This transcript features the **Moose Lake City Council** meeting from September 11, 2019. The primary speakers are Mayor Jim Michalski, City Administrator Ellissa Owens, City Superintendent Phil Entner, and Law Enforcement lead Kelly Lake. [0:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Welcome everyone the September 11th 2019 regular meeting and the Moose Lake City Council and electric like to thank everyone for being here and the first item after the pledge allegiance is that the agenda we do have one edition. [0:47] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: There's six each purchase price discussion on land and every part of that goals discussion area do we have any other changes Corrections or additions to agenda very now do we have a motion to accept the Kevin down a second second all in favor say aye I suppose motion carried under to a this is a consent agenda to a one-way of the minutes for August 14th. [1:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 2019 City Council regular meeting minutes another to the September 5th 2019 working council meeting minutes any discussion or motion of the minutes favor say aye aye opposed motion carried under to be finance reports to be one we have the city accounts payable for September 2019 number two of the city financial statements for August 20 1993 is a liquor store profit loss statement for August 20 19 de Scotian questions. [2:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: For the council hearing none we have a motion to accept financial reports like one favor say aye aye motion carried number three this is a public comment time this time is reserved for comments from the public on matters not listed on the agenda at least keep comments to three minutes so we're hearing none we will move on to number four Department reports four days police chief Department report for August 2019. [3:18] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Very council, City Administrator, we had another busy busy 180 days is very well attended it was over I could even tell you how many do problem that Street that day but we directed traffic pretty much all day arena and everything was smooth as well as the National Night Out we had well over 500 that we served and up for it seemed to be a very successful event this year again it seems to be going over here Paul Williams questions are. [4:09] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Gonna answer anything else. [4:16] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Favorite of this lawmaker mentioned our trained officers rank and Ezard resigned on August 24th over and out on leave on August 25th Sergent they don't eat exactly chief at this time public key and then we're training for everyone on Monday to the other night we just did nice and wet that's arena would take add another total over 450 calls you can yeah it's been a busy month but well any questions by council thank you thank you very much. [5:03] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: Sumeria members of council um busy month for us as well I hate to see this we're starting to get ready for winter and I know why everyone doesn't to hear that but that's Mike himself and all that without the big I guess whatever water department uh distributed 3.7 million gallons of drinking water in August new water services being installed over here at 5th Street have seen them detours never review dimmers that kind of stuff for so long everyone well there by it fire edits were abundant flushing them here a week of the 23rd I believe we'll have a notice in the paper that's correct yes we will very good the public can expect dirty water and a little pressure at certain times it should be just other daytime hours. [5:50] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: So um super apartment elected eleven point two million gallons of wastewater I know it's just a number but if you think about it last month to a seventeen point five months before that I think we're over twenty we have already any rain this last one very little just throw in your back pocket how much by a night we have in this town and how big I and I probably do I think the bill that we sent for for the sanitary sewer district went from a little over $7,000 to a little over $4,000 so it was considerable it was not not quite half and their system is considerably newer were a grand scheme of things than ours so just even their eye and eye is noticeable every time that that it rains ours is much worse so just keep that in the back here minds it so I'm always up here preaching what it's all stoom but you know where's the truth. [6:36] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: Some of our dollars started discharging here last week at the ponds we've got 38 million gallons there the phosphorus you're gonna like well that would happen the end August so far we're meeting other limits were right in the middle of it so I won't know until the end of it which will be in the next week so the station cleaning is also taking place this week you see see us running around lights going off big trucks at Thomond don't usually go about what we're doing we did finish the fourth year sanitary sewer cleaning program so now we have covered the entire town wants complete cleaning it was the first time that's ever been done it was horrible so it is a very good thing when we are doing hats off my guys because I don't know we see some crazy stuff it's it's unbelievable. [7:24] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: So anyway whatever also I got to see on 7th august we hosted a wastewater treating for Minnesota water I was a really good deal we uh we had 30 or 40 independents and it was it was a good thing so headed up at the people were to do another word into a water base training next year with people as well at the same time and O'Grady was up there did you get lunch I was cooking I would offend you know it was it was a good time it was I was good turn a lot of people a lot of networking a lot of thought by communication a lot of communities and the same problems we are so it was really good to see that I was like there busy problems what it's good to have more people to bounce ideas off we're networking options for all of us to go and talk to people in trying to try to battle this together it was good. [8:10] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: Street Department pothole filling monthly basis last week we did that finish that last week cuts up touch-ups on the woman's trailer parking lot we finished that last week too and cemeteries there cemeteries at cemeteries it looks beautiful up there is is so nice it's for a cemetery is a nice place out there you go out there it's peaceful it's quiet it looks good for sharp yeah it looks very very nice. [8:55] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: So all the water is back on that wall cemeteries to wangle last meeting we had some issues there with difficulty curve men everything's all down there so I think that's all you got any for me I'm sorry we did that was the new water service event okay yeah so I wish I had more for you on that one but a parking lot trimmed up grow up here on the other yeah that was a that was a good deal that was really nice big improvements um thank you. [9:43] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: different thanks technology and library report for seen we haven't met with the technology company in the last month of we also haven't had any issues so nothing new for technology as far as the library goes we didn't meet in the last month I think probably the biggest thing that we haven't pointed out yet that there's also going to be a fall book sale there's a spring book sale of it's done annually the Friends of the library requested to start doing a second book sale they have that many books that are donated and they're planning on doing that and then obviously don't even money to the library for some additional computers for the public to use the ones that we have in the library are extremely old silver that's what the money for that will be going towards. [10:29] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: yeah there's like 30 people or something that join the Friends of the library thank you. [10:45] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: any questions for the history we met a couple big things the trail that we've been talking about for the last year we are going to meet and walk the path and kind of figure out some trouble areas on Monday if anybody's interested in walking with is 16th at 10 o'clock we're gonna meet here just cover a couple things quick and then we're gonna take a little bit of up on a tour I don't know fur and drive some of its along the highway but there's a couple wetland areas there's a couple areas that we might need to purchase some some land to get the trail through but just some of the planning phases we're still well in advance of construction so we're just kind of chipping away at some of the things they need to get done. [12:04] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: other than that we talked a little bit of a well citing part of the holdup with that is is - me - nothing need but the desire to purchase a little bit of property for the new well house we did talk about some of the design of the building things like that but we'll talk a little bit about the lands later on and then finally if anybody has any questions they can ask Phil about it but we did televise that campground just in planning for the well so I want to make sure that the sewer mains that are down there and the collection is all contained to the lift station and to the line the sewer main that they're supposed to be in and not not getting into the water so I think our engineers are reviewing that right now and any issues we will be looking to correct so those are the meeting things from from our engineering me questions discussion that council. [12:53] **Chamber Representative (Tia)**: chambers of commerce updates I good afternoon mr. mayor members of the council thanks for having me again I don't remember if I was here in August but I'll kind of bring you up to speed here we are in September and all of our big events except one on Saturday have passed us and we lived a long summer without having an executive director if you didn't notice I brought somebody with me and I've asked her to stand up this is our new executive director I'm not sure if any of you have met Rhea but this is your opportunity Alison Jones she started with us mid to late Molly August and me she is a dynamo and she's really just jumped right in and got me to work so I'm gonna let her tell you a little bit maybe about group that's coming up on Saturday so thank you again. [13:41] **Alison Jones**: I'm Alison it's an honor to be here so thank you so this Saturday we have runefest which is going to be at Amber's Wooley as of right now we have 14 confirmed buries and distilleries at our event we have some games with prizes from local businesses that have donated to our events 25 $25 at the door or $20 so I've seen through Fest tickets this is a really fun event to kind of celebrate maybe summer ending fall beginning however you'd like to look at it and things that's gonna be really fun time sample different beers and brooms from around Minnesota and also like surprises. [14:36] **Alison Jones**: um so a little bit about me there's old from Georgia here five years ago to take up a job at one Heartland which is summer camp in Royal River and there I was the program coordinator so what that really means in the summer time my job to make sure that camp is a life-changing experience for our campers and staff but then in the non summer months hopefully fundraising up with recruitment training and a little bit of everything else that and pertains to or NSF right hand which a lot of what one Hartman taught me I've been able to bring to the chamber and we're really looking forward to meeting everyone and trying to remember everyone's names along with that and then just bringing my passion for just helping others to the chamber so I'm just really excited to do that and to be more involved in the community so I also really love Minnesota and have picked up a lot of new hobbies that are very Minnesota based like agate honey and bike riding in a big bowl it is my new obsession oh yeah I love Minnesota and glad to be a part of it. [16:07] **Chamber Representative (Tia)**: or item under state speeding I can jump into this my context if you will waiter no yeah yes that was good the next thing you have impact that's all if you want to get an hour yeah for the council there any questions council has very none and we'll go to 6v Sydney lodging tax yeah so so thank you for allowing me that to talk a little bit about that the chamber this is something that we've put on our strategic plan three years ago probably was to look at implementing a lodging tax in the city of most like clearly we didn't jump right on that because three years ago but we would like to revisit it now we think with some change over that has happened in the community with with both of the hotels and really educating ourselves a little bit more and state as to what it all entails we thought now was probably the better time to come back to the council for the lodging tax. [17:40] **Chamber Representative (Tia)**: the one thing I think that was a little misunderstood about the lodging tax it is not a tax assessed on our community members whatsoever about actually over eighty-five communities throughout Minnesota and hundreds of thousands of communities across the United States and pulls a lodging tax people are used to it people don't even generally know I can say with certainty that I expected when I travel and I travel all over the when I go somewhere I know that you know whatever the quarter break is it's going to be more because there will be about two attacks of some sort and so the lighting casts monies they're collected of course by the city or the entity the city does retain a small portion they think it's five percent don't quote me that's what I see here but I can't say that that's long but that's really for compensating for the expense of collecting the tax so the remaining amount should go to a tourism a local convention or Tourism Bureau for the purpose of marketing and promoting the city or town as a tourist or Convention Center. [18:25] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: and we don't have that right now but right now the chamber access that tourism arm form looks like in the surrounding area and we get somebody like Alison and we want to use her a hundred and twenty percent and she wants to give us one hundred fifty percent but we're limited with the dollars that we have that we can use towards tourism this would go a long ways and I've talked with now again gearing up for this friends of mine maybe clients or whatever in different towns that are in the lodging industry and they don't mind the tax at all because it rolls back and helps them but we have to do with those monies is we have to advertise come looks like come to this area this is what we have to offer we can do it on a national scale we can do it on a local scale we can do it just a Minnesota scale right now we lack the funds to do that so we're kind of doing whatever we can I might say I think we've done a fair job but I think we could do a much better job if we have some revenue to devote towards that specifically. [19:11] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: I do have language that is the policy or the ordinance I guess that the city of Hinkley the city of Hinkley uses I can get you any other cities I'm sure has access to any other cities ordinances but I think 3% is kind of what we've what we've looked at and you know spend the calculation cities can you consider that anything you want to but to get it started I think the chamber would definitely be in support for that yeah questions or concerns I can try to answer if I can't if I don't have an answer for you I will get back to you so we talked about that at our meeting at our meeting last month and we don't have our meeting until tomorrow so I didn't get back if they if they weren't done but I do know that they have a hotel in Detroit Lakes and Detroit Lakes does also have a city tax so I have to believe that they're familiar with it but I can't say this was with certainty but I can get back to you because I do remember yeah. [20:45] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: and I think it was actually in having those conversations with with that particular person there was a little bit of misunderstanding of what you know what it is on both parts of the larger hotel in and the smaller hotel some education on what it's used for and how its imposed it who it's influenced on really kind of opened up opened up their eyes a little bit so I think it was probably at an our current lack of education and we just said we want instead of saying this is what it does so you know what we will own that. [21:33] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so processes sure we make 53 in your packet is the city ordinance from the city of records for 3% it would be the exact same thing that we would be looking at here the only difference was that the the city had a tourism person that worked for the city rather than the chamber so there 100% of the money was for administration 5% of the money was allocated towards more like historical markers and then the remainder of it went towards tourism just as Tia said the important piece with this was for instance when I was at Procter all the hotels had a seat on the Tourism Board and they were just as much a part of spending those funds as the city was because they understood that all the money that was spent or collected and then spent was all simply to bring people back into the hotel so it was just a big cycle everybody there was certainly for it you can't go to locate Hermantown Proctor Duluth de luces huge but any of those communities without paying a lodging tax be or the cities. [22:18] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: it's a ridiculous tax which we would not be proposing anything remotely close to that but I do think that as the chamber gets larger and larger that there needs to be ways to continue to build on the events that that it already has and build new events and this is certainly great to do it it's it's not obviously it's not imposed on on residents but also it's it's just like the sales tax the idea is to receive some funding from people that are coming to our community and they're paying on top of their bill it's not a tax put on the hotels even it's people paying for hotel rooms are funding this so I I certainly I think that this is a great idea to fund the chamber it's it's a very simple process as far as the city goes we looked at the the state statute that it does not need state approval it's simply an ordinance that the council can pass yeah. [23:04] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: it's I think it's I think didn't I think this I think the next step that that even the chamber would agree to is I do think that we still need to have a conversation with the new owners of the hotel and reach out to them so that it's not just just push on them without that no any have happened already it was on we talked about it last month I just haven't connected with sure we're going to do that I would go one step further also and say we did talk about creating a committee within the chamber to be able to clip this specifically and so that's where we can invite folks owner sensitive to have a safe into society I think the last attempt to you're the same idea whatever committee that was formed the kitten. [24:36] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so the caveat with the lodging tax is that anybody that stays for 30 days or longer is no longer part of the lodging tax so your seasonal campers are not part of this lodging tax that would be more for your tenders or people coming in for the weekend we we would probably need to track things a little bit differently than than how we do in in the campground right now but I really don't foresee that being the larder you know that's a pretty small portion of the money that comes into the campground when you consider that how many seasonal sites that we have and the cost that goes with that thank you very much thank you. [25:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: so I think from from our standpoint where's the chamber meeting so we would invite any of the council members to come in and welcome Tim and it said usually are there any of you three if you'd like to like to attend please well I do appreciate that what I was gonna say is I think what we'll do the next steps for this would be is I will I will go tomorrow Ted not bored while it usually goes to to them as well so I think we'll have enough voices we'll come back with any information and maybe start working on in the ordinance not not to the first reading but maybe to look at for the next meeting some thought into for November thank you. [26:32] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: moving back to number five previously discussed business this is a special assessment policy versus general fund levy and there's electric finance yeah so one of the things that came up at our working budget meeting was the consideration for the franchise fee that we have with the electric utility you had asked that I come back with some some figures on what an increase on the electric feet that transferred to the city would look like I will say if anybody wanted to pass the special assessment policy or the general levy that would just get over this but anyways the electric rate is this packet right here that's not your table it's it's a few pages in it it just presents things a little bit differently each time. [27:19] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so on the first page the first note there is the general fund rate which is based on usage kilowatt hours times that rate this is how we collect that the total amount collected each year it's very $150,000 even I don't think even Sally to find out when the last time the rate was changed I think it was imposed and just left alone from from then on so it hasn't really been for probably decades as far as rate options this is this is just an jumping ahead for for the remainder of this conversation so changing the rate from what it's at now two point zero zero five five per kilowatt-hour would be thirty two thousand dollars of additional income point zero zero six is just short of fifty thousand and then zero zero six five would be sixty five thousand three hundred and eighty five so you can kind of see when we're talking about this gap in funding for road projects this is not going to be some sort of immediate solution this will be a piece of the puzzle or it could be a piece of the puzzle just like sales tax and the gas franchise fee so any increase here I certainly would not suggest that we go above this I probably would not even suggest that we do the zero zero six five but you can kind of you can kind of tell how much of additional revenue could be brought and based on these rates. [28:53] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: the next table is what is currently brought in from some of the major larger entities as well as residential so for instance each year Mercy Hospital is about fifteen thousand MSOP do C and C those school I will say 2016 clearly something just went wrong calculating their their transfers so maybe just look at 18 and 17 for them churches we did include churches just the same as residential churches the only issue that comes up with calculating this for churches is we have we have about three that are really large and then we have six or seven that are pretty small so this averages them out but it doesn't really tell the true story it's more like fifteen hundred for your really really large ones and five hundred small ones so it kind of tells you a little bit but not not a true picture and then residential obviously is $32.45. [30:24] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so the second page actually the second and third page are breakouts of a few different things so let's just look at Mercy Hospital the first line is their total electric bill for the year this allows us to kind of put in comparison what this fee is rather than just looking at a fee compared to an increase in the fee the reason that I did this is increasing each of those steps on the first page amounts to be like 21 percent of an increase to this fee when in reality you're talking about more like 0.67% when looking at the dollar amount so so four hundred and forty four thousand would be the annual bill thirty-seven thousand would be the monthly bill the general fund monthly transfer that comes from them is one thousand two hundred and sixty six dollars so now the next two numbers kind of break out what the difference would be if we increased it to point zero zero five five or point zero zero six you could tell the doubt the dollar amount which is off to the side there the annual difference for the first one would be just under 3000 the annual difference for the second one would be four thousand six hundred and sixteen. [31:10] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: now when I was looking at this this seems like a lot of money you know an additional four thousand dollars is a lot when when you break it off based on a percentage of their actual bill you're talking about 0.67 percent or 1 percent so when what we were originally looking at this we were looking at whether would make sense to do in a special assessment worse a property tax levy on what would amount to be 30% of the residents and when we went over this we were talking about say a 10% increase gets us $100,000 or a 5% increase gives us $100,000 whereas for this if we look at doing a 1% increase - somebody's bill that brings in that same $50,000 so you can start to see how the this 70% tax exempt that we are when you look at taxing just the 30% at an additional 5% levy increase it's really the same thing as a much lower amount if we are allowed to get that fee over everybody that's in Moose Lake you can tell the difference the same thing for the school nsop and do see these are the larger entities. [32:42] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: the third page breaks out the smaller ones so this page you is very very similar it's right around 1% of increase per month for the larger rate increase that I listed on the third page you get to the smaller entities so the churches and residential the reason that this number looks larger is because quite simply they don't use as many kilowatt hours so the general fund transfers a larger portion of their bill it churches again the churches is a bit skewed because you're saying that you're very very small Church is the same as your very large one that's really not a great example the residential holds a little bit better it's either a 1% increase or a one and a half percent increase with an annual difference you're talking $11 so for $11 per year for your residential customers and this larger amount for the prison MSOP mercy basically you could increase funds for road projects to the tune of about $50,000 this in my mind this is a much better option than property taxes. [33:27] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: I still think that special assessments have their place that doesn't seem to be a very popular option at this table but I do think that when we were talking about the gas franchise fee and sales tax this this is the reason that we were talking about these this imposes this feed on everyone in our community rather than just the 30% tax payers so a lot of information I will say this the same thing that we talked about at that budget if you are not planning on doing a levy increase for road projects we do not need to decide anything on this tonight if you would like to do a levy increase for road projects that we would need to figure out tonight so the only thing that we are setting tonight is our initial levy which we cannot come in December and increase so if you say in December well really we wanted to do a road levy we can we can't change that to increase it so that's why I say we don't need to decide some of these some we do need to decide time does anybody have any questions on this. [35:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: yes it's really go it certainly makes more sense than than some of the other options some of them there's a lot of this larger stage our largest users are not paying right I was a little a bit surprised to see those those top four when you consider that we're bringing in a hundred and fifty thousand dollars or I mean over half of it comes from from those top four so while we say there were seventy percent tax exempt I think we have been doing a pretty good job of figuring out a way to get some funds out of those still not anywhere near what property taxes would be but this is a way to balance the scales a little bit counsel with the questions for direction you have consensus to move on instead of discuss special assessment or levy okay thank you. [36:52] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so I think just just to be clear I'm kind of what we're going to do it makes it makes a bit more sense to me to just leave this on the agenda and maybe bring it up again next month I'll give it kind of a shorter version of what tonight look like same same information but give you a month to kind of digest please if you have any questions Sally and Katie or we're a big part of doing this as well so if you have any questions you can get any other information you need thank you. [37:38] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: moving on them to revive B County prosecution services contract yes so the mayor and myself met with the new County Attorney Laurie Kayla as well as our County Board representative we what I was hoping was to try to figure out a way out of this and quite frankly and what I think we quickly realized is there's a there's a state statute that that pretty clearly lays this out any any community that's over the population of 600 it's very clear that they need to pay for prosecution services for misdemeanors that that are within their jurisdiction if anything that we need to do we might need to do a better job of of making sure that we were not taking cases that are in other communities as it were paying for the prosecution. [38:27] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: but that being said I think the price that for the contract that they are suggesting which would be sixteen thousand dollars which we updated in the budget which we have dated in the budget that's forty tonight it's I always help about half of what we would be charged from somebody else so it's it's not that the price is unfair it's it's more so that the gap between the last time that we paid it was so long that we finally took it budget so it's just kind of stings a little bit putting it back in the budget but it certainly is necessary my recommendation is that you have me go back to tell the County Attorney that yes we will enter into this it wouldn't begin January 1st 2020 and we would not be charged any back payment for the four or five years that we have not paid some of all things got this Germany has chopped it up by reviewing all their records and an altered job description that she has to do not yet I don't have a new contract but yeah so so long as nobody has any other issues I will just burn the contract the next meeting for us. [40:51] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: the city of Moose Lake City of Cloquet and Carlton County are the only three entities in Carlton County that license tobacco retailers so the three of us the three entities met along with the Carlton County Public Health and Human Services I'm sorry Fond du Lac also license they're their own retailers so they were there as well so the four of us met and went over proposed language from it's not necessarily the Carlton County Public Health and Human Services but it's somebody that they're working with put the ordinance together we went line by line and note by note to kind of cover some of the issues that might come up with this which I'll go over in a second about page 42 if we were to move forward with this my suggestion would be that we would send this letter out to all tobacco retailers in Moose Lake offered to meet with them and go over this we would probably like Carlton coming Public Health and Human Services to come to that meeting as well. [41:37] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: they really shouldn't be surprised this is something that that the state even looked at passing statewide there are a few few retailers that are actually imposing this upon themselves already so it's it's not exactly new but it is something that would be a change in Moose Lake that I would want to have a conversation prior to just passing so starting on page 43 is the actual language of the proposed ordinance I I would suggest that you may be reading on your own there are a few things that I want to highlight as maybe topics that I could see being a being a problem or a thorn in the retailer side if it were me starting on page 43 the first page one of the items there and it's also listed on page 47 is that this ordinance would not allow any retail sales within a thousand feet of schools parks churches basically anywhere geared towards people that are 21 years and younger. [43:11] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so one of the things while they're spellings but the first one would be how we would handle existing retailers which just at the top of my head everything that we've done with zoning has always grandfathered people in and if we were to go with a thousand feet I would certainly suggest that we do that the second thing would be how we would handle anybody new coming in is do you want a thousand feet do you on five hundred feet do you want two hundred feet what what is it that you want to see for that number before we even get into some of the other ones this is this is as strict of an ordinance as you will see so this this is geared 100% towards as far as you can go one way and is not in the middle so anything that we're doing we're just gonna try to would be pulling back kind of into the middle so the thousand feet I have not looked to see if we have any retailer but then a thousand feet you know say Kwik Trip Kwik Trip is farther than a thousand feet from the school but that's not to say that some some business might be close to a park so how would we want to handle that would be something that we would need to decide. [43:57] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: page 47 has a note along this side for any clerk that a retailer has would need to be 21 years of age or older now the problem with this is a lot of our high school kids have jobs at gas stations Kwik Trip places like that I think Kwik Trip is put your tires for twelve to fourteen dollars now or I would have I'm telling the kid that they can't get a job that that pays that well that being said the reason that they put this in there is if you go to buy alcohol you cannot be in there selling that if you are under the age of 21 so if you're changing the legal age of smoking to 21 or selling tobacco to 21 that would then mean something a lot of the lines similar to to liquor stores one of the other reasons that they did this was basically peer pressure if you're an 18 year old kid and your 18 year old friend comes in are they going to feel some sort of peer pressure in selling to their underage friends which I I do think that that would be a problem I also don't know that we want to take away jobs from from 18 year old kids. [45:30] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: something to think about page 49 is a section on flavored tobacco flavored tobacco would be any any form of tobacco chewing tobacco cigarettes cigars any anything like that basically this would not allow any retailer to sell flavored tobacco so I don't I don't think that this is directly in line with what the intent of this I will say that the home with almost anybody would agree that the purpose of flavored tobacco is to get people using tobacco in an earlier age so that is the purpose for putting this in there is flavored tobacco is geared for younger people. [46:17] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: that being said my thought when we were going over we were starting to tiptoe into getting into retailers business a little bit more than just trying to help high school kids not get addicted to back to tobacco that's a thought for you all to have also on page 49 is price reductions and coupons this would not allow retailers to offer price reductions or coupons for tobacco products here again I think that I I think that we're tiptoeing again into just going after businesses just for the sake of because they're selling tobacco the reason being I mean if you're trying to if you're trying to promote healthy living why would you also allow a retailer to offer a price reduction if you come in and buy it in fall that's the reason that it's in there not to say it's wrong or indifferent but that's that's why it isn't. [47:49] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: page 51 list fines for breaking this ordinance the dollar amounts in here do not match our existing ordinance they do not match this state statute we are allowed to charge whatever we want at a higher rate I believe but we don't we charge we follow the state statute which so does Cloquet so this Carlton County now the purpose of reading this tonight is I do think that that this is important that's going to pass through Carlton County and to the city of Cloquet the hope was that Moose Lake Carlton County and the city of Cloquet would all kind of hop on this together and do it basically at the same time with the same language so if there are items that we have to change in here we are going to be having they're meeting to go over this ordinance and bring back feedback from our City Council's or County Commissioners to try to knock the language down to something very similar those those five items are really the one I would say that that we want to take a look at the rest of it is quite frankly it this is an ordinance that try to prevent high school kids from getting addicted to using tobacco there are plenty of 18 year old kids in high school that are able to start purchasing tobacco and giving it to their friends that is exactly what this is geared to stop yeah any of any questions on this. [49:21] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: they have not selected the date they picked like 15 dates to meet for a calendar poll so I don't night email phone I will say the dates that I said that I could attend were all after our next city council meeting with the intent that I would be able to bring this back to you again prior to meeting with them so it's not to say that that's the date that they'll select it's just I was trying to push it beyond our next city council meeting to give everyone time if you have comments or questions tonight there will certainly take them but I would say just take it home digest it over the next month and I will try as hard as I can to push this meeting off pass our next council meeting yes. [50:08] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so the city no the police will still be policing this the City Council passes an ordinance and then passes on the well yeah I think the are you looking under the penalty section yeah so in order for this to meet the standards of whatever group wrote this the penalty is not supposed to be imposed on the kid going in trying to buy it the penalty should be imposed on the retailer for try this or in allowing somebody 18 19 20 to purchase it as far as the kid going in there and doing it say a police officer should have a conversation with them about this is not a law in our community here's why our our real involvement in this is the city the City Council approves tobacco license holders retailers the police department already does inspections for retailers not selling to 18 year olds so everything would remain basically the same except 21 unless you go with all the rest of these things in which case those would change. [51:52] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: yeah they will definitely be bringing it up again the reason that they said that it did not pass was simply that they got too busy which is pretty much everything but a lot of attention yeah and I think the hope was the hope from the Public Health and Human Services community our community was that the state would tackle it as well I didn't pass through the state I think more and more counties are simply just jumping on it themselves with the thought being that it takes a while to get things passed with the state I can't remember what she said but there's a number of communities and counties that are that have passed this it's it's more so just a matter of personal opinion of it at this point yeah yeah they're just curious where the stage. [53:27] [Music] [53:46] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: you know actually the information at this point we hear that unless you would like to offer your opinion on those five items which you do not need to do tonight I would just ask for anybody to reach out to email phone text whatever you like how much better counsel 6a the 2020 budget a is the initial levy these include another game yeah we'll just be going on with that PowerPoint. [54:57] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: okay so up for the 2020 you preliminary budget the two things that that we need to pass tonight are the initial levy the initial levy is setting it not as high as as we want but we we are not allowed to increase our initial levy in December so the only thing that we can do is lower it in December the second thing that we need to set is the truth in taxation public hearing which would be at our December meeting just setting a time and date for that meeting. [55:43] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so in front of you is the PowerPoint presentation it's very similar to what we will already went over so I'll go over it a little bit quicker revenues the general property taxes there is an increase in the dollar amount however the increase comes entirely from the value of moose lake increasing whether its new businesses new homes or just the value of homes increasing so the tax rate that's included in the PowerPoint that budget this has been presented to you as a zero percent tax rate increase sales tax we're looking at an increase of about seventy five thousand that's not bringing in bringing in additional money it's more so that's that's about how much we're bringing in and we're pretty firm on that now whereas last year at this time we weren't quite sure local government aid raised about seventy thousand dollars more than last year the big big story behind this is that it's back to the two thousand two levels before LGA was cut which is nice to see that does not include inflation obviously but we are back to where we basically started the transfer from power and like we talked about earlier and campground fees would remain about the same expenditures. [57:14] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: next slide break the expenditures we will be having elections in 2020 so the expenses for those have been added back into the budget we are going to continue to have the operating transfer to the DMV which was from shuffling around the positions in the library as well wage increases that were proposed are included in the budget we're planning out a 5% health increase our health insurance increase across the board the police department has contractual wage increases which are included in the budget electric utilities are increasing which are included in the budget the library remains the same and then the camera lease ends again February March somewhere around there the majority of the funds in that department will now be able to talk towards improving the equipment that we have. [57:59] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: the next slide is like four breaks out departments without any capital improvement projects that they might have the general government increases are from property insurance as well as general liability insurance the City Council increases are about $1,500 city administration is just under eleven thousand dollars elections like we talked about last year we've budgeted zero an hour adding those elections back in the community center as a minor increase the police department includes the new wage increases additional health insurance coverage for one employee as well as sixteen thousand dollars for the prosecution services the majority of those increases work from those those couple of items a building inspector has known increase public works as a very small increase keep in mind that those those three full-time employees are spread out over three different departments so not everyone's wage increases included in the same department recycling has a slight reduction. [59:34] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: next slide roars like the depot and annex parks and gardens all of those remain right around the same library has a fourteen thousand dollar decrease this again took place we reorganize the library we also at this time when we created the 2019 budgets Steve was still full-time and we have quite a few changes that needs to be made up to this point from there the TIF districts we will be done collecting and submitting payment back to those districts the cemetery has a minor increase most of the increases come from the cemetery now being run out of the Public Works Department cable TV like we talked about the cable TV budget is increasing to to basically invest in the equipment that we have in in our room over here which probably hasn't been redone for quite a while and then Riverside arena has a minor increase as well which mostly stems from some part-time employees. [1:00:21] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: slide six is the capital improvements the police department as we talked about but big ones there are the interview room that we put in place it doesn't have a doorway coming from the hallway to have to go into the fire department in that into your doors so reorganizes how you enter that room and then also adds microphone and camera for interviews Public Works is and replacing the third truck for the full-timers and giving current truck that fill drives to the cemetery so that they have a vehicle to get back and forth from the chooses to senator the lawnmower as we talked about a lot more one or two things will happen will either purchase that this year from any reserves that we have in our budget or likely it will just come out of the sewer department for next year and leave a little bit of a gap in funding there. [1:01:53] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: slide 7 parks in wreck that's the campground lawnmower they currently have two really really really bad lawn mowers and we'd like to have one new lawn mower for different for them Riverside arena has some electrical work for the exterior a batting cage to help alleviate some space issues with the number of baseball teams that we have in the community which is great another use for the arena is also a positive and then finally escape sharpener as well the community center we're looking at replacing one additional rooftop unit doing some painting replacing the carpet just general upkeep for the building to try to keep it cubicle slide eight the capital improvement by department just shows how those funds slide from department to department the overall capital improvement budget remains the same. [1:02:40] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: slide 9 is the budget summary breaking up the revenues and operating expenses along with the capital expenses the total net income proposed for the years about $38,000 that we can use as a buffer for any projects that come up throughout the year keeping in mind that this also takes sales tax the gas franchise fee and gambling donation fund that we have it takes those out of than that income as those are restricted funds the remaining items wage increases I think we got that pretty well nailed down any council items that would like to be included tonight tonight would really be kind of the last time for the general fund if if anything needed to be added for the liquor stores or water we can certainly look at those in the future. [1:03:25] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: any sales tax ideas that anybody has for projects for next year could be could be brought up now as well they don't need to be decided on but as we get into December and finalize that budget we'd like to include those the capital improvements for roads if anybody would like to put a levy increase specifically restricted for road projects we could discuss that as well slides 11 and 12 take a look at some of the surrounding communities with Barnum Carlton and Proctor moose lake is just the city portion of the property taxes Moose Lake is lower than those communities willow River and Renshaw were a little bit higher than those communities and really this just panicles the show that we're in the middle which is I think that along the lines is where we'd like to be. [1:04:12] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: but also points to I think one of the largest complaints that we receive as the property taxes in Moose Lake are high we can only control the city portion of that levee and if anybody's been here when the hospital has come I'll keep bringing up that levee the fire district the school the county there's there's lots of things that happen in this community that are outside of our jurisdiction I guess page 13 has the historical let the information and really bring this up for two reasons one is to look for instance this year at the tax rate which the tax rate shows a 0% increase the tax levy the actual dollar amount does increase like I said before the levy increase comes from the additional value of Moose Lake which went up by about a hundred thousand dollars last year we are currently here 71.5% tax exempt so we do not even levy against thirty percent we levy against less than 30% of the value of Moose Lake. [1:05:44] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: slide 14 14 15 and 16 are all about the debt service we have three debt service bonds that we levy for the first one is the 2011 aid bond we levy forty one thousand three hundred and thirty three dollars to pay for that debt service the additional revenue comes from the township or the fire district that bond is the paper this building as well fire and police department building the debt service for 2014 a which is for Park Place Drive the general levy for that is $40,000 is being proposed for next year the additional revenue coming from special assessments along that roadway that one is there again that's the one where that fund balance go negative and then will work itself back out by year 15 that service for 2017 8 that was for 3rd Street and Kenwood as well as the highway 73 projects the general property tax levy for that one being proposed is $35,000 with any additional revenue needed coming from sales tax right now we have a fund balance so we haven't been making that transfer there will come a time where that fund balance runs out and we will begin to make that transfer but we don't really need to quite yet. [1:07:16] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: page 17 is the summary for the water fund the big thing here's the net income continues to be negative with the water fund I would suggest three percent rate increase which would bring in about 7500 of additional money but we can still have a net loss however it would would slow that down slide 18 shows what the impact on residents would be that 3% increase would be about 68 cents per month to customers which yes is an increase but I mean inflation happens all of us here. [1:08:05] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so the sewer fund there again the net income with this is proposed at net loss of a hundred and thirteen thousand nine hundred and seventy two and that's because fill is expensive but also because what I would like to do with the capital funds is increase from twenty five thousand to a hundred thousand and align one quarter of the sewer main that collects most of the sewage for the downtown area so that does show a very large increase in that loss but there is a purpose and we do have reserves to fund that I would suggest or what I am suggesting is a two percent rate increase which shots like twenty two percent increase would be above fifty cents per customer which there again just slows the reduction in that fund balance water and sewer CIP attacked a little bit of water the big thing with the well house is we are we're planning on breaking a few valves in sections of water mean and this this allows us to fund those without it just being an emergency we'll just plan ahead a little bit of additional funds for the for that project and any breaks that come from it obviously the sewer I talked about already with wine. [1:09:42] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: slide 22 the liquor store at this time I would just say the liquor budget is not done well just we'll just say that the liquor store budgets not done we're going to review the budget again in November and probably again in December prior to bringing it here we will have a final budget but we do have a little bit more information before that one it is done. [1:09:56] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: the DMV on slide 23 the DMV has a net loss of thirty nine thousand nine hundred keeping in mind that we have a capital project for redoing the offices for the DMV which is the costs for for the large increase in the net loss however we did receive thirty five thousand from the state for additional expenses incurred going through the the change in that system so we do have money to pay for this my hope is that we can just quickly use that money before it gets swallowed up into a an ongoing budget so those all of those enterprise funds the water the sewer liquor and DMV none of those need to be approved tonight they're just informational and kind of a bigger part of the bigger picture what we do need to look at is slide 24 which is the levy figures and those are the total the general fund levy as well as the three debt service the total levy the first column on this or a rope on the spreadsheet are the total levy dollar month that needs to be passed tonight and then the other is defeat of the cult fearing which would be December 11th of 2019. [1:11:17] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so I guess my first question is page 25 kind of brings up capital improvement projects the world projects is there any interest at this time for setting a levy again you would restrict this levy for the use of road improvements and utility improvements to go along with our capital improvement plan is there any interest at this time in creating that levy at this time okay so then that kind of allows us to go back to this previous slide slide 24 the way that the budget is set right now it has the wage increases that we talked about health insurance prosecution sirs all of those all of those changes that we've already talked about are all built into the budget right now we do have a net income of 35 $38,000 that allows for a buffer and that is with a zero percent levy increase. [1:12:49] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: now I I will say this if if somebody wanted to set it at a one or two percent increase with the plan of bringing it down to zero in December that's fine it basically anything that comes up between now and December that would change our budget negatively if we set it at zero I can't we can't instead of that one or two later on so it's it's up to you the way that the budget is set right now I am perfectly comfortable setting it at zero percent I don't foresee anything popping up that would that dramatic over the next couple months that being said it would not be unheard of to simply set a little bit of a gap in there and then come back from it in December. [1:13:37] **Council Member**: make a motion that we set it at to two percent maximum you can always bring it back to zero but you can't go back forever mostly sad so it's about two percent maximum and just to clarify the total levy amount for that would be seven hundred and three thousand four hundred and six dollars. [1:14:23] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: so we do have a motion do we have a second open it up for discussion I do agree with what you're saying that's the reason why I'm saying that we can't go backwards so I'm just essentially until there's stuff that comes in so all in favor say aye I suppose also be done motion for the date and that date would be December 11th I mean let me just make sure before they go cuz it's December 11 I would suggest that we do that one at six o'clock and our meetings are at 4:00 just to set a public hearing at six o'clock especially if your taxes think would be would be wise you save a second. [1:15:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: any questions discussion eight minutes will remove that 6:00 p.m. on December 11 right all right all in favor say aye thank you all so then moving down there he did six neither business 260 liquor store bathroom repair quotes there's two quotes in your packets starting on page 59 there to replace three toilets one year and all two bathroom sinks yeah the low bid on this one was from Summit slash all service plumbing for five thousand fifty dollars we budgeted five thousand dollars for capital for imported these projects so we do have I'll make motion makes up a little bit sure okay any questions or discussion hearing none all in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries. [1:16:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: moving on to 16 hydrogen animal catch bass and repair fulness do you want to talk about this is a protective it's like two months ago when I came not for the life I may remember what all these. [1:17:18] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: bring me up to speed Oh it's the whole you manhole say well first the first one they dig up dig up that a fire hydrant neckla trip so just east of the entrance to quick trip there is a fire agent that is pushed off of the stuff but meaning what that means it's like they're just physically pushing away from the pipe towards leaking inspection I've known for a while and it's on our punch list to get done here before freeze-up second one is a manhole on 6th resoling year I believe the estimate this this month my fence somebody something like that here's I'm sorry but anyway regardless because the emails I got back were just terrible I believe in one of them maybe it's called out as a landfill the years ago back in the 50s they put lamb holes in places with mammals however now on today with the cleaning women we have you can I use my clothes you physically cannot get equipment in them to clean them what we want to do is we want to place it with a manual which is gives accessible ability for me or my guys in there and properly cleaning right now it's a hole in the ground it's about six inches in diameter and four foot and then the last one is replace the existing catch basin I'm forestry which I can speak to we have a sinkhole in front of City Hall which Phil doesn't believe me but it's a sinkhole this catch basin unavailable yes. [1:18:50] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so as far as money goes we do have funds actually I think we budgeted specifically for a hydrant replacement in 2019 out of the water fund as far as the sewer as far as the sewer fund goes not only are we coming in under budget we still have capital funds available for this we also are only going to be able to do one sewer cleaning rather than two this year which will save some money so there's there's a few ways our sewer department right now looks looks really really good budget wise which is why by the end of the year we might buy a lawn mower but we have the funds in both the water and sewer department to to pay for these two projects so I would recommend that we approve Gobles estimate which is the [Music]. [1:20:47] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: right that's what it is yeah so actually what we're gonna do is we're going to expand our area align our shop if you look back there now I think everyone has will sent that email from mom fighter and so we made a whole bunch of rope and we fill it all up in me don't really happen to know so we're gonna we have more land to to clear off and level up and I don't like it so this one our original plan with the capital funds in the Public Works Department was to start putting away money for a new front end water our original plan was that I think they're going like ten thousand dollars away this year or something we're talking about a thirty thousand dollar piece of machinery so I'm not sure I think it was with good intentions but we were a bit naive in thinking that putting away $10,000 would get us a new front end loaders magically so what are we thinking that and we'd like to use the ten thousand dollars of additional capital that we have it's still within our budget and put it towards these next two items. [1:22:21] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: so this this conversation applies to the next item as well but I will say this if you haven't seen Byron's email please read Byron's email that talks about cleaning up the area in front of the shop if you have not been to the shop lately I would strongly urge you to go to the shout look at the back of the shop it looks amazing being finished off with all the equipment inside the entire area that they removed all the trees weld it all out added drainage they built bunkers for Clarissa for dirt wood chips they have a gate I mean it's it's looking pretty good back there so I shot it looks like yeah so I do think that that certainly this is this is needed and it's helping out already so we're talking about 6e and then yep together no so just eat just after the money comes from the same conversation we'll be different the little bit on this one was Ziegler I think I left the abstain right now he has clothes in here were E [Music] I agree all in favor say aye. [1:24:36] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: 6n it this just for the record this comes out of the same money that we were just talking about that $10,000 that we set aside and you can even talk about what you want to deal with it so this is another attachment for her but she might be that was a wonderful purchase because we use it daily and everyone in the apartment use it this is going to be used for clearing regulates brush piles the brush pile that we deal with daily stop remove all the this would be this would be a peaky speaky key piece of women to have during a start near was two or three years ago we had created when it started and we clean up juries for I think almost a month by the time we're all done and this would have been ideal this is a bucket that goes on the front of the skid steer that has scrapple arms that you can basically grab debris remove it haul it around him and I think this would be a very very well used piece of equipment for us to have. [1:25:23] **City Superintendent Phil Entner**: G to implements would be live in this and before we go any farther there I highlighted the wrong attachment from Caterpillar out of their book g2 is still lowered by a mile however the price from Caterpillar with the state pricing what I have written on there's thirty six thirty six hundred twenty seven dollars if you jump down to the skeleton buckle grapple bucket it's going to be the model number sgv 72 is actually a little different total with skate bid pricing a 7 percent less that book book prices in a figurine 3501 45 so I understand you two little cheaper I just want to make sure that we were legit than apples were apples and so on and so forth so I just I just actually caught that when I'm sitting there in chairs my apologies exit so that is what [Music] young it's it's very good one yes I'll make a motion we accept a little bit yeah whatever second second any questions during the favor say aye oh you're going to just do this you want to do seven prior to we can. [1:27:14] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: any movie now - seven reports and correspondents Minnesota rural Water Association thank you yeah what 70 who was under 71 I think Phil's paying to send-- these but this is a thank you to the City Council for allowing them to have the training in Moose Lake shows at the Depot they also Express some nice words about the staff that the city has as well so they'll make sure that I put it in the back and then we also have 7b for our bedroom thank you same thing just to thank you to the Public Works crew they're doing a good job and making it sound less beautiful thank you any other comments for the council. [1:28:01] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: okay number eight committees and board meeting minutes a day that was like plumber special meeting minutes July 9 2019 the Moose Lake Powell regular lady minutes July 16th 2019 musaib library board meeting minutes August 12 2019 the most like Economic Development Authority being that's obvious working for 19 and the Moose Lake Planning Commission meeting minutes August 15 19 September and go to two minutes no these are the minutes from the prior announcement regular books like City Council meeting Wednesday October 9th at 4 p.m. but if you're late Economic Development Authority Wednesday October 9th at 12:00 p.m. City conference room most like water light Commission regular meeting Tuesday September 17 3 p.m. the water in my office Loosli causing and Redevelopment Authority Board of 12 or 14 Lebanon will save an enormous there's news media office who's like here in Fire District Tuesday October 8 6:30 p.m. at the mercy response center which like park board meeting Monday October 7th at 6:30 right hearing and the library board meetings October 14 1 p.m. at the City conference room and this time we go back to the 6 g and 6 h which is a going into the closed meeting because of personal discussion as well as negotiation and land appreciation which is also emotion to flows directly meaning and then open opening closely never second favor say aye post and then a motion to open their clothes people in favor say aye okay.