[0:55] Mayor Luke Hellier: Good evening and welcome to the December 15th city council meeting. If you join me for a moment of silence in the pledge of allegiance. [1:32] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay, roll call, please. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Bermel. Councilmember John Bermel: Here. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Wolter. Councilmember Dan Wolter: Here. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: Here. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Hellier. Mayor Luke Hellier: Here. Okay, moving on to item number three, citizens comments. This is an opportunity for citizens to address the council for up to three minutes. if you come on up, just state your name and address for the record, please. Welcome. [1:54] Phil Wilson: Thanks very much for having me. My name is Phil Wilson. Uh I live at 17320 Halifax Path in Sunny Lakeville. Uh I wanted to urge the council to oppose installing flocks license plate cameras here in Lakeville. While these systems are often promoted as tools for safety, they come with serious and lasting risks. Flock cameras continuously collect and store data about where residents drive, when they travel, and how often, regardless of whether they they are suspected of any wrongdoing. [2:23] Phil Wilson: This level of surveillance erodes privacy and creates detailed movement records of ordinary law-abiding citizens. In addition, centralized databases of location data are vulnerable to hacking, unauthorized access, and mission creep, where tools introduced for serious crimes are later used for minor infractions or noncriminal monitoring. Communities across the country have seen how surveillance technologies can disproportionately affect certain neighborhoods and chill lawful activities such as attending meetings, visiting sensitive locations, or exercising free speech. Lakeville should not normalize constant monitoring of its residents in exchange for a perception [3:09] of safety. Public safety indeed matters, but so do civil liberties, trust, and the character of our community. Lakeville can invest the proposed $127,000 over two years in safety strategies that respect privacy, strengthen community relationships, and address crime without subjecting everyone to round-the-clock surveillance. Once this infrastructure is in place, it's very difficult to limit or roll back its use. I respectfully ask the council to reject the installation of flock cameras and to prioritize solutions that keep Lakeville both safe and free. Thank you. [3:50] Mayor Luke Hellier: Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Any other public comments? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to additional agenda information. Mr. Miller. City Administrator Justin Miller: Thank you, Mayor and Council. If it is okay with you, uh staff would propose to flip items 7 A and B. Uh so 7B, the North Creek second edition preliminary plat would go first and then 7A Dakota Way Solutions preliminary plat rezoning and planned unit development would go second. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay, sounds good. Anything else? Okay. [4:23] Um moving on to item 5A, fire department retirement recognition, and we'll turn it over to our fire chief Mike Meyer. What everybody's here for. [4:42] Fire Chief Mike Meyer: Good evening, mayor, council members. The shadow boxes are down in front of you, so hopefully you got a chance to see those. I couldn't fit them all up on the podium for tonight, but uh tonight we are honoring to rec—or honored to recognize four members of the Lakeville Fire Department who started in January 17th of 2005 and retired this year in 2025 after more than 20 years of dedicated service to our community. and I'll call their names up here in just a second. These firefighters have served together in a variety of roles at station 4 and also contributed their time and leadership uh to the fire department and the fire relief association helping support the long-term well-being of our firefighters. If I can have John Clancy, Dan Harle, Paul Elen, and Steve Meyer come forward. And if your family would like to join you, they are more than welcome to. Firefighter Steve Meyer: They'll probably stay in their chairs. [laughter] Fire Chief Mike Meyer: Throughout their 20 plus years of service, they have seen the department evolve as our community has grown, moving from a pay-per call to a pay per hour, call volume increase, new equipment, new apparatus. [5:46] Their their decades of service includes hundreds of hours of emergency response training, community outreach, and leadership, often performed at the most inconvenient times during their days. uh their contributions have made us a better department for the community we serve and I want to thank them and their family for their service and dedication. I got a couple quick stories about some of them. So, as you look at the four of them, one of them is a driver because the other three got closer to the fire and have no hair anymore. [laughter] Fire Chief Mike Meyer: You can go from there. The one closest to me. I met his wife before he was even on the fire department. Uh my wife signed our kids up for ECF mommy and me class. So when she was at work, I would go and I got to meet his wife Carmen before he even joined the fire department. And now a funnier story is that my wife now as a grandmother is going to ECF classes. [laughter] So uh so I'll give them a minute if they want to uh address the council and say a few words. But thank you. [6:45] Firefighter Steve Meyer: I just got a few things. Um, and first of all, I'd like to recognize uh Paul Miskman, who's our other class of 2005 firefighter who's here, more dedicated, I guess. [laughter] And then just a couple thoughts. So, um, having two kids, uh, that have gotten married in the past three years, um, I've learned that really no one wants to hear me talk more than a minute or two anyway. So, I I will keep this brief. [7:20] Um, I would like to say thank you to each of our families. They are the ones that have felt the interruption of the pager and when we returned from any call allowed us to continue with any activity or event like we were never gone. Um a special thank you to our wives the glue that has kept this journey going the past 20 years. So thank you Carmen, Crystal, Kim, and Paula over here. Um having been off the department for the past six months I've realized what an amazing group of individuals make up this team. Those that came before us and those that are here now have all made an influence on us on making us the best we could be. A couple things about the four of us. Dan and I always joke that we would have the smallest shadow boxes. And I see mine is actually big bigger than his. And that's because we were black hat firefighters [8:05] the entire 20 years. So we don't get the extra shadow box goodies from being an officer or a district chief. But they they look they look great. Um the other thing about this group is we had an officer in John Clancy. We had an engineer in Paul Elen and we had resources to ride in the back of the truck and together we made a pretty good team both on and off the truck. And that's the great thing about this department. A bunch of selfless individuals willing to jump in and fill in wherever and whenever it's needed. [8:34] Lastly, thank you for all the support we've gotten over the years. Chief um for your steady guidance and support and just for being there the whole time. Terry and Tori for always helping with the dumb questions, getting us to the right resource, and helping us with anything we forgot to do in a timely manner. And lastly, to the city council and to the public safety foundation for your commitment to public safety and for always willing to listen to the needs of both the fire department and us as individual firefighters. Um, it's been an honor to serve the city of Lakeville and um, best wishes and continued success to the to the fire department. So, that's all I had. [9:20] [applause] [10:04] Mayor Luke Hellier: You want to just display your shadow boxes so they can at least take a look at them? [laughter] Very good. Well, I—Oh, go ahead, Joshua. [10:23] Councilmember Joshua Lee: I was just going to say uh seeing 80 years of experience go out the door is is tough, but uh you're it's well-deserved. Congrats on your retirement and and just thank you for your service over the last uh two decades. It's it's incredible. So, appreciate it. [10:38] Councilmember Dan Wolter: Uh we continue to be—Oh, sorry. Were you gonna go ahead? I just two quick things. Number one, for you non-drivers, I get you. But second, I just want to reiterate uh thank you for all the years of service. I don't know if our community truly understands the level of sacrifice for you and your families uh to do this type of work and it is 24/7 and it is always at the most inconvenient time yet you are always there to answer the call. So thank you very much. [11:10] Mayor Luke Hellier: I would echo that and again thank your spouses and your children. Thank you for your service to our city. Thank you. We'll exit quietly as possible. We'll give you plenty of time to exit. You deserved it. [applause] [12:09] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay, we'll move on to item B, a spotlight on Hearth and Home Technologies. And I don't—Are you going to cue this up before video or—Okay, we'll have Tina Goodroad, our community development director, tee this up. Community Development Director Tina Goodroad: Thank you, mayor, members of the council. I'm pleased to present the spotlight video for Hearth and Home Technologies. Hearth and Home Technologies is a longtime Lakeville business. Um, they moved their headquarters here back in 1996. They have over 2,000 members across all of their operations with 250 based right here in Lakeville. The company includes several different business units and manufactures indoor and outdoor fireplaces in Lakeville's industrial park as part of the Stellar, Heat & Glo, and the Outdoor GreatRoom Company. Over a thousand luxury [12:56] fireplaces have been made in Lakeville in the past four years and company leaders have been actively engaged in the chamber's Lakeville Works program. Sarah Welcome, the VP of human resources and community relations is here and I would like to welcome her up to receive the plaque um as well as say a few words. [13:19] Sarah Welcome (Hearth and Home Technologies): Good evening. Thank you. So, on behalf of Hearth and Home Technologies, we're honored to be featured. Lakeville is not just where we do business. It's a community where many of our employees call home, and that was that's what makes our involvement especially meaningful. So, thank you for the recognition. [13:35] Mayor Luke Hellier: Yeah. Thank you. Do we have a video this time? Okay, cool. [clears throat] [14:00] Video Narrator: Hearth and Home Technologies located in Air Lake Industrial Park near the intersection of County Road 70 and Cedar Avenue has been operating in Lakeville for nearly 30 years. Sarah Welcome: Hearth and Home Technologies is headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota. Uh, and since we moved our headquarters here in 1996, it's really been an exciting place to grow our team and our operations so that we can deliver those fireplaces, stoves, and outdoor fire products to customers nationwide. Video Narrator: Although the company has multiple locations throughout the United States, business operations are managed right here in Lakeville. Sarah Welcome: Hearth and Home Technologies is made up of four different business units. So, we have our Fireside Hearth and Home, which is more of our retail space. We have our fireplaces business unit, our SOS business unit, and then our outdoor fire products business unit as well. Video Narrator: [14:44] The business has increased its presence in the city over the last several years, growing beyond its corporate campus to include manufacturing in Lakeville. Hearth and Home Representative: Hearth and Home Technologies is the largest manufacturer of fireplace and hearth products uh in North America. We have three facilities in Minnesota, one down in Lake City, two here in Lakeville. This facility houses Stellar which is the luxury arm of the direct vent gas fireplaces and then there is Outdoor GreatRoom Company which does the outdoor products. Video Narrator: [15:15] The local Stellar by Heat & Glo location includes an innovation lab where members integrate cutting edge fireplace technologies. Over 1,000 luxury fireplaces have been built in Lakeville since moving into its current facility in January 2022. Hearth and Home Representative: You can find our products in many artisan homes, many famous national builders, but also really fun projects like the Viking Lakes Hotel or the Hershey's School and many, many more. Our products reach a wide variety of audiences from consumers, homeowners to home builders, remodelers, interior designers, and architects both from a residential and commercial standpoint. And they find our products really with our extensive dealer network, [16:02] including five of our own retail stores right around the Twin Cities area, Fireside Hearth and Home. Video Narrator: The business employs a wide variety of jobs, including sales, finance, marketing, IT, human resources, and more. The core of the company's success is an empowering member-owner culture. Hearth and Home Representative: I mean, one of the things I love about Hearth and Home Technologies is the fact that you always have a chance to give your perspective, right? Working as a part of this team, everyone throws in their weight and working together, we can come up with a product or a process that is better than what it was before. And it's really special to see something like that built up over time. Video Narrator: [16:41] Thank you to Hearth and Home Technologies for choosing Lakeville and continuing to invest in our community. [16:52] Mayor Luke Hellier: Good. Well, I just want to extend my gratitude for your continued investment. It's fun to see the manufacturing sector in Lakeville continue to grow. I'll just say selfishly, I would not have survived this last weekend without my Heat & Glo fireplace. So, thank you for taking the edge off in our in our living room. If council had anything to add. Okay. Very good. Thank you again. We'll now move on to item six, our consent agenda. These are more routine items for the council to review. Mr. Miller, anything you wanted to highlight? [17:20] City Administrator Justin Miller: Thank you, Mayor. Uh council item 6H is a resolution accepting donations from customers of Lakeville Liquors. Uh last month our customers donated over $28,000 that's going to go toward the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon campaign. Very appreciative of that. Item 6N is a resolution amending the Lakeville Fire Association bylaws relating to the pension levels and vesting schedule and establishing a state aid allocation agreement. as discussed at a recent city council work session. And so we're appreciative of the cooperation uh that we have with our relief association, which is the retirement account for our paid on call firefighters. Item 6O is a uh Compass Rail Lakeville LLC and Metropolitan Airport Commission comprehensive plan and zoning map amendments. This will help facilitate uh the construction of a [18:06] rail storage facility in the industrial park. And then item 6W is the adoption of the 2026 legislative priorities which were discussed at the last work session and we did add an item related to EMS funding. Um that's the one change from the the work session. [18:21] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Very good. I'll just say it's a little anticlimactic on item O something we've been talking about for 10 years on one of the final steps to really make something happen. City Administrator Justin Miller: Well, we still have some more work to do on— Mayor Luke Hellier: I [laughter] get it. Yeah, I get it. City Administrator Justin Miller: There will be more time for you to have a a greater talk about it. [18:36] Mayor Luke Hellier: Yeah. Council, any items that you want to highlight or pull for further discussion? Councilmember Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: I'd like to pull item 6G from the consent agenda for further discussion. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Any other items? Okay. And um with that, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda except for item G? Councilmember Dan Wolter: I move to approve the consent agenda with the exception of item G. Mayor Luke Hellier: Is there a second? Councilmember John Bermel: Second. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. All those in favor say I. (Council: I). Opposed? (None). And consent agenda passes. Uh Mr. Lee, anything you wanted to talk about? Otherwise, our police chief is here to answer any questions if possible. [19:16] Councilmember Joshua Lee: Yeah, I uh I had heard from residents a few different concerns and I thought it would be uh worthwhile to to publicly uh have the same presentation that we heard or at least an abbreviated version of the presentation that we heard uh at our work session. Uh, so if uh I could invite the police chief up to to do that presentation, that'd be great. [19:37] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Thank you, Chief Paulson. Welcome. Police Chief Brad Paulson: Good evening, mayor, members of the council. Yeah, happy to be here. You know, one of the items on your agenda obviously is an agreement with Flock Safety. So, uh, happy to provide a little bit of context and, uh, look at, you know, the ways that we plan, uh, to use this technology if approved. [20:02] As was mentioned earlier tonight, uh anytime we look at technology, uh there's certainly the benefit of public safety aspect which is critically important to us, but we do always have to balance that uh with values of individual privacy, uh transparency, and accountability. And so anytime we look at technology such as LPR cameras, uh that's a balance that we're we're routinely um researching and looking at on the front end and then continuing to evaluate uh even after acquiring a product or using a product or entering into an agreement such as this. [20:36] Police Chief Brad Paulson: So LPR just a real basic rundown of what it is. It's license plate reader cameras. This technology has actually been around for several decades. It's been more prevalent in public safety use here in the last number of years. Uh it's a vital tool to protect our community and solve crimes. Uh these are uh in the landscape of what we're looking to do here. These are fixed license plate reader cameras on uh various poles uh throughout our community. Mainly major uh roadways, ingress, egress, places with high traffic. And these cameras pick up uh certainly license plates and potentially other identifying information on vehicles. Uh they help locate um criminal uh stolen vehicles, missing persons, Amber Alerts, investigate [21:23] crimes, just to name a handful of things. How will Lakeville PD use this technology if approved? Uh our proposal is to put 20 fixed LPR cameras across the city again at various ingress and egress routes. These camera locations are not private. They they will be public. We are required to report to the Minnesota BCA the number of cameras we have and where they are located. So these are not—there's no intent to covertly place these cameras around town. Again, they capture vehicle related data only. Nothing uh involving uh people or persons inside of those vehicles. And they enhance uh real time incidents and also post incidents. So maybe just a quick example of of both. A real-time um incident would be uh maybe a vehicle passing by one of those [22:08] cameras. It would uh alert maybe hitting against a missing person database. Uh officers out on patrol would get that alert in their squad cars. They would be able to respond to that area, look for that vehicle associated, and hopefully locate and find that that missing person. Um it would be no different than an officer manually running that plate in their squad car. Had they be driving around and seeing that same vehicle, they would get the same alert. Still have to do the same human verification: Does this look uh like the vehicle that I'm I'm looking to stop, do the various checks to verify information like that. It would it would function much the same way just at a much larger scale obviously. [22:30] Police Chief Brad Paulson: And then post incident, this is more related to criminal investigation. So say we had a series of um residential burglaries in town and we knew that on every one of these people reported seeing a a red vehicle with a missing rear hubcap. We could go into this system as long as it was in the 30-day window, enter that identifying vehicle information, and potentially uh look at LPR data to to try to identify that vehicle by license plate um or other identifying information to further locate uh that vehicle. So, that's just an example of kind of a post incident [23:17] use uh from the investigative side. um you know as we look at the the privacy and the transparency and and the use of this there are many guard rails in place um for the use of LPR systems. Uh number one Minnesota has a state statute uh designated um to automatic license plate reader cameras uh specific statute just for that governs u the use reporting requirements policy requirements. The second point there is a mandated policy that uh an agency is required to have if you have these uh cameras out in your communities, which we would. Uh one of the reasons we like Flock Safety, there are other vendors out there. One of the things I think they do really well is on the transparency side with a public [24:04] dashboard uh that's specific to Lakeville. It's a portal where people can see what um types of notifications we are um interested in viewing, any member or any cooperating agencies that we're sharing information with, how many hits that camera or those cameras have received, how many searches we've done on the back end. So it's a very transparent portal that's accessible to the public. I mentioned before the BCA reporting which we're required to do. And then on the bottom there a biannual audit—an outside company that comes in, looks at our use, looks at our searches, make sure we're following policy and statute. [24:48] Police Chief Brad Paulson: On the data piece, uh, state statute um, requires no more than 60-day retention. We would limit ours to 30-day um, retention and then an automatic deletion after that so long as it was not tied to an active investigation. Again, no facial recognition, vehicle identifying information only. All of these cameras are aimed towards public roadways. Um things that um right now you could see with your own eyes if you were standing on the side of that roadway. All data belongs solely to the city of Lakeville and Lakeville PD. Uh so any release of that would have to be authorized by us. We get to determine um what agencies we share with. If a request is made uh through a data privacy request, uh we follow our state statute to uh to govern any release or or lack of release of that data. Uh and then again, um it's governed largely by policy 13.824, which is uh Minnesota's data privacy statute specific to law enforcement data. [25:51] Police Chief Brad Paulson: And then on the sharing side, um, another thing that we believe Flock Safety does very well is it really allows us a lot of different, um, parameters to share or to not share with other, uh, law enforcement agencies. Collaboration amongst law enforcement is vitally important. That is a key piece of what we do. Um, whether it's criminal acts or missing people, they don't operate in a vacuum of uh, jurisdictional boundaries all the time. So we're constantly sharing information with other agencies and uh they're sharing with us also. But we want to ensure that that information is shared in a way that uh it meets the needs of uh public safety and law enforcement and criminal activity and that by allowing us to determine who we share with um we can certainly put put some safeguards in place by doing [26:38] that. That's uh kind of the overall highlights, but happy to answer any questions that you have here tonight that weren't answered at the work session or you'd want repeated here. And as always, any members of the community that have specific questions we're available and and as transparent as we can be to to respond and answer uh one-off questions that may may come up as well. [27:04] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Thank you, Chief. Council, any comments questions? Councilmember Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: I want to relay a couple of questions that I I've heard from folks. One is um is this tech being used already regionally and which agencies are already using this? Police Chief Brad Paulson: It is being used regionally and I know Flock is is probably the largest vendor out there certainly in our region. Uh I believe they have over 80 agencies in Minnesota and several thousand nationwide that they have agreements with. Um and including uh several in Dakota County and some of our neighboring jurisdictions as well. [27:51] Councilmember Joshua Lee: Thank you. Um you did mention this already about ingress and egress but just to clarify that that basically means the major uh arteries of our city. So 35, Cedar—do you want to clarify any more about what that means? Police Chief Brad Paulson: Yeah. So major ingress and egress just you know people kind of entering and leaving our community. Um, not that all crime, you know, originates outside of or or leaves the community, but those are our higher traffic areas and areas that we really want to focus on with some of the crime trends that we've seen. So, Interstate 35, you know, exit ramps from from that uh area. Very busy roadway. Obviously, Cedar Avenue, County Road 46 are a few that uh would likely have uh camera locations installed. And also working with neighboring agencies that may have them um already installed or or in the works so that we're not duplicating efforts on some of those roadways too to try to make sense of some of those placements. [28:32] Mayor Luke Hellier: Councilmember Wolter. Councilmember Dan Wolter: Um the—there was some news this year. I know Governor Walz signed a bill that allowed the use of cameras for traffic law enforcement. Does this have anything to do with that law that was signed this year? Police Chief Brad Paulson: It does not. No traffic enforcement related at all. Does not um collect vehicle speeds. Does not enforce any kind of semaphore, you know, stop sign, stop light violations, nothing like that. [28:58] Mayor Luke Hellier: Councilmember Bermel. Councilmember John Bermel: And one kind of related question, uh, this doesn't collect any data related to the people in the vehicle. So if my son or daughter is driving my vehicle, they're just going to see that a vehicle owned by John Bermel drove at this place at this time and there's nothing about who was occupying that vehicle at the time. Police Chief Brad Paulson: That's correct. The only u argument you could make against that is it does capture a still image when it captures the rear of that um vehicle with a license plate. You could make an argument you could see a portion of a of an individual. Uh I've seen some of these images. It would be very difficult to identify someone solely on that because it's really focused on that vehicle. But it is a a still photograph. So in theory you could see a portion of an individual inside that vehicle, but it's it's pretty difficult and that's not the intent. There are no names or uh individual identifying characteristics that are saved with any of the data. [29:56] Mayor Luke Hellier: Councilmember Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: Last one. Uh I think one of the biggest concerns is is that of targeting individuals and I think one thing that you had brought up at the the workshop was accessing the information and the reasons for accessing that information and the logging that officers have to do to to use the technology. Uh can you talk a little bit more about the the cause for uh pulling up a record and and how we might be using that information? Police Chief Brad Paulson: Yeah. So, you're talking more on the back end of entering the database, the repository in that 30 days to to look for information. So, the officer would be required to enter a case number or an incident number and you know the type of investigation. So, [30:42] um you couldn't just enter a license plate and no other identifying information of why you're doing that search. It has to be tied uh to an active uh criminal investigation or incident or a missing or endangered person. And that's part of the audit process. So they can go back in when those audits happen and review those to ensure that that that's happening. Um the system is built to do that. That data trail remains there forever. The data itself is gone after 30 days. The audit trail remains indefinitely. So we can always go back and look at that with any concerns of misuse. [31:09] Mayor Luke Hellier: Councilmember Bermel. Councilmember John Bermel: Okay. One more. Um related to that, you know, there's a biannual audit. Is there any kind of supervisory audit that's just like uh hey I'm a sergeant and I'm going to check what my folks have been looking at over the last couple days. Police Chief Brad Paulson: Yeah, for sure. Especially on the front end as we do training and onboarding. We will have an internal gatekeeper so to speak that um does the bulk of you know—if someone wants to um enter in an agreement, a data sharing agreement with us, that person will be the one to review that or include other members of our command staff to do that. That's a lieutenant. Uh but they will also be in charge of training uh which includes some audits on the front end much like we did with body worn camera a number of years ago. New technology just to make sure it's all being used appropriately and you know searches are being done appropriately. [32:06] There's a lot of information, private information that comes out of our body worn and fleet cameras and and we want to ensure that it's all being used uh in a manner consistent with policy and state statute for sure. [32:15] Mayor Luke Hellier: Council, any other comments or— Councilmember Dan Wolter: Um a comment. Um I want to thank those that have raised privacy concern issues with this. I think that's really important for all of us in this day and age with the digital footprints and all of that. It's something we all need to be mindful of and and um and aware of. Um in this case, I'm confident the uh you know, the state has put in place guard rails on this. The legislature had extensive debate. We're that we're by far—although I'd like to say we're an early adopter in [32:54] something—that's not the case here. This is widely used. Um I think the protections are in place um from a privacy perspective. So I—and we've had so many examples whether it's an Amber Alert or a silver alert or whether it was the you know assassination this summer where I think this technology was helpful in apprehending a a suspect. I think there's there's a definite case for um for these and and I'll be supporting this. [33:39] Mayor Luke Hellier: Council. Yeah. And the only other comment I would have is I mean no crime is local anymore. It's all regional and I think we have a responsibility to be good regional partners um and addressing uh issues that people come from other communities and do here, come from here and do other places. And law enforcement is no longer just a little we're going to operate within our jurisdictional boundaries. We operate all over the metro and probably beyond. So I think this is a a good measured way. Uh we've learned we've learned from other systems that have been put in place how to do proper controls and from everything that I've seen I think the controls are proper here and this will allow us to be a good regional partner. [34:13] Any further comments or questions? Now I'll take a motion. Wolter. Councilmember Dan Wolter: I move to approve the master services agreement with Flock Group Incorporated for 20 license plate reader cameras. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Is there a second? Councilmember Joshua Lee: Second. Mayor Luke Hellier: Any further discussion? Okay, roll call, please. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Wolter. Councilmember Dan Wolter: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Bermel. Councilmember John Bermel: I. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay, very good. Um, moving on to item 7B, North Creek second edition preliminary plat. And we'll turn over to community development director, Miss Goodroad. [34:56] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad: All right, good evening. Um, let me pull this up. Um, KJ Walk has submitted an application for preliminary plat for North Creek Second Edition. So, it's just east of Pilot Knob, south of 173rd Street. Property was to be um plat was originally platted and approved back in 2019. Project didn't move forward and so that expired. So here we are tonight um kind of revisiting that and re-getting um redoing the preliminary plat. The property is zoned RST-2 single and two family residential district. Single family and detached townhomes are both permitted uses and that is exactly what um the developer is proposing—a combination of 26 single family lots, 27 detached lots and then the extension of the roadways in Senna [35:44] Path and 175th um to the existing um Ely Street or Ely Avenue. Stormwater ponding has already been provided for and constructed in the first phase and property along North Creek has been deeded to the city with the first phase. Um the north um um plan at the top of the screen calls for um um some additional buffer um meaning setbacks are greater along Pilot Knob. There's about 38 trees that are going to be planted along Pilot Knob. Um the tree inventory um does call for removal of 43 trees. This application was submitted before um the new tree preservation ordinance. The planning commission did hold a public hearing at their meeting on December 4th and there was no public comment and the planning commission unanimously recommended approval and I'd stand for any questions. [36:39] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay, council any questions or comments? Okay, a motion. Council Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: I'll move to approve a resolution approving the North Creek second edition preliminary plat. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Is there a second? Councilmember John Bermel: Second. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. Seeing none. Roll call, please. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Hellier. Mayor Luke Hellier: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Bermel. Councilmember John Bermel: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Wolter. Councilmember Dan Wolter: I. [37:21] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Very good. Now we'll jump back to item A. Dakota Waste Solutions Preliminary Plat Rezoning Planned Development. And I believe we have applicant Dakota Waste to present. [37:21] Mike Brandt (Kimley-Horn): Good evening. Welcome council. My name is Mike Brandt with Kimley-Horn, representing Dakota Waste Solutions tonight. I think we were all back in a work session probably about a year and a half ago about the same development. So I'll give you a quick overview of what we proposed for the site, Dakota Waste Solutions. Uh, we're proposing it's on the corner—the southeast corner of 215th and Kaparia. Uh, we're looking at a source separated organic materials processing facility or compost facility. Uh, Dakota Waste is family-owned. It's owned by the Dunham family. Been in business here in Lakeville for years. Uh, Max and Andy are with me tonight. Uh, and we're just trying to promote sustainable use in the in the city and the county and the region via—it's a vision of the future of composting in Dakota County to support the goals of the Pollution Control Agency as we move forward to get toward a 70% solid waste recycling by 2030 to help support saving our current landfills around the area. [38:29] Mike Brandt: Here's just an overview of where the property is located. South of Juniper, 215th and Kaparia. This is just a slide kind of overstating the importance of recycling with with MPCA guidelines. You know, organic waste is about a third of our waste stream in the current landfills, and we're trying to take our majority of that waste out of the landfills and bring it to a more usable use. Some of the materials that we'll collect at the site will be fruit, vegetables, raw and canned, prepackaged foods. There will be a yard waste. We'll take grass clippings, leaves, garden waste, and tree branches. Cooked meats—there'll be a small portion of cooked meat that are in the prepackaged uh containers that we recycle. Only about 5% of total food waste will be meat. Uh it'll be source separated organics that will be separated at the facility prior to coming to the site. Dairy, cheese, and bread products will be limited to only 5% by weight max. There will be a small amount of manure waste 20% by weight max just due to being mixed in the yard waste or some bedding material that comes from State Fair or other farmers. [39:56] Mayor Luke Hellier: I have a question for you about the the grass clippings. Is the intent for those like to be contract relationships with landscaping folks or is it just I could drive down there with my trailer and dump— Mike Brandt: Intent is to be from current haulers within the city. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Mike Brandt: Landscape companies or commercial haulers that pick up grass clippings and leaves throughout the year. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Mike Brandt: Uh the intent is not to have individuals come to the site. It's commercial use type facility only. Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Mike Brandt: One of the important things that we're trying to limit is not to be bringing in raw meat, raw fish, bulk milk, ice cream, cheese, bread, brewer's yeast, manure, liquid products of any volume. That really creates problems in composting at these types of facilities. Trying to limit the amount of food containers and large amounts of cardboard or paper. There will be some of that, but that will all be recycled. [41:00] Mike Brandt: Specifics about the site. The site's about 37 acres in size. There will be four buildings. There'll be two wood recycling buildings where uh just to the north of 215th, the current wood processing facility will move to the south as well. There'll be an in-vessel composting building and then a processing building prior to that. There'll be three storage areas of the finished compost. Yard waste and wood chips will also be stored under cover and a curing area that will be open once the compost is cured out prior to being [41:30] uh separated into finished composting. There will be a truck weighing area with the scale house, some trailer parking, distribution area, and storm water facilities on the site. [41:53] Mike Brandt: Here's the overall site plan. In the northwest corner where there you see lot two, block one. That will be the wood processing area. There'll be two hoop buildings with uh the wood processing. One will be raw and one will be the finished wood shavings. In the center of the site, you will have the processing building. That's where the raw waste will come in on the west end of the building. It'll be stored in the building and then it'll be depackaged by a process and then the mixing process for the composting will begin—or the recipe for lack of a better term happens. You take the raw vegetables and the waste, you bring in the yard waste and you get your composting started and you start bringing that up to temperature. [42:28] Mike Brandt: From that building process area one, that'll go to the process area number two which is the larger in-vessel processing of the compost. That's where it'll be stored, put in windrows, mixed, air will be added to it'll increase that composting time, all under a cover in a negative pressure building so the air will be sucked out through a bio-filter to contain all the odors as much as possible. Areas three and four are the yard waste and the finished compost area. Once it's cured and been after about four weeks brought up to temperature, it then can be moved outside and just stored to kind of come down into temperature before they sort out because there's still some sifting of larger material to come out of the compost. [43:23] Mike Brandt: Um the wood processing facility just will take the large trees. They take scrap pallets, scrap lumber from window manufacturers and other processes throughout the city to make animal bedding and furnace and pellets. There is a small amount that you just cannot do anything with. It's not suitable for bedding. It's not—you can't make wood burning from it. So that material will also be used to compost as well. Um the food storage processing the food waste will be delivered you know via truck to the processing building be removed. Uh they have quite an automation of a depackager that they will take metal cans, plastics, run it through a machine that will sort the plastics out, sort the water out and sort the food out and separate those and those materials will all be recycled throughout the facility. [44:20] Mike Brandt: This is a typical hoop building. That's where the wood shavings, the wood processing and the yard waste will typically be stored along with the process building. Uh we are going we propose to use a hoop building of this sort just because of one, the height clearance and the resistivity of it to indoor moisture just helps with containing all that. Building will be sealed and there also with the processing building that will also have negative pressure and be filtered through a bio-filter as well. In-vessel composting instead of just taking a static pile and dumping the compost outside these will be accelerated. Uh you can do it in smaller containers. These will be in a greenhouse type building that'll be windrowed and they will have water collection below along with blowing air through the system as well to keep optimum moisture, temperature and oxygen levels in the individual wind rows to speed up that compost. It takes approximately four weeks in that building to make compost. [45:29] Mike Brandt: Why we use covered vessels? Why we're using an in-vessel process. One, the PCA is really liking it a lot better. It controls odor, controls the moisture. A lot of the concerns that people have from composting is odor and varmints. This helps with that control. That's why we're doing it. The PCA with them implementing in-vessel composting, they're—they claim their calls have gone down drastically with this type of process. Typical concerns are the smell. That's why we're doing things indoors with the bio-filters, negative pressure, noise. Uh, most of the process is all indoors of the building. So, that'll be regulated with doors closed and different things like that to keep the noise inside. There still will be loaders and backup beepers during normal work hours outside of the buildings. Uh and then about wind dispersion. You know, if you have open composting piles, you get the wind blowing those compost piles around. You get some trash collecting around the perimeter. There is fencing. They will be collecting any trash or debris along the fence that will be cleaned up. Cleaned up, excuse me. And there will be wind screens as well. But keeping the processing, the depackaging and most of the composting inside will limit that wind dispersion as well. [46:57] Mike Brandt: This is what that in-vessel building will look like. It looks like a glorified greenhouse in essence with the plastic panels, plastic roof. It won't be your typical popup greenhouse that you would see around during the spring season of the growing season. This is just kind of what the storage area looks like of the composting when they're sifting the part. The final compost—back up one. We did do try to do some perspectives from 215th. Site will be bermed. It will have be heavily landscaped berms along there. So, we don't get to put a berm and fencing around the gas easement. But the composting and the wood process, the fence will continue along the southwesterly edge of the gas easement to keep that area secure. [47:57] Mike Brandt: At 215th, this is looking in from the where you would see the truck scales back toward the buildings. You can see the hoop building of the yard storage waste facility right there. Just kind of a normal midpoint of 215th where the berm and the trees will be after some years of growth. This is where the gas easement will be. One change we are making to this is we will parallel that berm back a ways and plantings a ways along 215th on the parallel side of the gas easement to help with the screening of those buildings as well. And this is at 215th of Kaparia where the woodshed building will be closest to it. You can faintly [48:44] make it out in the background. It kind of looks like a white cloud right now. Uh to summarize, you know, we're excited to expand the horizons of of the composting and be—continue the business in Lakeville. We're confident that the business venture by the family will provide a benefit to the community in the foreseeable future and we look for your approval tonight in your support of the project. Got any more questions? [49:13] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay, Miss Goodroad, staff report or added anything? Community Development Director Tina Goodroad: Just want to add a couple of things. Um I'm not going to reiterate everything that Mr. Brandt shared, but um we're familiar with the location. The applications tonight um is for the preliminary plat, the rezoning amendment um from I1 light industrial to planned unit development and the PUD agreement or PUD ordinance if you will. [49:40] Um that ordinance um we went the route of the planned unit development to really help us create opportunities for flexibility and also respond to the unique uses without necessarily adding those uses to the I1. Um we really wanted to concentrate this unique kind of application um to this property and so having that customized ordinance through the PUD really allows us to do that. It also allows us to really um create performance standards. Um so there's a lot in that ordinance um regarding um hours of operation, building types, odor control, the trailer parking, um future permits, consistency with those permits, follow up with those permits um through the [50:26] allowed materials and reporting. [50:26] Community Development Director Tina Goodroad: Um there is a second step to the PUD process which is the final PUD plan that occurs during the final plat and the development contract and then we will review final building elevation. So, we haven't truly given final approval for um the composting building. We understand what um the applicant would like to do, but we wanted to have more information um just about how that building would be constructed, the durability of it, and so forth. So, um the PUD ordinance does call for um final approval of those building types um through that final stage PUD. Um but overall it's been um an effort um a good effort in working with the family as well as Mr. Brandt um on this process. Um the work that it's um taken to get um the uh permit applications to the state um has been immense. If you want to see one of the applications, it's on my desk. It's about this thick. Um, so a lot of effort has gone in um by this family and commitment to do this project and I'm just really excited to to get it to this point. Um, I'd stand for any questions. Certainly Mr. Brandt can answer better. Um, as well as several of the Dunham family members are here. [51:43] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay. Thank you, Tina. Uh, council questions, comments. Councilmember Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: Uh, well, thank you both for the presentation. Um, there are so many positives to this project. um both for the city and for the expansion of of the service that we we know has um gotten accolades by the county. So um I think the the one issue that I'm I'm wondering about is in terms of odor control, is there a standard by which we're using um—I'm thinking light control. We have a a per foot light for a parking lot, what a—how bright a lamp can be in a parking lot uh certain feet away. Is there some sort of standard for odor control that we'll be able to put into this PUD? Community Development Director Tina Goodroad: Um that is a good question. I don't know if you can—there probably is more so in the MPCA permit than in our own zoning ordinance. Um, but our zoning code, um, the city code has kind of just general nuisance that we could rely on, but I'm assuming the permit has more teeth. [52:57] Mike Brandt: Odor is a tough one because it's very subjective and the state does have guidelines in the permit that is kind of baseline subjective to what they use to regulate it. There have been other cases that I personally have been involved in that got shut down over odor control and it was very excessive. So, it's very subjective and it's where the state really works with the applicant and the city to come to a conclusion. If it is a nuisance, then yes, there are corrective actions to be taken with it. Um, and as far as a number or or something like you would in light ordinance, there is really no national standard or any standard that you can really put, oh, if it's this—because it is such a subjective thing. Councilmember Joshua Lee: Got there. There's not a meter that goes out and measures odor to this. Mike Brandt: That was kind of the question. Yeah, I didn't know. Um, you know, so it's really working close with staff and the operators along with the state to come up with a key factor with that. Councilmember Joshua Lee: So for this PUD, it's more of a nuisance agreement. Mike Brandt: Yes. Councilmember Joshua Lee: [54:14] When those complaints do arise with this new facility, what are some of the things that can be done to mitigate that? Mike Brandt: As far as mitigating odor, a lot of it, adding more wood chips to it is the easiest thing with that. Uh increasing the filtration of the building. Uh making sure that the—what we're proposing with these buildings is the air will be sucked out of the buildings and it'll go through a bio-filter. Well, you can add a charcoal filter before the bio-filter to also help with that. So, there's different grades of filtration that you can do. And that's some of the—if complaints were to come in, that's where you would start working with is on those filters and trying to increase the cycles through the filter and different things like that. Councilmember Joshua Lee: Gotcha. I appreciate that, too. I mean, that—those measures are not—well, the wood chips are a measure that—use. I know because I can come outside some days and it smells like wood chips. Um, so I know definitely what's going on. Um, but having an indoor facility, it sounds like there are additional methods or [55:18] strategies you can use. Uh, which which is good. Uh, because there are definitely days that it does not smell like wood chips, uh, currently. And I'm looking forward to having those additional strategies available. Um, but when you live next to a farm, you expect it to smell sometimes like a farm. So, I I expect that sometimes with what's going on right now, too. But looking forward to some of those other odor strategies. [55:45] Mayor Luke Hellier: Council comments Wolter. Councilmember Dan Wolter: Um, I I want to applaud you on this this project. Um, I've been spending a lot of time in my day job working on the food waste issue. So, I understand that the solid waste issues that we're facing are are significant and um and with some of the PCA actions um I I think there's going to be big changes uh and this is going to be good business and uh maybe we'll see more of this uh in Lakeville. So, thank you for for bringing this forward. Mayor Luke Hellier: Yeah, that that's what's struck me too is this seems like it puts it like you're getting ahead of the curve and um this is going to be an issue as as time goes on and uh it's good to see uh a good professional uh system for taking care of this uh this type of waste. So, I'm I'm excited about the project and I encourage it. [56:43] Mayor Luke Hellier: I just want to extend my gratitude to the Dunham family. I mean, you guys have been here for over 100 years doing a variety of different work and so we're excited from my perspective to see the next phase um of where that's going. So, I want to thank you for that and working with the city and the county and everybody to kind of get everything rolling. So, thank you for all your work uh to get this done. So, with that, I'll take a motion. Councilmember Bermel. Councilmember John Bermel: I uh move to approve a resolution approving the Dakota Waste Resources Preliminary Plat, the zoning map amendment from I1, Light Industrial to PUD Planned Unit Development, and three, planned unit development ordinance. Councilmember Dan Wolter: Second. Mayor Luke Hellier: Second. Okay. Any further discussion? Uh roll call, please. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Bermel. Councilmember John Bermel: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Wolter. Councilmember Dan Wolter: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Lee. Councilmember Joshua Lee: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Hellier. Mayor Luke Hellier: I. Good, congratulations. Thank you guys. Um we'll now move on to item 7C report on city administrator's performance evaluation and I'll turn over council member Wolter. [57:46] Councilmember Dan Wolter: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I'm making this report on behalf of the personnel committee which consists of myself and council member Volk. Um, the city council completed an annual performance review for city administrator Justin Miller on Monday, December 1st at a special closed session meeting. Mr. Miller's review focuses on his leadership, presence in the community, in communications with the council, the public, and employees. We find Mr. Miller's performance continues to be at an exceptional level, consistently exceeding expectations and delivering outstanding results for the city. The council approved the personnel committee's recommendation of moving his salary from step seven of his respective pay grade to step eight effective January 1, 2026. Mayor Luke Hellier: Very good. And is—we have to accept or vote on anything or just in a report? City Administrator Justin Miller: Correct. Mayor Luke Hellier: It says we have to make a motion to set the— Councilmember Dan Wolter: Okay, I will entertain a motion. Well, it just says—so it says make—make a motion setting the city administrator's salary and effective date. So I move uh that we set the city administrator salary as described from step seven to step eight effective January 1, 2026. Mayor Luke Hellier: Is there a second? Councilmember John Bermel: Second. Mayor Luke Hellier: Any further discussion? [59:01] Councilmember Joshua Lee: I just wanted to uh add on to the statement. I—Mr. Miller's performance is exceptional. uh on a lot of different levels uh from a management standpoint, from a uh ensuring that the legislative priorities that we set each year are accomplished uh in a timely fashion. Um there are some some uh areas that I think that are not seen in terms of his visibility um in the community um that I think are something that should be applauded as well. Um, and so I just—I wanted to add a little more context that I—I'm very pleased with the the performance evaluation. Um, but wanted to thank him myself that we're just we're very happy to have you as our city administrator and and this is well-deserved. Councilmember John Bermel: Second. Mayor Luke Hellier: Uh, roll call. Roll call, please. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Wolter. Councilmember Dan Wolter: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Hellier. Mayor Luke Hellier: I. City Clerk Ann Orlofsky: Bermel. Councilmember John Bermel: I. [1:00:06] Mayor Luke Hellier: Okay, very good. Um, any unfinished or new business? Okay, seeing none, our next city council meeting is January 5th, 2026. Our next work session is January 26, 2026. And with that, I'd like to wish those on their second night of happy Hanukkah, a merry Christmas, and a happy new year to all. With that, I will take a motion to adjourn. Councilmember Joshua Lee: So moved. Councilmember Dan Wolter: Second. Mayor Luke Hellier: All in favor say I. (Council: I). Opposed? (None). We're adjourned.