This transcript appears to be from a December 14, 2016 meeting. Please note that while your provided list includes **Ellissa Owens** as City Administrator, the dialogue in this specific 2016 transcript repeatedly refers to the City Administrator as **Tim** (historically Tim Peterson). I have labeled him accordingly to maintain the integrity of the dialogue. [00:00] **(Recording/Music):** The Snowman was a jolly happy soul With a corncob pipe and a button nose And two eyes made out of coal Frosty the Snowman is a fairy tale they say He was made of snow but the children know How he came to life one day There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found For when they placed it on his head He began to dance around Oh, bossy The snowman Was alive as he could be And the children say He could laugh and play Just the same as you and me So he said, let's run and we'll have some fun. Now before I melt away. Down to the village with a broomstick in his hand. Running here and there all around the square saying, catch me if you can. He led them down the streets of town right to the traffic hop. And he only paused a moment. [00:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Oh my goodness. Need a motion to open it though. Wow. Okay. I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular meeting, Moose Lake City Council for Wednesday, December 14th, 2016 at 6:30. And I'd like to start with a Pledge of Allegiance, please. [00:02] **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [00:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I'd like to thank everyone for coming tonight. Welcome to our guests. The next item is the agenda. We do have a couple, one addition and a change. The addition will be under the Bolton and Mink presentation. This would be 4C and this would be a small D. And you have a handout given to you from Bolton and Mink. And this is on Park Place Drive Improvements, correct? And we have one other item under nine, under announcements. And that is with the first item there, the regular Moose Lake City Council meeting. At 6 p.m., we'll have a reorganization meeting first. We'll open into that, close it, And then at 6:30 start the regular Moose Lake City Council meeting. With that, do we have any other changes or additions to the agenda? [00:04] **Council Member:** So move that we approve the agenda with the changes. [00:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Have a second? [00:04] **Council Member:** I'll second it. [00:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [00:04] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried and we'll move on to the open public hearing. We need a motion to open for the truth and taxation. [00:04] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion. [00:04] **Council Member:** I'll second it. [00:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [00:04] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Turn this over to the city administrator. [00:04] **Tim (City Administrator):** All right, so I updated the initial levy PowerPoint that we went over in September. just to update some of the health insurance information, some of the other items that we had discussed, and give the public some time for comment. So under revenues, one of the things that we had talked about was there were some items under general property taxes and special assessments that needed to be moved around a little bit. And then the 2017 figures includes the initial levy that was set in September. Local government aid will increase just under $3,000, and transfers from power and light were just updated to realize what they were today. The expenditures, election budget was removed for 2017 because we won't have an election. The police department, overtime budget, and contractual wage increases were updated. Public works budget reflects some deficiencies that we discussed when we were going over the budget with department heads. Parks and Rec, we increased by shifting some of the dollars from some other line items. We are looking to repair all of the basically deficiencies that we have down there with sinks not working, drains not working, painting some docks and picnic tables, fencing, things like that. This is the Without capital improvement, this is the department overview. You can see each department from 2016 to 2017, as well as the difference. We talked about some of them, including the police department and public works. Under general government, there's a small increase there. The library has an increase of $10,000 that was broken up into a number of different line items. And then the Riverside Arena includes $10,000 in, again, just kind of realizing what we've had over the last few years here. For capital improvement for the next year, one thing that was updated That will will have to shift around some funds within the capital improvement project was a Record management system for the police department That's been something that's been kind of kicked around within this county and many other counties for quite some time and it looks like in 2017 that will come to fruition with the chief's help and all the organizations working on this, it looks like the cost will be spread out between 2017 and 2018. So with the cost in 2017, it looks like we will be able to cover that just by shifting around some funds within our own capital improvement fund. 2018, we will have a larger payment that we will need to make but this will allow us to stay within the same records management system that the county is using. Public Works is the largest capital improvement, and one item in particular is the new skid steer. With all of the work that's being done with 73, it will be more important than ever to have that piece of equipment, but also doing various projects throughout the summer as well. We talked a little bit about down at the campground, correcting some of the plumbing issues. The biggest one down there is the bathhouse down by the beach. It's even been talked at Parks and Rec Committee about adding a Biffy down there and things like that. And just to avoid having those types of temporary fixes, I thought it would be better if we could just actually correcting the problem into our budget so that we don't... need to pay additional expenses for for temporary use. Riverside Arena—this will probably change a little bit with the Mighty Ducks grant. We won't be looking at doing the storage room tables and chairs. We will do a skate holder in a water fountain bottle filling station because those have payments coming from other groups. But the back stairway exit is still something that we would like to get done just for the safety of everyone using the building. For the community center, we'll be looking at doing a couple painting projects, whether it's the outside or the inside, but just updating the building a little bit. Here's the breakdown of capital improvements by department. Again, the public works with the skid steer sees the largest difference. The police department purchased a vehicle in 2016's capital improvement budget, so that is the large decrease there. The depot and annex, they didn't receive the grant that they were anticipating getting in 2016, so that is why that decrease of $25,000 is there. So from 2016 to 2017, in revenues, there's about a $10,000 increase. Operating expenses is about $100,000. Capital improvement is about $20,000 and the net income will stay in the positive but to just under $12,000. The net income in 2016 I would say however was a little bit inflated with some of the things that we saw with the revenues. There was a portion of our levy that was included in the general fund budget but was allocated for some of our debt service. The assessments were the same way where it was just being allocated in the wrong spot. All the money was going to the right place, it was just where the line item was. That came out to be about $80,000. So if you take that out of there, 2016's net income would actually be closer to about $40,000, which makes the difference between 2016 and 2017 not as drastic. We talked about this a little bit in the September meeting, but this breaks down kind of some of the surrounding communities. Barnum, Carlton, Proctor, as well as Willow River and Renshaw on the next slide. This just kind of goes to show where we stand between some of these communities. Barnum, Carlton, and Proctor are all taxing at a little bit higher level than the city of Moose Lake is. Willow River and Renshaw are just slightly below where Moose Lake is. So we are in line with a lot of the surrounding communities. Some of the historical levy information. The biggest thing from this is just to see that the tax rate for the city of Moose Lake has stayed pretty consistent over the last few years. One of the things that we had talked about last time was the thought that the city council had increased the levy for 2016 and based off of the tax rate which is actually used on people's homes the tax levy tax rate would have gone down so in 2017 it's not quite as if it's adding on top of each other on top of each other last year wasn't wasn't quite what what the increase look like. This just goes on to explain kind of what I talked about there. And then this is the last step for this year is setting our final levy. We cannot go higher than what we set it at in the September meeting, but we can go lower. The total levy that we set in September was the bottom figure there of $531,865. Any questions on the budget? [00:11] **Council Member:** Under the liquor store, do we still have that, not accounting system, but inventory system? [00:11] **Tim (City Administrator):** Yeah, it's the... [00:11] **Council Member:** Is that included? [00:11] **Tim (City Administrator):** Yep, we do have that. All of the enterprise fund budgets fall under new business. Those ones are outside of the general fund budget, but yes, the capital improvement budget for the liquor store does include a new accounting system. [00:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All right. Council? Any questions? [00:11] **Council Member:** Tim, I like what you did there where some of these departments kept on running over in dollars every year and instead of actually budgeting exactly what they need, we've been budgeting low. We can get a better handle on it this way, I feel. [00:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Just one more question for me, Tim. I know what we set it at, but what was your recommendation level before we set it? [00:11] **Tim (City Administrator):** My recommendation when we initially created the budget was the 5% levy increase which would have been $523,323. One of the things that we talked a little bit about when we had set it at the 6% levy increase was the unknowns for health insurance. So our budget presented tonight includes what the council decided for health insurance, which showed that we would have a net income of about $11,000. If we moved it back to the 5% levy increase, we would still have a net income of about $3,000. [00:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Just a statement for me, I would prefer we kept it at the 5%. To me, a minimum impact to the communities. We can and yet meet our budget needs for the coming year. That's just a statement for me. I would like to go lower, but I understand how budgets are necessary. With that, I'll look for statements by the council. [00:12] **Council Member:** Mr. Mayor, I agree. I'd like to set it lower, but I think the past few years we have really tried to not set an amount in, and at some point we have to start thinking about what our roads and we really can't continue to do a zero percent or one percent. [00:12] **Tim (City Administrator):** One of the things that's not included in the 2017 budget is obviously all the things that happened in 2016 with flooding, with additional expenses going towards the Highway 73 project. So while it may seem odd to set the levy at the 6% level, I can assure you that we will not even come close to recouping what we lost above and beyond our budget in 2016. So I think everybody knows that it's important for the city to have a reserve as close to 50% as possible for a number of reasons. But with all of the things that took place in 2016, all of this, any net income would just be going towards offsetting the costs that are way above and beyond even that. [00:13] **Council Member:** Just out of curiosity, what does 4% put us at? [00:13] **Tim (City Administrator):** A net loss of $8,000. [00:13] **Council Member (Mike):** Mayor had a question for Tim. [00:13] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yes, sir. [00:13] **Council Member (Mike):** Tim, so, you know, our tax base has been growing so that, like you reflected on that rate, so even if we went with 6%, how much physical increase would that be, let's say, to an individual per 100,000 or whatever you want to figure out? [00:13] **Tim (City Administrator):** Well, the nice thing about doing it based off of tax rate is rather than dollar amount is that you can figure it out pretty easily with the value of someone's home. So someone with a $100,000 home is $60.00. Someone with a $200,000 home is $120.00. Someone with a $300,000 home, it's $180.00 annually. I think I have to be connected to our network to access it. But anyways, if we set it at the 6% level, that's what it would be. If it was 5% or 4% or 3%, if it's 5%, it's $50 a year for a $100,000 home. [00:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So a $300,000 home, that's a $15 increase a month. [00:14] **Tim (City Administrator):** For which one? [00:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** For a $300,000 home. [00:14] **Tim (City Administrator):** That would probably be close to a high end in the city. And just so that the community understands where $300,000 is around $15,000, $200,000 is around $10,000. [00:14] **Council Member:** I'm not sure which percentage you're calculating. If you're going, let's say what Mike just asked at 6%, $200,000 home is $15 a month. [00:14] **Tim (City Administrator):** $200,000 home at 6% is what? 10. 10. Okay. Just so... An increase we're talking. [00:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Right. An increase per month. And it is important, even $10, because a lot of these people are on fixed income. [00:14] **Tim (City Administrator):** Sure. [00:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** And that's my concern, is the fixed income and $10 a month doesn't seem excessive, but... It's not only the city will be the county, and we don't know what the state is and whatever else. Federal, we don't know where we're at either. [00:14] **Tim (City Administrator):** One of the things that I guess kind of hurt us going into 2017 was the county does valuations for the homes, obviously. And in the past year or two, we've seen that start to increase after the recession between 2008 and 2009. 13 home values were very, very, very low. They started catching up. 2017 actually saw a decrease in the value within the city of Moose Lake, which was disappointing to see, but it also has kind of a pretty negative impact on the budget when increases in values are pretty easy to capture that tax rate levy without increasing the levy at all. And when that decreases, that makes it obviously quite a bit tougher on the budget. [00:15] **Council Member:** Mr. Mayor, City Administrator, do we know what the tax rate will be if we use either 5% or 6% what the actual tax rate will be? Because you said it changed last year even though we had a different levy amount and it went down. [00:15] **Tim (City Administrator):** So the last column here is the tax rate, the history of the tax rate of Moose Lake. So if we do 6%, it goes to .626. Does that make sense? [00:16] **Council Member:** Yeah. [00:16] **Tim (City Administrator):** And then if you want to multiply that times the value of your home, you've got to add another zero in there. the calculations get a little a little weird but if you add another zero in there it makes sense. [00:16] **Council Member:** To me if we're going to go at five percent it's unrealistic to say that we're not going to spend more than three thousand dollars next year if we go at six percent. Yeah, we're going to have some people that are unhappy, but it's unrealistic that we're not going to spend $11,000 next year. Is it possible that we might not? Yes. Is it realistic? No. So, I mean, you can either go five now and take it from somewhere else or have to go even higher next year. We just sat down and went through the flood information for the 2016 flood. How much would you say that we have left with those couple road projects that we had left? [00:16] **Tim (City Administrator):** $100,000. I mean, we had three, four, five projects left. That alone will be $25,000. So with the $11,000 net income, I can almost assure you that it's not going to end up being that. [00:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Myself, I would rather see us be on the tight end, and if we had to cut a little bit in certain areas, I'd rather do that than increase the tax to the community more than we have to. That's just a personal opinion for myself. [00:17] **Council Member:** But I think then we're just hiding behind something that's not televised, and we're holding it and saying, you know what, we'll just get it back somewhere this year. I'd rather be up front with the people and say, you know what, this is what we have to do. It's unfortunate. but we do need $11,000, $12,000 buffer. And I have no problem making that motion. I don't like it, but I believe that we have to do that. [00:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** But we haven't even talked about even if we have to take money from budget items to cover other things prioritizing, I think there's some things in the budget that we could prioritize to a level where we don't have to do them this year. anybody in the public that want to speak you know as soon as the council gets done we will any other council members tim anything you want to add or not? [00:18] **Tim (City Administrator):** uh not before once we once we close the the public hearing then any motions can be made but i don't have anything to add right now [00:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All right Council, anybody? In general, public, any comments from the public? Hearing none. No, that would be during the regular council meeting. Thank you. Do you want to do the motion and so forth during this close? [00:18] **Tim (City Administrator):** You have to close it first. [00:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Close it first. Any comments from... Anybody on the council? Do I have a motion to close the public hearing? [00:18] **Council Member:** So moved. [00:18] **Council Member:** I'll second. [00:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [00:18] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. So it brings us back into number 1D, the 2017 final levy. This is the time when we would do a motion by the council and second and then discussion and then a vote. [00:19] **Council Member:** i make a motion that we make the levy alone to be six percent for 2017. [00:19] **Tim (City Administrator):** Just to be clear Levy needs to be a dollar amount, so that would equate to $531,865. [00:19] **Council Member:** That's correct, $531,865. [00:19] **Council Member:** I'll second that. [00:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Open it up for discussion. I'll just make a statement. I still think that I'd like to keep it at the lowest level that we can. I think 5% will work. we do have to look at which even if it's at 11 we're going to have to look at prioritizing if it's over 11 anyway. Difference between 11 and 3 isn't very much when we're talking about projects. But it's just a statement. Any other comments by the council? Discussion? [00:20] **Council Member:** if we're looking at 3% we're proposing a negative budget which I don't think is fiscally responsible in the position that we're sitting in. [00:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Well I meant $3,000. [00:20] **Council Member:** Okay I thought you said 3%? [00:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah between 11,000 and 3,000 but it's a tax amount that doesn't go away once you said it. You never hear a council going the opposite. I understand. We have gone a couple years of zeros and maybe that's hurting us today. [00:20] **Council Member:** Absolutely. It would have been wiser probably to go 1 and 2 percent, maybe 2 and 3 annually instead of at a zero. [00:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** And I know the time we did it was to help the school district pass their proposal and the hospital. And I know that we did suffer because of that. But those projects got passed and they are, one's complete and one's almost done. No other comments? We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. [00:21] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Oppose? [00:21] **Council Member:** Aye. [00:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** And I say aye also. So we have a 3-2 vote. And you probably have to put that down. And the motion carries. And from there we'll go on to the consent agenda. This is 2A the minutes, November 9, 2016, regular city council minutes and 2A2, November 18, 2016, special city council minutes. Do we have any questions or discussion? Hearing none, do you have a motion to accept the consent agenda for minutes? [00:21] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion. [00:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Have a second? [00:21] **Council Member:** I'll second it. [00:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [00:21] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Moving on to financial reports under 2B1, city accounts table for December 2016. Under 2B2, the city financial statements for November 2016. And under 2B3, liquor store profit loss statement for November 2016. Any discussion or questions? Hearing none, do we have a motion to accept? [00:22] **Council Member:** So moved. [00:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do we have a second? [00:22] **Council Member:** I'll second. [00:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [00:22] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Same. Motion carried. Number three, public comment. I believe we have Pam first. Thank you. [00:22] **Pam Jensen:** I'm Pam Jensen, thank you for having me tonight. I'm the WIND coordinator and I'm just gonna give you kind of a rundown of what we've accomplished in the last couple years. We met with Northland Foundation yesterday, so that's why I'm updating you. In 2013, we received a grant from Northland Foundation for 50,000 over two years. So here's what was accomplished during that time. Starting in April, May of 2015, we finally got our mission statement completed and we were having meetings and deciding what the action teams would be doing. In June and August of 15, we got the logo and the brochures were developed and we sent them out to 3,500 homes in this area. And then in August of 15, which we had been working on with the council and the Arrowhead Transit System came to Moose Lake which was really exciting and over that till now we partnered with the City Council and our partnership was like 5,000 and we were able to provide transportation two days a week as well as trips to Cloquet so we looked over the last five months and And there was about 267 riders that have used the bus, so that's averaging about seven a day, which I think is pretty good. And then in the spring of 16, we partnered with the city, split in the costs for the handicap accessible doors. There was five of them that were put in this building. And so we came up with probably 5,000, and then the city came up with 5,000. And also when we continued, we started monthly bingo games and parties which we held here. And we did that monthly. And we had a Christmas party which was real successful last year and we will have one this coming Tuesday here at Senior Dining. And throughout the year, year and a half, we have bought speakers to educate seniors on subjects like Medicare, fraud, legal aid. World preparation, healthcare directives, prescription drugs, as well as meeting with the Senator Al Franken's representatives and participating in the White House Conference on Aging. We have set up through the library now where there'll be monthly, it has started, monthly technical training and classes as well as weekly genealogy classes here now. We helped with obtaining like the computers, not the computers, but the laptops and the big screen and different things for the library. We also had, we sponsored a spring cleanup day where volunteers help seniors with yard work, gardening, painting, and other small projects. And we coordinated with, and I can't remember, AAA. Arrowhead Area Agency on Aging. Yes. And they were the ones that brought the new range and dishwasher for senior dining. And that was, that cost over $12,000. So as I said, we met with Northland Foundation and our year is completed as of the 31st of this month. So they have chosen not to fund us anymore or Aitkin County. So that'll mean an end on our part to helping with the bus service. So that'll be kind of put in your hands if you want it to continue on. And so, you know, bingo will stop. We're, We're just, I guess we're done at the end of this month. We are gonna meet, the volunteers are really down in numbers. It's basically Steve, Lois and I. And so we're gonna meet in about a month and just, you know, like I said, we don't know if there's funding for this or to continue on or whatever. But anyway, I wanna thank you so much for your guys' support through the year and a half. You know, I think a lot was accomplished and we're very proud of that. And thank you for partnering with us and helping us with some of these projects. So thank you very much. Appreciate what you guys, the support. Thank you. [00:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you, Pam. Thank you. We appreciate your efforts. And I know that was a year and a half of volunteers. I'm almost on your part. So that's great. You'll appreciate it. Thank you so much. And the bus service, I believe, we will be bringing up later in the agenda. We will have it on our next agenda. Because I feel that we should do it, continue it through January, February, March, the cold winter months. And I believe that's $500 a month. [00:26] **Pam Jensen:** Yes. [00:26] **Tim (City Administrator):** If they're not doing it, it's $1,000. [00:26] **Pam Jensen:** If they're not doing it with us, it's a thousand. It's 250. Okay. Okay. [00:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Because we're doing 500 before I thought. [00:27] **Tim (City Administrator):** Yeah, it's 500 total. [00:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** And to continue that through the winter months for the senior citizens, I think, or anyone using it would be a nice service. And we can address it again in March. But it is not an agenda item. Will that mean if we do not it'll stop January 1st? [00:27] **Tim (City Administrator):** We need, according to the contract that we have with them, we need to give them, I believe, 30 days notice. [00:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So possibly if we contact them and say it's a gender item in January, they would keep the service until then? [00:27] **Tim (City Administrator):** I'm sure. We'll have to look at it. [00:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** It'd be nice to keep it going. It'd be nice to see the numbers too. That would help. Of what? [00:27] **Council Member:** I think it's seven a day, seven people a day. [00:27] **Pam Jensen:** That was before though, wasn't it? No, that was the last five. July through. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it's up from before. Okay. That's nice. [00:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So at this point, no action can be done. Thank you, Pam. Appreciate that. We have a couple of the guests tonight. I'd like to, Bill Carlson. if you could please go forward. I think that's page 90 in our packet. [00:28] **Bill Carlson:** Thank you Mayor and City Councilors. For the public record, the hat I'm wearing today is I'm a resident of the City of Moose Lake and I am a subscriber to the local cable television. I pay approximately $10 per month in fees to the city of Moose Lake. The cable television subscribers in Moose Lake Township and Windermere Township pay similar fees. In Appendix A, a reference to the fact that in ordinance 111B, the joint powers agreement, the setting of the fees and the disbursement of how those fees are made are referenced in that appendix. But what is important for us today is that the ordinance says the city intends by the adoption of this franchise to bring about the continued development and operation of a cable communication system. Such a new development can contribute significantly to the communication needs and desires of many. Further, the city may achieve better utilization and improvement of public services with the development and operation of the cable communication system. So it's very specific. So with that in mind, I'm asking the city to conduct a periodic evaluation. The ordinance also goes on to say the notice and meeting the contemplated hearings shall be required to occur no more than every three years after the adoption of the ordinance. And those three years have been met. All evaluation sessions shall be open to the public and notice of sessions published in the same as illegal notice. And so for the second time, I am asking the city to appoint a citizen's advisory committee. It has to be a neutral body because we are not only talking about what the grantee, which in this case Mediacom, has done in the last three years, but we're also evaluating what the city has done in the last three years. And that body is where the, is a neutral body, that's where the application of new technologies, access channels, municipal use of the cable and subscriber complaints may be discussed. There's many other items included in that. And the makeup of the citizen advisory committee should be similar to the original Moose Lake Cable Commission and or the Moose Lake Public Library Board that served in this capacity as an interim basis. Two years prior to the adoption of the ordinance, we hired Bob Vose of Kennedy and Graven to help us with the drafting of this ordinance. At that time, we asked Bob Vose if we needed to reconvene the Moose Lake Cable Commission, and he said under current law, we did not need to do that. Some of us felt uncomfortable with not having public input, so we asked the Moose Lake Public Library Board if they would serve in that capacity on an interim basis until the ordinance was adopted. And then also in Appendix B, you'll see that the Library Board came before the City Council, and this was in July of 2011, I believe, to get a memorandum of understanding. So they were authorized to take on this added responsibility. And that is also in Appendix A. So that's pretty much what I'm asking right now. In support of my request, I've included interpretation of some of the other provisions, but not all of them. in ordinance 11b. And unless you want to discuss some specifics from Appendix A, that's my request. Let this periodic evaluation be held. [00:32] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Peter, I know in discussion with you, Bill, before on that Citizens Advisory Board, we did post to ask for volunteers. And I apologize that you were not contacted Because I believe you were interested in volunteering for such a board. [00:32] **Bill Carlson:** I think I hoped you would be. There was a, I did, under persuasion of the mayor, get involved with the technology committee. And the only way I said I would serve on that technology committee is if there was a citizen advisory board. Because if you look at the makeup of the technology committee, it does not include representatives here from Windermere Township and from Moose Lake Township. And I'm sure the city administrator could look up those things. We would never be able to get a breakdown of how much of those fees came from those two townships. Just based on assessed valuation, I would venture to guess that over half of those fees come from the township and they have no representation on the technology committee as to how those funds are being paid. And that's why I asked for a Citizens Advisory Committee. And if I was to continue to serve, I said I would serve on the Citizens Advisory Committee. But more than my service, our city, the townships need representation. That's their money. So that's where this is all coming from right now. Do you have any questions? [00:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** You want anything, any more statement, Bill? [00:34] **Bill Carlson:** No, I wanted to follow a script because you don't want to hear the whole story. That will come about with the periodic evaluation. That's the purpose of that. If people have complaints for it, that's where you bring them up, not for discussion here at the City Council. [00:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Questions by the Council? [00:34] **Council Member:** The only question I have right at the moment is we have to name it something other than the Citizens Advisory Board, because there already is a Citizens Advisory Board for the DOC MSOP community, so it wouldn't be confusing as to... I mean, it could be a Citizens Advisory Board, but a different label. [00:34] **Bill Carlson:** That's taken right out of the ordinance. [00:35] **Council Member:** Oh, okay. [00:35] **Bill Carlson:** There's nothing I created that was part of the ordinance. [00:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Well, we would have to kind of... I just wouldn't want any confusion as to what boards we're talking about here. [00:35] **Bill Carlson:** They could qualify by Cable TV Citizens Advisory Board. [00:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah. [00:35] **Bill Carlson:** The reason that I push this on the agenda right now is, you know, your discussion about the reorganizational meeting in the township should be involved so that they can ask for and to just a member to serve on this Citizens Advisory Board, along with the city. It's not just the city. So it's a huge issue that should not be left unaddressed. [00:36] **Council Member:** Isn't there a township member on the technology board? You're asking if there was an opening? [00:36] **Tim (City Administrator):** I thought there was a township, mostly township person on the technology committee. [00:36] **Bill Carlson:** The only one is Lisa Anderson, who was used to serve as a public access coordinator, but when she was not offered that position, she was put on a technology committee. We have Rory Buckwitz, who's in Silver. [00:36] **Tim (City Administrator):** Oh, he is in Silver. [00:36] **Bill Carlson:** But he's not within the two townships. Scott Anderson, of course, he's. [00:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yes. Okay. So that would be an issue of advertising for the citizen advisory committee again, which we can do. Open that up for advertisement. The other item, periodic evaluation, that should be an agenda item, something for Tim to research and then come forward to the city council at the appropriate time to develop that evaluation. [00:37] **Bill Carlson:** That's what my request is, that that happens regardless of whether you form a citizen. [00:37] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Correct. I don't know who will conduct that periodic evaluation. [00:37] **Bill Carlson:** It can't be conducted by the city. [00:37] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I think that's where the city administrator will have to do some research and look at that. Right. Counsel? [00:37] **Council Member:** Yes. We now have the library committee, is that correct, doing that took this over for a period of time? Library technology or what were you saying about somebody else took over the citizens advisory committee? Public library? [00:38] **Bill Carlson:** I wish you wouldn't have asked that question. [00:38] **Council Member:** Well, I mean. [00:38] **Bill Carlson:** The reason being is I do have an appendix B. Okay. And if you see on the first sheet there, that on an interim basis until, and then it's exed. Okay, basically what happened at that one memorandum of understanding, that library board made that presentation along with Lisa Anderson. As things went about, that whole library board was replaced in a whole new library board. So you have no representation on the existing library board. All the public people that volunteer no longer serve this committee. We don't want to go into the reasons why that happened. I guess I'm not trying to interrupt. I'm just trying to tell you you have to go back and look at that. [00:39] **Council Member:** Okay, but what I'm saying is since we already have a committee, could we not just get two more representatives and meet that threshold that you're asking for, one from Windermere and one from Moose Lake Township? [00:39] **Bill Carlson:** That's our decision, not mine. What I'm just saying is rather than to recreate a whole new thing. We already have people that are performing a function in the interim basis. If we just added a person from one of your township, a new site township, we'd meet that threshold. [00:39] **Bill Carlson:** What happened, so that you understand, is that the members of the library board took on more responsibility than they wanted and they were willing to do that on an interim basis. It would not be fair to the library board knowing the makeup of the library board. to put that burden on them for a long period of time. And that's why this is a citizen's advisory board is a separate board. And we only yield that in the interim base until the ordinance was approved. So if you're asking me, today I feel very guilty about what happened to all those members on that committee. If you want to know, just go out here and look at that art sculpture and you'll see a plaque. And to me, that's a headstone. We sacrificed all those people because that's part of the public access project. That's why I said I was glad I was hoping you wouldn't ask that question. [00:40] **Council Member:** I guess I don't have that background. I guess to me it just seems that one, we should be asking the Moose Lake Library Board if they feel that they're being burdened, as you put it, and two, if they are not, do they feel, or even if they are, do they feel that a representative from Windermere and Moose Lake Township would? [00:41] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I would have a problem with that myself because the library board represents to me mostly the city of Moose Lake, and that is the citizens' tax dollars. And then you'd have people coming in from townships that are not paying those tax dollars, making decisions on the library board. I'd rather have them two separate boards. [00:41] **Council Member:** And that's fine. I'm just trying to ask some questions because this is just something that I'm not up to date on the history of things. [00:41] **Tim (City Administrator):** To clarify, though, there is a township member on the board. [00:41] **Council Member:** Correct, there is. [00:41] **Bill Carlson:** But does not represent the... Cable subscribers. Those are two different budgets. The Technology Committee is what you are proving on your tax levy. The Citizen Advisory Board is the one that's going to determine how these fees are spent. Two different sources. [00:42] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. We are short of members on the Library Board right now, so it would be nice, you know, if anybody was interested in serving on the Library Board. Anything else? Bill, thank you very much. I appreciate it. [00:42] **Bill Carlson:** Hopefully you'll never see me again here. No, I appreciate you. Some of you remember I kept saying my swan song, my swan song. I keep getting dragged back in, and I do not appreciate it. Thank you. [00:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I appreciate your work, Bill. Thank you. Do you want to do? Yes, we will. I'm going to cross out here. And we will, we have one more guest tonight. Let's see, what item are we under? 6C. This would be 6C, and we have Tom representing the hospital. There's a hospital here tonight. If you could please introduce yourself. Thank you. And this would start on page 61, and I have to apologize. We lost the cigarette license renewal and... Liquor license renewal and I just found it in between the pages so it's page 61 where he will be discussing is page 61 and then skip down to page 63 and 64. Thank you. [00:44] **Tim (City Administrator):** just before you get started, just remind them what we're talking about. At the last meeting, we had discussed Mercy Hospital having an irrigation meter, and then we also discussed the Wellness Center being charged at a rate 10 times what they were actually using. The council approved going back three years for the Wellness Center, and then we discussed basically bringing somebody from Mercy to discuss the irrigation meter at the hospital. [00:44] **Tom Thackeray:** Well, thank you, Tom Thackeray with ERS Utility Solutions and as well introduced here representing Mercy Hospital on these water sewer billing matters. I think what I just handed out here, kind of the first paragraph or two kind of outlines the issues that Tim just described. Specifically in this, we were just addressing the wellness center issues, although if there's reason to discuss the landscape irrigation meter, we could certainly do that too if that needs to be addressed. Mercy's request is that they be credited for the full duration of the overcharges. And in terms of some background on that, I think in the explanation for the three-year limit, there was a section of the Minnesota Administrative Rules that was cited as the basis for it, which would apply to specifically would apply to investor-owned electric utilities, not specifically to municipal utilities or water services. And so, but even for the utilities that are regulated by that section of administrative rules, they do routinely give refunds back beyond three years. The section from the Minnesota Municipal Utility Association newsletter I handed out describes some of those that Excel had filed for and were approved. I've mentioned a few others here in this list. I have copies of them if you'd like to see them. They're just the approvals from the Public Utility Commission for refunds going back for the full duration of the overcharges. I also know, and I know from direct experience, that other Minnesota municipalities have given refunds back beyond three years. We had a really similar situation with the Kinew Regional Medical Center in Crosby last year where they went back for a little over four years on the credit they issued. We've had some other clients with issues in the city of Duluth, and they've gone back as long as the five-year term within the last 14 months. So that was the consideration that Mercy was requesting from the council with regard to that time limit to consider a refund for Duluth of the year so I do have copies of the other filings that are listed there one through five from the Public Utility Commission if there's any interest in seeing those or so. [00:47] **Tim (City Administrator):** From from my perspective we have a department that does utility billing—our water and light does utility billing for us. This is the policy that they use for water and electric and sewer is following the statute that is quoted in here that we brought forward previously that states that a municipality would go back three years. Your point is that it's not directly to cover municipal utilities or water sewer services. That may or may not be true. I think it covers utility billing errors, which is the key part here. That being said, it's up to the city council basically to decide what refunds to be issued. We could go back all the way to where the Wellness Center is requesting which is basically to the to the beginning of when that was constructed and that would that would be up to the council as well. [00:48] **Tom Thackeray:** and just to elaborate on two points there's I guess to say that utilities that are covered by that section of administrative code routinely give refunds beyond that three-year limit and that's what the point of what I handed out and the other PC documents I have here if you'd like to see those and also just the practices of the other municipal utilities in the area and if the council would like to see the documentation on that we can provide it specifically for the city of Duluth and the city of Crosby. [00:49] **Council Member:** I think by saying routinely and without us knowing what everyone else has done in the past, I think we have to go by what our statute is that we're currently working with and that we've worked with in the past. there is some relevance to what other people have done, but to say it's routine, we'd have to have all the paperwork from every single utility. To say that they've done it, I think, would be more factual, in my opinion. [00:49] **Tom Thackeray:** There is a routine that they go through, and in terms of, I mean, we've been consulting in Minnesota for 23 years now. In every incident where we've had an overcharge, utility that is governed by that provision they have gone back and given the refund to inception and if we've got a sample of them here but if you look at the Minnesota PUC website with regard to how they treat this provision there are dozens of approvals on the airport in these credits that i'm not aware of one that's been declined as far as the pcs action on it so. [00:50] **Tim (City Administrator):** if i may i think if we keep going down the path that we're going right now i think we're going to start arguing semantics on on whether this is routine and and frankly i would go so far as to say If we really wanted to dig, I'm fairly certain we would find utilities that have followed this statute. I'm going to go against what I would normally suggest, which is to say that, honestly, I think Mercy Hospital is a part of the community. It's something that I think we can look back and see that we have overcharged them. I think that... It makes more sense for community relations to address this from inception because we know, at least for this three-year period, our billing was incorrect. I think just for the sake of community relations in a very large part of our community, my suggestion would be that we go back to the inception and we work to... perhaps come up with a payment plan that the city could agree to. My concern is that $42,325 is a considerable amount to our water utility. But I do think that the relationship that the city has with the hospital is important enough that we go back to the inception. [00:51] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is inception four years ago? [00:51] **Tim (City Administrator):** I believe so. I think it would actually be a little over four. I think four was the one we could all figure out when the utilities, we could all see the utility bills or something like that. We can only see three years. I think you had found bills that went further back. [00:51] **Tom Thackeray:** Yeah, the hospital actually has, I guess, seven years of bills on file. And service, I think, actually was like installed in 2011, but I don't believe the Wellness Center opened until, so it was there, but there really wasn't any usage, and so that is kind of a, a non-factor as far as the financial impact of it. That's right. But I think certainly the hospital would be completely agreeable as far as something over a period of time. This developed over a period of time, and so I think they would find that totally acceptable. [00:52] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I think I'll go to the council here now with this discussion. Let me talk to the council here. I know it, but you're interrupting me. I think we could, hearing what the city administrator is recommending that we should make a decision on back to inception and let the administrator work with the hospital on payment plan and dollar amount and bring that back to the council. [00:53] **Jim Pederson (Power Superintendent):** Just to clarify a few things, but the policy of the three years, it goes both ways. So if someone underpaid, let's say for 10 years, we only can collect the three. So that's where it comes from, that utility rule. And again, I don't know about water. I'm I know with electrical, we've done it that way. And just to clarify for everybody to know that this was a meter issue and it was a different company meter and it was calibrated wrong and it was screwed up right in the beginning and make sure everybody knows we apologize for that and we're getting them straightened out. It wasn't the only meter, it was a problem. That's what Harlan said, yeah. we're on the right track. We're getting them zeroed out on the annual basis now, so the company comes around and checks them and makes sure that they are accurate. So that's where we are with that. But it does go both ways, just to let everybody know. [00:54] **Council Member:** Mr. Mayor, Mr. City Councilman, Mr. City Administrator, So you're asking for another $9,100 roughly from the 33? [00:54] **Tim (City Administrator):** I think it's about $8,900. [00:54] **Council Member:** Okay, so I just want to bring up the point that we just discussed a 5% and 6% levy. Now we have reached that threshold with around $9,000 and a $1,500 bus bill. So I just want to bring that up. It happened within 20 minutes. And again, I wouldn't have any objection of having our administrator negotiate with them to see what we can do for payment. [00:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I agree, and I believe that there's room to negotiate. It doesn't mean because the dollar amount is written there that that's what you negotiate with them. That's what we're looking to do. I mean, that's what we're going into with them. And I think that's a normal step. This happened in another incident with the city, with the sewer district, and there was some dollar amounts that were stated that were exact, but when our negotiated amount came because on their part, it was not, let's say, a purposeful mistake, and it certainly isn't on ours, and like you said, Mike, the... was not purposely certified in the way they were. So I think there's room to discuss and negotiate this. And the amounts were so high in the beginning, nobody caught it. Right. There was a change. And I think what I'm looking for is either consensus, I think consensus from the council for Tim to move ahead with that negotiating. [00:56] **Council Member:** I guess that was gonna be my question and you answered it before I asked it is how did this come to light after this many years? [00:56] **Tim (City Administrator):** Basically, I think they hired Tom who was a consultant to review all of the utilities for efficiency and for billing and all of those things, and this came to light from that. [00:56] **Council Member:** So when the building was put in and this company put in, they just programmed it incorrectly? Is that... [00:56] **Tim (City Administrator):** I think the Power and Light installed it correctly, but it was, it sounds like calibrated incorrectly. [00:56] **Tom Thackeray:** Programmed. It reverted back to the factory program. [00:57] **Council Member:** Oh. [00:57] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Something happened in it. In fact, I was with Harlan when he was trying to make the correction, and going to make the correction, and the system wouldn't allow it, and it would revert back to the original error, so. [00:57] **Tim (City Administrator):** Different company now. [00:57] **Jim Pederson (Power Superintendent):** Yeah. and they'll be calibrated by a private company. Also, now I say we won't have this trouble. Hopefully. [00:57] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I'll ask for consensus by the council for Tim to move ahead. [00:57] **Council Member:** I would, no problem. [00:57] **Council Member:** Chris? To negotiate with him? [00:57] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah. Very good. Consensus. [00:57] **Tim (City Administrator):** So before you, did Tom talk to you about the irrigation meter? [00:57] **Tom Thackeray:** he did okay and it I had sent you some information in some of our first correspondence which proved to be inaccurate because we understood that meter to be a separate meter independent of the main meter for that service in actuality it was a sub meter and so all of the water volume that went through it also went through the main meter so there shouldn't have been any charges related to it billed to Mercy Which I think was there a Peter from the water department was out and verified it and and had gone through that with Tom. [00:58] **Tim (City Administrator):** So as far as the there's kind of two issues here one is Phil—I think Phil would have been the one that went out there and reviewed it—you are correct that basically the water that was flowing through there was being double charged. So the deducting of what was double charged, that we don't have an issue with. The problem more so comes in when I think what you and Mercy are requesting is that any irrigation that's done not be charged sewer rates and that is not the policy that the city has ever had. People filling pools, people watering their lawns, people doing any number of things have in every city and everywhere have had this discussion and the city of Moose Lake does not deduct sewer charges from that. And that's what my discussion with Tom was towards the end. [00:59] **Tom Thackeray:** Okay, and yeah, I mean, that's purely a policy decision on the part of the city, so. Okay, well. It's understood. [00:59] **Tim (City Administrator):** That's where Tom and I were with it, but he had wanted you to maybe discuss that one as well. [00:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So, okay. Very good, thank you. [01:00] **Tom Thackeray:** Okay, thank you very much. [01:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Moving back to the agenda number four, Department reports. Police Chief, the department report for November 5th through December 11th. Page 41. [01:00] **Police Chief:** 41, please. I want to hold up to report on a little bit. Tim Settle has been working a lot with that RMS and computer aided dispatch process we're going through so it's a political the police departments have been looking at for several years it's a shared system by five different counties in our region and actually this zirker technologies—it has a pretty good portion of the state they do the rms for over 50% of the state I think so some people that we talked to that use it are pretty impressed with it the system we have right now is very aged and not real user friendly so I think it will be a good change so we have negotiated the price down and couldn't come at a worse time as far as when this RFP came about for budgeting wise but they worked with us to split it up in two years and make a lower payment in 2017. So went to the meeting on last Friday the Citizens Advisory—thank you—meeting at the prison on Friday is well attended, very informative, and continue to have a very good working relationship with both the prison and the MSOP on a lot of different issues. So that's about all I have. [01:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Looks like a lot of calls, 169 calls, at least those that were listed, and you may have more. [01:02] **Police Chief:** Yeah, it gets kind of busy around the holidays. lot of depression issues a lot of domestic issues type of thing during the holidays so busy time of year so thank you. [01:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** thank you that's it honor thank you to the crew thanks moving on to 4c public works superintendent report. [01:02] **Tim (City Administrator):** mr. mayor council actually that should be a b i just was looking at i didn't even see it. [01:02] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent):** with the water department. It's 17th and November. We had a water main break right here on Arrowhead Lane between 5th Street and Elm. Probably one of the worst places we could ever have a water main break ever, but it was good. We got it wrapped up actually in a pretty short-term manner, so it worked really well. Average pumping for the month for the domestic drinking water was 133,000 gallons a day. came up to a total of four million gallons drinking water we distributed to our residents this last month in November. So we're in the department, finished up our discharge, our November discharge, was completed the 17th as well. Discharge was 37 million gallons of waste water was released with the proper sampling techniques that we needed to use for the PCA. Our quarterly checklist was gone through Also, as far as our problem areas, we have about a dozen problem areas that are known for backups on a routine basis. We want to put them on a rotating basis now that along with our sewer maintenance program, we do these ones quarterly because we know these areas are problems and we just try to stay up on top of it when the weather's nice instead of getting called out in the middle of the night when it's turning low. I and myself like that way better. I'm sure you guys do it too on the other side and the guys love it because It's definitely better to do it when it's around more than it is when it is cold, dark, and everything else. This month we treated 10.3 million gallons of waste water and a couple other things. Snow removal so far is going really well. The new station is working fantastic. And just the regular maintenance has been done on equipment, trucks, and everything else down at the shop. So that's all I got. [01:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Good question. How is the new pump house working? [01:04] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent):** The new station is working very well. [01:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** How about the monitoring system that we discussed so much? [01:04] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent):** Very, very good. [01:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Very good. You're able to access it on your phone? [01:04] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent):** Probably next week when they're done programming on the phone, yeah. But right now it's all on the computer. All the reports are printed out. I'm assuming Steve might have a little bit more to update on it, but I guess if we overlap here, I guess, big deal. But right now, today, actually, electricians from the project started wiring the four outlet lift stations that will also be part of that program, and they started wiring all the controls for that as well. So those other lift stations will also be put on there as well. So it'll be very, very good. Thank you. [01:05] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any questions? [01:05] **Council Member:** I have one there. Yes, sir. Chemical system out in the ponds, is that all up and working also? [01:05] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent):** So it's that system only works in the summertime. It freezes in a can. Exactly right. But it is winterized for the winter and everything is working. Exactly right. [01:05] **Council Member:** Yes, sir. Perfect. Okay. [01:05] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. Moving on to 4C, city engineer. [01:05] **Steve (City Engineer - SEH):** Mr. Mayor, members of the council, item E, repairs on existing utilities before the Highway 73 project gets done. We didn't get those done this fall before winter set in, so we're gonna have to do them this spring. Update on the wastewater treatment facility in your packets was Magney's pay request for this month. the major work items were on page 4 demolition of the existing lift station, 58,000, the computer and then the pond bridging was done for 31,000. Phil's right, once the controls get put into the new main lift, then the it can be hooked up to the other lift stations in town and then it'll be a nice system for the guys to use. So the pay request for this month is 106,319.68. And to answer Tim's question, it does cover the demolition of the building for 58,000. So you're looking for a motion on the pay request, correct? [01:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yes, Mr. Mayor. Council? [01:07] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion. Do you need the dollar amount? [01:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** The dollar amount stated. Yeah. $106,319.68. That's what I... That's what you said, correct? [01:07] **Steve (City Engineer - SEH):** That's what I said. [01:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. [01:07] **Council Member:** I'll second that. [01:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any other questions, discussion? All in favor, say aye. [01:07] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. [01:07] **Steve (City Engineer - SEH):** Item C, Mr. Mayor, local road improvement funding. Ben Anderson at Straight Line Surveying has been out there and I thought he would be complete by last Friday, but he hasn't sent it to me yet, so it must not be. So he is surveying it. As soon as we get that survey in, then we can complete the plans and get them submitted back for approval with the MnDOT agency, so. So that's just an update. There's no action required. And then yesterday I received the final pay request for Park Place Avenue. As you know, Dayon did come in and complete the repair of the road back in November. and they are requesting that we make this the final payment and release the retainage we had paid them the city had paid them all of their quantities to date except for the retainage we held retainage to make sort of make sure that they come and do that work and I talked to you about this a little bit the amount of work they did to correct the road out there was in excess of a hundred thousand dollars and we only had $25,355.42 and retainage and so they're new incentive—incentive was to keep their reputation they want to work here again and they want to work again for other engineering firms too so this would making this final payment per the contract would start the warranty period today if you choose to do that It is a two-year warranty period, so we'll have this winter and spring and next winter and spring to go through in case. And then they are bonded for that. So I'm comfortable. I think they showed good faith coming in and getting it all repaired. They didn't argue with Phil and I at all about what needed to get done. He just said, we're going to go out here, and then there's... there's no question we're not going to nitpick about he added probably 100 feet of the road that we weren't really it was sort of iffy and he just said I'm going to take it all out and I think they did a good job so I would recommend that we make final payment to them and start the warranty period this does affect—if we don't meet—If they don't close this project out, it will affect their bond rating in the future. So there's an incentive to them. [01:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I think that was a good job up there. I don't think you had any problems either, correct? The crew, how everything looks. [01:10] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent):** No, like Steve said. We took survey shots all last summer, and except right in front of Subway, The rest of that road didn't change at all this last spring. It was all that first winter where it really sunk. Except we did see a little bit right in front of Subway where that one manhole was. And I think that was because of the concrete trucks coming in and out when Subway got built. It got pounded a little bit more. But I'm pretty confident that road is fine now. And we do have a two-year warranty. [01:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Council, do we have a motion? [01:11] **Council Member:** I'll make a motion. 25, 355.42. I'll make a motion. We make the final payment of 25. That's the total. 355.42. Correct. [01:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do we have a second? [01:11] **Council Member:** I'll second it. [01:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** For discussion? disqualification, Mike, it's this retainage right up here. All in favor say aye. [01:11] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you, Steve. Moving on to 4D Chamber of Commerce updates. I see we have no, nobody here from the chamber. [01:11] **Lois (Chamber Member):** Yes, Billy Joe couldn't come. [01:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. Anything you want to update us with? [01:11] **Lois (Chamber Member):** Oh, I didn't realize. Christmas activities are underway. Yeah, yeah. They had a good turnout at the end of the evening. And I understand it was nice. I didn't see it, but I heard comments. Nice, good. The annual dinner is January 7th. I don't know if the reservations end by the end of the month, but before that would even be better. [01:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Right. They know how many people have signed for. Thank you. Number five, previously discussed items. 5A, consider reimbursement to past HRA audits. Tabled. Nothing new. Still tabled. B, FEMA flood updates. Nothing new. Are we complete or are we still waiting on the 2012? [01:12] **Tim (City Administrator):** We're waiting for the close out of the 2012 stuff. [01:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** 5C, health insurance. I think we're good. None of the budgets passed. [01:13] **Tim (City Administrator):** I can take that one off of there. [01:13] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** 5D, the MLWSSD contract negotiations. [01:13] **Tim (City Administrator):** Still waiting to hear back from... for some calculations for last year's invoices. [01:13] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Very good. Six new business, 6A Mighty Ducks grant. You want to review that with us? [01:13] **Tim (City Administrator):** Sure, I know that we, I sent out an email, but just to get the, get it on the record here, the city of Moose Lake did receive funding from the James Metzen Mighty Ducks grant program. We requested a grant for $125,000, which we would match with another $125,000. We were awarded the entire amount that we requested, and then the Hockey Association will partner with the city on the matching portion as well. So that was a pretty big win for the arena. And I also heard that the committee has selected the Olympia Millennium E ice resurfacer. [01:14] **Tim (City Administrator):** Yep. So we will need the city council to approve that. And I would just say a motion to purchase an Olympia ice resurfacer is what we would be looking for. And for the record, the grant will pick up half of the cost of it, and the Hockey Association will pay the other half. So this portion of the grant program, the city is just having the Hockey Association contribute for this. [01:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So we're looking for a motion at this time on the purchase of an Olympia ice resurfacer electric? [01:14] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion that we allow the purchase of the 2017 Olympia Millennium E ice resurfacer. [01:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do I have a second? [01:14] **Council Member:** I'll second. [01:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Open for discussion. Questions? All in favor say aye. [01:14] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? We're carried. Anything else needed to stay down to Mighty Ducks grant? [01:15] **Tim (City Administrator):** The other portion will be air handling unit and humidifier, which has yet to be... We're working with the building official right now on how to proceed with plans for that. [01:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Very good. And just for clarification, are portions 25,000 for this grant? [01:15] **Tim (City Administrator):** Correct. To get past this year. [01:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Moving on to, okay that was A and B completed. Brings this down to D, water budget. [01:15] **Tim (City Administrator):** We can bunch some of this discussion together here. The water budget, sewer budget, liquor budget, DMV, and debt service are all enterprise funds. And what I would be looking for for each is a motion that stated the water revenue, water expenditures, sewer revenue, sewer expenditures, so on and so forth. If there's any questions, let me know. The only thing that was updated from the initial presentation was any health insurance changes that may have affected the budget. Otherwise they're the same that was in the budget that we looked at earlier. [01:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Correct. Okay. So the first one looking for a motion is the water budget. We have a motion. [01:16] **Council Member:** I'll make a motion. [01:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do you have a second? [01:16] **Council Member:** I'll second it. [01:16] **Tim (City Administrator):** And this would be for revenues of $254,000 and expenditures of $248,974.70. [01:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All within the budget? In the water budget, yeah. Correct. All in favor say aye. [01:16] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried moving on to the sewer budget. Do I have a motion to accept? Tim, do you want to qualify? Any qualifications on it? [01:16] **Tim (City Administrator):** Just if approved, it's revenue of $510,350 and expenditures including the debt service of $568,326.48. [01:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do I have a motion? [01:17] **Council Member:** So moved. [01:17] **Council Member:** Second. [01:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [01:17] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? [01:17] **Tim (City Administrator):** Moving on to F, the liquor store budget. If I may go back to sewer for one moment, just to say that we will need to look at increasing sewer rates in 2017 whether they're effective at some point in 2017 or effective January 1st 2018 That is that we will absolutely need to look at doing that. Liquor budgets total revenues if approved as presented would be liquor revenue of $1,319,300 and expenses of $1,240,946. [01:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do you have a motion? [01:17] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion. [01:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do you have a second? [01:17] **Council Member:** I'll second. [01:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any questions? All in favor say aye. [01:17] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. DMV budget. [01:18] **Tim (City Administrator):** If approved as presented, the revenues would be $1,747,850 and expenses of $1,761,219.40. [01:18] **Council Member:** So moved. [01:18] **Council Member:** Second. I'll second it. [01:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any questions, discussion? All in favor say aye. [01:18] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? motion carried debt service budget. [01:18] **Tim (City Administrator):** These ones don't need to be approved. Everything that's included in here is approved at the time that it was issued. So more informational than anything. [01:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thanks for informing us of that. [01:18] **Tim (City Administrator):** You're welcome. [01:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** We appreciate that. Moving on to I—2017 cigarette licensing. And you said you found that, correct? [01:19] **Tim (City Administrator):** I found it twice. It's on page, next page, okay. So we have 2017 cigarette license renewals: Moose Lake Co-op, Municipal Liquor Store, Holiday Station Store, Marketplace Foods, Minute Mart, Stogies on 4th Street, Benites Bait, Kwik Trip, Hawk Shop, and Dollar General. [01:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** We'll do that one first. Do we have a motion? Any issues with the police with any of those? [01:19] **Council Member:** I move to be accepted list as stated as reviewing their license. [01:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do I have a second? [01:19] **Council Member:** I'll second. [01:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [01:19] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. 2017 B license. [01:19] **Tim (City Administrator):** This is 3.2 off sale licenses: Marketplace Foods, and Shopko. If I may offer a couple things here. The new on-sale wine license for Poor Gary’s, if approved here, would allow them to not only sell wine but strong beer. By city ordinance, it allows you to do that, and it's also kind of a guideline under alcohol and gambling. I think that that is a positive thing for them to make. It's still on sale, but I would say that if the council was looking to approve these, they would put the qualifier in that so long as all paperwork is complete and all fees required are paid, this one has a little bit more work to do because it is new. [01:21] **Council Member:** You can approve the whole list just with the caveat that so long as all paperwork and fees are completed. [01:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. So that would include the Marketplace Food, Shopko, Poor Gary's Pizza for 3-2 on sale, Poor Gary's Pizza, the sale of on sale wine, 2017 the microbrewery on off sale and taproom license brewery correct and input from Bryce very good counsel. [01:22] **Council Member:** I do have a question the Poor Gary's, the wine sale would that be on Sundays also? [01:22] **Tim (City Administrator):** No, we do not allow Sunday sales anywhere within the city of Moose Lake. [01:22] **Council Member:** The list that was just read on presenting them there on license with the caveat that they complete all paperwork needed. [01:22] **Council Member:** Second that. [01:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any questions, discussion? All in favor say aye. [01:22] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. K—2017 campground prices. [01:22] **Tim (City Administrator):** Joe from the campground reviewed the prices along with checking into a number of other campgrounds. Our campground is considerably lower than every other campground around. If we were to increase to what he has suggested, we would still be considerably lower than every other campground around. I think that he makes three valid points in wanting to increase these things. I will say that tenting is the one that he's decreased. It went from $24 to 15 and that's because they don't really get anything for that other than a spot to set up their tent. So he is trying to ensure that we are getting the money where we can while also making it inviting. I know that this is extremely confusing to look at. So the prices that are crossed off are the old flyer that we apparently still use and we will get updated. The amounts that are written below the crossed off amounts are what we currently charge. And the dollar amounts that are next to them are what he is proposing. [01:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** The final question is, was this brought up with the park board or is this something on his own? [01:24] **Tim (City Administrator):** This wasn't brought to the park board. [01:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I haven't seen it on the park board. I'd almost like to see it go through there with the recommendation since we do have a park board. [01:24] **Council Member:** I agree. [01:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** And there is time. It should be the first Monday of... [01:24] **Tim (City Administrator):** Second Monday. [01:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Second Monday. Because of the holiday, right? still will be for the city council meeting so it can be brought to them and then the recommendation forward to the council. [01:25] **Council Member:** I don't have a problem with it but... [01:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** No, that's the right way. Yeah. Very good. liability coverage waiver form. [01:25] **Tim (City Administrator):** this is the same thing that the city of Moose Lake's done each year We've always checked that we do not waive the monetary limits on municipal tort liability. That way we're still within our insurance coverage. We need a motion on that. [01:25] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion. [01:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Have a second? [01:25] **Council Member:** Second. [01:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say that? The city and the water and light. For both? [01:26] **Tim (City Administrator):** Yep. [01:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** And you've seconded Mike. Any questions, discussion? All in favor say aye. [01:26] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Maintenance agreement with Carlton County. [01:26] **Tim (City Administrator):** Just what it says. This is the agreement that the county would like us to sign that spells out price per hour for some of the maintenance items that they may provide for the city of Moose Lake. [01:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Very good. [01:26] **Council Member:** Mr. Mayor, are these prices, do we know if these were the prices that we paid last year? [01:26] **Tim (City Administrator):** I don't know that. I can look and get back to you. I don't recall ever seeing that. [01:26] **Council Member:** That's what makes me a little bit nervous because if we were about $20 an hour now somewhere up to $40 and $45 and $55, that could considerably change our budget. [01:26] **Tim (City Administrator):** I'm fairly certain that they tend not to charge us for a lot of things, but this just spells it out for the county board. But I can certainly look into that. [01:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Let me ask you something. Do they need this for their meeting this month for approval for the next year? [01:27] **Tim (City Administrator):** They didn't say that they needed it for their next meeting, but if they do, I'm sure that we can figure something out. But I can tell you that most of the things that are on this list, we probably don't get charged for. [01:27] **Council Member:** Mayor? [01:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yes, sir. [01:27] **Council Member:** I have one question. So is it a separate contract then for patching all the holes in this spring? Because I don't see anything here about patching. [01:27] **Tim (City Administrator):** That one, I think, I think that one ends up being bid out because they need to purchase bituminous each year but I can check with them on that too. [01:28] **Council Member:** Yeah just to see what it is I can't remember Phil can you remember what no I know I have not seen any of those dollar balls. This is just a machinery this isn't even a person operating. [01:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** No. I mean if they want this they should have it for that too you know. And I don't doubt that we've been treated fairly. I'm just wondering what it just kind of raises a question when all of a sudden you see a dollar figure. [01:28] **Tim (City Administrator):** Sure. And frankly, if I'm going to look into that, I think that Bryce during the flood had a website that listed kind of the fair value of equipment. And I think that might be a good place that we could check it against and I could bring back and say, you know, this is kind of the state guidelines or I don't know if it was a federal guideline or... It was a FEMA guideline, so that might be a good place to check it against as well. [01:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay, thank you. I think the bituminous was like 20,000, 25,000 to do all the potholes throughout the whole city. And I think you're right, they had to go out and do bids before they, then they did it to a numerous, before they did all their roads throughout the county. I'm sure. And I know they, I don't think they even charge for the material only. They do a great job. Seeing a figure on there that wasn't there last year is just... All right, so I guess that's the direction given, and this will come back to us. Okay, and CliftonLarsonAllen audit agreement. [01:30] **Tim (City Administrator):** This is prices last year and I did contact another audit agency to get a quote from them the quote that I got back was from a firm that I am more familiar with it was not it was not substantially lower than this it was only a couple hundred dollars lower than this and with the longevity that this firm's had here and the rapport that they've built with Gene, I think the recommendation would be that we would be more comfortable staying with our current audit firm. [01:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Very good. Are you looking for a motion? [01:30] **Tim (City Administrator):** Yes. [01:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Motion? [01:30] **Council Member:** I'll make a motion. We sign the audit agreement with CliftonLarsonAllen. [01:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do I have a second? [01:30] **Council Member:** I'll second it. [01:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any questions? Anyone in favor say aye. [01:30] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. And we took care of O next down to P resolution 16-12-01 election canvassing. [01:31] **Tim (City Administrator):** We did hold a recount for the city council position on December 12, 2016. regardless of any change that may or may not occur at that recount, the city is required to re-canvas the results. The results are found on the next page, which is page 93. There was no variance or difference in either the number of votes that each candidate received or the total number of ballots that were with the county. [01:31] **Council Member:** I have a question. Just for understanding. What does over and under mean? [01:31] **Tim (City Administrator):** An over vote is when you say you can vote for up to two people and you vote for three. An under vote is if you can vote for up to two people and you only vote for one. [01:31] **Council Member:** Okay. So are the over votes thrown out then? [01:32] **Tim (City Administrator):** They're just calculated as over votes. They do not count. [01:32] **Council Member:** No, they do not count for each person. because there's too many votes for that. [01:32] **Tim (City Administrator):** If you, let me see here. Yep, that is correct. So those ones do not count because there are too many votes in those. To be clear, when you slide your ballot in there, it beeps at you and tells you that there's an issue. Would you like your ballot back? It tells you which question has an error with it and asks you if you want it back or if you just want to leave it as is, and these are the folks that left it just as is. So it does make them aware of that at that time. [01:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Very good. Any other questions for the Council? We have a motion to accept Resolution 16-12-01. [01:33] **Council Member:** So moved. [01:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do you have a second? [01:33] **Council Member:** I'll second it. [01:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any other discussion, questions? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. [01:33] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Number seven, I have nothing for reports and correspondence. Number eight, committee, we have November 7th, 2016, Park Board Minutes. December 5th, 2016, Park Board Minutes. November 16th, 2016, Water and Light Commission Meeting. Minutes, excuse me. November 15th, 2016, Fire Protection District Minutes. Any questions or discussion on the committee board meetings, minutes? Just something for Jim, I missed that fire district meeting. Was there anything you wanted to bring forward to the council? [01:34] **Council Member:** They passed the levy at zero for the fire department. [01:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. Any news on fire truck? [01:34] **Council Member:** We hope to bid it out in February. The new one is good, running fine and happy. [01:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Oh, it's nice. Thank you. And before I go on to announcements, just for Jim, I'd like to thank you for your years of service on the city council. [01:35] **Council Member Jim:** Not a problem. [01:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** That's great. I appreciate it. What year did you start? [01:35] **Council Member Jim:** Six years ago, seven years ago. I first came in to fill it temporary and then six years. [01:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Six, seven years. I appreciate it very much. You did a great job and it's a great service to the community. Thank you. [01:35] **Council Member Jim:** No problem. [01:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Under announcements, we had that addition at 6 p.m. This is on January 11th. That's a reorganization meeting followed at 6:30 by the regular Moose Lake City Council meeting. And that'll be right here. Moose Lake Water and Light Commission regular meeting Wednesday, December 21st at 4 p.m. in the conference room. Moose Lake Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board January 9th at 11 a.m. at the Hillside Manor office. Moose Lake Area Fire District Tuesday, January 10th, 6:30, Ministry Response Center. Moose Lake Park Board meeting will be January 9th at 6:30 right here. Library Board meeting January 12th, 4:30 p.m. in the City Conference Room. And the Moose Lake Technology Committee will be Thursday, January 12th at 10 a.m. in the Conference Room. With that, do I have a motion to adjourn? [01:37] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion. [01:37] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do I have a second? [01:37] **Council Member:** I'll second it. [01:37] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [01:37] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:37] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Motion carried.