[00:00:00] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, good evening. This is the April 3rd, 2024, Cottage Grove City Council meeting, which we're calling to order. Our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance, so please rise. [00:00:15] **Everyone:** 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. [00:00:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, will the Clerk please do the roll? [00:00:33] **City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Clausen? [00:00:34] **Councilmember David Clausen:** Here. [00:00:35] **City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Olsen? [00:00:36] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Here. [00:00:37] **City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Thiede? [00:00:38] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Here. [00:00:39] **City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Garza? [00:00:40] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** Here. [00:00:41] **City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Mayor Bailey? [00:00:42] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Here. Next on our agenda is Open Forum. This is the opportunity for anybody who wants to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda; you're welcome to do so. We did have a sign-up sheet out in the entry, but I didn't see anybody sign up, so just checking to see if anybody wants to speak on something that's not on the agenda. All right, I'll go ahead and close Open Forum. We'll move to number five, which is adoption of the agenda. [00:01:05] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Move the agenda. [00:01:07] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, we have a motion by Councilmember Thiede. Do I have a second? [00:01:10] **Councilmember David Clausen:** I'll second. [00:01:11] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Was that Councilmember Clausen? All those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [00:01:13] **Councilmembers:** Aye. [00:01:14] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Next is six, presentations. We actually have three this evening. The first one is the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon presentation, and I believe Ray Kane, President, is going to at least get us kicked off here. So, Ray and the team, welcome aboard. [00:01:30] **Ray Kane:** Mayor and the city council members, I appreciate the opportunity to sit here and talk to you about the things we do in Beyond the Yellow Ribbon in Cottage Grove. Beyond the Yellow Ribbon of Cottage Grove has changed to Mississippi River Valley, and we're still working on that connection there, but we actually now cover Cottage Grove, St. Paul Park, Newport, Hastings, and then Grey Cloud Township. Those are the areas that we help veterans and serve them—but not only veterans, but their families and currently serving members of the National Guard and other areas. I'll get to the next slide here... is there a way to get to the next slide on this, or the keyboard? Which one? Okay, there we go. We made a commitment—actually the Mayor and the city council members and the city made a commitment to support veterans and Beyond the Yellow Ribbon in 2011. So we've been with the city for quite a while, and once again, we appreciate your commitment there. Incoming requests—how do we work? Some of the quick incoming requests come to us through our County Veteran Service Officers, not only in Washington County but Hennepin County, actually. So far we've got Hennepin County, Washington County, Ramsey County, and Dakota County is what we’ve actually been getting requests through lately. And then those requests will go to our partners. Our biggest thing is we are financially, you know, we have a good account, but we want to make sure that we get these veterans into different areas. MACV is housing assistance for us. We use a lot of the American Legions, and one of the current things we’re really working very effectively with is the Cottage Grove Lions and the VFW, and the Red Barn really helps us out quite a bit with events and helping veterans. So then we kind of... basically what we do is we fill in the gaps. That’s our key role here, is to fill in the gaps for veterans, making sure we take care of them, and then we use our other networks to assist veterans and all that. So you’ll see right here key partners that we have in our community. Requests come to our volunteers. So if it’s mowing lawns, Patrick Nichols right here on the other side—he works overtime, does a lot with the community, but when he comes home on a Saturday or when it snows on a weekend, he’s mowing lawns, shoveling driveways, and doing a lot of that stuff. Adele right here—she is helping us with our community faith-based organizations, a big part of that. And then Matt helps us with all our volunteer work and getting that coordinated on that. Really quick—I could be up here for two hours. I told everybody I was just talking about what we do in Cottage Grove. Moves—the biggest thing right now, we put about $96,000 into this community using direct and indirect funds. Once again, that’s using our community partners. Some of the community partners I want to point out is Basic Needs Food Market, MACV, the Red Barn, definitely the Cottage Grove Lions. They help us support our Christmas program every year. Two years ago, we did 158 veterans and their families for Christmas; this year we did about 98. So, we’re also predicting this coming year we’ll have more veterans and their families because of the deployments happening in Cottage Grove and Hastings and the surrounding area. Mental health is a big thing. We struggle with the mental health with veterans, so we’re working on a SAVE program to have in the city of Cottage Grove and the surrounding areas. SAVE is talking about suicide prevention and being able to actually communicate—not just teach our veterans and their supporters, but people in the community what SAVE training is about and how to talk to a veteran that is thinking about suicide. So we’re educating our partners, not only just helping veterans in the area. And one of the other things too is we use the program Unite Us to refer people back and forth. So if somebody is coming to us and needs assistance, we just don’t say, "Okay, we’re going to take care of you, let’s move on." We make sure that we refer them to a food shelf program in their area, mental health, and some of our veterans need financial counseling to make sure that they’re on the right track after we get done with them and help them out. Once again, here’s a lot of our supporters. Stone Soup, once again, the Food Market is doing great. I visit them I think twice a week now with two of our veterans and we assist them to make sure that their food insecurity is being taken care of until they get back up on their feet and we’ll help them with their benefits. One of the other things that we do, and Justin Olson is one of our city representatives—he helps with Memorial Day. So we are going to be doing the Memorial Day program and that’s very exciting to honor our veterans, and we are working on sponsoring that and focusing on our Vietnam veterans this year. So that’s a key thing there. The administration of the group is here. So we’re looking for volunteers—we’re always looking for volunteers. So we have the city leader, and once again, Mayor, I really want to make sure you know and understand that we really appreciate you putting a city member on the council because we do not have representation from several cities that we work with and we’re working on that. And Justin is an amazing person and he does a great job for us. Once again, our veterans organizations, our business partners—Marty’s not here, but Marty works with our business partners and helps us out quite a bit with that group there. Board—we have a board president, which is myself; vice president with Patrick Nichols; we have a secretary David L. We also have the business reply talk to faith-base, public services... I don’t know why that just turned on... and then we have—if we’re looking for more volunteers, and I will become the past chair after a few years here going on forward. Once again, Mary Dingle is our St. Paul Park representative and we’re still looking for representatives in Newport and Hastings currently right now. And here is some information and we’re also working on a website. But the biggest thing is to make sure that you go on our Facebook page, like it, we’ll give some updates. But the key factor here is making sure that you call the number, give us an email, and we’ll be able to assist you. And if we can’t assist you here, we will find avenues to make sure that we take care of our veterans. But the biggest thing is we won’t know a veteran in need unless somebody brings it out to us and talks to us about it. So that’s a key factor. I also want to thank the city because because of the effort that you know you allow me to be on the Yellow Ribbon group and organization, I've learned so much about veterans that it gave me the opportunity to become the Department Service Officer for the American Legion Department of Minnesota. So now I get the opportunity to cross the state of Minnesota to help veterans, which is great because I’m learning more programs to help our veterans in our city. So if you have any questions I’m here. I appreciate it. Thank you for letting us come up and speak with you. [00:09:12] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. And thank you, Ray, and your supporters behind you there, and all the work that you do to support the veterans both in our community and the surrounding communities. I think that's part of the challenge. I believe, if talking with Councilmember Olsen in the past, is there were other chapters maybe that were not doing as well and your group came in and said, "We’ll kind of take it over." Because I know like one of the big ones I always hear about is Hugo, just because I know who that gentleman is up there, and they're always used—but I think they're just pretty much Hugo and you guys are really expanding upon that and adding other cities. So I'm glad it's up on the board. I know it's showing me right now, but again, if you are interested in being a part of Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, you can obviously reach out to myself, we can get you in touch with Ray and the group there, or Councilmember Olsen for anybody in the public that's interested to support—and whether it's support on being on the board or maybe it's some of the volunteer opportunities. Maybe there's some of the projects that you've been doing; maybe there's a business that might be able to support some of the projects you're doing to help our veterans and their families. So, absolutely. Thank you. Councilmember Olsen, I'm assuming you wanted to share something. [00:10:25] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** I do. Thank you. First of all, I want to say thank you to Ray and the team: Matt, Adele, Pat, and then our newest member who isn't standing behind you but should be, and that is Captain Brad Petersen, who just came to our last meeting and is going to be serving as our Public Safety liaison. You know, the work that this group does for such a small group of people is unbelievable, and having the privilege to be part of this team is something that I'm very grateful for. I feel like everyone's heart is in the right place, and they certainly are not afraid to get their hands dirty when necessary to take care of our neediest. And Mayor, I just wanted to tell a quick story to give people an illustration of this team and what they do. A couple years ago—and Mayor, I know you know this story—but a couple years ago we got a phone call on a Sunday afternoon, and it was early afternoon, and it was a resident who just happens to know that I'm part of Beyond the Yellow Ribbon and also knew Pat was part of Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. And he said, "Hey look, I'm over here at Starbucks and I've been coming here for the last few days," he worked on his laptop from Starbucks, "and there's a guy here who's living in his car, and I started talking to the guy. I bought him a cup of coffee and it turns out he's a veteran. Is there something you guys can do for this person?" Yes, there is. So, immediately got in touch with Pat, who happened to be working the street. Pat's a Sergeant on our police department. I think he was there in five minutes in his squad, and he interacted with the individual, got him some gift cards for some food, and got in touch with Ray. Ray immediately went into action and got him some lodging at the hotel and got him in touch with Basic Needs to get him some clothing and some other things. And Ray, I'll let you fill in the blanks if I've left anything out, but it wasn't two hours and that person had a hot meal, they had a place to stay for several days, they had gift cards for other things that they might need whether it's Target or food—things of that nature. And all of that's the generosity of our donors. You know, whether it's the Lions Club or Basic Needs or any of the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon businesses—and there's several of them here in the city of Cottage Grove—you know, they make sure that we have what we need so that we can hop to it when we have somebody like that who's in need. And it was a very special day. I think we all walked away from that day feeling like this is what we're doing this for. This is why this matters. This person served our country, and they deserve better than what their living conditions currently are, and it's our responsibility and our mission to help people like that. And boy, if that doesn't tell the story about what we do, I'll tell you what. And the look on some of those kids when we do the Christmas program and those kinds of things... and then maybe Ray, can you tell everybody what MACV is? I know we know what that is, but I don’t think everybody watching at home maybe knows what that is. [00:13:58] **Ray Kane:** You know, I'm trying to figure out the whole thing, but MACV does housing for veterans. So they house veterans, and we’ve actually housed I think four veterans currently. And we were actually partners with one with Hugo, but we are actually four already this year that we’ve reached out to MACV, which is Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, and they’ve housed our veterans. So they've paid their security deposit and their first and last month’s rent when they were struggling for foreclosure or not being able to make rent. And the American Legion Department of Minnesota—we have the Minnesota Veterans Assistance Fund Grant and we’ve paid I think four mortgages currently in the city and I think a couple in other cities right now. [00:14:45] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Yeah, Pat got involved with a veteran who needed some mortgage assistance a couple years ago, I think it was, and got Brenda, our Finance Director, involved. And you know, the things that we do for folks—we do it because it's the right thing to do and because they deserve it. And it's not usually something that we talk a lot about, but Ray's actually required by statute to be here once a year to give us an update; that's part of the charter. So that's why he's here. But thank you guys so much for coming tonight. I think it really meant a lot. I don't know if anybody else in the council has questions or wants to say anything. Looks like we got it all, but thank you guys. Thank you for all the support. [00:15:26] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. All right, the next item under presentations is Autism Awareness Acceptance Month—excuse me, it's a proclamation. And in this particular case, I guess I would just turn it over... what it does is it allows me to pick a council member, and I figured the one to my right here, who just was talking a few minutes ago, might like to take this one over. So, Councilmember Olsen, would you like to read the proclamation? [00:15:52] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Yes, I will. Thank you, Mayor. It means a lot to me that you let me do this every year. As a parent of a son on the autism spectrum, Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month—April every year—means an awful lot to me and my family. And so having the opportunity to read this tonight is a blessing for us. Thank you. And it reads as follows: "April 2024, Autism Acceptance Month. Whereas the City of Cottage Grove recognizes the importance of fostering a community that embraces diversity, inclusion, and understanding; and whereas Autism Acceptance Month provides an opportunity to raise awareness about autism spectrum disorder, celebrate the unique contributions of individuals on the autism spectrum, and promote acceptance; and whereas we acknowledge the need to support, empower, and uplift people with ASD, their families, and their caregivers; and whereas Autism Acceptance Month provides an opportunity to celebrate the unique contributions of individuals on the autism spectrum and their families; and whereas we commit to creating an environment where everyone, regardless of neurodiversity, feels valued, respected, and included; and whereas we celebrate the strengths, talents, and perspectives of autistic individuals, which enrich our community and contribute to its vibrancy. Now, therefore, the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Cottage Grove, County of Washington, State of Minnesota, hereby proclaim the month of April 2024 to be designated as Autism Acceptance Month. Passed this Wednesday, the 3rd day of April, 2024," and then signed by Myron Bailey, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. [00:17:35] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so thank you, Councilmember Olsen, for reading that. And just to make it official, would you like to make the motion to approve? [00:17:42] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** I will make the motion to approve the proclamation. [00:17:44] **Councilmember David Clausen:** I second. [00:17:45] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Motion was made by Councilmember Olsen, seconded by Councilmember Clausen. All those in favor signify by saying "Aye," please. [00:17:50] **Councilmembers:** Aye. [00:17:51] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. All right, thank you Councilmember Olsen. And then the other proclamation that we have for this evening is National Volunteer Month Proclamation. And Councilmember Garza is going to read this one for us. Thank you. [00:18:05] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** Thank you. Hello. So this is the National Volunteer Month Proclamation, which is very important for our city. We appreciate all of the volunteers here. It reads as: "April 2024, National Volunteer Month. Whereas the contributions of volunteers enrich Cottage Grove and the lives of our fellow community members; and whereas volunteers play an essential role in our community, dedicating their time, talents, and passion to make a positive impact; and whereas their commitment to service inspires us all to create a better, more connected, and vibrant city; and whereas National Volunteer Month provides an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the invaluable contributions of volunteers; and whereas these dedicated individuals enhance the quality of life for all residents by fostering community connections and promoting civic engagement; and whereas we recognize that even small acts of kindness can have a profound impact on our community's well-being and future generations; and whereas during National Volunteer Month we honor those who generously give their time, talents, and passion to make a difference; and whereas we extend our deepest appreciation to all volunteers who contribute to the well-being of our city and its residents. Now, therefore, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Cottage Grove, County of Washington, State of Minnesota, hereby proclaim the month of April 2024 to be designated as National Volunteer Month. Passed this Wednesday, the third day of April, 2024. Signed by Mr. Mayor, Myron Bailey." [00:19:55] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. And yeah, we’ll... during Council comments later, I'll talk a little bit about the things that we're going to do in the very near future here for our volunteers in Cottage Grove. So, with that, would you like to make the motion to accept? [00:20:08] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** Sure, I would like to make a motion to accept the proclamation for the National Volunteer Month. [00:20:13] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** I second. [00:20:14] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, we have a motion by Councilmember Garza, second by Councilmember Thiede. All those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [00:20:19] **Councilmembers:** Aye. [00:20:20] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you both. All right, so now we're going to move to number seven, which is the consent agenda. Is there anything Council would like to pull on consent? All right, I guess seeing none, I'll look for a motion to approve consent. [00:20:34] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Consent. [00:20:35] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Thiede. Do I have a second? [00:20:37] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** I second. [00:20:38] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Councilmember Garza. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [00:20:43] **Councilmembers:** Aye. [00:20:44] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. So if you're here for anything that's on tonight's consent agenda, all of those items have been approved. Number eight is approved disbursement. 8A is to pay the bills. [00:20:55] **Councilmember David Clausen:** I will make a motion to pay the bills. [00:20:57] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, sounds good. We have a motion by Councilmember Clausen. [00:20:59] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Second. [00:21:00] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Councilmember Olsen. Any discussion on this item? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [00:21:05] **Councilmembers:** Aye. [00:21:06] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Number nine is public hearings; there are none this evening. 10 is Bid Awards. We do have one bid award this evening, which is the 2024 Pavement Management Project, and Amanda Meyer, our City Engineer, is going to walk us through this one. So welcome, Amanda. [00:21:25] **Amanda Meyer (City Engineer):** Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council. So as mentioned, 2024 Pavement Management Project before you with the bid award. We did open bids about two weeks ago for this project, again in the Pine Tree Estates neighborhood. The engineer’s estimate was at $945,000. You can see on the screen before you we did receive five competitive bids, with the low bidder being OMG Midwest Incorporated, doing business as Minnesota Paving and Materials, for a low bid of $913,739.48. They have of course done work in our community before; we have great experience with them. And with that, there is a recommendation before you on the screen, and I'll stand for questions. [00:22:04] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. Thank you. By the way, I know that was a concern with that neighborhood, what the prices might come back. So I'm very happy that it's below even what we had thought it was going to be, so that's awesome. Council, any questions on this one? Seeing none, the motion is on the screen if somebody would like to take it. [00:22:20] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Mayor, I will move to adopt resolution awarding the bid for the 2024 pavement management project to OMG Midwest Incorporated, doing business as Minnesota Paving and Materials, in the total amount of $913,739.48. [00:22:36] **Councilmember David Clausen:** Second. [00:22:37] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen, second by Councilmember Clausen. Any questions, comments? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [00:22:45] **Councilmembers:** Aye. [00:22:46] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next is 11, regular agenda. We have two items on our regular agenda. The first one is a tobacco compliance check violation with regards to Hy-Vee gas station. And Sergeant Mike McCormack is going to walk us through. So, welcome Mike. [00:23:05] **Sgt. Mike McCormack:** Thank you, Mayor. Well, Tammy, I know we walked through this, but I'm locked up here though... I think it froze up. [00:23:14] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** It did freeze up. The joys of technology. It's awesome. [00:23:17] **Sgt. Mike McCormack:** Other than restarting it, I don't know what to do. [00:23:22] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** I think we can all acknowledge that Chief Kerer is not here and may have potentially sabotaged the presentation just as a prank. [00:23:29] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** He's watching. [00:23:45] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Tammy to the rescue again. [00:23:46] **Sgt. Mike McCormack:** Again, yes. Thank you. Had this meeting a couple hours ago and she was to the rescue and we had it all fixed then. So, thank you for this time. We're going to talk about two compliance violations from our most recent round. First I'm going to present on is our tobacco compliance check violation. Our mission, just like you'll find with alcohol, is that we always provide two every year. There's been one exception since I've been here in 20 years, and that was because of COVID. Other than that, we do two compliance checks per year with both alcohol and tobacco. We believe hiring, training, and supervising responsible staff is essential to keeping businesses in compliance with state law and city ordinances and regulating the sale of tobacco. The background is on February 27th of this year, our police department conducted tobacco compliance checks of Cottage Grove businesses—anyone that essentially holds a license to sell tobacco. The one that we're going to be speaking about tonight with the tobacco is Hy-Vee Fast and Fresh, which some may know also as the Hy-Vee gas station. They failed this compliance check, and this is their second—actually, second within a year, but in our 36-month procedure. Just for consistency's sake, we do the same thing that we do for alcohol as we do for tobacco. Volunteer decoys are given the following instructions: they arrive at the police department at a predetermined date and time in normal everyday clothing. They don't change their appearance. They are to look as much like their driver's license picture as possible. Our goal isn't to fool or trick anyone. Pictures of their appearance are taken prior to conducting the checks and then we save that in case there are violations. And our volunteers are strictly instructed that if anyone asks their age, they are not to lie—to give their actual age. They're instructed under no circumstance again to lie about who they are or how old they are. They're instructed to provide a state ID card or driver's license that has their true age and identity—that essentially it's them. This ID and driver's license was reviewed and photographed by our compliance check officers prior to the compliance checks for the evening. Photo of the ID is taken and uploaded, and that's in our case file, and I believe you may have that in front of you right now. We also give them money. That money is then photographed to make sure that we can prove that it was actually that monetary note that was used for the transaction. And just a little refresher, I know we've talked about this a couple times, but Minnesota driver's licenses—and this is as of 2018—have vertical and horizontal licenses. So if they're vertical, like what you'll see on your left, that signifies that they are under 21 years of age. Also under the picture, you'll see in red bold block lettering "Under 21" and then it'll give "Until" and that is their birth date. If it's horizontal, then they're over 21 years of age. So you'll find when we do the alcohol that Wisconsin does the same thing. Okay, so our decoy was an 18-year-old female, and she asked for a Vuse Golden Vape—that's a pod. Employee did not ask for age but did ask for identification. Employee scanned the identification card and, according to the officer's report, it came back "Void Transaction," which would say that they're not of age. Employee looked at the identification, said it was "blurry," and then proceeded with completing the transaction. It was at this point that our decoy went out and spoke with our compliance officers, advised of the sale, where the officers then went in to speak with the clerk at the time. That employee was told she'd receive a citation for selling tobacco to a person under the age of 21. They also spoke with the assistant store manager to make sure that they're aware of the compliance violation. And do I talk about the recommendations, or is this typically where...? [00:27:35] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** I mean, you could, but it's on the screen for us to do it. Does Council have any questions for Sergeant Mike McCormack? Okay. So, is somebody here from Hy-Vee? Did you want to speak at all? Yes, please just come up and just state your name and address for the record, please. Thank you. [00:27:55] **Sarah:** Hello, my name is Sarah, and I'm the Assistant Manager of Store Operations at the Cottage Grove Hy-Vee. First, I wanted to say we took this violation very seriously. The employee that did fail this compliance check is no longer with the company. Moving forward, we will continue to train our employees so they know how important it is to follow the steps we have in place as a company when selling tobacco, lottery, and alcohol, which is: they get the product, they scan the UPC, once they get that UPC in the computer, it's going to prompt them with scanning the back of an ID. Here, they scan the ID and, like he said, that "Void" screen did come up. From there, they shouldn't be backing out and overriding that at all. If it doesn't work, they do not sell the product, and they are not to sell the product unless they have an ID. Obviously, the ID has to match the person that's purchasing the product. So going forward, again like I said, we'll do better training to make sure this does not happen again. [00:28:45] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, thank you. Councilmember Thiede? [00:28:48] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Just out of curiosity, how long had this employee been at the store? [00:28:53] **Sarah:** I do not have an answer for that, unfortunately. [00:28:55] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Because I was just curious if they went through the training or do you have a period...? [00:28:58] **Sarah:** Absolutely. Our HR does all the training. We go through this once they're hired and then we'll continue to go through this as well—the training to know the steps. But we make it very clear when they're hired the importance of scanning the ID. [00:29:10] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** One more question. So it sounds like your software does a good job of bringing that up, but that employee, depending on what level employee they were, was able to actually bypass that and actually finish the sale? [00:29:25] **Sarah:** Yes. But moving forward, we’ll ensure that they do not bypass that. [00:29:28] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Is that something you can do in the software then? Because if the employee wasn't able to actually finish the transaction, then they just couldn't have sold anything. I've been at a couple Hy-Vee stores; that's not something that they've ever been able to do, but I can certainly ask the question. [00:29:43] **Sarah:** Okay. [00:29:44] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Yes, thank you. First, let me express my similar concerns about your software. That was a very unfortunate situation that that person was able to bypass the stop sign, so to speak. I worked in convenience myself, and I was the manager of Support Services responsible for alcohol and tobacco law compliance for Holiday Station stores for several years, and so I know how challenging it is even when you train people to control human behavior. But the software system can really be your friend, and I would highly recommend that you share with whether it's the store director or above that two members of the City Council suggested you may want to take a look at your programming and figure out a way to ensure that that can't be overridden unless, say, there's some kind of a manager code or something along those lines. Because that would prevent a lot of your issues. The second thing that I wanted to mention is this is the second violation in a relatively short period of time. Do you have any thoughts as to why this is happening now for a second time? [00:30:45] **Sarah:** I cannot speak as to why this would be the second time. What I do know is that moving forward we’ll be better in training our employees. Like I said, I'm the Assistant Manager of Store Operations at the store; we have multiple other equal positions as me, and I'll make it a point to go out to our gas station, go out to our liquor store to keep checking in on them and keep training them, because this is important. We cannot continue to fail these violations. So I will make it my personal duty along with the other managers to ensure they're trained, and I will bring the concern with our software to my director. [00:31:18] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Yeah, and I know my colleague to my right here wants to say something as well, but I just want to make sure you're keenly aware a third violation would be a really bad thing. [00:31:26] **Sarah:** Yes. [00:31:27] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** So definitely want to take those seriously for sure. [00:31:31] **Sarah:** Absolutely. Thank you. [00:31:32] **Councilmember David Clausen:** Yeah, just to reiterate what Dave, Councilmember Thiede, and Councilmember Olsen said. From recent memory, I think the handful of violations—both alcohol and tobacco—that have occurred recently were all scenarios where the software prompted the employee to stop and the employee overrode it. And I know that's frustrating because that's the human element and that's the hardest part to fix, because software is software and computers are computers. So I empathize with the position that you're in. But to be at a second violation in four months is concerning, because yeah, a third violation comes with even stiffer consequences. So I would just like to say that I hope that you guys can implement a procedure or a software update that prevents a third violation, because we don't take these things lightly, but we also don't like to have to be the ones to enforce it either. But it's in the public health and safety to do so. So yeah, if there's... then from our staff side, if there's anything that our staff can help to train or to kind of maybe advise on where the breakdown is so that we can help you prevent having a third instance of this... but yeah, it kind of breaks my heart when every time this comes up, it's the employee was prompted to stop and then had an easy workaround and proceeded anyway. That seems to be the fact pattern here with these violations. So that's my observation. [00:32:55] **Sarah:** Okay. All right. [00:32:56] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** Hi, thank you. So I just want to go in a little bit more on the employee—they actually overrode the message. My question is, what would be the reason that they would override it? If they get a prompt that says that this person is under 21, what would be any reason for them to have a reason to override it, I guess? [00:33:18] **Sarah:** Sure. Sometimes when if there's like a marking on the back of their ID, sometimes it might prompt them that it didn't go through, but usually that means scan it the second time. Never do we ever want to override that red screen. Usually that's saying that they scanned it wrong or they scanned the wrong UPC—something like that. Or it's also telling us that they're not old enough. So they might have... or it could be a fake ID, or it's an expired ID—it kind of tells us everything like that. So really we shouldn't be overriding that at all. [00:33:48] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** The person, the employee... I know that you said that you've let them go now, but I believe as an older person... I'm 54 or 45, one or the other... but for them to be an older adult and have overrode your system, I just wonder what would be a reason. And so yeah, absolutely shouldn't have happened; there's no excuse whatsoever. But that is there to protect Hy-Vee and the customer, you know. [00:34:14] **Sarah:** So they're going to tell us, like I said, if they're expired, if it's a fake... you know, all the things like that. [00:34:18] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** Thank you. [00:34:19] **Sarah:** Thank you. [00:34:20] **Councilmember David Clausen:** Does your system currently give them that prompt—"This is fake," "This is expired"—or does it just say "Stop" and "Take a closer look"? [00:34:26] **Sarah:** Yeah, it just says "Stop," "Void." Yep. [00:34:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. Um, yeah, but just one second though... Sergeant McCormack, a quick question for you. So in Hy-Vee's case, they... we did this compliance at the gas station, correct? Did we do a separate compliance inside the store, or is it just one? [00:34:44] **Sgt. Mike McCormack:** Yes. [00:34:45] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay. So the one in the store, they passed, correct? Okay. I was curious about that because I figured there would be two, but I thought it would be important to acknowledge. Unfortunately, as we keep... I think you've heard this enough, that this individual overrode the situation, but it does sound like it was an individual issue. But I know that as you've heard from the other council members, I mean, I know you don't want to be up here talking to us and we prefer to be celebrating all the other ones that did, including the other one inside your store that passed, because this is the only one out of all the locations that we did during this round that did not pass. So hopefully we'll see you... not see you back here, but we'll see you on the list next time where they both will pass. Okay. So Council, if you... No? Did you have anything else you want to add? [00:35:28] **Sarah:** No, just thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of Hy-Vee, and again, we'll do better training moving forward. [00:35:33] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you. [00:35:34] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Mayor, I'm going to move that we accept the recommendation from Public Safety to impose the scheduled penalty for the second violation in a 36-month period of a $600 fine for Hy-Vee Fast and Fresh. [00:35:46] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so a motion by Councilmember Olsen. [00:35:48] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. [00:35:49] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Councilmember Thiede. All those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [00:35:53] **Councilmembers:** Aye. [00:35:54] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you for coming. All right. And as Sergeant McCormack had mentioned, the second item is a liquor compliance check violation at Junction 70 Grill. [00:36:11] **Sgt. Mike McCormack:** Correct. We're going to talk about the liquor compliance check violation from Junction 70. This was on February 26th, where we conducted the liquor compliance check, and again, these are all the businesses in our city that hold licenses to sell liquor. Junction 70 at 6933 Pine Harbor Drive failed that compliance check. This is their first. Not only is it their first violation in the 24-month look back, but since 2018, they haven't had any. Just like I stated with tobacco, we do two a year. This is best practice both with state law and regulating our city ordinances. We appreciate the effort businesses put forth into this important part of their operation. Responsible alcohol sales are a respected part of our business community, and their efforts to help keep alcohol out of the hands of youth are commendable. As you know, we strive for 100% compliance, and quite often we use these for educational purposes on a first violation. Again, as stated, they arrive at the PD, they're dressed in normal wear, they don't change their appearance. We take pictures of them prior to them going out in the field with the officers, and they are instructed to not lie and to advise of their real age if asked. Same as before, they provide a state-issued identification or driver's license. It's reviewed, a photo is taken of that ID, they are provided with that monetary note which is photographed prior to going out in the field and then upon return. Again, Minnesota driver's license as of 2018: vertical is under 21, horizontal is over 21. You see under the picture of under 21 and it gives their birth date when that would be. And I wanted to make sure that we added Wisconsin on this one as well, because it was a Wisconsin driver's license that was used to make this purchase. Again, you'll see the vertical for under 21—in red letters it's "U21"—and it's not on the horizontal. This violation, as I stated, took place on February 26th of this year at 4:50 p.m. There are three decoys that were used. They all walked in together, they ordered water, with the third one ordering a White Claw, which is an alcoholic beverage. The server did ask for identification, which was presented and examined. The one thing that's quite ironic here—I'm not sure if you've read the report or not—but the server was 20 years of age and the person that she asked was 20 years of age and they had the exact same birthday, and yet was still sold that alcohol. Once asked, the clerk did admit to serving the decoy, but stated she did not look at it closely. She was advised of the citation to serving alcohol to a minor, and the owner was also present. I do know that myself and Community Engagement Officer here have met with a business owner on separate occasions, initially at their request. I was advised that they're not present here tonight, but I can tell you that in that meeting with the owner, that employee was let go the same day of the violation. They had also immediately asked, as they were familiar with the ordinance, what they could do to rectify the situation. And with being told some of the steps they could take, they immediately asked to have their staff trained—everybody there. And the owner stated that if anyone chose not to attend, that they wouldn't be employed there anymore. So he obviously took it quite serious and they did end up doing two training sessions to accommodate schedules. And he did hand give that roster back to us and all of their employees have since attended the alcohol training conducted by this agency, and that program was approved prior to doing so. This is a gross misdemeanor charge, and they were issued a citation for misdemeanor under city code 3-12D-13. So kind of as I stated before, what we try to do with businesses is use this as an educational piece, and they're almost all the time they're cited on our city ordinance, which is a misdemeanor, but we also let them know that that's kind of their grace period for the next one—that none of those don't apply. This brings us to our recommendation. [00:40:24] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so for the council, actually before I even knew that this happened, I happened to be at Junction 70 and the owner came up right away and shared with me how upset he was—not at us, but that it happened. Because as you mentioned, he was there when this unfortunately happened. So I'm very much aware that he is very vigilant in making sure that everybody is, as you mentioned. And I also just, similar to the last kind of situation there, this was also done—liquor checks were done at all businesses in Cottage Grove that sell liquor, and unfortunately for Junction 70, they were the only ones that didn't pass. So I want to say kudos to the rest of them out there. So what you have before us, Council, is the recommendation which is under number two. [00:41:14] **Councilmember David Clausen:** I move to adopt the recommendation to waive the scheduled penalty for the first violation in a 24-month period—a $500 fine and the one-day suspension—since the staff participated in an educational program conducted by members of the Cottage Grove Police Department. [00:41:30] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. [00:41:31] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a motion by Councilmember Clausen, second by Councilmember Thiede. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [00:41:39] **Councilmembers:** Aye. [00:41:40] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. All right, so we're on to number 12, which is Council comments/requests. We'll start down with Councilmember Clausen. [00:41:51] **Councilmember David Clausen:** I don't have anything to add. [00:41:53] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, then I'll move right along to Councilmember Olsen. [00:41:56] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you, Mayor. First of all, again, I just want to express my appreciation at the council passing the proclamation for April being Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month. That is a very important proclamation for my family and I know many families here in the city of Cottage Grove. It also happens to be Paraprofessional Appreciation Day today, and the two of those things tie together in my mind because I know that when my son went through the South Washington County public school system, he had several paraprofessionals who assisted him from when he was in Pre-K—and in fact one of those paraprofessionals was Councilmember Thiede's wife, Cindy—and all the way up until he graduated from Park High School. And paraprofessionals are truly angels here on Earth, as were the teachers and the therapists who worked with our son throughout his educational career. So I just wanted to take a minute today and acknowledge the hard work that paraprofessionals do in our public school system. For those who don't know what a paraprofessional is, a paraprofessional is somebody who supports the educators and the staff in the school system, whether it be actually in the classroom or perhaps with students who need a little extra help transitioning from classroom to classroom, passing periods in the high school, things of that nature. They also help monitor goings-on and behaviors in public spaces like lunchrooms and theaters and things of that nature. And we have lots of paraprofessionals in our public schools here in District 833 and across the state who are kind of the unsung heroes of the school system. I know that if you talk to a teacher, they will tell you that they would not be able to do the job that they do with the number of kids that they have in their classroom without the support of paraprofessionals like Cindy Thiede and others. So for those who helped our family and who help all of our District 833 families and families across Minnesota, I just wanted to say thank you for everything that you do as paraprofessionals in our public schools. Mayor, I also wanted to mention that I had a really neat opportunity here last week Thursday. We had the chance to attend, for the first time, what's known as a Community Iftar, and that is a program where they are breaking the fast for those who celebrate Ramadan at the Eastern Twin Cities Islamic Center over in Afton. Typically they've had those on Wednesday nights, so of course, where have we been? We've been in Council meetings. But because they had it on a Thursday night, we had the chance to go along with Chief Kerer from our Public Safety department, Captain Petersen from our Public Safety department, Community Engagement Officer Ryan Pierre, and then we also had the opportunity to have Sergeant Shon with us. And it was such a warm and inviting environment to go to. This event has been put on now for 19 years running, and it's a partnership between the Eastern Twin Cities Islamic Center and the Minnesota Council of Churches. So you had people from all faith backgrounds who were at this event—some from the Jewish faith, some from the Christian faith, obviously several from the Muslim faith. And it was a night where we got some education; we had a presentation called Islam 101, basically, that we got to listen to, and then about 45 minutes of Q&A with some pretty hard questions actually from the attendees. But I just wanted to say thank you for the invitation from our friends at the Eastern Twin Cities Islamic Center and the Minnesota Council of Churches. It was a very enlightening night full of hospitality and fellowship, and I was very grateful for the opportunity to finally go and also look forward to the opportunity to go next year, hopefully. And with that, Mayor, I'll pass it back to you. [00:45:51] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic, thank you. I'll move on to Councilmember Thiede. [00:45:55] **Councilmember Dave Thiede:** All right, well thank you, Justin. I'm sure Cindy will appreciate that call out. I'd like to just mention that we're getting closer and closer to Strawberry Fest, of course, in June. And we are really looking for some volunteers, actually, to participate during Strawberry Fest to, you know, like man the info booth and do some other things. And if you'd like that kind of a short-term commitment as opposed to necessarily being on the committee or something like that, we could certainly use the help. And our next meeting will be held on April 15th, and we have those meetings at Carboni's at six o'clock. [00:46:40] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic, thank you. On down... yeah, getting closer. It is. Councilmember Garza. [00:46:45] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So since we are throwing things out there, I'd like to mention that we have our movie lineup for our Movies in the Park up at the Highlands Park splash pad. So if you want to check it out, it's on the Parks and Rec website, it's also on the "Movies with Mo" website or our social media. So we have the three movies. I hope you all can make it; it's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of free family fun events going on. Food trucks—the food truck lineup is there as well. So we hope to see everyone in our community and outside of our community there. [00:47:18] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. All righty, that is always a fun event. [00:47:20] **Councilmember Monique Garza:** It is. Thank you. Keep our fingers... no rain. No rain, bad word. [00:47:24] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. So a couple quick things for the public. One is we obviously did a proclamation earlier this evening for the volunteers that make Cottage Grove a special place. And one of the things that we do as a city is we recognize all the various groups and agencies and organizations that make up the volunteer groups in the city of Cottage Grove with a volunteer banquet. That volunteer banquet is actually next Thursday, April 11th, at 6:00 p.m. at River Oaks Golf Course. We have so many volunteers, it's like we're almost capping out on how many people we can have at the golf course, which is around 230. And I was also very excited and honored to be able to reach out to who our Volunteer Person of the Year is, and also the group of the year. So it’ll be neat to have them there and recognize them officially as the volunteer group of the year and the individual for the year. And I'll... secret, I'm keeping it secret for now, but they know. But there... yeah, it was pretty... they were pretty excited when I gave them the call. It's kind of a fun thing I get to do as Mayor. So again, that's Thursday, April 11th. The next time I also want to mention, too, is Arbor Day. We do have an Arbor Day tree planting on Tuesday, April 23rd, at 1:00, and it will be at Sunny Hill Park. This is an opportunity for anybody in the public that just wants to come and dig a couple holes and put some trees and bushes and things in, that they're absolutely welcome to do that. And I also should probably put a little plug in... I'm going to look both directions... do we still have trees left for the giveaway? They have to register for a lot, right? Okay. But there's 100 right total? So there is... if you check out our local... our city Facebook page, we do every year during Arbor Day a giveaway. It's kind of a... you have to sign up for it, but they... we give away a couple trees—well, 100 total—when I say "a couple," one per person. And as so many years in the past that had the opportunity to actually get one of those trees, they are really nice. And so I just encourage the public, if you want to add some shade and some value to your home, please sign up and see if you get drawn for one of the hundred trees that we're going to be giving away. And they're not just little tiny trees; they're actually nice-sized trees. So I just wanted to make that very aware to the public. And then the last thing—and this is... I know a lot of people love this event, too—is that is Saturday, April 27th, at 10:00 at Park High School will be the Chamber Community Showcase. I know the neighbor to the north here is having theirs this weekend, I believe, but our Chamber showcase once again will be at the Park High... what do they call that actual building? The Fieldhouse Activity Center. That is there. It's a great event, a lot of giveaways, a lot of some food and events there. I encourage everybody to stop in. The City will be there, I'll be there, I'm sure some of the Council members will be there, too, to ask questions or share what the goings-on are happening here in Cottage Grove. So those were a couple of my points of interest that I just thought I would throw out there. And at this point, we’ll look to a work... which we're going to be doing before we adjourn. We do have a workshop this evening which is open to the public; it's kind of finalizing the second part—we weren't able to finish it up at our last meeting together—zoning code amendments and sign code updates. So we're going to go into the training room to kind of finish that up, and then we do not have any workshops that are closed to the public, so we will be adjourning inside the training room. So everybody have a great evening. Thank you.