e e e e e e e e e e e e e everybody else ready here even hey you all right 5:15 let's call the workshop to order please roll call council member McKenzie here council member nordby here council member schwe here mayor mongi here council member Woods is absent all right thank you very much adopt the agenda any a motion please so moved so moved council member second second Council mayor McKenzie all those in favor say I I I thank you up to you thank you mayor we got two topics tonight uh first one up is a community center discussion uh Jason Norby has put together a proposal and uh he is here to discuss that so I'm going to turn it over to Jason uh thank you very much I I do appreciate being given this time to um go over what I believe um is a new idea for the community center um I'll wait 30 seconds we're already called a arder so you're good he's just going to start his presentation okay you're [Music] welcome so when I was going to school I always appreciate it when the teachers will let me know what was on the test later on so I wanted to start by doing something I appreciated other people doing um so at the end of the day today what I'm hoping is that we might have an idea on what one of the four things um we'd like to do um schedule further discussion have Brian communicate with deed um possibly put an RFP or B there or D there's not enough information to continue I've divided my idea into two parts um one is the building and the other is the operation of the building for this presentation today I'm going to start with the building side of it the concept I went for I continually labeled as BSE basic simple and efficient I also believe that this idea has a ton of untapped potential when I was looking at the plan I first decided what were my core principles or mus haves for me the smart ideas were to have a new roof new HVAC have it one level no future planned expense and by that I was thinking no you know large principle that was going to be due later that would be on the burden of the taxpayer as maintenance-free as possible and also separate entrances for the community center of the library the currency Community Center is on your plan and that is the Google pick of the site overall what my idea is in a nutshell is that we demolish about 85% of the building and keep just a small portion overlaid is the size of the building I was prop our laptop's our touchscreen overlaid is the size of the building that I was proposing that we put on the current site um approximately 170 ft by 8 ft and again my core principle was always basic simple and efficient so the thought was I have two separate interest as always this way we can have controlled access and the timing of one is not dependent on the timing of the other and on the back of the building my thought was to have large garage doors so it could be opened up to the elements for some fun summertime activities and again this would be about demolishing about 85% and rebuilding the other um to keeping 15% if you take the roof off the building that's the current view on the right side is where the existing library is all the open space would be the new community center the two doors there one was um one was storage and one was maintenance for the fiber to get that things like that but basically it's a very open plan single story building with a ton of potential there's also been some talk about that the library wanted to expand that is also an option with this plan rather than the library portion of it only taking three qus of the building we could extend the library portion to take the entire side of that building should the library want to expand and or um the historical society would want to move into the end of the library both those are things that have been floated um and I wanted to incorporate both potentials into this plan so I believe with a very easy modification um both of those options would be possible going forward one of the other criticisms of the current site is that there isn't much parking this plan also addresses that somewhat the triangle that you see below the building is about 10,500 ft um because of the redesign of the building um that will also provide additional parking and there again this is a future discussion of if it is it all future discussing is it some green space um but but there there is options and it does address a portion of the problem to affect the local businesses slightly less I am not authorized or have any Authority from the city to go out and see quotes So the next page I'm going to show you are the free quotes that any single person could get going online um for the sites that offer the services so please take them with a huge grain of salt because honestly I don't trust those sites very but I wanted to see if this concept was even feasible and I was hoping to get a relative Ballpark and again so from the internet sites um the demolition was going to run about $275,000 and again going with the basic simple and efficient plan I quoted two different types of buildings one was an all metal building and was one was a concrete pre-cast the all metal building um came in at $43 a square foot for $862,000 the concrete pre-cast was $57 a s foot and a little over $1.1 million brand new HVAC for the building was quoted at $13 a square foot for 260,000 um and the architectural general contractor cost for a building like this was quoted at $15 a square foot for Slightly North of $300,000 if we chose to pave that entire triangle area we are looking about $7 a square foot for an additional cost cost of 73,500 so by internet math which again please be skeptical the cost of this proposal was $ 1.7 million to $2 million if this is something that we choose to move forward with and explore this idea more my long-term thought would be in The Proposal we ask for the cap of this plan to be at 4.5 million I believe that would allow us to hold enough in reserve that for any potential cost overruns or additional expenditures would still be within the scope of the grant money and not put upon the burden of the citizens the next part of the operation is the operation of the building I followed my same plan of basic simple and effic with a ton of potential there had been talk that we needed to always partner with uh a charity or a business for the community center one of the things that concerned me was longevity the average small business in the United States lasts about 5 years and only 20% survived to 20 years according to the US Census Bureau about 12% of businesses in the United States stes are older than 26 years the US Department of Labor found that about 20% of new businesses survive for more than 20 years the lifespan of a charity can vary greatly but statistically many new nonprofits don't make it past or fifth year with around 12% failing within that time frame and roughly 30% not surviving for the past 10 years so when I looked at partnering one of the caveats for the gr money that we were have a potential to receive was between 20 and 25 years with the history of the longevity of Charities and businesses I don't know that tying our long-term success of the community center to a company or a charity um is a wise proceeding so I looked at other options so how do we fulfill Our obligation for the next 25 years the plan that I was thinking of to just fulfill the basic requirements of the deed is a North St Paul Farmers Market one day a week and 6 to 12 one-day programs by our Parks and Rec Community I believe if implemented correctly these could satisfy the basic and just the basic needs of the deed now as I said before basic simple and efficient but with a ton of potential if we were to end there I I I think we would be a huge disservice to the city but just talking about the things that were committed to for the next 25 years I believe that's doable by the city the St Paul Farmers Market has been operating since 1854 over 165 years the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison has been operating since 1972 Minneapolis started in 1876 and from their current location they've been in operation since 1937 there are proven examples for us to use we don't have to reinvent the wheel Farmers Market historically have been very successful longlived and they're relatively cost-neutral and what I mean by cost neutral is they pay for themselves with a tiny bit left over but they're not they're not a great Money Maker but they're also not a burden upon the site this is a top- down view of the building I was proposing roughly there's room for 64 tables which is comparable to the other local farmers markets and that leaves a ton of space left over if it needed to be crowded in some of the examples the surrounding CI cities are showing us for their farmers market and there are lots of examples for us to follow is they can be and often are culturally inclusive there's Community organization tables um and you know free for local clubs to use vfw's Legions Lions rotaries Chambers of Commerce and they're also discounted for things like seniors veterans or people selling and growing culturally diverse Foods one of the things that we talked about at our recent retreat was also providing better Outreach to our citizens I believe this farmers market also has a potential to help in that manner um for tables for City Outreach police Outreach and fire prevention the park and wck component I listed as 6 to 12 one day events a year however I don't believe that this have to be new events I believe realistically that the parks and wreck are already fulfilling a lot of these it would just be a shift of location for some of them um especially with a focus on multiculture and Community one of the other things that I wanted to note is for this proposal espe especially with a farmers market base that wide open area I'm thinking is a hard surface floor not a carpeted floor and looking at what we have for rental potential in the city of North St Paul when you're trying to rent somewhere or do a thing there's a lot of carpeted space but there's not much hard surface space um to rent things that are a little bit more harsh on the flooring so so that was why I was thinking that this would also parall well with the farmers market um and going back to my basic simple efficient with a ton of potential the model I'm proposing uses a community center space slightly under 15.9 slightly under 16% of the time this would allow us to explore short-term partners for the remaining 84% at our Leisure if we want to partner with Ashland we can but we're not committed and it's not necessary to try and find someone that can be a 25-year partner I believe this allows us realistic exploration of let's try someone for two years or a year see if they're a good fit but also the financial dependability and stability is not tied to that partner partnership is not needed for long-term success to the building but partnership should be and is encouraged for long-term success of the community center I know I talked fast um but that's kind of my proposal in a nutshell so at this point in time I would wish to open it up for questions well you answered mine regarding parks and W with its six to 12 times whether it's in a year so I think iter there's opportun for growth when it comes to events for the city and engagement I can tell you on a Parks and Rec side that farmers market is a number one why don't we have one yep um I have been passionate about not using it is a building that used to house the community center what is it going to be and that's why I wanted to do the feasibility study so I think what you presented is fantastic I think it's a great start to navigate some to navigate the next area I didn't think twice about maybe the Historical Society coming in there they had a building but what a great opportunity to have a larger space for them as well as the library I mean the options are endless right and and I view the current feasibility study as something that is still good still needed um and it'll give the city feedback and information about how we should explore short-term partnership right um so so I I don't I don't view this possible route going forward as negating the current one it just provides a different platform for the suggestions the current feasibility study would provide to us correct um agreed different look right and going back to your point um like things like the the paintting zp um the farmers market there's a lot of events that if you're not worried about spilling something on a carpet are are easier to facilitate and engage with that sometimes you're worried about oh you know the housy park um some parts of Casey although some of those are hard surfaces aren't always the greatest opportunity for them um a and limiting it to one story um a high roof also I believe um I don't see the second story of the current building as an opportunity I view that the see the second story of current building as just a liability and wasted space I don't feel that if we choose to go this route limiting it I view limiting it to one floor as a cost savings uh a and a smart decision for the space not a um not a loss mhm I like the concept too I um I think there's some potential here you know and going back to the basic simple and efficient our current model is telling us that we have a $2 million future expenditure after we spend the grant money and that was one of the big things I was scared about we've never developed and we've never maintained a plan of how how do we not pass it on the citizens right um so that that was one of my driving forces here is I don't believe there is a you know the the planned expenditure um of a plan like this I also believe with the open concept there there's opportunity for rentals whether it's a family reunion it's a a wedding it's all again options are endless right just depends on what you view and what you see and what you presented with your look on it opens everybody else's eyes to it yeah and all I would caution is I 100% agree with you but but my thought is I want to be a little bit careful on the initial plan about only committing things that we can do for 25 years right um I I I don't want to commit to the deed part of it the ton of potential because there is a ton of potential um but that's why I was so limiting in my scope but I I I do agree that if we don't use a potential that there is there we're we're we're we're missing you know the boat there to not use it right right I would I guess as uh council member schweer said um one thing I really like is getting away from the concept of community center and what this building used to be and turning it into looking at what it could be what the potential is and in terms of future State I mean we have to start somewhere right and I think yours what the plan that you laid out provides us the ability to start with something see where it progresses and what it could become without getting us too invested into something in building something for a specific purpose and then having that fall away and then being left with something so agre um the other thing I would say is you know you talked about parks and R um the as the liaison I guess for the uh arts and culture commission things like the fall arts festival or Autumn Arts festival and things like that we've talked about you know are there opportunities for other locations so this might be an opportunity for that too so and having a large um a large area and again uh going back to the farmers market um because my significant other is a vendor I looked at the table spacing from her perspective so I have 8T from the wall and in the center aisle I have 10 ft between the tables even with and the aisle was 15 ft wide so even with that kind of spacing we were able to fit 64 tables um so this is a not a weather dependent option for those things there is no more rain out for some of these events um which gives more options and more flexibility mayor you've been surprisingly quiet isn't that a good thing I don't know yet I'm just thinking about what you're were talking about okay I know you and I discussed before that um Historical Society I had a conversation with um Sue springborn and when Paul was alive about trying to if the if we're going forward with the community center to try to to get them in there because as they're getting older it's harder for them to stay open and have an area behind glass that people can actually go see see things and then when they wanted to be there so I'm glad that uh for looking into what we're what we're doing is looking into that so that's a that's a good thing and having a hard surface where there's uh not carpeting but have a completely separate for bathrooms everything so if it's if one isn't open the other one doesn't have to be or people are wandering like now they're on the second floor before when we had it open and it was dangerous with that low railing I mean to me that's a safety concern to having that uh Museum up there because it's that ra is not that tall somebody screwing around one of the other things I'd like it if if we go forward um to at least ask the architector the general concept is so the back of the building having three very large garage doors to open it up to the elements but I'd also like if possible to put the caveat that they're tall enough where if we need to get our emergency vehicles inside that it is possible if we need to park fire trucks in there for a week or two if we need a move Emergency Services there for a short period of time this is also an option um if something happens to our current facility um where we could use this for a short period of time if we needed to relocate or or do something for that emergency services as well and also there was a comment when us three were at the the the council with the coffee people did bring up the businesses that it's great that we're doing things but they're happening in Casey Park and it really doesn't help remember when they were talking about it really doesn't help when everybody's farther away from downtown for the local businesses that was a concern they brought up when we were having coffee with them so MH um in reviewing the history of the farmers markets and they they are successful um even the winter ones the St Paul Farmers Market they they are not accepting applications for 2025 anymore that they're they're already accepting uh they say the website says I believe it's April that they'll start accepting them for 2026 this goes to show that they can be successful and and I like that there are examples out there that we can use from that we don't have to reinvent the wheel that we can see what's working in other places and copy the successful ideas we don't have to build this from the ground up Oakdale has a fantastic one M where's that um at their community at City Hall at City Hall yeah oh really I didn't know that they they theirs is I believe on Wednesdays um all the farmers market yeah yeah yeah in in looking in looking at the space and what's out there um if we get to a point where we're moving forward with this uh from the research I developed um I was going to push for Sundays um because that's when the St Paul one is closed so there's more Market um well they're open Sunday Saturday and Sunday winter time they're only open Saturdays oh okay Sunday Saturday and Sunday is all summer but but there again to me that was such a small detail so far down the road it it it didn't but it's another it's another view and perspective of the building that housed to the community CER right well and the other thing I liked it is from my understanding is the bars that are right next to it they open at noon on Sunday so if we close it at them we're not necessarily in having a huge fight over parking depending on how much additional parking we're able to have because I I wanted to be respectful of the neighbors and things of that nature yeah one level is is definitely you know something would be that would definitely be agreed I think the prefab would be probably a better build you think you're going to get a stronger product out of it you know the pole barn that's a lot more reasonable but the prefab go up in no time couple weeks or agreed um and I believe because we we're tearing down part of the library I believe this almost has to be a summer build um in order to uh Ju Just work around constraints and stuff like that um for when we would open it up to tear oh well they they'd probably tear it down and start footings again in the fall so they can work on it all witer preab go up all winter but the f is over in the community center yeah they got no Standalone anything at the library do they I think it was just an add-on I don't think there's a furnace over there just depending on what we're doing with water to not let anything freeze so no way that could stand alone so it in water so they could stand alone if they had to yeah all right all right thanks okay so I guess that's what I have I I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to me thank you very much um thank you for taking the time to put this together yeah like I I I believe it's a financially viable option long term for the city and that's what I was going with of the Grant and everything else we can get things cheaply done with Ron and Randy any yeah oh thank you for your time I appreciate listen me um I'm not sure will there'll just be more discussion later I'd assume maybe schedule it we work on the feasibility study and I will follow up the deed as well okay maybe they they could yeah good all right get back up here where you belong AR me R it's all you yep now entering thanks again Jason welcome Ray thank you [Music] good job is that 0 I think so yeah it's after rush hour I thinks whoops is sorry good um just want to give a quick update on some items mostly what had taken place over 2024 but leading into 2025 since we only into February here so um be nice and sweet here uh real quick we'll kick off into the swearing in depart Department photo that's uh going to be coming up the Department photo we're going to have on March 27th um it'll be the Department photo along with our individual photos hopefully get our um wall out here updated tentatively we would like to have our um swearing in ceremony and sometime in April we have several folks that have to get sworn in um most recently Sergeant Alis Sergeant Tyson and Sergeant Bo were promoting Ed to sergeants um we have new officer lore officer tacket officer Valdez officer J um who are currently uh well officer tets no longer on on field training he he's a a solo car now so um yeah yeah so he's uh he's out he's out in his own Squad uh independently he's loving it um uh officer Valdez and officer Jang are just finishing up their training um we did have one of our new recruits that did make it through um so now our current Staffing levels which I'll get into a little bit later but um these are the folks that we we going to need to have get sworn in um sooner than later 2024 um we had 7,100 calls roughly um which at this point right now we're about 85 85 calls I 85 incident report rep s ahead of where we were last year at this time um we had 225 assist other agencies uh which is the second highest uh in the last 5 years compared to last year which was 268 um our investigations well got rocked in 2024 198 cases um highest in 5 years uh possibly the highest ever um but last year there was 145 cases um we do have that second investigator that is going to be interviewing uh next week next week um so our investigations department has been busy um actually just to give just to give some stats really quick um with our investigation s um there were 77 cases and this is 2024 stats uh 77 cases were charged by the city or county attorney's office which were felonies and gross Mis meaners 30 cases were declined with an arrested person a large majority of the cases were juveniles um that were declined and sent to Diversion uh 12 cases uh 12 of those cases were declined for juveniles which were being sent to verion 21 total juveniles uh involved cases were declined 22 cases were under are under review uh at the city attorney's office um 20 cases are under review at our County's attorney's office four cases are pending lab results um so BCA is processing some evidence that uh is pending these cases um 34 cases are still marked as under investigation which means um they could have been reviewed by our investigator or they may not have been reviewed by our investigator yet um so there could be an a cue that's waiting to get reviewed 14 cases have been turned over to outside agencies um resulting in about 2011 cases uh for our community events we had 34 community events um I think the only one we didn't do last year was our Trunk or Treat event we just uh we couldn't get any officers to participate uh it was a challenging time around Halloween um but none less uh polar plunge coffee with a cop uh we did numerous theft prevention events um which I'll uh talk more on community policing partnership meetings National Night Out our St Peter Fall Festival um the North Haven Summerfest of fishing with a cop truck with uh Touch a Truck uh the Fire and Ice um and then also the shop of the cop which was a huge event um we had uh if it wasn't for our our partners from the Food Shelf the foundation um the library uh Target um City staff um I know I'm missing a bunch of people but um all of these folks made it possible to have our oh and by the way Santa did arrive he s did come so if it wasn't for Santa that would not have been a good event uh but uh the Target shop with the cob was great we had uh I believe 30 plus families that we um were able to provide service or you know um Goods to and uh as well as uh a shopping cart full of groceries because so while they were shopping we had officers loading up their cars with uh a ton of groceries uh and they were very appreciative of that um I would like to recognize officer Whitman who is one of our community service um officers and helps with the um the the um community service committee um and the community policing committee she uh did an amazing job at um putting a lot of these events together or helping out with these events along with Detective Mau um our admin staff uh Gina mansini and Kristen Churchill um all had great participation in these and um many of them came in on their days off to help with us so they did great you'll see on the last uh the bottom slide there on December 17th uh detective Mau um and officer tacket made a du IRS uh that resulted in a PBT uh test of 0419 which is the highest in the State uh so it was a pretty recognizable um DWI um just some stats here um this last in 2024 we had uh you know person in crisis calls otherwise known as pic calls um 74 calls which is down from 2023 95 um the big one and the most concerning one was uh domestic calls um went up 199 up from 175 last year or from 2023 um that's concerning um especially with our staffing levels 57 search warrants um these warrants include the property people Vehicles electronic DNA um warrants that were that are already issued um and we served upon so those are all included in that number 110 uh roughly uh SRO calls uh which resulted in either an investigation or report um please note that we in the in in December to January so December of 2024 to just January 2025 our SRO has responded to only Webster Learning Center 20 20 times um those calls have all been reports um and some of them have resulted in investigations but nonetheless 20 calls in two months to just Webster Learning Center alone uh with that being said I have had uh conversation with uh superintendent um Andy Beaton um 622 and he is aware and uh one of our one of our agreements was um when Webster came about we had met and we talked about this particular situation and what is going to happen when this happens and now um we're going to we're going to sit down with officer Allen um Webster Learning Center staff and Mr Beaton himself and evaluate and see what we need to do to make this number not happen like this in two months um he's our officer our SRO has been dedicated um to Webster Learning Center when he's been here um mostly for December and January and that's unacceptable um any any questions on that would I just December of 2024 and January of as a one month yeah y amazing when it was over at Harmony did they have this much calls in two months no no not two months well they went from 68 students at Harmony 112 or 15 over here yeah yeah and the level of care and the level of students that are there on are just on a different level so 2024 we had 20 24 death investigations now that that's a variety of type of Investigations um but as a result of death you all are aware that we have an agent Sergeant Fredericks Joel Fredericks is Agent with uh the BCA violent crimes unit um and he sent over some statistics that have been generated in the last year and even um the start of this year um having Sergeant Fredericks with the BCA has been absolutely Priceless we we've utilized so many resources through um the BCA that we would not have had had Sergeant Frederick's not been a part of that joint Powers agreement um cases open in 2024 well year to date 294 they've closed 139 they've made a 57 arrest um they've charged 143 people um 282 Firearms recovered um and I'm going to show you some some uh concerning pictures of firearms that were covered right here in North St Paul in a second um search horants that were written 374 um and Fentanyl 253 gram uh that's a lot 673 67 3,000 fentanyl pills um 29 lbs of marijuana 233 gram of heroin the methamphetamine uh that's staggering 193 lbs um and 9 kilos 222 lbs of cocaine um and then 15 G of crack cocaine these these photos here um this is a gun that was recovered in North St Paul um by Sergeant Fredericks and his BCA team that were working a case in our city um this is another gun that was recovered um you'll see yep uh the long long magazine in there uh this is another gun that was recovered um another gun that was recovered assault rifle that was recovered um so they're the the unit is effective and it's been effective in North St Paul and that's scary that's scary that we have we have these guns so close you know to our people and our community and uh they are here um so Sergeant Fredericks and his team are doing a great job they he informs me and keeps me up to date on any cases that um are high level um of course all his cases are high level but any that uh he feels I need to know and our team needs to know about right away he's he's updating us and letting us know about those moving on to um just internally and what uh some current concerns are as right now uh our current Staffing levels what does that look like we we are down five officers um that includes four Patrol officers and one detective we have uh currently um two people in field training that are in phase two towards the end of phase two have two phases to go um which could mean up to two more months uh we have a handful of applicants in right now that will be interviewing um this Friday for Patrol and a handful of applicants that will be interviewing for detective next Wednesday um so hopefully that's promising and that brings in at least a couple um folks to help us out with our compliment but um right now we have uh we have we have a couple officers working uh on one team and a couple officers working on another team and then um the so we have four teams right and the other two teams are working with one more officer than the short staff teams so um it's it's made it challenging um our field training off our field training officers um over the last couple months few months um have been training non-stop um and we not everybody that we've hired has made it through our training um not uh necessarily because our training is hard but uh for a number of reasons either he or her her he or she recognizes policing is not for them uh to um understands holy cow this is a very stressful job I can't do this um and you know this the small town Vibe wasn't for them uh after they got in and realized they wanted to do something bigger at a bigger agency um so it's been over the last several years it's been statistically a battle retaining um um and it's been a battle trying to keep up with the much more big budgeted uh agencies that can throw out you know a lot more better incentives than what we can so we just got to come up with um you know our our team is working hard to come up with ways to work with what we got to make this place desirable um so it's a challenge but we continue to work hard um this anybody anybody have any questions on our staffing also um our our current um CSO Brandon Carbone uh he's going to be finishing up school here uh come this spring um so we're hoping to he's going to be interviewing uh this week and we're hoping to have him come aboard if he does well in his interview and uh hopefully he doesn't screw it up which I we always give him crap right now so so he's young kid he's going to do good um and we're hoping that he is going to be uh come part of our team um in the sense of a a police officer so that means we'll have to uh which I was just talking to city manager frando about is we'll have to consider opening up our CSO position here pretty quick to try to get and we've had a lot of inquiries about our city our community service officers so position any questions on that part well you guys are easy uh so some other concerns um the amount and type of Investigations boy they're be they're they're more violent they're more they're most they're more demanding uh and they're more complex um criminals are unfortunately becoming smarter and scam wise they're they're just making things more difficult to uh um prosecute so our investigations unit right now is uh kind of overwhelmed um so we're hoping that that other investigator that's going to come on here soon hopefully uh will help relieve some of that um but in the immediate um yeah our investigators our in our investigator in um investigations unit is is a little overwhelmed so um we are learning that that we have to prioritize differently than what we were used to so officer mental health and wellness we've you know we we've always been um it's always been a big Focus for us here in our St Paul um and I don't mean just the PD I mean as a as a whole our organization um has always been a big focus on our employee mental health and wellness and wellbeing so law enforcement officers are subject to more stress than the general population owing to nature of their jobs in addition to working with difficult even hostile individuals responding to tra tragic events and sometimes coming under Fire themselves they suffer from the effects of everyday stressors so you know it's really important that we keep checking in with our people um on a daily basis you know and it might even be on a on a call basis U you know after every call might be a might be what seems a simple call but to that person who responded it wasn't and so it's important that we keep checking in with our people mental health issues in persons in crisis um this is this is another area of concern our people in crisis calls are um it seems like uh you know Society now is uh a little bit more challenging to help out um and it seems like a lot more people follow into crisis um I don't want to say easier but uh mental health is a big is a big topic and not just for police but uh for fire for Medics um so we have to uh we have to learn more we we uh would be impressed to um pretty much become uh Dr Phil uh and you know be the doctor instead of the cop when we get there and know these uh health issues and and concerns and what this the the people in crisis are going through before they can even see a you know a social worker or a doctor um so um that in itself is a little bit more stressed on the officers um to have that demand put on them so um our training is uh expanding and um we're being pressed as officers to not only um consider these trainings but now they're becoming mandated right so we're mandated to take on more mental health trainings um to deal with people in crisis um these people are often suicidal threatening others uh chemical addictions um lack ability to provide ongoing support and resources one thing I think we're going to be looking into and I uh I talked with uh city manager frandle about is there are some surrounding agencies I know South St Paul has a wonderful program I spoke with I met with those folks over there they have a embedded social worker unit um so they have an officer that is designated to work with that social worker and they team up and that officer is only working with people in crisis calls so we're they're not necessarily waiting for the calls to come in they're following up with the people that they've dealt with and I think it's I they've had huge success with it um it's helped them build a better relationship between uh the police officers the social workers and the the subjects that they're dealing with so um what they're seeing is you know the people that they've gone to to deal with on a call uh not wanting to see the cops but wed to deal with the social worker um but over time because they've implemented these visits these routine visits um now the person is okay with having the officer there and they build that relationship so it is something that I'm going to look for more into and dig into and it would be great if we could adopt something like that and designate uh one of our officers to cuz we do have we do have a high volume of uh persons in crisis in our city and um we do generate a lot of calls in that area so any questions there would that be a a uh sworn officer to do that then yeah he would it would be yeah and I know uh what sou St Paul does with their officer that's designated to that unit is it's a plain clothes officer now he still wears his vest and his um you know his tools but uh he's dressed down so and don't get the whole vibe of the police officer which can sometimes be intimidating to folks so um yeah have we partnered with any of Ramsey County Crisis I South St Paul no Ramsey County Ramsey County is uh I think they're partnered with uh don't call me but they uh they might be with Roseville in some capacity in Maplewood or they were with Maple Maplewood in some capacity um is that something that we can explore absolutely yeah that's exactly what I'm going to do okay can I add on that a little bit so when Phil was here we did look into that and unfortunately they didn't have the uh capacity to go bigger than what they were for the cities they were dealing with at the time but yeah I mean it sounded like a great idea and one potential is see if it's available for our opioid funds that we have to help out something like that I mean that's I I know for firsthand with a family member that actually does it um okay and who goes through it it's my brother and it's intense I he's with a with hennipin County but I know what I know forsand what that would be like um that's why I ask if we partner with Ramsey County in regards to that um just just a question and just to expand on uh city manager fal's uh statement there there are a couple other agencies out there that did utilize their opio funds um to go go towards that oh okay our progress you know we've always we've always been about culture we've always been about our people and our environment right we want to support we want to we we want to show care um we definitely have that family Vibe here not just in the PD but throughout this whole organization um The Wellness uh the physical and mental side of it you know we do our check-ins and we try to keep up with our check-ins um and make sure our people are in good uh good spirits um but we also recognize great work you know we always do the shout outs uh we always uh recognize when somebody does something good and um we that's important that's important to the culture having good culture uh the people we have here we want to continue to show our appreciation to our people um and we want to provide our officers with the things and with the things and Equipment they need to succeed uh that's that's that's critical and that's important um our environment uh as a department um we want to maintain a good morale um we want to make sure that the work environment's healthy um I think that's important to being successful in keeping our people in um you know top performance um but as an organization I think this this the the city as a whole uh is falls into that c category so uh we want to be clean we want to be professional we want to make sure we're updated um and we want to make sure we're efficient our Partnerships uh locally um we have we have great Partnerships with our surrounding agencies they continue uh to support us they can continue to help us out when we need help um the Ramsey County Attorney's office the national black Police Association National Latino Police Officers Association the BCA of course with our joint Powers agreement um the Department of Commerce and fraud uh which I I I now believe is um absorbed in um partnered with the BCA um and the ATF and the FBI um who have continued to reach out and check in with us um with our small little agency which is uh very nice to hear from them and know that they're they're one they're watching out for us and two they want to make sure that we have what we need um and I think um those Partnerships go to say that we have really good people here we have really good officers um even though we're we're we're we're struggling a little bit with our staffing levels we have people that are here and continue to go out and do great workout in the community not only in the community and um not represent just who they are um and for you folks and for the community here but uh as Law Enforcement Officers to their colleagues um and how their call how our partners and our colleagues um you know always make sure that North okay um I think it says a lot about who we have working here um our community policing uh we're trying to do our best to continue achieving community policing um it's it's a challenge it's a challenge um when we're especially mostly because of our staffing level Staffing levels but um you know folks are working a lot of overtime and getting the participation getting the Buy in you know to participate in our community events can be challenging um so we're we're listening to the residents concerns and we're solving problems I do know there are a lot of winter parking complaints uh this year and that is very frustrating um but again we are we are doing our best to keep up with the winter Parkers and um I'm really hoping the snow is over until next year so we uh we did we the the boys and girls did a really good job this last weekend at um enforcing uh the the winter parking regulations so um shout out to the the teams that worked this past weekend and public works and um their teams so police officers are attending events creating events having conversations and we continue to get to know our community um just some processes that have been going on we uh you know we changed our vacation bid process to allow each officer to place bids for dates that are not taken by officers I know this might sound very confusing um but uh no officer ever said gosh vacation bid I love vacation bids they never said that vacation bids is challenging um but we did change uh the process to allow um so that officers are not uh taken by officers on their on their direct teams um instead of the entire department um so in the past we had some challenges where officers would wanted the same time off um and we just couldn't make it happen but we we change some things so that we can accommodate and be a little bit more flexible when it comes to Vacation bids um we allow more officers to take time off over the same dates um and by doing that um you know it's it's really about having that extra person on staff um we do our best to accommodate that we know things come up and now we have a lot you know we have a lot of youngsters on our on our team and it seems like everybody's got a new baby so uh we want them to be a part of their their their new child's uh life um so we changed our hiring process um uh Jenny clu U who's sitting next to me is a big part of that process we developed a new streamline of who is involved in what their individual roles and responsibilities are throughout our hiring process it's uh much cleaner and everybody knows what they're what it it it does come off as a lot more professional um and when someone I I've heard numerous Compliments by people that have gone through applicants who have gone through a hiring process that have said you know it was really smooth going through your hiring process it seemed like everybody knew what they were doing and I knew where I needed to go um so that's that's good feedback and I'm glad it it seems like it's it's working out we continue to tweak uh as we move along cuz we still have some Kinks but um nonetheless it's it's working out really well um we just received uh certification of our compliance from Rampart audit as it pertains to the BWC audit in accordance with uh the statute you see there um I will be sending uh council members and uh city manager and Jenny clo to um a copy of that um which was shot over to legislation so um they they know we are in compliance and we have passed so we're good to go for a little bit um training uh New Year means fresh training and refresher trainings ahead we're being we're at the beginning of the year um so we with all the new mandates in place um we have a lot of new trainings that are officers are going to have to um register for um which also means um hopefully um our staffing levels pick up because that's always been another challenge in itself um getting folks to these mandated trainings when we don't have folks to cover the streets um so we're hoping for uh you know for some new applicants here and some new folks uh the Ramsey County Attorney's Office training uh these these here trainings that are that are new newly implemented um as mandates BCA critical incident training Crisis Intervention and mental illness crisis uh autism conflict management and mediation recognizing and valuing Community diversity and cultural differences to include implicit bias um these are you know some of these courses are week long so uh with our staff that can be challenging to get somebody to go to these for a week um so uh and then of course um our collaboration amongst the city other department has always been strong it's always been good um and it keeps getting better and it keeps getting stronger um and I'm glad to be a part of this um uh organization looking ahead I wrote ahead Services needs to meet the community needs and expectations to promote the best outcomes um you know these here are some some items that I hope we can uh look into and discuss further um down the road uh obviously second in command that deputy chief police um an additional CSO having two csos and I talked about it um uh a few months ago that that piggyback that frog frog that leaf frog effect right um having that CSO so that when he or she's done we have one that's already in training and we can continue to invest and um have officers come on right out of our CSO program um two additional Patrol officers which means um power cars something we haven't had since I think my third or fourth year as a cop um and it worked out really well it always seemed like there was a cop on every corner and um we were we were able to be really proactive in our traffic um enforcement or we were able to get out of squads and actually go engage with the community um and just take uh proactivity policing to another level especially community policing which is uh which what we strive for additional offic officer of Patrol Outreach engagement we currently have um officer Whitman like I said who kind of oversees our uh that area the community policing she does a wonderful job at getting out and connecting with folks in uh various areas of the community um and everybody knows officer Whitman especially all the kids um additional incentives towards officer wellness and well-being additional incentives towards recruitment additional incentives towards retention um a crime analysts and again we talked about that mental health and crisis embedded worker um so these items here are just some items that I I would like to you know just put in your ear and um consider having further discussion down the road here and that's all I got that's right yeah do anybody have any questions any of the any officers on interviews coming up are any laterals you know of yes um are we do have we do have some um laterals for the detective spot okay and I think we have one or two for the police officer besides our CSO besides of CSO yeah yep yeah so promising candidates as a chief are you informed if there's any opportunities Statewide for funding or grants to help you with those additional items you're looking for I am I am Jason uh and one thing that we would like to and I should have maybe put this on the road ahead as well is it we would like to um look into having a grant writer or Contracting a grant writer um they are very timec consuming um and um we did have a gentleman that's no longer with us that was really good at grant writing um but uh now when I go and ask anybody that if interested in being a grant writer I get no interest so yeah yeah yes there are plenty of Grants out there we uh just need somebody to or we could contract with some consider Contracting somebody and have them come in and do our gr ready for us so else I heard this morning this is the first anniversary of the burn situations just wanted to say I'll for the police family yeah about that and your latest SP went quick in some ways I I I appreciate that mayor and uh you know out of respect for them um would it be okay if we had a moment of silence and yeah [Music] y amen amen thank you thank you mayor thanks all right appreciate it thank you all right no other business other business and the next one is call for adjournment so moved so moved council member s second council member Mackenzie all those in favor say hi hi I have five minutes enjoy your time I forward you to e e e e e e e e e e yes right call the meeting to order please let's stand for pledge of allegiance toag of the United States of America to the stand indivisible very much thanks roll call please council member nordby here council member Woods here council member McKenzie here council member schwe here mayor mongi here thank you very much can I get a motion to adopt the agenda please so moved so move council member Woods second second council member mckeny all those in favor say I I I thank you very much all right presentations thank you mayor um we have uh the new Ramsey County Commissioner here tonight uh Kelly Miller for introductions uh please come up and welcome very proud you got a pat on the back I know that's a good that's a good girl she's fabulous she with me all throughout my campaign and door knocking and so she likes to come with Mom to these events so Buu good evening um U mayor monik M mongi perfect um and members of the North St Paul City Council my name is Kelly Miller and I'm the newly sworn in Ramsey County Commissioner of district 7 and I'm honored to be here with you tonight um first and foremost I want to express my excitement about working alongside you um um to support North St Paul and ensure that our County and our city relationships um maintain strong or are able to grow so over the past six weeks I've been in deep in the onboarding process meeting with County staff receiving my committee appointments internal and external and getting up to speed on ongoing initiatives throughout our district and throughout the county um as a commissioner I've been appointed to nine standing internal um Ramsey County committees that meet either weekly or on an as needed basement basis um I've also been assigned to 13 additional boards and commissions outside of Ramsey County a few of those include the workforce Innovation board um um which also includes the association of Workforce boards for Minnesota the Ramsey Washington Recycling and energy board um plus the partnership on waste and energy with hennipin County or the pwe board um I'm on the executive committee of the Metro ride Emergency Services Board which is really exciting um the Metropolitan conservation joint um District's Powers board and um my most favorite or coveted board is the Metropolitan mosquito control district board I'm told that somebody dresses up like a mosquito and I voted it won't be [Laughter] me um so as part of my ongoing uh my onboarding process my staff and I have reached out to each of you to schedule meetings um to schedule individual meetings I'm eager to learn more about you yourself uh North St Paul and how I can support the work that you guys are doing for the community and for the broader Ramsey County um I look forward to collaborating with each of you and ensuring that we're working together to serve the residents of North St Paul um uh thank you for having me and I'm happy to listen learn and you know support you in the work that you're doing as needed thank you thank you very much thank you yeah apprciate it you can give her a clap go ahead [Applause] y all right all right next up is our consent agenda item a February 4th 2025 workshop and regular meeting minutes Item B General claims of 1,187 46497 item C League of Minnesota City's Municipal tort liability waiver item D adopt resolution up dating 2025 city of North St Paul fee schedule item e tobacco license renewal for Nikki's EIG and tobacco item F approve 2025 spring directional boore for the electric Department uh item G Public Works Surplus item H resolution accepting donations for January 2025 item I building permit report January of 2025 item J non-union employee benefits item K new student appointment to the arts and culture culture commission item L appointment to the police Civil Service Commission item M appointment to The Economic Development Authority and item n appointment to the Ramsey County League of local governments and thank you looking for a motion anybody like to pull or do I have a motion to approve what we have I'm I'll motion okay council member schwe do I have a second I will second council member Woods all those in favor say I I I thank you all right meeting open to the public John schal good evening John evening Council uh mayor um three items I'd quickly go over brought up at the last meeting the uh uh offers for a sewer colonoscopy by a plumber and U the uh out uh based on my drive from the barber Mary the barber saw three of trucks of this plumber on my drive from over on 7th to my house so evidently they're doing a land Office business and I check with Chris and he says Yep they're pulling a lot of permits so they're doing a good job of getting into people's houses and uh probably finding that they don't have clay pipes going out there but they got something else wrong so but as long as you can get in that house you can make a sale uh second item is the uh I just shook my head the air purifier I don't know why we need air purif fires I haven't got a clue is it the wind blowing off a shi Sky Mountain it should be Frozen now there shouldn't be dust in the air your your windows are closed your your doors are closed I did talk to one individual who said he did get a air purifier better known as the other John and I asked him did he have it plugged in and he said he did he had it plugged in I said do you feel better now that it's plugged in now this is an item that's going to take more power didn't have one before but he's got one now and it's plugged in and uh my uh look at the situation with uh these offers by our electric utility I compare it to my XL uh um provider in my cabin or for my cabin up north in Wisconsin they they give out great not give out but they make sales of items like Wi-Fi thermostats all my Wi-Fi thermostats I got from Excel through their offers and oh well uh we don't have gas yeah that's right but I don't have gas at my cabin and they offer thermostats which I took advantage of I don't know what is with this air purifier thing don't don't understand it don't understand it why this is a another item to more use more power and as this fellow that I talked to he says well it's not elephants it's just mice that the amount of electricity well if you took all the mice in the world and add them up and weigh them they probably be a million pounds more than than the elephants all right thanks John anything else any others any I don't think so no that's good all right up to City business action items and recommendations uh first item up there is are we have two items both are going to be for the street utility project coming up this summer but the first one is calling for the public hearing on proposals to adopt a street reconstruction plan and the intent to issue General obligation Street reconstruction bonds we have Finance director winck here to speak to that hey D here council members uh yes this is the beginning of a short but lengthy process of uh issuing bonds um I believe each one of you received kind of a calendar kind of will depict um all of the dates the dates that will be back to city council um through the steps um of the bond issuance if we start talking about this that mean Spring's going to come earlier so and and this is it we make it we no seriously if we make it through to the weekend that's it we're we're in Spring I'm put I'm putting the up in uh late April I'm ready to go good but uh yeah so we're um ready to go after the the bond issuance what this is is a resolution to call um for the consideration of the adoption um of a street reconstruction plan that includes the 2025 Street uh projects uh the next item afterwards after this item um will be um WSB Morgan will talk about um going out forbid um this is timed very well um that we should receive uh funds um on this Bond issuance in May uh it's about the timing that uh work should be um starting um with probably the First Progress payment somewhere uh about June time um these what's in included in the street uh relocation plan that's attached um is also included in the uh Capital Improvement plan um so there's no surprises nothing's different um we've got it um right now having for the public hearing on March 4th um that going up to a maximum of $7 million uh we may not actually issue out 7 million that'll come out a little bit later uh right now the estimates have been um pretty tight from the preliminaries to the last estimates and know we just dependent on how the bids come in but we're somewhere about that $6.6 million um Mark but um our uh Baker till our advisor is saying just put a little bit more for the maximum amount so that's why we put the maximum of 7 million at this point in time um I'll stand for any questions that you may have uh we'll be again back on March 4th for the public hearing um and uh again any questions um over any questions no no I think we're good all right yeah and just need to uh motion yep I'll make a motion second council member swe council member Norby all those in favor say I I thank you got a hot seat going there all right next item up is Item B 2025 Street and utility Improvement project uh city project number 25-1 approve plans and specs and Order advertising ment for bids and we have engineer Dolly to here to speak to that thank you Mr Mayor members of the council so this item is a continuation of uh what Finance director winck had set up for you um separate from the bonding which is the financing for the project uh there's a requirement by State Statute uh for larger projects such as this to be uh advertised for sealed bidding um and so this is a part of that process requesting authorization from the city council to advertise for the bids uh within your packet is a resolution so the action uh recommended action here is approval of that resolution authorizing um the advertisement for bids for the 2025 Street and utility Improvement project which is around the casc lake area you've seen some presentations on that previously there's a project location map uh in your packet attached to this item uh but generally we're talking about the Improvement of streets and utilities on Gerald Avenue shaie dri uh bu Avenue uh in that Casey Lake U uh Park area uh just west of mcnight Road um project uh estimate uh right now from a cost standpoint is just over $6.5 million which is uh just about in line with the anticipated costs that were included in the capital Improvement plan um final costs uh with some projections into the future will be Set uh and in conjunction with the financing and bonding process once bids have been received so again these the processes are kind of working together in concert um and uh bidding is bids are projected to be received in late March and I anticipate being in front of the city council again early April then presenting the results of those bids uh with the potential of awarding a contract at that time uh as Finance director Winnick stated uh construction is not anticipated to until probably about may but that's a little weather dependent and temperature dependent um in terms of when uh contractors will start mobilizing for those types of improvements we have been doing some coordination with um XL gas the natural gas uh provider in the neighborhood and they do have some gas pipe pipe relocation work that they're going to need to do on um all the streets the city will be working on too so they need to get in there first and we're trying to do that in an orderly fashion between uh XL gas also City Electric has some work to do and then obviously we'll have a city contractor that will be doing the utilities and the street work after that but uh most work is anticipated to start potentially miday I guess so with that I'll stand for any questions again the action um for the council to consider would be uh approval of the resolution that is uh approving the plans authorizing ad for bid um and for receipt of those bids to come back uh again in the timeline that I just outlined so U happy to answer any questions Council might have did a good job of going over them as we go along here so it's good so I have a motion to approve so move so move council member Woods uh second second council member Kinsey all those in favor say I I I thank you thank you thank you Morgan all right so next up uh reports of city manager and departments um met with staff today uh fire department today is Brent vixen's first day as uh Fire Marshall he we did an internal posting um and he got that position which will help alleviate some of the workload on Jason himself to kind of run uh the inspection programs around the city which we you know started charging for as well so that will help with that position um Public Works been busy uh we had a watermain break just the other day uh I don't think we'll get into the long story of the lift station but uh had some issues there uh but our crew was great and took care of everything uh snow plowing here last Saturday still doing ashter removals uh down at Southwood Southwood and uh doing some touch-ups at uh housy and Casey Lake on the inside of some of the buildings with the Colder Weather so get them looking good for the summer electric spend tree trimmen uh doing system inspections they had a rusted out tank for one of the generators up that North Tower Park correct got that replaced um Finance course has been busy with the auditor here last week and then uh they'll come back to finish up in March and working currently with that uh Bond proc process prep so Jenny's been busy with uh Insurance go over the vehicle lists and um stuff like that for the city so appreciate that work uh AA has been still busy with uh doing website updates working with the different department heads it's a bit of a process and also working on event updates and um nailing down some of the scheduling for those events um PD explained their spot it was nice to have the eight applications that came in this last round since they've been kind of hurting so hopefully we can get them to full staff which they haven't seen in quite some time um that's all I have for you thank you very much uh reports for Council commissions and committees memb we next Wednesday at 6:30 parks and wreck will meet here and they will go over the final hga presentation for the three proposed Parks um so 6:30 here otherwise review it online thank you anything and I got I believe we have a Eda meeting on the 11th of March coming up now that'll be my first one so thank you very much um arts and culture commission had um a new student appointment um which was part of the consent agenda tonight and then we've got another open commission position that we're looking to fill thank you very much the next Planning Commission will be Thursday March 6th at this time I don't know if there's going to be content for that meeting or not okay thank you any general business yes I would like to thank public works for their fantastic initiative immediate outside the front of my house last week there was a pipe that burst and although the gentleman had been out there from 5:00 to 4: in the morning you guys worked your tails off and I can easily say I appreciated all the noise so and truly not sarcastically it got fixed and my neighbors are super grateful for you guys as well as it was it affected their house so thank you very nice very nice it was Sun warm that day right no Dave anything for you sir nope nope I just I would encourage everybody to go out to the North St Paul website and check out our smiling faces now that our pictures are out there yeah yeah it's quite the quite the deal they didn't use filters let's put it that way no I'm not Colonel Sanders Jason uh one thing quick um it seems when department heads come up and talk to us very often one of our questions to them is um have you applied or are there grants available and we've had this um some talks about it before and I was wondering um if the rest of the council will be amendable to asking Brian to formally schedule something for our one of the future workshops or meetings to see if we could explore some options about getting our staff help for grant writing yeah that' be cool I was thinking same I don't even know I wouldn't even know where to look you know okay all right thank you you're welcome that was it well we have a young person in the audience I do this every time when there's a young person you got to come up and tell us what's your are you for school come on up y yep you got to do it see what grade I mean this is this is big time I'm a senior at North at Mr Wood's daughter my class oh yeah what's your name I'm Lily Lily nice to meet you I'm actually here from American government class through century and I needed to attend a blanking I blank no tend to work tend to um city council meeting for civic engagement nice what do you think so what can we help you with or what can you help us with it going be either way you never know I wasn't entirely sure I was just like I decided I was going to attend one cuz I mean you talk our groups it's not really anything but you're doing very well came to a perfect one this is ending quite soon yeah well I'm glad you were able to come I hope you learned something and as far as we enjoyed having you I mean it's definitely been interesting I've never been to uh council meeting before and I don't know I didn't know what I was expecting but oh good I'm glad you came did good L yeah good job than you so much thanks for coming hope to see you again those two three gentle back there those the ones who want to get to know because they will be the first at your house Yep they're the important on glasses they're going to he'll redo your roads yeah all good yeah well thanks for joining us appreciate it all right can I get a call for German please so move so move council member Woods second second McKenzie second Mackenzie and all those in favor say hi thanks thank you all let me March 4th is the next meeting thank you all thank you