covered. So works out quite well. [31:36] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Interesting. We do a lot for Stillwater too, that's it's great having you know, close business partners that help us. M-hm. Anyone else? No, thanks. [31:44] **Chief Eisinger (Fire Chief):** Okay, thank you. [31:45] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you. Thanks. Police Chief Jackson. [31:51] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Madame Mayor and council members, uh this is the fire suppression system that we got donated. Um, Chief Eisinger also has one in his vehicle as well. Um, but I wanted to show you guys exactly what it was so you had an idea. It's actually quite heavy and made of metal. Essentially pull this pin, flip the switch, throw it into a burning building um, and it will lower the temperature from like 1,000° down to 200 in 30 seconds I believe. So one more thing for uh the first responders that will hopefully help us limit some uh property damage and potentially save lives. So it's awesome. Um, it was donated by the St. John's Lodge No. 1 Masonic Charities. Um, great group of guys. They had one of their members that had a house fire—recall I told you about this at the last meeting—and so they came together and got a bunch of money put together and got this out to first responders. So those are now in our squad cars, we have two of them. So um, when our squads are out there they will have these available to them. Hopefully we don't need them. [32:57] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Can you—can you throw them into like a car? [33:00] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** It's not recommended because it's not enclosed, but if somebody was say trapped in a car and we were trying to work to get them out, would I throw it in there? Absolutely. Okay. It releases like a non-toxic—it almost looks like smoke. Um, on my memo that I sent in for my city administrator report, the website is on there and you can go check out—they have some YouTube videos on it that actually show it being used. So cool. Um, yeah it's kind of a neat little thing and um, they actually have a—a training burn that they're doing where they throw it in in the basement and you can just see how you know, much the fire is going at the beginning and then once they're done it's basically out. [33:50] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** And how long will it stay good? Like if you don't use it in the next year will it still be— [33:55] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** I think—off the top of my head I don't know Mayor, but I want to say it was at least 10 years or 15... 15. It was 15. 15 years. And the really nice thing for us too is that um, it's not temperature dependent so we don't have to bring it in when it's really cold or the summertime. [34:10] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** That might be I know like a big secret. Yeah, don't show up. [34:15] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Yeah, it's uh—you pull it, it's um, I believe it's like 8 seconds and then it takes 30 seconds to expend all of its—whatever the smoke is. It's a non-toxic, so it's not damaging to say the firefighters that would go into the house afterwards, the rescue of somebody like that. So um, but yeah, you just Google um "Fire Suppression Tools" FST. Look it up on YouTube, that takes a couple minutes and uh it really is a valuable piece of equipment we can now have. [34:42] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** So and when you do use it we'll want to replace it. [34:45] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** So let—the nice thing about these charities is that they did say that they are budgeting for some replacement. They would okay. Um, but they did also say that um, the uh City's insurance may cover it or else the homeowner's insurance may cover it to replace it because— [35:05] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Yes, just out of curiosity do you remember Chief— [35:10] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** It's you know, and it's just—it's not for every scenario but I think it will you know, somebody eventually is going to end up using it. I think like I said last time, there's been a few times in my career where it definitely could have been used um, to maybe make a difference. So um, hopefully we don't need it but you know. Yeah. Um, a lot of officers you know, from other departments all have them too so. I don't remember how many they donated total, do you remember? Like 15 or 17 and you've got one at—with the fire department 'cause you guys are usually there before they are... like PD shows up first. [35:45] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** So I just want to thank—was it Oak Park Heights guy who—Stillwater who decided like, "Oh we should share these with our..." [35:54] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** It actually came from uh, Dan Star, the Sheriff. Original one ended up connecting um, Chief Hansen with Oak Park Heights, who then reached out to me and they—we all kind of reach out to the people that—on the charity, and they were great to work with. [36:09] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, that's awesome that they thought of spreading. [36:11] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Really happy with that. Uh, upcoming events, a couple things to add to my list there. Uh, we did post for the police officer position and we're currently working through the process with City staff for that and we'll have interviews coming up here shortly. Uh, upcoming events: we have the Razzle Dazzle auction tour of the police department with the meet and greet for Maizie. So every year we do a little certificate that we offer up a tour um, of the police department and now with Maizie here we added that with it too. So that's always a good time. Um, we also have a K9 uh meet and greet demo planned at Pony Preschool coming up here shortly um, that we just just put on the books. And then um, I'm also going to meet with uh some residents over at Cale uh, with some staff and we're going to do some training on some senior scams and just kind of a meet and greet. We used to meet out there quarterly so we're going to try and get back to something like that. So um, I have a presentation um, on senior scams, so we're going to go out there and present that to them. [37:05] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Awesome. Can you let us know when you're going to do that Cale thing? [37:08] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Sure. [37:09] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, I—I want to know. Um, how did—so your call volume for 2023 was around 6,900? Is that similar like—do you know how that compares to past years? [37:21] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Off the top I—I don't. I think it's—I think it's down a little bit. [37:25] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Down a little bit? Okay. That's good news. Yeah. [37:28] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** And then I did change—I didn't put all the call logs like I had previously, I just put the website where you can find the information um, if it's super important to you I can go back to printing it off but— [37:38] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** How do you guys feel about that? That you know how we used to get that long pages and pages of the call—through them every now and again but I don't think it's— [37:48] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Yeah, if there's a place for us to access it I think— [37:50] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Put right my to it's pretty easy to find so yeah I'm fine with that too. Yeah. If anyone in the public is missing it let us know but it's here in the—the at the back of the packet you can see the link to it. So yeah. [38:05] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** And it's Washington County is uh, Sheriff's Department web—it all gets through the—and gets updated like daily. Um, the particular report that I would get that I used it's about once a week. Okay. And it's literally the dump of all the calls from the entire County. So if you're real curious what's going on in Forest Lake you can look those up too so you know, interesting. [38:34] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right thanks Chief. [38:35] **Chief Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Thank you. [38:37] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Um, Public Works director Worth is absent tonight. Um, he's sick also um, but I'll highlight a couple of his things. Um, he's working through a Public Works building assessment. Um, he's having SE put together some numbers to do the actual assessment. Um, the building is now roughly 32 years old, 33 years old um, and it's showing its wear. It's still workable but um, uh he wanted to get ahead of anything that um, potentially could start adding up. The other thing is he went out for bids on the—the uh, Oak Savannah uh, restoration project. Um, that deals primarily with removing Buckthorn, treating Buckthorn, and planting um, uh native plants. Um, and so that will be coming in soon and hopefully they will start working on part of that project. Um, I can probably answer any other questions related to public works if anybody has any. [39:46] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Pretty familiar with that really. You know a little bit about that. They've had a tough year with all the snow. [39:55] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yes. Yeah I guess they—I asked Matt about that he said they've been busy doing more of the um, learning about where the lead pipes are in our town instead. Yeah. [40:07] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** So they're—they're filling in their time but um, yes they're missing some overtime which is good for the city, good for us, not for them. I did notice I was just down that way—could you—is a new sign down there? That Public Works sign looks pretty. Yes, maybe we could do one of those cool rocks for them—say Bayport Public Works but it would last longer probably. Um, one thing that did happen today: we did have a water main break up on 7th Street um, kind of up by Bob Johnson's house. Um, that got fixed uh, within three hours of finding it. So um, but it might have been leaking for a while based on our water usage um, over the past couple months. [40:40] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Oh, um with that houses affected it like— [40:48] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Well, so no, usually when we have water main break even if it's leaking, nothing's coming in it's just going out. Um, unless you have a negative pressure somewhere because say the Fire Department is pulling on the main or something like that, but we didn't have any fire calls or house fires in those couple months. So um, if that would have happened and pulled in dirty water there would have probably been reports of that. Um, but usually what happens is because of the constant pressure it just pushes it out. Um, it finally made it up to the street, that's the only reason we—we found it. Um, Assistant Administrator Taylor. [41:05] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** Madam Mayor and members of the Council. Uh, the City's employee drug, alcohol, cannabis employee testing policy was completed last month and was approved earlier on tonight's agenda. Um, the year-end report for the city's recycling grant from Washington County was also completed by the January 31st deadline. The grant application for 2024 is in process and will be completed uh, by the end of February. A draft rewrite of the city sign ordinance uh, is also complete and will be reviewed by the city attorney for compliance in the coming weeks. Staff anticipates a draft ordinance to be presented to the Planning Commission and City Council at a joint workshop or meeting either in March or April. Election preparations, equipment testing, and election judge training will be completed in February to prepare for the upcoming presidential nomination primary election which will be held on March 5th. And improvements are also in process to the "Welcome to Bayport" packets that the city provides to new residents and new businesses uh, with useful community resources and contact information. I stand for questions. [41:59] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** I have none. Thank you Sarah. [42:01] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** You're welcome. [42:02] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay. All right. Uh, City Administrative Report. [42:08] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Um, just a couple of things. Um, we are working on the Office Accounting Specialist position. Um, we do have some applications so that's good. Um, that closes on March 15th and the attempt would be to bring somebody to hire—oh, my bad—February 15th. Uh, closes on February 15th with the intent to bring somebody to the March 4th council meeting. Um, the Oak Park Heights fire consultant has finished up his uh report and provided it to Oak Park Heights. Um, at this point we'll be waiting for presentation there um, and then a final—probably a finalized report that would be delivered to the City of Bayport. Um, I don't—I suppose we would be invited to attend Oak Park Heights, I don't know if we would want to. [43:08] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** So uh, you said you're closing the application on March 14th? [43:12] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** February. February. February 15th, my bad. [43:15] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yep. No it's all good. I just—yep. [43:18] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Um, and then finally the financial management plan. Uh, Northland Securities has been great to work with so far. They've done a couple site visits and um, we're making good progress on that. Um, and hopefully uh, we have a couple more meetings coming up until um, the first um presentation to the Council um, in April I believe. That stands for questions. [43:52] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** We don't have any more movement on anything with the school district and the—the Memorandum of Understanding was signed by both parties and that's all we know so far? [44:03] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yep. [44:04] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay. And we're waiting for the purchase agreement between the church and them and all that which should happen next month hopefully? Okay. Um, any other City Council items or announcements? I don't have any. Okay. Does anyone want to adjourn? [44:26] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I'll make a motion. [44:27] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right thanks Ethan. [44:28] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** I second. [44:29] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks Katie. All those in favor? [44:31] **All:** Aye. [44:33] **Mayor Michele Hanson:** I. We are adjourned. We made a record. This is a record. [44:54] (End of Meeting)