Based on the context provided, here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker identifications. *Note: The names "Cole" and "Wong" in the raw transcript appear to be transcription errors for Council Members **Troy Woods** and **Dave Mckenzie** based on the official list provided. These have been corrected below to match the municipality's official roster.* *** **[06:30] Mayor John Monge:** You know what, I'll be honest, I think I'd rather be cold than hot because I got here—all right, I got the thumbs up so we're going to start. 6:30. Will you stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please? **(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. **[06:30] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you very much. Roll call, please. **[06:31] Jennie Kloos (Assistant to City Manager):** Council Member Woods? **[06:31] Council Member Troy Woods:** Here. **[06:31] Jennie Kloos:** Council Member Schweer? **[06:31] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Here. **[06:31] Jennie Kloos:** Council Member Mckenzie? **[06:31] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Here. **[06:31] Jennie Kloos:** Council Member Nordby? **[06:31] Council Member Jason Nordby:** Here. **[06:31] Jennie Kloos:** Mayor Monge? **[06:31] Mayor John Monge:** Here. I have a motion to adopt the agenda, please? **[06:31] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** So moved. **[06:31] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Schweer. Second? **[06:31] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Second. **[06:31] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Mckenzie. All those in favor say aye. **(All):** Aye. **[06:31] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you very much. Proclamations. **[06:31] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** Thank you, Mayor. We have one Proclamation this evening, which is for Constitution Week. So whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited government in a republic dedicated to the rule of law; and whereas September 17th, 2024 marks the 237th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention; and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it; and whereas Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America designating September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week; now therefore on behalf of the city of North St. Paul and the Mayor Monge, by virtue of the authority vested in the Mayor of the City of North St. Paul, do proclaim the week of September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week. Further it be resolved the Mayor asks our citizens to reaffirm the ideals the framers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties. **[06:32] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you very much. It's an honor to do that. Thank you. All right, next up we have a consent agenda: Item A, August 20th, 2024 Workshop minutes; Item B, August 20th, 2024 regular meeting minutes; Item C, General claims of $708,334; Item D, HRA claims of $1,443.44; and Item E, EDA claims of $1,220. Looking for a resolution, please. **[06:32] Council Member Troy Woods:** So moved. **[06:32] Mayor John Monge:** Anybody want to pull anything first? We good? All right. Council Member Woods. Second? **[06:32] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Second. **[06:32] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Mckenzie. All those in favor say aye. **(All):** Aye. **[06:32] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you very much. I apologize, my computer locked up, it's starting up again. Open to the public. **[06:33] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you. So at 6:33 we'll be open to the public. John Schal. **[06:33] John Schal (Resident):** Good evening. Hi John. Everyone gives you as the person in the center of the dais—oh, I like it. July 16th, 2024, at the end of the meeting there was a question that came from up here as to what happened to Zoom and something was said they got rid of it. It was kind of hard to hear what was going on. It was at the end of the meeting. They got rid of it because it cost too much. No information in the city newsletter—I went back two editions. They must be telling the people that Zoom is gone; wouldn't that be the right thing to do? But there was nothing. And there was nothing in the newsletter even though it came out at the council meeting that Zoom was gone. I don't know if there are any people that use Zoom. There has been a couple of times where there's been call-in from the public. From what I know of little computer work that I have the ability to do, I don't think there is any way that the public can make a comment because you no longer say, "Hey, is there someone on the line?" You haven't heard anybody say that in the last three or four meetings. So I went to—that's what I gave you a copy of, a screen print of the website that says if you want to get on Zoom, here is your link right here. It's on the website. I checked just before I came today. I also checked clicking on the link—nothing happened. So is that how we treat our residents when they had the ability to input from their homes if they were disabled? Whatever it is, they no longer have the ability to make a comment. Thank you. **[06:35] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you. All right, next up is City business, action items and recommendations. Brian, I was curious—we had discussed briefly before this meeting... **[06:35] Brian Frandle:** Mr. Mayor, members of the council, it's my understanding that the council has simultaneously posted a meeting for the council at 6:30 on the HRA. My understanding is the HRA should be a rather quick meeting. I'm curious if the council wants to do a quick recess from the council meeting—not an adjournment, but a recess—handle the HRA business, and then get back into the city business. I defer to you on the order of operations, but it might be nice to just clean up the HRA side of things. **[06:36] Mayor John Monge:** Sure, we can do that. So if there is a motion to recess the city council meeting to return immediately after the HRA meeting, that would be in order. **[06:36] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I'll make that motion. **[06:36] Mayor John Monge:** Council Schweer. Second? **[06:36] Council Member Jason Nordby:** Second. **[06:36] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Nordby. All those in favor say aye. **(All):** Aye. **[06:36] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you. All right, so if the record would reflect that the council meeting was recessed at 6:36. Jennie, if you want to call to order the HRA meeting and run through that, we can at this point. **[06:36] Jennie Kloos:** Commissioner Woods? **[06:36] Council Member Troy Woods:** Here. **[06:36] Jennie Kloos:** Commissioner Schweer? **[06:36] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Here. **[06:36] Jennie Kloos:** Commissioner Mckenzie? **[06:36] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Here. **[06:36] Jennie Kloos:** Commissioner Nordby? **[06:36] Council Member Jason Nordby:** Here. **[06:36] Jennie Kloos:** And Chair Monge? **[06:36] Mayor John Monge:** Here. All right, we have one item for HRA action items and recommendations. The item that we have on the docket is approval of the sale of the student-built house located at 2170 East Eldridge Avenue. No one open up—that's fine. We're just looking for resolution to approve that, please. **[06:37] Council Member Troy Woods:** So moved. **[06:37] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Woods. Second? **[06:37] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Second. **[06:37] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Schweer. All those in favor say aye. **(All):** Aye. **[06:37] Mayor John Monge:** All right, nothing further, Mayor. Thank you. Can I have a call for adjournment? **[06:37] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** So moved. **[06:37] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Schweer. Second? **[06:37] Council Member Jason Nordby:** Second. **[06:37] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Nordby. All those in favor say aye. **(All):** Aye. **[06:38] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you. I want to call the council meeting back to order. **[06:38] Brian Frandle:** Mr. Mayor, if there's a motion to call the regular city council meeting back to order at 6:38, that would be in order. **[06:38] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** So moved. **[06:38] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Schweer. Second? **[06:38] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Second. **[06:38] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Mckenzie. All those in favor say aye. **(All):** Aye. **[06:38] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you, we're back at it. Thank you, Mayor. City business, action items and recommendations. We have two items on the docket. First up is the 2025 Street and Utility Improvement Projects report on estimates and authorize final design. We have City Engineer here, Morgan Dawley. **[06:39] Morgan Dawley (City Engineer):** Thank you, Brian. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this next item before you is a review of the engineering progress to date in terms of defining scope of infrastructure improvements for the 2025 Street and Utility Improvement Project which is included in the Capital Improvement Plan. You may recall that you previously authorized feasibility-level preliminary design and estimate updates, and so I'm here to present that information. The opportunity is here to continue working on the design process, and so the action item that follows this for Council consideration would be authorization of your consulting engineer, WSB, to keep moving from this point forward, basically ultimately ending with prepared specifications and construction documents with which to bid the project, go through bidding, and sometime early in 2025 have real hard bids from a contractor again to present to Council in consideration for moving forward from that standpoint. I'll provide a brief overview. I have some graphics that are included in the packet, but just to talk about the location really quick, we're talking about kind of the Southern and the Southeastern area and streets and utilities included in the Casey Lake neighborhood—primarily Shawnee Drive, Gerald Avenue, and Buell Avenue—and there's some work within the park itself as well too. And the scope in a general sense is repairing and upgrading and full reconstruction of the streets; also underground infrastructure: water main, sanitary sewer, sewer services. And there's a lift station and some force main sanitary sewer force main in the vicinity as well too. So basically addressing all of those items to reset that infrastructure clock, I guess, life cycle clock. All of these things in one fashion or another have kind of lived their usable life. There are, from a sanitary sewer standpoint, some of the things that needed to be done under Gerald Avenue were advanced back to 2022 from a need standpoint, so some investment was done ahead of time. That will be excluded in this project because it's actually already been done. But similarly, some of the sanitary sewers underneath the other streets will be tackled at this time in 2025 or proposed to be. There's also a requirement from the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District to upgrade our storm sewer system and provide some water treatment. There's currently a water treatment filtration basin within Casey Lake Park at the head end of the creek which flows into the lake itself. That area has historically always taken some of the storm sewer runoff from our storm sewer pipes and then through that creek conveyed itself into Casey Lake. In 2014, there was a filtration basin that was again required by the Watershed District, and so there's a need to meet permitting regulations for both the 2025 project and what is programmed within the Capital Improvement Plan for 2027. The strategy would be to try to do everything now at this time so that in 2027 we would not need to do any additional Watershed permitting work. So it would be all kind of advanced in preparation for that. We would achieve some credits, if you want to call it that, with the Watershed District to be able to achieve the permitting requirements for the next phase of the 2027 improvements. This map that's in the packet, this is just a project location map generally showing those streets that I outlined previously where—not just the streets, but there's some again underground infrastructure where the line work shows within the park. Very minimal work will be done on the parking lot itself for that kind of Eastern parking lot for Casey Lake Park. That has been sealed up recently and there was also previously authorized by Council from an advanced need standpoint—because we were having some deterioration out there—some of the drainage issues that we were seeing with respect to wood chips being washed across the playground equipment, that was done in 2023. So that's done already too. So even though we've circled a lot, I think there might be just very, very minimal work within the lot itself. It's mostly going to be focused on those roadway areas and the underground utilities also shown. This next slide is an indication of some of the sanitary sewer improvements. As I mentioned before in 2022, that orange north-south section on Gerald Avenue, that was previously lined for the mainline sanitary sewer. In 2025, we would actually work to improve just that initial portion of the individual services to the homes that's just underneath the road. That's a strategy that's been employed by North St. Paul previously; even though the sewer services are a private responsibility, the protection there for the City is with a significant multi-million dollar investment in the roads above, we don't want to have any of those sanitary sewer services collapsing in the short term and then needing to dig the road for repairs, right? And so there is some work done on those sewer services not only on the other roads but also on Gerald where the main line was lined previously. So the services are a separate thing and that would be included in this project. There's also again, as I said, a force main which is that purple line there. There's a sanitary sewer lift station in that corner of the park and so that's due for lining to protect the inside of that pipe. A lot of times we see deterioration over time from sewer gases on the inside of the pipe, so that would help reset that pipe without needing to dig it up, for example, using trenchless methods to be able to repair that from an infrastructure standpoint. And then just manhole replacement too. We have a new standard within North St. Paul identified by Public Works that if we come across, on this type of a project for a full reconstruct, a manhole or a catch basin that is old block construction, it will be replaced. Now, this neighborhood was put in in the early 70s, late 60s maybe some of it, and so the likelihood that we might find some of those—it's not necessarily every single one, but if the entire road is being excavated, that's our opportunity to replace those on a structure-by-structure basis. The next slide here is representing the water main and basically replacing it in kind, including the services out to the homes. There is one addition—I don't know if you can see my cursor here—but this little segment here is connecting what is an existing dead end next to the well house where we do have some drinking water quality issues with the discoloration of the water and high iron content. And so what is proposed with this project is a loop, a water main loop, which would connect Buell Avenue to that dead end there. And so what that would do is to help turn over and circulate the water to hopefully mitigate some of those taste and odor and water quality issues that we're having in that specific location. So that's why we're doing a little bit additional water main, not just replacing existing. And the final slide here is a representation of sidewalks. So this is one neighborhood that was constructed when it was initially conceived from development with sidewalks on most streets on both sides. There was an identified deficiency or lack of connection, if you will—I believe it's in the Comp Plan—but it has been considered for some time here, and that's shown in green. The existing sidewalks would be reconstructed, so not a significant change there, but a lot of them are old broken panels, they're showing trip hazards, so that would all be reset on the red sections. And then the green would be kind of a new connection so the folks that are within that part of the neighborhoods would be able to then actually walk into the park. And there's a connection to an asphalt trail there within the park that would allow pedestrians to be able to get to and from that and then also a connection around the corner to McKnight Road and the walkway that's there as well too. So that's an overview of the scope. I think then I'll turn your attention to cost estimating. We had available budget left within the previously authorized budget that the Council provided for kind of this feasibility initial estimation effort to be able to not just update the cost estimation in a more detailed fashion from what we currently have within the CIP for both the 2025 project area and the 2027 project area. So I told the engineers to go ahead and do that knowing that that would provide some benefit from a financial standpoint, from a planning standpoint, and provide a little bit of confidence in at least the next two years knowing that the previous estimates were more planning-level estimates. And the split between the two project areas was—I'm going to use the word arbitrary, but that makes it sound—there was some thought that went into it but it's not line-item by line-item, right? And so this estimating opportunity gave us the ability to really provide a more realistic split between 2025 and 2027. Hopefully what we're finding here today can be plugged into the CIP future budget discussions, bonding discussions, and financing discussions for Capital Improvement projects—and that all, as you know and have been discussing now through budget discussions, it's all interrelated, right? Providing a little more clarity I think with these two project areas will help. And so in summary, the total estimated project cost for the 2025 Street and Utility Improvement project area is arrived at approximately $6.5 million ($6,522,000). That does include some contingency for unknowns or unforeseen conditions during construction or risk during future volatile bidding conditions which we have run up against in the past, as well as a very conservative estimation for indirect costs, right? So the idea here is to try to estimate conservatively high and then as we move through the process, more unknowns are removed and more risk can be removed. Hopefully, we have an Engineer's Estimate prior to bidding that is fairly close and then once we get the actual bid numbers from the contractor, we'll have a much better idea—that would be early in 2025—of what the total project cost is, still being an estimate but much more refined even than what we have here today. So that's slightly larger than what's in the CIP there for the 2025 project area—the planning-level estimate there was $6 million—however, the nice thing in terms of looking at the two different project areas together, there was a significant reduction on the second area which was $1.5 million. So together there's approximately about $1 million less—or it's not a savings but at least in terms of projected expense, it's a million dollars lower with the two projects combined, right? And that also takes into account the fact that we have built in on the front end some of those Watershed District requirement improvements which would be constructed in the first of the two years. So it's a good projection knowing that, at least from the accuracy level that we're able to do at this point, that we think that it's going to be less overall to be able to deliver these two projects than what was previously in the Capital Improvement Plan. So with that, again the action item—and I cannot recommend because I am your consultant City Engineer—but either Ron Ritchie, Public Works Director, or the City Manager. And as far as a recommended action, WSB has put together a proposal for final design Professional Services which would, if authorized by Council, kick off tomorrow basically and complete in early 2025. I think we're projecting I'd like to see January or February bidding, try to take advantage of contractor's open schedules for next year as early as we possibly can, and then represent those bids to Council once we've received them. I would come back to Council just before going out for bids to request Council authorization to solicit sealed bids. So you'll hear another updated estimate and another report on scope and that sort of thing at that time—again, January-February timeframe. But with that, I'll stand for any questions and if the City Manager has anything that you'd like to add. **[06:50] Brian Frandle:** I would just like to recommend that. **[06:50] Mayor John Monge:** Okay, resolution. Okay, thank you. So any questions? Happy to answer them from the Council at this time. **[06:50] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Do the residents that are getting the new sidewalk do they know? Have they already been contacted or is that part of this next phase? **[06:50] Morgan Dawley:** They—we did do a round of public engagement in 2019-2020 and so the reconstruction of the existing sidewalks and the additional connection there from that green area, the dead end to McKnight and to the park, that's always been a part of the scope of the project. However, we're about due for another round. We've been holding virtual open houses and sending information out, so that would be a part of kind of this next area of scope to provide some additional information so people know what to expect. And there's another phase of that—in case somebody misses it or they're not able to come to the meeting, we always do another round of those right before construction starts. So that would be in like April or May or something like that. So we will get more word out as time goes on. **[06:51] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I have a clarifying question in regards to the sidewalks. The legend says "existing sidewalk," that's the red color, and then the "proposed sidewalk," which is what you're just discussing. As for the existing sidewalks, I just want to clarify that that is within the scope of this already, like when the street is going to be redone, there will be a new sidewalk added? **[06:52] Morgan Dawley:** Yes, that's correct. One caveat is that I think we were trying to illustrate the connection on McKnight Road, but McKnight Road is a County road and so this project wouldn't kind of extend in, even though it's shown in red, that portion would not be reconstructed. But in two parts: the 2025 project and the 2027 project, which would take the rest of Mesabi and Chisholm, if you will, that's when that part would be done. But yes, to answer your question, that is included in the scope and estimate for this 2025 project. It would really be the green areas adjacent to Shawnee Drive, the connections to the dead ends. I think it would get up to Gerald and then both sides of Buell, right? And then the logic behind the split between the two is that we want contractors in 2027 to be able to come in and out on Gerald off of Radatz and not drive on our brand new Shawnee, for example, right? We want to provide a route for construction vehicles to drive not on our two-year-old roads in 2027, right? So that's why we're stopping at that point. **[06:53] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Thank you. Just dead ends there those sidewalks, huh? Right there where the red and the green connect more or less? Yeah, I know there's a big hill there's a hill that goes down that way and it's so close to the park. It was just kind of an odd spot to stop there; be nice to be able to connect that. **[06:54] Morgan Dawley:** Correct. **[06:54] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I have another question. This is mainly probably more for Ron or Brian. And because I have a similar situation, do we get many complaints from that roundabout where the water dead ends about their water quality, and is there anything we can do? If we do get complaints, is there anything that we can do to help mitigate that during this project? I know for me living on a dead end it can cause issues. **[06:54] Morgan Dawley:** Okay so, yeah, so there—in case that didn't come across on the mic—there is what we call a flushing hydrant. It's basically a device that allows water to recycle but it's just discharging it above ground to flush out some of that water that may be more stagnant and, you know, picking up color, odor, something like that. But that's not going to be as permanent a fix as actually providing the loop that's proposed in here. And so the flushing hydrant that's currently in place now can be removed and repurposed maybe in a different area of the City. **[06:55] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I'm confused. I'm not seeing any correction to that dead end on this project. **[06:55] Morgan Dawley:** I should flip to the water sheet there. Right there. So currently it's dark blue—and maybe it's hard to see—but there's a hydrant on the end and connection to the well house, and that's where the water line ends now. And so the light blue is actually a new connection that comes through this easement area and connects into Buell Avenue. **[06:55] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I was looking at the other roundabout, left and up a little bit... left, left... oh, up here, more left? Oh, the cul-de-sac. **[06:56] Morgan Dawley:** Oh, okay. Do you have a flushing hydrant on that one too? You do? Okay. When we get to the 2027 project, I think we can certainly look at the feasibility of being able to directionally drill a connection through from the cul-de-sac to Chisholm, but it's all going to depend on lot lines and proximity of building foundations since the development wasn't really set up to allow for a pipe between two buildings, for example. So if it's possible, we certainly would want to try to tackle that, again trying to take care of the dead end there. And so it's an opportunity, but I guess I wouldn't be able to promise right now that it would be feasible until we get to that point two years from now to look at it in more detail. **[06:56] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Okay, thank you. Is this common on cul-de-sacs? **[06:57] Morgan Dawley:** I think that it depends on the length of the cul-de-sac, right? So kind of a normal—what I would say a normal cul-de-sac—of 10 to 12 to 14 to maybe 16 homes, sometimes you don't—you know, people don't notice anything. Sometimes they do. A lot of times it has to do with the age of the pipe, right? And so when you have older cast iron pipe that might be from the late 1960s or earlier, a lot of times there's iron deposits that can kind of build up on the inside of the pipe. That iron can dissolve into the water especially if the water's not moving. But if the water is more slow to move—I want to avoid the use of the word "stagnant" because it's certainly not stagnant—but the slow-to-move water in an older pipe is going to be more apt to pick up some of those things that folks might not expect in their water, right? Usually there's nothing—there's not a health-related issue; it's a taste issue or it's an odor issue. And so kind of moving that along with a loop or a flushing hydrant is kind of how most cities deal with that. But yeah, longer than that—longer than, I don't know, 250 to 500 feet—sometimes it becomes a little bit more of an issue, but primarily I guess in my experience it's more related to the age of the pipe. **[06:58] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Okay, thank you. **[06:58] Council Member Troy Woods:** If there's nothing else... quick go—did you have one? Quick question: the easements that come off of Buell as well as the one easement that comes off of Mohawk, are those intended to connect the streets in the residence to the park, or are they easements for—I see the one that's running between 2190 and 2200 as the proposed new location for water. You've got a red line running between 2138 and 2146, but I didn't see it on any of the subsequent maps. My question is, is that going to be sidewalked or paved? **[06:59] Morgan Dawley:** No, not proposed to be. We did look at that. There have been over the years at least one request from a resident to look at that. Public Works did look at that in terms of the ability to make that a safe, paved, non-vehicular connection from Buell to the park, which is got to be at least 20 to 30 feet of relief, you know? So Buell is up higher and the park is down below and you're covering that amount of distance in the depth of a normal residential lot, you know, 150 feet or something like that. It's a very steep grade. It's certainly fine as a—I don't know if they're mowed by Public Works right now, but people do use it as a footpath. I think that's perfectly acceptable. Once you start calling it kind of a designated way into the park, especially a paved way, you have to start thinking about people riding bikes down it, rollerblades, and there's really the trail that runs east-west at the bottom of the hill is right there at the end of the trail. And so it really doesn't lend itself to, in my opinion, a safe connection based on the steepness of the grade between the two points. **[07:00] Council Member Troy Woods:** So they're more utility easements than they are anything than they are actually... **[07:00] Morgan Dawley:** I can't speak to the original intent, but they certainly can and should, if they can be, serve in that function much like what we were talking about, a future loop. I mean that's an area where we do have some space where if there is underground infrastructure we can use it that way and put it back to grass. And if we can make it a little bit more amenable as a footpath, we certainly can look at those kind of detailed improvements as we get closer through the construction. But it's certainly, based on that prior review and the prior request, it's not planned for like a concrete sidewalk or a paved trail or anything. **[07:01] Council Member Troy Woods:** Thank you. So I'm still lobbying for the walkway between 11th and 13th on the west side of what do we call it now, Target Pond—whatever the... still lobbying for that too, so that was why that was brought up the question. Fair. **[07:01] Mayor John Monge:** Any other questions? If not, can I have a motion for adoption? **[07:01] Council Member Troy Woods:** So moved. **[07:01] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Woods. Second? **[07:01] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Second. **[07:01] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Mckenzie. All those in favor say aye. **(All):** Aye. **[07:01] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you, appreciate it. Next up is Item B with the City Attorney: Discussion on the Office of State Auditor response that we got from them. I'll turn that over to Attorney Mattick. **[07:02] Soren Mattick (City Attorney):** Thank you, Brian. Mayor, members of the Council, in your packet is a report conducted by the Office of the State Auditor in regards to an investigation that it performed regarding North St. Paul and some of your spending practices. I can touch on it at a high level. Hopefully, you've had a chance to review it. It was issued last year, so I think in part what has been requested by the Council is just sort of an update—where are we at? Is there anything more to do? What were the findings? And then generally if there's questions, I'll try and address them. There was a complaint issued with the State Auditor about some of the City's spending practices. The Auditor did look into that and then ultimately issued the report that's in your packet. The City did cooperate fully with the report, was aware of some of the problems and, what I can say is, did correct some of the problems that were mentioned in the report. The report wasn't a clean bill of health for the City; it showed that the City was spending money and not properly documenting it, which is what I'd say was the prevalent theme throughout, which causes concerns because as you well know, the City can only spend money on proper public purposes and things that are statutorily authorized. As the stewards of the public's money, you have money that is compelled by them via property taxes, and so there's an expectation that you safeguard that money and properly account for it. What the Auditor found was that a number of the policies that the City had in place were not being strictly followed. I think the primary concern surrounded use of the credit card and then providing receipts to verify those expenses. The City, while the investigation was going on, did in fact produce many of those receipts—not all of them, but did produce them. During this time, Brian and I and Dan [Jason Zimmerman] did meet to go over, "Hey, what do we need to do to tighten this thing up a little bit—or quite a bit?" And I think that it generally fell into about three different categories. First of all was, "Hey, we have policies in place." It's not as if we didn't take the time and care to put the policies in place, but they're only as good as they're enforced. And what we found was that at an upper level, the policies weren't being enforced and abided by. And so it wasn't just one individual; there was somewhat of a culture, if you will, of not providing receipts as diligently as you should. And so the City had to take a look at that and do some training and reminding that, "Hey, this is serious, we need to do that." Second was not only the documentation but education on those policies. So in addition to collecting those receipts was backing it up for a moment and saying, "Well, if we're not following these policies, is it because we have chosen not to follow the policies or is it because people don't know about them?" And I think there was a little bit of both. In some respects, when you get a bit casual on some of these things, it permeates. And so there was an effort by staff to make sure that they themselves were educated about the policies, understood them, and then candidly created a zero-tolerance policy aspect towards those policies and started to enforce them immediately—candidly, even before the State Auditor report came out. Finally, the report did show that there were some deficiencies in our policies or areas that we could do better on. And so the staff took that seriously; they did not push back on that and said, "Okay, let's take a look at it, let's open it up, let's see how we're currently doing business, and let's make sure we have a policy to reflect not only how we're doing business but how it needs to be done correctly." And so the staff did implement some of those policies, modify some of those policies. I think later on this year you will still see some other policies as it relates to spending to continue to refine that, so that will be coming to you. In terms of what staff did beyond that, Brian and Dan and I met and just took a look at it. Okay, the State Auditor report did not necessarily find that there was theft or fraud or anything like that, but we have undocumented expenses. What do we know about these expenses? And so we did, to the best of our ability, look at where the money was being spent, and we could not find any instances of theft and/or fraud. What we found was a bunch of undocumented expenses that were legitimate City expenses but just poorly documented. So we have attempted to correct that. So I think the good news is that while the records should have been kept better and reimbursements could have been done a lot better, I do not believe, or there's no evidence at this point to suggest, that there were any inappropriate expenses. I think the State Auditor did talk about, "Hey, it looks like some of these things would be bought online and then sent to a person's home." Any of those items we were able to find that they ultimately came back to City Hall. I think it's important to remember that some of this did occur during the COVID time when City Hall was not always open or we were just trying to figure out how to manage certain things. That certainly isn't the best practice, and we all understand why it shouldn't be done that way, but I do think it's important to keep in mind with the backdrop of COVID what was going on. Beyond that, there were questions about, "Well, why do you need this or why do you need that?" We did look at—I think there was purchase of certain apps for technology. You know, was there the best documentation on why those apps were needed? Probably not. Did it appear that they're being used for City services? Yes. It wasn't as if someone was using City funds to buy themselves certain programming or apps—at least not that we could find. So with that, we did not find that it was necessary to try and recoup any of the funds that were spent or that the State Auditor noted. The report was—and from my understanding and communication with the State Auditor—the report is at this point closed. There is no further outstanding investigation. I did have the report forwarded to the Ramsey County Attorney's Office for their review to see if there's anything criminal in nature. What I can tell you is they are not pursuing anything; they didn't see anything. Certainly, we have an ongoing duty to report, so if something did come up or we did find something later on, we would need to report it, and we stand ready to self-report on this. So that's the nature of the report. At this point, we haven't done any additional work other than the policies that I know Dan and Brian are working to fine-tune. We've done a lot of the heavy lifting on the report, on updating our policies, updating training, and then candidly what I think the report says the most is you can have all the policies in place but you have to understand them and enforce them and be sincere about it. And I think that culture has changed in this instance. So with that, I can certainly stand for any questions. I've been working with Brian and Dan on this; I've been impressed with the City's response. It's unfortunate that it has to be called out like that, but we take candidly no issue with the findings in terms of the accuracy of what they found. Also, there were some changes that needed to be made. So I think the good news is that the money wasn't spent necessarily inappropriately; the bad news is you did a really bad job of documenting how that money was spent and it needed to be improved—and I believe the City has. So with that, it's a long document; we can get into any details you want, but at a high level that's what the document says, that's what it found, and that candidly is what the City did in response even before we got the report and certainly after we got the report. I'd stand for any questions. I don't have any action items requested at this point. I think there was just a request for something that had been discussed for a while—let's put it out in the open, see what else needs to be done, if anything. I'd stand for any questions. **[07:11] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you, Soren. Appreciate it. Any questions at this time? **[07:11] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I don't have any questions, I just have a note—not for Soren, but are we documenting and having an acknowledgement form for all employees that any policy that we do have or we change, is there an acknowledgement or a document that is signed and placed in the employee's file to hold them accountable for understanding that this policy has changed or they acknowledge that we do have that in place? **[07:12] Brian Frandle:** We do have that in place. That was one of the things we discovered—is that was not in place. **[07:12] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Perfect, that was my question. **[07:12] Brian Frandle:** Perfect. So we have remedied that, or we've attempted to—I believe that has been remedied. **[07:12] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I do have a question for you [Soren]. As a new—I still consider myself a newer council member—as a newer council member, what duty or responsibility is it upon all of us sitting up here to oversee, and if there is any, how do we do it, that the city staff is following policy? **[07:13] Soren Mattick:** So in a city manager form of government, I would not expect this Council, and candidly would tell you that I don't believe you can or it's a best practice for you to get granular and go make sure that certain claims are having the receipts. That is not this Council's job, in my opinion. I do think when these reports come back, the City Manager reports to you, and if there are inadequacies, to me the accountability starts with the City Manager. And so I think when you learn upon this, I think one, it is imperative for local government to be cooperative with any investigation—there is an assumption that this is an open book. Two, to honestly and forthrightly look at what's being recommended and what the claims are, and to do your due diligence to get to the right answer—not necessarily the popular answer, but the right answer. And after that, there is always the—okay, what are the accountability metrics that we're looking at here? And that, I think, is ultimately where it comes back to the City Council. **[07:14] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I really appreciate that for a teaching moment for all of us. Thank you. **[07:14] Mayor John Monge:** So we acknowledged that there was an issue, we took steps to take care of it, and going forward we're in a better place is what we've pulled out of this? **[07:14] Soren Mattick:** I believe so. Yeah. I can tell you that, you know, in working with Dan [Jason Zimmerman] on this and then Brian too—but you know, a lot of this from a Finance Director, they tend to be your picky people on, "Hey, this is how we have to follow it." A City Manager is trying to run multiple departments, but this is right within Dan's area of expertise and there was absolutely no pushback. It's almost somewhat of a—I don't know about a blessing—but sort of a, "Look, yeah, we should be doing this." And Dan did a nice job of stepping up and making sure things got implemented. And trusting the City with the finances is one of the most paramount things that we can do here, and that was not lost on staff. **[07:15] Mayor John Monge:** Very good, thank you. And like you said before, you know, us as a Council have to rely and we appreciate Dan and Brian stepping up and going through and just making sure there's safety nets and we're able to check this out and be accountable for all of us. Thank you. And thank you, Jennie, because I know you have to also on HR implement some of these policies. Any other questions? Okay not—thanks, Soren. **[07:15] Soren Mattick:** Thank you, appreciate you. Now we can move on, so thank you. Yeah, if I could just put a bow on it, I think there have been sort of these ongoing questions: "What are you doing? What have you done?" I think from a staff perspective at this point, we consider it finalized. I don't think—if there are certainly other things we need to make you aware of, we will. But at this point, we've received the report, we have followed up internally with what we're going to do, we've talked to the outside agencies that were involved—candidly, from staff's perspective and mine, at this point the item's final. So there won't be any other updates unless we receive additional information. **[07:16] Mayor John Monge:** Perfect, thank you for that. All right. Moving on. Reports: City Manager and departments. **[07:16] Brian Frandle:** At staff meeting today, met with department heads. The PD is having the memorial for police officer Richard Crittenden, which is the 15-year anniversary of the tragic loss of life that he had. So that will be this Saturday from 11:00 to 12:30 and it'll be on the corner of 7th Avenue. They had three applications and they did the interview process last week; they're working their way through that process now as people are moving on. Ava [Griemert]’s been busy with working final touches on Autumn Arts Festival which is coming up on September 14th, Fall Roundup parade, and even talking about the booya already—October 6. That's around the corner, start peeling. Electric is still trying to clean up some of the stuff from the storms; had a broken pole that was changed out today. We did energize Article 7 today for their permanent power; that transformer, they'll be getting all the meters installed by probably next week. They’d received their new bucket truck; they’d had a few warranty items that they're dealing with, so the truck is out and will be back soon. Fire has been extremely busy with calls; they had 168 calls in August. Normal is probably about 115-120. A lot of them ended up being the order that they put in too much of that odorant into the gas; had lots of calls on that. Public Works is still working hard at those ash trees. Just some information on that: the Public Works was working on as of—this was probably a couple weeks ago, so they've had more since then—but they've removed 86 ash trees and they're hoping to get 30 more by the end of the year. They're able to get an early start with the mild weather we had in the spring. 400 ash trees remain on public property; 85 ash trees are being treated just to give them a little extra time till they can get back out there, probably have to be removing them later. And 150 new trees will be planted. An update on the Minnesota DNR relief grant, which the City was awarded: $400,000—300 for public ash removal and 100 for low-income private ash tree removal. Private ash: there were 38 applications, 81 private ash trees were removed and that work is complete now. As far as on the public side, 70 trees were removed; contractor is still working on the remaining 20 trees which will bring the total for this year to 90 trees. Contractor will also be planting 90 new trees late September. Still $150,000 left in the grant remaining; plan to remove and replace another 100 public ash trees on the city boulevards. And it was nice—appreciate the contractors pushing and getting Margaret Street mill and overlay done, taken care of before the school started today. So appreciate them doing that. They're working on Fourth today and first—yeah, moving along well though. That's all I have. **[07:19] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you very much. All right, back up here. Anything with them for you, Mr. Nordby, as far as committees? **[07:19] Council Member Jason Nordby:** You're waiting for me to finish this, aren't you? Because you know I’m—the Planning Commission will be meeting this Thursday, two days from now. Could have started earlier. And the topical discussion will be the Margaret Street comment, right here in this building at 6:30 this Thursday. Thank you. **[07:19] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** As for the arts and culture commission, there is a meeting tomorrow at 6:30 here in the chambers. Currently, they'll be planning for 2025, and then also they're pretty much going to be focusing on the Autumn Arts Festival on September 14th. So should be a good event and a lot of fun. Thank you. **[07:20] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Parks and Recreation met last week here in council chambers on Wednesday. They discussed and met with HGA, which is an architectural planning firm that is going to do some studies on the community regarding three areas. That would be the McKnight Athletic Complex, they're calling it a pocket park which is the little park right now or the little space next to the VFW, and the—is it Polar Ridge? Not Polar Ridge, it's those townhomes I think—Place on 7th? Place on 2nd? They'll be doing a study in the community. With Autumn Arts Festival coming up, they'll be there. They were not aware of the parade and that is something that they're also going to tap into. It has been advised during the meeting and going through the whole budget process that they need to come to Council and discuss what are the plans. And as we're talking about plans, as discussed in workshop too, there are—and we're working out the budget—there's a lot of things happening with Parks and Rec that need to be brought to the attention. So we've requested Riley to come and provide some more guidance to the Park and Recreation commission. I will also ditto they're getting ready for Autumn Arts Festival as well, so they're partnering with Arts and Culture and that will be next Saturday from 11:00 to 6:00. **[07:22] Council Member Troy Woods:** Next EDA meeting will be a week from today here in chambers, September 10th at 4:00. Thank you very much. **[07:22] Mayor John Monge:** General business. Council Member Nordby. **[07:22] Council Member Jason Nordby:** I just want to remind everyone we are 15 days, 22 hours, 37 minutes, and 5 seconds away from the Fall Roundup parade. There's a nice little counter on our website. Thank you. **[07:22] Council Member Troy Woods:** I was at the State Fair this past week and, well, yesterday, and I just wanted to call out a couple North St. Paul folks for their participation at the fair. Cypher Side dance studio or dance school—they did performances several times, but they had one yesterday and they've just been really growing and growing. So it's really great to see them flourishing as a North St. Paul business. Also, we had a—I think fifth place winner on bread. Bread! Cool. That was fun. But that's all I have. **[07:23] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Picked a beautiful day to go. **[07:23] Council Member Troy Woods:** Yeah, that's for sure weather-wise. **[07:23] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I want to thank everybody that was involved for those audits. I truly believe that's a lot of work that you all have to do on top of your daily assignments and having to pull all that. So I thank everyone in the office for going through the measures that they do on a daily basis to pull information for those audits. Thank you, Soren, for working with the State and our City as well to identify the final results. That is greatly appreciated by us. On a lighter note, I saw on social media—actually in between these meetings I looked—and the new bakery has—they are specializing with their doughnut, their glazed doughnut, at Mac’s for a glazed doughnut burger this week. Nice! Go try it out. That's it. **[07:24] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** I just want to give a shout out to Public Works—both Ron, Randy, and team. It’s been a heck of a summer with the rain, the storms, the non-stop everything that's going on. You and your team are doing a phenomenal job out there. I mean, tow straps for lawnmowers to try to get mowing done in parks and, you know, all the streets that are being built and overlaid right now, and you guys are busy. I just want to make sure you get recognition, so thank you. **[07:25] Mayor John Monge:** Yeah, Electric—my son was down in Oakdale for I think two and a half days [without power]. So it's so nice to have our Electric Department, how fast we can get things going. We take our Electric for granted in this City. Very good. Big time. **[07:25] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Yeah, he wanted to come over and use the washing machine so we let him. **[07:25] Mayor John Monge:** Also I went and I took some branches that fell and broke, you know, cut them up and took them to—it’s Sims and Frank and Sims, the dump over there in Ramsey. I've never seen so many trees there. You could barely get in there and the cars were all way to the road lined up. So there's a lot of stuff going on as far as the storm. So I hope everybody can get back on their feet and go from there. And Saturday, I was invited by the Police Chief and hopefully everybody else if they have time, they'll be able to make it for the ceremony [for Officer Crittenden]. That's a very special thing to be able to take that time to be able to recognize a service he provided in North St. Paul and be able to get together as a community and grieve. 15 years goes by quick; when I heard that date, I was like, "Wow, it seems like yesterday." So I'm sure it's not for the family, so we can help them. And now we have to go to our closed session. So we're not going to close the meeting, but we're going to... a motion to close the session. **[07:26] Brian Frandle:** Yeah, so it is a meeting to close the session. Mr. Mayor, if you would read word for word the item in 12A, and then if that could be followed by a motion and a second to vote to close it. **[07:27] Mayor John Monge:** Okay. All right, this meeting will be closed as permitted by section 13D.03 to discuss the City's labor negotiation strategies related to the City's negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 160 supervisory unit, Teamsters public and law enforcement employees union local 320 police workers, and electrical law enforcement labor unit local 211 Patrol and local 298 Sergeants, and AFSCME Council 5 essential and nonessential unions. That's it. Can I need a motion to—then there's—it's not an adjournment, so motion to go to closed? **[07:27] Brian Frandle:** Motion to go to closed, yes. **[07:27] Council Member Jason Nordby:** So moved. **[07:27] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Nordby. Second? **[07:27] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Second. **[07:27] Mayor John Monge:** Council Member Mckenzie. All those in favor say aye. **(All):** Aye. **[07:27] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you very much.