This transcript has been updated with speaker names based on the context of the roll call, the provided list of city officials, and the subject matter of the discussions. **Note on Spelling:** The phonetic spellings in the original transcript (e.g., "Vloose," "Teal," "Dambooya," "Mr. Ran") have been corrected to their official names (van Sluis, Thiele, Doumbouya, Rowan) in the speaker tags, though the dialogue remains as transcribed. *** [0:00] **Heather Slechta (City Clerk):** Barnes. Doumbouya here. Ross here. Rowan here. van Sluis here. Thiele here. Mayor Ratchek or Spooner. Just can't let it die. [0:15] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** I was off for a week. Mayor Mayor Spooner's here. Mayor Spoon's here. Pledge of Allegiance. [0:29] **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [0:46] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Our second item is approval of the agenda. Anybody have any changes? [0:53] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Mayor Spooner. Yes. I make a motion to approve the agenda. [1:01] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Doumbouya, a second by Barnes. All those in favor? I. All opposed? The agenda is approved. We have no presentations or introductions. Item number four, approval of the minutes of March 11th, 2025. [1:24] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Second by Barnes, a second by van Sluis. All those in favor? I. Motion passes. Request to be heard. We have none on the clipboard. Consent agenda items 6A through 6U. Anybody want to be talked about? [1:48] **John Rowan:** Uh, item R please for further discussion. [2:00] **Royal Ross:** Mayor Spooner? Yes. I'll make a motion to approve consent agenda items 6A through 6Q and 6S through 6U. [2:12] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** I'll second. [2:16] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Ross for 6A through 6Q and 6S through 6U and then by R. All those in favor? I. All oppose? Those pass. Mr. Rowan, what would you like to discuss? [2:34] **John Rowan:** What's the backstory on it? [2:37] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator):** I think the backstory is that the League of Cities has put out a call to all cities to reach out to their legislators. Letters of support for any legislation do require approval of the council. And so that's why it's on here tonight. Um, this was something that Dave Wanberg and Harry Davis had drafted from the planning standpoint. And so that's why it's on here. [3:04] **John Rowan:** No, but what is the concern that the legislature is doing? [3:06] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator):** Uh, they're trying to basically take away the ability of cities to regulate density of housing as it impacts our zoning. And so that would be something that would be um, problematic for the city. We have a very good comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance. And so, what that could mean is if this were to pass, a developer could come in and want to put something high density in a single family residential neighborhood and we would have, um, very little to no um, ability to regulate that. And so, I think we have quality within our neighborhoods. We have specific areas for high-density residential and we want to maintain that control of where high-density residential goes versus the state of Minnesota saying it can go anywhere. [3:52] **Mandy Barnes:** Yes, I'd like to add that um, I have a few questions too. I'm glad Councilor Rowan brought it up. Um, I would like to discuss it more. Um, mainly just to find out more and learn about more of our building codes versus the trying to pass through. Um, I'm not always a fan of the big guy taking the power of the little guy, meaning us, the city. Uh, there's reasons that these plans are in place. Um, but I also agree that we need to make things a little bit easier for builders and homeowners to build um, and expand. Uh, the construction material requirements um, was one question I had. There was uh, the state was suggesting banning the interim ordinances related to aesthetic mandates and it would also prohibit uh, the required minimum parking spaces within. So that's something I'd like to discuss more um, as far as the three acts that are on topic for tonight. Letter R. [4:57] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator):** So the next work session that we would have where this could be discussed is going to be April 15th. Um, and so we can certainly do that and we'll know more about what's happening with the legislation at that point. Um, because April 1st we're not having a traditional work session. It's going to be focused on strategic planning. So, if there is still a letter to send by April 15th, we'll put this on the April 15th work session agenda for further discussion unless the council would want to have a work session after the regular meeting on April 8th. [5:24] **John Rowan:** I would like to hear from Scott [City Attorney]. Do you have any insight on this or not really? [5:37] **Scott (City Attorney):** Uh, it really is a situation of local control. Um, so it's a policy question from the standpoint of how much control the council wants to have in your city versus allowing the legislature to say globally you have to do X, Y, and Z instead. So that's what it comes down to. That's why the league obviously has some concerns. Um, they've been working on it to my understanding, working with legislators on this, but it is a local control issue and so it's up to you how much you want to cede of that control. [6:10] **Scott (City Attorney):** Council member Barnes says, the "big guy," you know, that's really what it comes down to. Obviously, as the bill moves forward, there'll be some discussions and deciding what works and what doesn't. This has come up before. Um, it's just another attempt at looking at it again. So, it's there. It just hasn't been adopted before. [6:30] **Mandy Barnes:** Yep. I might add too, I did speak with our senator and our state representative and both of them are against the bill. Um, Senator Jasinski did say that he does not believe it will go through and you're right, they did try to pass something similar in the bipartisan bill, which I love bipartisan. I love that for it. So discussion would be good. [7:01] **Royal Ross:** Hey. Uh, I'm in favor of voting for this. We voted for this last year. I believe we wrote the same. This takes away a lot of local control. I think that the cities should have and want to have, not just what would be statewide. And I'm sure multiple cities are. [7:33] **Royal Ross:** Mayor Spooner? I'll make a motion to approve consent agenda item 6R. [7:44] **Chuck Thiele:** Second. [7:50] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Ross, second by Thiele. [7:59] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** For I think this bill is something that would be more suitable for bigger city. Also the other side of that is what's in concern. So but yeah um, based on the size of our city population. [8:26] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All right. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. All opposed? Motion pass. [8:35] **John Rowan:** I just want to clarify that I'm not opposed to it on its merits. I have no problem with staff bringing forward a larger discussion on our housing goals. [8:52] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Okay. Public hearings tonight? We have none. Items for discussion. We have quite a few. Item A, Resolution 2025-079, approval of plans and specifications and establishing a bid date for 2025 miscellaneous concrete projects contract 2025-01. Mr. Mark DuChene. [9:07] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, and the public. Uh, before you tonight are four resolutions, each approving plans and specifications for four of our capital improvement projects this year. The first resolution is for our miscellaneous concrete project. Every year for the recent past years anyways, we've bid a miscellaneous concrete project where we bid um, replacement of sidewalk and curb and pavement and other things that we have to have a specialty concrete contractor do. Um, we don't necessarily know always how much we're going to end up doing. Every month we give the contractor a list. They complete that work and we go from May through November. These things take care of things like curb replacement due to water main breaks over the winter, public sidewalks or other works that the parks or utilities department want done around their facility. So it really is just a miscellaneous job. [10:13] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Resolution 2025-079 approves those plans and specifications and sets a bid date of April 16th for the 2025 miscellaneous concrete project. [10:29] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Thank you, Mark. Any questions? [10:31] **Royal Ross:** Mayor Spooner? Yes. I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-079. [10:41] **Mandy Barnes:** Second. [10:44] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Ross. A second by Barnes. All those in favor? I. Motion passes. On to Resolution 2025-080. Approval of plans and specifications to establish a bid date for 2025 residential street overlay and sidewalk improvements contract 2025-02. [11:11] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Once again, thank you, Mayor, members of the council, and the public. Uh, the second resolution is for our residential street and overlay sidewalk improvements contract. You'll recall two weeks ago we were here with the public hearing. Had some discussion since that time; we did remove the sidewalk on 25th Avenue as council directed from the project. So, the revised plans and specifications that are before you tonight for approval um, do not include that sidewalk on 25th Avenue. Listing of streets is on the map here. Reminder, project scope: this is a mill and overlay project. So we'll grind off all or portion of the top surface of bituminous, repair castings and structures, replace defective sidewalk and curb, and then pave a bituminous overlay. Project costs for this have obviously gone down with the removal of the sidewalks. We're just over $1.15 million. And you can see the funding splits amongst our capital funds. Project schedule: Moving forward, approving the plans and specifications tonight. Again, we'll set a bid date for April 16th to come back at the following meeting on April 22nd to award a contract. I anticipate construction will start late May, early June, depending upon the weather and contract availability. And we do have a completion time of August 30th, 2025. With that, I'll stand for questions. Would ask you to consider Resolution 2025-080. [12:33] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Mayor Spooner. Yes. I make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-080. [12:39] **John Rowan:** I'll second. [12:43] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Doumbouya and a second by Rowan to approve Resolution 2025-080. All those in favor? I. All opposed? Motion passes. Under Resolution 2025-081, approval of plans and specifications and establishing a bid date for 2025 street overlay and utility improvements contract 2025-03. [13:14] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Thank you, Mayor and council. Uh, this is the second overlay project. This is our MSA or Municipal State Aid street overlay project. A reminder that we separate these two projects up because this project is funded through our municipal state aid account, which is revenues that the city receives from a portion of the gas taxes. This project is Hulet Avenue from Seventh Street up to 20th Street or trunk highway 3. Similar project scope to the previous project. We're going to grind off a portion of the existing bituminous surface, repair castings and structures, replace curb and sidewalk as needed, pave an overlay. Also included on this is adding some water main and some missing segments along Hulet Avenue. Uh, the base bid on this project includes the water main from 17th Street to Bradley Road. And then we do have an alternate bid to complete a segment from Bradley up to 20th Street to replace a water main that failed. So with the alternate of that additional water main, we're looking at an estimated project of just over $1.1 million. Again, you can see the funding split between our municipal state aid account and the water utility. Pending approval of plans and specifications tonight, we have a bid date of April 16th to again come back on the 22nd. So again, I'll take any questions, but ask you to consider Resolution 2025-081. [14:48] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Are there any questions? [14:52] **Chuck Thiele:** Mayor Spooner, make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-081. [15:03] **Peter van Sluis:** Second. [15:05] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Thiele, a second by van Sluis. All those in favor of Resolution 81 signify by saying I. I. All oppose? Motion passes. Resolution 2025-082, approval of plans and specifications to establish a bid for 3rd Avenue Southwest reconstruction improvements contract 2025-04. Mark. [15:31] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh, this is a little bit different project. Uh, this is for our Third Avenue Southwest reconstruction project. So this is a full street reconstruction of Third Avenue from Division Street down to Third Street Southwest. Proposed improvement here is a completely new street. Um, as council directed at the previous council meeting, we are removing the angle parking in the northernmost block there adjacent to the old Immaculate Conception Church and Divine Mercy School. Um, new roadway, new curb and gutter, new sidewalk, new utilities is the big one. Full reconstruction there. Total project estimate for this is just under $1.5 million. Again, you can see majority of this is funded through our street improvement fund and then the various utility funds pay for their respective portions of the project. Identical project schedule here: April 16th bid date for an April 22nd award. Uh, May/June start and August completion. With that, we are asking you to approve Resolution 2025-082. [16:47] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Questions for Director DuChene? [16:49] **Royal Ross:** Mayor Spooner? Yes. I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-082. [17:00] **Mandy Barnes:** I'll second. [17:04] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** I have a motion by Ross, a second by Barnes for the resolution. All those in favor? I. All opposed? Motion passes. All right, we're done with the road concerns. Item E, 2025A, General Revenue Water Bonds. [17:28] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator):** Yeah, I'm going to do um, kind of an introduction of this and just go over a little bit of what was in the memo. Um, and then uh, George Eertson with Northland Securities um, will be here to talk more about the process and the items that are here before you tonight. Um, when we were putting together the budget for 2025, uh, the water fund was the one fund that had a number of projects over 2025 and 2026 where there just wasn't the cash on hand to fund those. And so, each of those have a component for water in them. And so, um, kind of the projects that we're looking to fund in 2025 would be the water portions of street reconstruction, which is a little less than 800,000. Um, reservoir rehabilitation, which is estimated at 1.5 million. uh, the specific water system improvements. Um, it's a number of looping projects that are detailed further in the capital improvement plan for 2025. That's $1.73 million estimated. And then we get into 2026 where we have 1.9 million of water system improvements estimated as well as $500,000 for the garage. So that gets us to a little over 6.4 million. 6.98 is the total that we have um, out there. Uh, the cost of the bond, the cost of borrowing all come out of the bond proceeds as well. So, we're not paying for that um, from any other water revenue sources. It all comes out of the bond. [19:09] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator):** So, we've got some room built in there um, that hopefully the contingency um, will help us uh, get through what could be an interesting bid environment really over two years when there's a lot of unknowns related to tariffs and what that looks like. So, that's kind of the big introduction and then I'm happy to turn it over to George with Northland Securities. [19:45] **George Eertson (Northland Securities):** Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. Jessica, great overview of the project itself. Um, it's nice to hear for the council's benefit what is being financed. So tonight I've got four items for you. The first is a resolution essentially calling for the bond sale. We in our industry call it a "set sale resolution." The purpose of that resolution is calling for a bond sale to take place at your second council meeting in the month of April on April 22nd. Really, council, it provides a basic structure for the financing but really the main purpose is just to set a sale date. [21:07] **George Eertson (Northland Securities):** The second and third items are for what's called the state of Minnesota credit enhancement program. Water, sewer, and storm projects are eligible. The city has an underlying double A bond rating, which is already very strong. Um, the credit enhancement program lifts that bond rating up to AAA. Jessica referenced the rating fees or the other costs of issuance are included in the bond. Adding this credit enhancement program on top of that is an additional $500 fee. But the benefit of the credit enhancement is it lowers your interest rate by approximately a tenth of a percent. So this financing is preliminary sized at $6,980,000 structured over a 20-year financing term. Lowering that interest rate by approximately a tenth of a percent will save the city approximately $80,000 over the 20-year term. The cost benefit of spending 500 to save about 80,000 is a pretty good use there. [22:50] **George Eertson (Northland Securities):** The fourth item is what's called the municipal advisory agreement. Our capacity in this financing is as your municipal adviser. The agreement details our pre-sale and post-sale duties to the city. Pre-sale would be putting together the bond offering statement. That's what investors review when they consider bidding. Sale plus post-sale is conducting the bond sale for you and then helping with the bid tabulation and the closing. So in summary, the bond sale would be on April 22nd. We would take bids in the morning at 10:30, and be back to your city council meeting that evening to present the bids to you. Are there any questions? Right. Thank you. [24:16] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All right. We'll move on with Resolution 2025-090 providing issuance and sale for General Obligation Water Revenue Bond Series 2025A in aggregate principle in the amount approximately of 6,980,000. [24:40] **Royal Ross:** Mayor Spooner? Yes. I make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-090. [24:52] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second. [24:57] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All those in favor? I. All oppose? Motion passes. Under Resolution 2025-091, the obligating the city to be bonded by and to use the provisions of Minnesota state statutes section 446A-086 to guarantee the payment and principle and interest of the bond. [25:21] **Royal Ross:** Mayor Spooner. Yes. I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-091. [25:33] **Mandy Barnes:** I'll second. [25:38] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All those in favor? I. All oppose? Motion passes. Item 3, approval of the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority Credit Enhancement Program Agreement. [25:59] **Royal Ross:** Mayor Spooner? Yes. I'll make a motion to approve the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority Credit Enhancement Program Agreement. [26:11] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second. [26:15] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All those in favor? I. All opposed? Motion passes. Under approval of municipal advisory agreement at Northland Securities Incorporated for this bond. [26:37] **Royal Ross:** I'll move. [26:42] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second. [26:47] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All those in favor? I. Motion passes. Done with items for discussion. Thank you. On to bids. Resolution 2025-085 accepting the bids for the Straight River Water Main crossing contract. [27:07] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Last Wednesday on March 19th, we opened bids for the second time for the Straight River water main crossing. A reminder, this is a project to replace the 20-inch water main. That's the sole feeder line from our water treatment plant up to our elevated storage reservoirs on the east side. Um, the current line runs shallow underneath the Pacific railroad and is attached to the pedestrian walking bridge. We're proposing to replace that with a bored line underneath. This project was originally bid last September. We received two bids. The low bidder had an error in their bid and both bids were above our budget. So we rejected both bids and said we'd work with the railroad to see if we could find some additional cost savings. We tried that and were unsuccessful. So we rebid this project last Wednesday. This time we received four bids. [28:18] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Subsequent to the bids opening, it was recognized that Icon LLC, who at the time was the apparent low bidder, there was an issue with their bid. They have requested to have their bid withdrawn due to an error. Uh, so before you tonight are three options. One, we can once again reject all bids and try a third time. I will say the three other bidders here are all within, you know, $60,000 of each other. I feel like we know what this project is going to cost. Option two tonight is to deem Icon non-responsible. That basically says look, your bid is not valid, we don't recognize it, we're going to award to the second lowest bidder, which is Pember Companies. They had an error in their bid the first time, but they bid again and obviously have a solid bid this time. Or the third option, and this is a little bit riskier, we could award to Icon LLC, force them to sign a contract, and try to draw on their bid bond. In discussions with Attorney Riggs, while this is a legal avenue, it's not a guarantee that we'll get the bond company to pay us the 5% bid bond. [30:22] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** So, those are the three options. Option three, we would recommend that you table this two weeks so that we have time to further research. We have the right to hold the bids for 60 days. If we do award tonight, construction would likely begin this summer. Looking for feedback from the council. [31:32] **Peter van Sluis:** Are all three of the other bidders still interested? [31:38] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Yes. None of them have asked to be withdrawn. [31:44] **Peter van Sluis:** Sense to me to either do a lottery of the three or... [31:50] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** The only viable option would be to go to the next lowest responsible bidder. [32:00] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Why is that? Just so if we reject all the bids, is it going to screw up the timeline significantly if you go back out for new bids? [32:13] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** If you reject all bids, I would ask you to direct staff to rebid it immediately. It’d be a month delay and we’d likely have to extend the completion date. This is on the north end of the Viaduct Park project. [33:01] **Royal Ross:** Thank you, mayor. Um, I guess I would like to go ahead and award it to the second lowest. [33:13] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** Again, that second bid last time was 1.64. We’re $17,000 less than that with the second apparent low here. [33:49] **Royal Ross:** My two cents is that’s what I would like to do. I’d like to just award to Pember. [34:03] **Mark DuChene (Director of Engineering):** So with that, um, here is a resolution. We’ve come up with a standard award resolution. Uh, we did add language in there that said initially it appeared that Icon LLC of Dodge Center was the low bidder. Subsequent to bids being opened, Icon LLC alleged an error and asked that its bid be deemed non-responsive and withdrawn. Of the remaining bidders, it appears that Pember Companies is the low responsive bidder. [35:05] **Royal Ross:** Mayor Spooner? I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-085. [35:15] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second. [35:18] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Ross, second by Doumbouya to approve Resolution 2025-085. All those in favor? I. All opposed? Motion passes. Any boards, commissions, reports, announcements, project updates, anything? [35:38] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator):** Yeah. Uh, just as a reminder, April 1st is going to be our first strategic planning session with council and with all department heads. There is a closed session to do my evaluation at 5:30 at Buckham West. And then after that or approximately six o'clock, we would be gathering in the great hall for the strategic planning session to start. We will have some appetizers available since we're keeping you over the dinner hour. [36:22] **Mandy Barnes:** Great. And then this Friday is the joint boards committee meeting from 11 to 1. Is that right? [36:28] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator):** Correct. [36:30] **Peter van Sluis:** And then the retirement of Henry. [36:32] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator):** Yes. I think our longest serving employee ever, Henry Morgan, wastewater treatment facility superintendent, is retiring after 50 years. I think he hit his 50 years in the fall of 2024. And uh, he's decided that it's time to leave the wastewater treatment plant and move forward. So, we wish him well and there's a reception from 1 to 3 at the public works meeting room and so we hope that we'll see everybody there. [37:08] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** 50 years. That's... we should be giving him a key to the city. So, congratulations to him. Anything else? Nothing. [37:32] **Royal Ross:** Make a motion to adjourn. [37:34] **Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second. [37:36] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Those in favor of adjourning signify by saying I. I. All opposed? We are adjourned.