Based on the context provided for the City of Cannon Falls, here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker identifications. *Note: Some council members mentioned in the transcript (Steve Gesme and Derek Lindell) were not on your provided list but are identified here based on the verbal roll call and motions made during the meeting.* [6:42] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Called to order the city of Cannon Falls City council meeting for Tuesday February 7th. Roll call please. **City Clerk Sara Peer**: Gesme? **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer**: Nobach? **Council Member Chris Nobach**: Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer**: Johnson? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer**: Kronenberger? **City Clerk Sara Peer**: Absent. Lindell? **Council Member Derek Lindell**: Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer**: Montgomery? **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Here. Uh please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance... oh wrong. [7:22] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: All right I would take an approval for tonight's agenda from the council. **Council Member Derek Lindell**: So moved. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: I got a motion from Lindell do I have a second? **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Second from Mr. Gesme. All in favor say aye. **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Opposed? Carries. Uh public input. Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the city council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak. Speakers may address topics relevant to the governance of the city. Speakers must sign up in advance and must provide their name address and the topic they intend to address. Comments must be on topic respectful pertinent to City business and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will [8:08] be asked to sit down. If the speaker refuses to comply they may be removed from the meeting. Speakers shall not address topics that are the subject of a public hearing. All such comments shall be made at the public hearing. The city council will not generally act on the issues raised by the public input but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda. And Belinda waived the speech tonight? Okay thank you. Uh so no public input. Moving on, the public hearing item A: Resolution 2676 certifying unpaid utility charges to be collected with taxes. Neil, public hearing is officially open. I'll give you a little... yep okay. [8:54] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher**: Quarterly the city Cannon Falls notifies the property owners whose waste water bills are due. Um if an account remains delinquent we give them an opportunity to come in for you and and talk about why and and how and the purpose is just give them an opportunity so. And if they fail to pay it, if you if you pass the resolution we'll certify it to the county for taxes. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Would anybody like to speak for the public hearing? Public hearing take two. Third and final call for the public hearing. All right seeing none, public hearing is [9:39] closed. Uh to the council I would take a motion to approve Resolution 2676. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Motion. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Diane. A second? **Council Member Derek Lindell**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Second by Derek. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Opposed? Carries. Uh consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. I'll read them off. Item A: Justin correct claims accounting period ending on February 2nd 2023. Item B: meeting minutes for January 17 2023 city council meeting. Item C: approve pay Equity implementation report. Item D: approve hire of part-time cable [10:27] technician. Item E: approve purchase of body worn cameras for our Police Department. Item F: approve hire of unscheduled part-time ambulance employee. Item G: approve purchase of a utility vehicle. Item H: approve 2023 pool wages. Item I: approve professional service agreement for hardwood Estates. Item J: resolution 2677 support for 2023 State Bond requests for John Birch Park wall Rehabilitation. Are there any items that the council would like to pull down? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Yes, Item I. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Item I will become Council business item D. Is there anything else from the council? Seeing none I would take a motion to approve the consent agenda. **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Motion. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Gesme. A second? I think Mr. Jeppesen was first to get the second in there. Uh any further discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor say aye. **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Opposed? Carries. Council business item A: number of dogs request. Chief McCormick if you would like to take this one. [12:00] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: So if you will recall at our last council meeting, a resident came in. Our ordinance is pretty solid. It doesn't have any any room for discretion for myself or the administrator, so bringing it back to council to see if we want to provide any direction on how you wish to proceed. They have four—one apparently is elderly, whatever term you want to use for a dog—and they would like to be able to have four until that one passes away. [12:36] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Is there a penalty in the ordinance at all that says what would happen if they do have four, or more than three I should say? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: I apologize for not having my mic on when I briefed you guys on it. Um it would likely be a misdemeanor violation. That section pretty much all the offenses would be misdemeanors. Okay. It doesn't call out a specific penalty but there may be a penalty provision within that section. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Are the dogs a nuisance? I mean are they like running around or— **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: I don't know if they're a nuisance or not. Obviously we received a complaint on it which is why you know an officer made contact with them which prompted the resident to come [13:22] to council. [13:29] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: So action from the council tonight we're looking for direction before I go back and and say the the code is the code. That resident took the time to come to council and I don't want to short circuit that process. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Sure. Well my opinion, if they moved here with these animals not knowing and they came asking for forgiveness and admitted fault, and have stated their situation of having a dog that is not well and is elderly... um I don't know if there's any penalty for maybe moving forward. We have to clean up that ordinance so that we have maybe a [14:15] ticketable or how we would handle that so that it doesn't happen in the future, but with this one I feel like maybe no action. **City Administrator Jon Radermacher**: So a little bit of history on that section of the code... for some of you who have been on for a while perhaps you recall we previously had a limit of two dogs and we also required registering with the city. And so what we did was we went back in, we looked at how many licenses people were actually obtaining from the city relative to the number of dog complaints we had... [15:02] Ultimately we decided to do away with dog licensing. Now residents are just required to have a tag on their dog that identifies who the owner is and how to reach them and we increased the number of animals from two to three and there wasn't any provisions relative to waivers or penalties. It was just straightforward in changing the numbers. **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen**: I think as long as they're not um... I don't know, a nuisance or a problem house, then let the old one have his day and keep their dogs but don't get a fourth one again. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: And it didn't sound like they were intending to replace them? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Right, they seemed... yeah. I mean can we just like officially say let it go right now with the guarantee that they will not replace the illegal fourth dog? **City Administrator Jon Radermacher**: I would believe so. This body has us not enforcing winter parking unless it snows, even though the code says otherwise, and that's what we follow is what the body's direction was. [16:34] **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Might want to throw a caveat in there if there's any other complaints right? Yeah. All right because it does sound like if they were just reported for having four dogs instead of three and there wasn't... because I've seen in the paper we have barking dog or loose dog complaints. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: I believe the complaint was number. I'd have to pull the original to take a look at it but— **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Oh, I mean I'm comfortable with just saying don't let it happen you know when the the old dog goes, let it be done. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Yeah. **City Administrator Jon Radermacher**: So technically no action from the council is needed? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: We'd appreciate just a formal action saying this is what [17:21] our directive is. Maybe a motion and approval of following through on that action by staff. **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Well I'm I'm all for uh you know voting to let let this go. I'm just I'm hoping that uh people aren't going to go out and buy a another dog because their next one is going to die in eight nine years so that's the only problem but I have no issues with this one. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: If the body so chooses you know I can certainly go forward with the direction you provided and if I run into issues I will bring it back. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Fair enough. All right. Okay thank you Chief. Council business Item B: revised body camera policy. Chief up again apparently. [18:06] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: So there you go. So the police department has had body cameras for going on almost 12 years now. Our first ones were purchased in 2011. We were one of the beginning agencies in the state to utilize that tool. The legislature passed a law requiring mandating policies. We had already had a policy, so when we modified our policy, we brought it forward following the provisions of law. Public input was permitted at a council meeting, then council approved the policy. We've since changed the cameras that we [18:51] utilize—we're now utilizing these V300 cameras. One of the things that the previous audit recommended was incorporating a back-end management system; this utilizes that. So in 2019, I proposed replacing the old cameras with these. The Lieutenant and I decided we would at least play out one year before we [19:37] considered modification so we could kind of get a good feel for how these work. And so now we're past that point and so I consulted with the City Attorney. The state law really is on the implementation of the policy; it doesn't specifically call out for modifications to it, but we concluded that the best course of action was just to follow the same provisions. So we've had this up on our website now for over two weeks asking for public input—none has been received. And what I'm requesting council tonight is again to receive any public input relative to the proposed policy and then after that has been received if any, consider approving the policy that I proposed. The red line version of it is [20:25] on our website. What you see in front of you would be the final because I'm seeking that approval of a final document. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Seeking approval tonight or seeking to get it out to the public look for feedback and then— **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Okay both. Tonight provides that opportunity for input from the public before the body acts. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Technically a public hearing or just asking for public? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: It does not require a public hearing it is just input from the public. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Is there any input from the public tonight regarding the body cameras? Becky? **Becky Youngmark**: Other than Becky... oh I read the policy. There's nothing that I want to say about the input, but how in the heck is the public supposed to know to go and look at that? Because you know there's got to be a better way [21:12] of communicating so that the public can know that oh hey we need to go to the police website and we need to read the policy that they're thinking about. So it doesn't surprise me you have no comment because how are the people supposed to know they're supposed to go read it? I only found out from when I did the agenda. Okay and it looks fine to me, but my question is why isn't there a way to let the public know something in the paper or I don't know how to do that, but some way of telling the public hey look can you look this over and give us comments? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: And we follow the same provisions we followed the previous time which was posted on our city web page. Um and I don't have a good answer for [21:57] you Becky. We're just trying to follow the requirements the legislature put on us and and meet those standards. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: How prevalent was it on the website? Was it on the city homepage? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: It was on our home page. It was not on the city homepage—it was the department home page, yes. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: I didn't even know the department had a web page so it's a good point Becky. Is there a way we could put a link like on Facebook that would link directly to this and maybe push this back to the next meeting to give more—at least give people more people are on Facebook than the city's or police web page I would [22:43] think. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Well and the Beacon is also our official publication. A lot of information is shared via the Beacon. Um I don't know what the legislative intent was; they just reference we have to have it on our web page so that's what we followed. **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Yeah understandable. I do understand the citizens' concern for wanting more open communication and maybe for publication purposes the Beacon in the future might be... Is this something we should discuss? I mean obviously you're following state laws not just the preferences of the citizens. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: So we're following the legal responsibilities, I understand that. But just to show that we're willing to try to communicate more with [23:30] the citizens, maybe we do go a step further and put a blurb with the police report in the Beacon when something like this happens in the future? **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Yeah yeah. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: I'll throw the caveat: we provide the Beacon with a lot of information, but not everything makes it into the Beacon. Yep understandable. You know I can't guarantee that that will serve that purpose. **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Okay so can we can we make that some type of motion to to put it in the Beacon for public input now or would that be a separate issue that we would want to tie into the revised body camera policy? **City Administrator Jon Radermacher**: What if we put it on our web page and do a link to [24:17] you know... that would take a second. In fact you're probably doing it right now but um and it'll still follow the state statutes long it'll still stay or follow the the state legal requirements if we put it on our homepage and then link it to you. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay. And you said it's about 15 pages that'd be quite a— **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: It's about 10. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: 10. Okay. Yeah for the Beacon that'd be— **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: Oh yeah yeah oh sure sure I get it. The blurb and the Beacon could be like "check out the Police website for hot new news" on body cams. Yeah Beacon won't obviously publish the whole policy but just say go to the Police website. **Council Member Steve Gesme**: But I think that goes to the whole problem of how we're able to effectively share information. **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: [25:16] The changes to policy are are more technical than anything. Sure it's removing sections that reference the old camera, inserting the new camera, you know that type of stuff. Some formatting that we found as we went through it. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Well we went through it, you and I this afternoon. I must admit it wasn't the most stimulating reading I've had. Probably not. Uh with that said I would take a motion to approve the revised body camera policy with the addition of it being shared on our home website. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: I would so move. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Diane. Do I have a second? **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman**: I'll second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Second by Lisa. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Opposed? Nay? And it carries. Uh item C: Hannah's Bend Park Trail connection Grant. Uh I'll start us off on this one. In our work session we had discussed this and this is also an update then to the public. Earlier today I spoke to the Fair Board Chair, Greg Kurtz, and he had said verbally over the phone that they intend to sign the agreement to switch the the land for the city for Hannah's Bend Park and and the road that we will vacate in the fairgrounds. With that said, the item that is on our agenda tonight is the grant that we were approved for that will expire if the [26:50] work is not done by June 31st and we have—there's no official deadline—but we have passed the point where we don't think we could get that project done in time. Our engineer said it is too late; they don't have us on their work schedule so even if they sign the agreement um you know as soon as possible we're not going to be able to get this done. So the action that I need from the council is to allow the Hannah's Bend Park Trail connection Grant that we cancel that. Any further discussion? I would take a motion to approve canceling Hannah's Bend Park Trail connection Grant. **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen**: Motion. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Ryan. Second? **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Second by Steve. All those in favor say aye. **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Opposed? It carries. Uh city council business item D—which was on the consent agenda Item I pulled down: approve the professional service agreement for hardwood Estates. Diane? [27:58] **Council Member Diane Johnson**: I was not necessarily in favor of of the taxpayers lending support for this project. I I still have questions about that. I have no problem with developing more housing in town. I I do have a problem with the committal of taxpayer money to do that especially as I look at the three developments that we already have in other phases that are not requesting that the city put forward money for them to go forward. So I would just like to say if EDA would like to have this agreement—and I know it's not a lot of money—that they have enough money in their budget that they can pay for it themselves. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Any other discussion? I would entertain a motion to approve the professional service agreement for hardwood Estates. **Council Member Steve Gesme**: I'll move. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Steve. **Council Member Derek Lindell**: I'll second. Derek or Lisa... Derek don't matter. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Uh so motion by Gesme, second by Lindell. Any further discussion? All those in favor aye. **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Those opposed? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Nay. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Uh three to two. It carries. All right uh reports. Council committee or commissions... is there... we don't have anybody... there's no report from the chamber tonight. Uh Joint Powers Trail board met on January 24th. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: I was supposed to be there but I was ill. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: That's okay, fair enough. Uh EDA, Laura would you like to handle that or— [29:47] **Laura Qualey (Community Development Specialist)**: Um yes with the approval of the professional service agreement with WHKS, we will get them started with the grading plan and a concept plan with the layout for hardwood Estates and they'll also incorporate you know some of the trails and a possible safe route to school plan with that as well. And then the other thing that we did with EDA in our meeting this last week is that we started working on our goal planning for 2023—what we feel are some attainable goals for this year and then [30:33] also looking into the next five years as well. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Thank you. Uh Park Board, Derek? **Council Member Derek Lindell**: Yeah I can take that. Um we talked for a while about getting new wayfinding signage for the trail—I want to say about five different locations kind of around town showing you know arrows this is this way and this is that way. That's kind of in the early stages. We talked about the grant that we just turned down, pool wages... kind of basic lifeguard and staff pay... and then some Park signs. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Right, thank you. Uh Public Works commission? **Council Member Derek Lindell**: Yeah I'll take that too. Um really the main thing was buying the new UTV. We talked a little bit about the [31:20] Riverside Terrace the sewer meter they installed but didn't take any formal action on that. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Okay all right. Uh Jed (Danny), we'll start with you, anything? **Jed Petersen (Public Works Director)**: Just got a little breather from snow plowing so we're repairing equipment and actually going out to cul-de-sacs and hauling snow right now. And on the Utility side we had to do some repairs on Well 3 but that's up and running again, so good to go. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Great. Diane anything from you? **Council Member Diane Johnson**: [Music] Today we'll have Planning Commission meeting. We'll be talking about the Endris concept plan and we're going to be discussing um an ordinance change in the B2. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: All right. Laura? **Laura Qualey**: Nothing. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Chief? **Police Chief Jeff McCormick**: So Jed (Dan) already alluded to the break in snow removal. We're going to bask in the warm 40 degree temperatures tomorrow I believe, but I am confident we will probably get more snow. Um so I just want to remind residents when it does snow even if it doesn't seem like the Public Works is going to be out plowing, it's a good time just to get your vehicle off the street because they may come in and plow. Um one of our our storms we had quite a few vehicles that ended up being towed and it was because people just didn't think the Public Works was going to be out. And you know the process... we put out the information on Facebook I think [32:53] the city reposted on theirs um but it's not fail-safe and you know people may miss it and it's no fun when they come out and their car's gone in the morning. So we want to try to try to avoid that by just making sure people get their cars off the streets when it snows regardless of the amount. It may only be an inch but it might be followed by a really hard freeze and Public Works wants to get those streets scraped down before it becomes you know rutted ice. So it's hard to say definitively it's this amount of snow is when they come in. So that's my information for the public. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Neil? **City Administrator Jon Radermacher**: You heard from me for about an hour on the work session, I think we got it covered. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: All right covered all the bases. Uh council members? Lisa anything? **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman**: No okay. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Ryan? Derek? Steve? **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Me either, really nothing. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: I've got nothing either. Uh the schedule for the meetings are here on the agenda and uh on the website so encourage citizens to be involved and attend those meetings. Uh I would take a motion to adjourn. **Council Member Steve Gesme**: Motion. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Motion by Gesme. **Council Member Diane Johnson**: Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Second by Diane. All those in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery**: Carries, meeting adjourned.