7:00 we will call the March 3rd, 2025 town board meeting to order. First item on the agenda is the agenda. Patrick, any changes? Um, no additions or deletions from staff, Mr. Chair. Board of anything? I have none. I have nothing. Move to approve the agenda as noted. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. All right. Uh item three is approval of payment of the bills. Sign off, Steve. I signed off. Move to approve payment of the bills. Second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. That motion carries. Item four is the approval of a prior minute meeting of February 19th, 2025. Anybody have any changes? Um on the bottom of page four of the um uh past minutes, there's just a small typo in the very last line under item five E. It just says underground borin and I think it was just bor boring. B R I N G. Not a biggie. I think it was a commentary on you, Steve. I'm boring. Anything else? No. All right. I need a motion to approve the minutes as amended. So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. All right. Uh item five is a consent agenda item. Looks like we have about uh seven, eight of them. Anybody want to pull them or you feel comfortable passing them on? I'm okay with it. I'm fine. Move move to approve consent agenda. Do I have a second? Second. Sorry. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right. Item six is old business. We have none. And item seven is public hearings. We have none. So we'll move to item eight. This is the infrastructure fund use policy and discussion. Yes, Mr. Chair, if it pleases the board, I didn't want to make this change at the beginning because I was waiting for the phone call to come in. it would be okay. Uh, can we swap 8B and 8A and handle cottages of White Bear Lake discussion first as we do have um Chad Vinnie from our meeting on Friday? He's on the line right now. All right, that works. Okay, so let's switch that. Chad, we are going to start talking now. Okay, thank you. All right, so Patrick, you want to give us an overview then? So, this is a follow-up discussion to what we had at our executive work discussion uh this past Friday regarding some outstanding uh fines and fees um with the cottages of White Bear, which are now the cottage of White Bear Lake. Um the board did have uh some open dialogue with the vendor of that with of that business and did arrive at a recommendation on how to handle it. Um the Chad Vinnie is the vendor would like to have further discussion upon that decision. So, if you guys want to or Chad, if you want to chime chime in as to what it is you'd like the board to consider this evening in an official capacity. We are um not allowed to make official decisions at our executive board meeting. So, here's here's the place to do that. Okay. Um can you guys hear me? Okay. Oh, yeah. Okay, great. Um, I'm at my kids dance, so you might be hearing yelling and whistling is going on in the background, but um, so I, um, you know, we we purchased the the property back in April of 2024, and we had a management company that we had worked with for several years, had another property kind of at the helm, and we recently made a change to a new firm that started on February 1st. And the reason for the change was just due to a lot of issues that we were having with the uh the prior management company. Um we we recognized that they were not running the property in a way that was uh something we wanted to to deal with long term. So when our new property management company came in, they reached out to the township just to talk about um just to see if there was any um licenses or contact information forms or anything that needed to be filled out. And at that time, uh, it was brought to our attention that the rental license that was at the property, while it was still valid, um, was technically out of compliance because the the license is non-transferable. And so we should have, when we bought the property, um, transferred that license to our name. Um, that was an oversight on our part. And um uh you know, frankly, uh I don't want to call it neglect, but a big misstep on the part of our property management company. And so when we were talking with Karen about trying to become compliant with both the business license and the rental license, it was brought to our attention that we were going to incur a roughly $47,000 penalty or a 5% per day penalty, which um prompted us to want to come up and meet with the board and kind of talk this through um because that penalty at a 5% fee. Um, you know, that would really have a detriment to the property and our operating expenses if we were to have to incur that entire cost. Um, we did go through and we read the ordinance kind of at great length. It did seem like the prior company that was supposed to or the that held the license was required to notify the township of a sale and at the same time provide our contact information. It does not appear that that ever occurred. Um and also we haven't really ever received anything official in writing about the actual penalty or being in violation of the ordinance. So, we we basically came up because we wanted to talk to the board about what options we had. Um, we want to be good partners. We want to be good neighbors. Um, and frankly, this was just um something that unfortunately fell through the cracks. Um, and and I just further wanted to to say that, you know, in in looking at this a little bit more, it does seem like the township has another ordinance in place, which is ordinance number 26, which seems to put a cap on the amount of penalties that could be charged. And so this was something that I I just wanted to see if we were open to discussing um just to make sure that we are fully understanding the the implications of this of this penalty. And now I know the board had said that you guys would be willing to discuss uh options and um you know and the number that we had discussed at the time was was 10,000 and that number while I I do appreciate the board's uh willingness to hear us out and to willing to offer a lower number still would be a a pretty big hit to the property budget. Um, so I I wanted to kind of I guess see if if there was any room for further discussion about the dollar amount to see if this ordinance number 26 applies at all to our situation. Um, and then to discuss maybe what kind of final ruling the board in the town um has has come to so that we can get in compliance as soon as we can and go on to be good neighbors here for the next 10 plus years hopefully. Chad, are you familiar with this ordinance 26? Not offh hand. No, I'm not. I'm going to look it up if you guys want to keep talking here. All right, Steve, questions or comments? Well, as we said it when we visited with you, the u the real issues in this uh fine situation really is with the management company that you you indeed hired or the prior prior owners. It is not a township issue. the ordinance in my mind was clear, but I'm not I don't know what ordinance 26 says. So, while he's looking that up, um you know, we want to be good neighbors also, but yet um you were late and not our fault. So, I we brought this as soon as we got done with our meeting. We we went and talked to the CEO of our prior management company just to try to understand uh they are saying that they they have never they don't have any record of any correspondence with the township. Uh they do not say that they have any record of any uh uh written uh letters or anything about this. And their stance was that they saw the license, they saw that it was valid through 2026 and even though it was in the name of the old company, they did not it did not seem to trigger to them the need to apply and get us a new license because it was still a valid license. Now, I completely understand the non-transferability of this, which makes that point um I guess I don't want to say irrelevant, but that's what they had said to us is, you know, we we were aware of this rental license. It it appeared that it was still valid. Uh we did not receive any information about it not being valid. We did not receive any information about penalties or fines. And um you know, frankly, it was an oversight on our part for not digging in either. So I I understand guys and I just I'm just sharing that with you to because after our meeting, we went and met with them to try to understand how this could have happened and uh what steps they took to try to to cure this issue. on that issue. You talked about it being a hit to your operating uh budget, you know, and and I I'm not put I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you know, you you talked about the people that live in the in these units. This is really no fault of theirs. It is really from management company to ownership issues, not us or residents. Uh in my opinion, but uh I guess a question is ordinance 26. I just read it and it doesn't apply because ordinance 26 uh deals with criminal uh fines. It sets out what are petty misdemeaners, gross mismeters, and this is not a criminal action. This is a civil civil fine. So no, it has no application. It was that was the one thing I could find to talk about maximum penalties. It's just, you know, it it seems like like in our business with um like late fees that we can charge our tenants, we're capped by state statute at like an 8% per month limit. And so the the 5% every day um that that number, I mean, adds up to be kind of just a detrimental penalty. I I don't disagree with you that that's what it it says a delinquency penalty of 5% of license fees for each day is in there. I mean, it it says that in there, but I don't know if that's the intent of what the ordinance is trying to solve. When I read through this, it's you all want to know that we're taking good care of the property, that we're running it in a sound manner, that we're running it in a safe manner, you know, not that because we forgot to submit this, that, you know, we'd have to potentially pay, you know, almost $50,000. Yeah. The original the original fine max was about 56, I thought. But anyway, well, it said 51,240, but that included to I think to his understanding the three the license by annual uh license renewal. We have never we have never received like an official letter or an official notice from the township. Um this this kind of came about because our new management company was talking to Karen because we had received a letter in the mail in February about the business license. So, they had called to inquire about the business license and then there was some email correspondence, but we've never actually received any sort of a violation notice stating an additional like a a dollar amount or how to cure it. This was this, you know, so this was something that was brought to our attention probably two, three weeks ago and um you know, we're trying to get ahead, you know, cure it as fast as we were aware of it. Well, the the board here has full confidence in our staff and I know Karen has been doing a stellar job on keeping up on this and I believe she said at our exec meeting that she was in in contact with someone and forwarding all the necessary paperwork for fees and permits. So I you know I don't want to get into he said she said but I have total faith in our the way our procedures ran. The other thing that might have accounted for the gaff too is that we do these every two years for the licenses. Um but from what I understand with the discussion on Friday with staff present was that she had been in yes communication. She also indicated that mail didn't come back to her either. So she had no reason to think that that there's two there's two items here. So the the one that she had been in contact about was the business license. So that was the and and that's what you know she has has shared with me on the phone as well. And she's been great to work with too. So, I I I by no means have any issues or concerns. She's been fantastic to deal with, but the the business license, which is the $100 fee, is what she had been that is the notice she had sent uh to the to the property address, and that is what she has had conversation about. It was in discussions about the business license that it also became apparent to her that the rental license did not transfer when we purchased it. So even though the the rental license might be still showing in your system as valid, I think this this business license issue is what prompted her to say, okay, if there's been a change of ownership, uh then we need to go back and and update the rental license. So um so and I and I only bring that up because it is it is two different issues that have been kind of discussed interchangeably on Friday. Mr. chair if I may make a point. Uh, as been point as Chad has just pointed out earlier, it is the obligation of the seller to notify the township. It's not the township's obligation to determine if property has been sold or not. So really, there's no the township has not violated any duty or it's not hasn't fallen down on the job at all to say the least. It's the job of the seller. And unfortunately, I appreciate the fact I appreciate what you're saying, but it is not the township's job to keep track of this. It's your job. It's the job of the seller. The job of the private parties to inform the township what's going on. Yes. Yeah. And I agree. I mean an 11-7 license man transferable is very clear that says every person holding an operating license shall give notice in writing to the code enforcement officer within 72 hours of having legally transferred or disposed of the control of the licensed dwelling. Such notice shall include the name, address, and person succeeding the ownership or control of the rental dwelling. So, if if the seller had followed and obligated that, then you guys would have known right away who we were and how to contact us. And I get this is on some of this is on us, too. I'm not trying to say that this is everyone else's fault. But we had reached out to the seller and said, "Can you provide us notice or anything that you have submitted to the township uh in relation to this ordinance?" We never got anything back from them because I think had that step happened that would have avoided a lot of extra work on on your team's part and a lot of excessive penalties on our team's part by the unawareness of this issue. Well, I know you know the the board obviously we discussed this at length at our at exec meeting and uh I think we have the full right to expect that full 51,000 if we so wish. I think we were trying to be um at least flexible in bringing that number down to a $10,000 flying plus your um your fees. And I I don't see us moving on that. I I think that's more than a fair uh settlement and I I don't see any reason to beat this thing up anymore. And in addition to that, you you do have a recourse against the parties that you felt wronged you. So it's not like you don't have someone to go after that actually may have started this whole process wrongly, but that's not us. And that's and I agree our I think our compromise is fair. And so unless there's something else, uh, Mr. Chair, I I think the uh $10,000 uh fine plus the uh uh by annual rental uh license uh fee is appropriate. That a motion? That's a motion. A second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. All right, that motion carries. Thank you, sir. C can um are you guys able to share with me like what happens next? Will we be would you like us to contact Karen about this on tomorrow or will we be receiving an official letter or anything? We have submitted the application to her but she had said to not pay or move forward with it until the board had completed their ruling. The administrator's thinking right now on best way to deal with that. How I think Jack go ahead. Well, we will contact you and the this the best thing to do is you contact Karen and in the meantime Karen will also send you a letter out with the decision. So, and we'll discuss that at our staff meeting tomorrow, right? So, it'll be taken care of. Okay. All right. Thank you. We got to move on. Thank you everybody. Thanks. Thank you. All right. We're going to go back to item 8A. That's the infrastructure fund use policy discussion. Yes. Uh also continuation from our uh work session on Friday. Mr. chair. Um, I'll give you the opportunity to make some appreciative statements on behalf of the the the township behind this, but as you know, the the township was awarded uh $7 million to go directly towards uh infrastructure projects, mostly specific to our street um management program that we're in the middle of right now. Um the board did discuss how we would like to go about managing those funds over um the extent of the balance of this 10-year program and from when we start the next one shortly thereafter. Um and and and staff did create a with some proposed language for the board to adopt and I think we're here tonight to to bless that and give our residents an idea of where this money is going to help us all and alleviate some burden on our tax side. Well, first of all, I'd like to give a thanks, a public thanks to Senator uh Heather Gustoson and Scott Dibble and retired representative Frank Hornstein. These are elected representatives that lobbyed for us to get this money. Uh the township does not receive any state aid, no gas money, no nothing. So, we're we're always playing catch-up with our surrounding communities. Uh, and this is a a big deal for us because this will run probably at least 20 to 25 years to help road improvements, which means we're not or we're not bonding for as much money as we normally would to fix a road because these funds are going to be transferred into that bond application. And all that means is we're going to be able to bring the levy down a little bit more every year for our residents. Yes, Steve. I was going to add that, you know, unlike cities, townships are are treated a little differently as it comes to that funding. And uh, you know, reaching out to the the legislature to get this was really a a big move to have someone that was actually interested in helping the township cause. Um there is money available in the rural township environment and in the different than us. We're in the Twin City ring and it's not to the same effect or meaning. So um they understood that they helped us and it's going to help our long-term future. I have to say I was really happy about it when it happened. So I too have to say I'm grateful. Well, basically what we're going to be doing is going to take the interest from the 7 million plus a a portion of the um balance of that 7 million and apply that to these road projects. And just running it out, I I know it's going to run at least 20 years. So this this 20 years of of road improvements is going to be funded by this 7 million. Unfortunately, that's the only thing we can use it for, just roads. So we can't put it in the general fund. we can't, you know, fix parks. It's strictly roads. But this is a this is a big deal for the township. Uh we've been lobbying for long as I can remember for this. So it it it's going to help every resident. And Mr. Chair, just to clarify, you're talking about taking one half an equivalent of one half of the interest earned annually from the principal account. Correct. Yep. At least as the policy stands as presented now. Right. And this is obviously up for renegotiation. I mean, if the board feels uh maybe we didn't do road projects for two years, we could spend more the next couple years. Yeah. Or or maybe the a couple of projects were quite larger and then we may have to revise it going down the road. But this is a good start for us. Uh because we felt too we could almost work just off the interest, but I think we need to pay down on that principle. Um, this was also an attempt to give our finance department staff some direction on how to plan these budgets out. Um, and I and Tom Kelly, who's our finance officer, is is comfortable with this as it stands. And as Chad knows, I mean, this is a policy. Um, it's not an ordinance. It's not a statute. It's not a law. uh with differing boards coming along, different policy ideas might come along as well, but this one will be established at least for the immediate time being. And I think everybody agrees that it's a responsible responsible use of uh some really excellent funds for or timely funds for the township. And I just want to say one last thing in addition to thanking Senator Gustoson's Gustoson's office and I know we've beat this dead horse for years now, but the township is has a larger population than 90% of the cities and towns in the state and we are we have not been given access to local government aid. So, Senator Gustiffson's office recognized that and how we we didn't want to pass too much of the burden of our I mean, mundane but very important projects that need to be completed to keep us a top tier suburb. And because we fall into the Met Council's fig fingers, we we get a lot of unfunded mandates, which means they drop balls on us that we have no way of funding. So, it this just another Yep. ease on the pressure. Word of anything else? No. Uh Chad, just uh is this just something we can move as a a policy? This in infrastructure fund. I think you leave as a policy. Okay. Pat's correct. It is a policy which which any future board can change if you wish. It's a subject to any future board's right change because it's a policy. Yes. And you're really not don't need to adopt a resolution or a motion or you know it's just a reflection of the public view of the town board as to what they should be doing with the money. So I'll I'll move to adopt the infrastructure fund use policy 25-01 as noted in the packet tonight. I'll second. Is that acceptable enough, J? That's acceptable. All right. Motion B and second. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose folks. All right, that concludes our regular agenda. We don't have any agenda items. I have open time. So, if anybody wants to speak, come up to the podium. Got anything you want to say? You just need to give your name and address for the minutes. My name is Bob Leaper. I live at 2302 Fifth Court in the township and I have uh according to ordinance statutes or maybe other regulations, I have what I would uh what has been described as a nuisance neighbor and their address is 2286 Fifth Court. We share a property line, my north, their south. I've been here before discussing um these people and trying to work with Mike Johnson at the same time to get some resolution. Um and I'm not getting any uh movement from him assuming that he is code enforcement and code enforcement takes care of such issues. Um, I have multiple issues with this neighbor, but um, tonight I just want to address one significant one. And they have, uh, seven vehicles and one boat on a trailer in their driveway, which is a twocar driveway. They have three vehicles in that, and they have um, four vehicles in their sideyard and a boat on the trailer in their backyard. Five of these vehicles don't run. In fact, one has a car cover on it. The uh the boat is unregistered. The trailer is unregistered. And the trailer is not roadworthy. The tires are shot on it. And I brought this up to Mike Johnson a long time ago. Um and again, I'm not getting any movement uh from him. Have you heard about this neighbor at all? any of you? Yeah, they were in speaking to Mike today. Okay. Y um well, I know the ordinance says a vehicle has to be currently licensed and and drivable otherwise it it can't be stored. It has to be moved. And that's what I I printed out the ordinance on that as well. So, I I hope that Mike has been in touch with them. Um, but they trying to put it nicely, they don't move fast and they're, if you ever seen Sanford and Sun, they're a junkyard. I can't put it any nicer than that. It's a junkyard. And um, it's it's degrading the value of of our neighborhood. I would like to try to sell my house sometime soon, but there's no way that I can. If somebody drives down the street and sees this, there's not a chance that they're going to want to buy my house. Um, Patrick, can you somewhat disclose why they came in? I don't know if that's a good idea. Okay. But are they working with Mike or not? It sure sounds like it to me. It was They were in there for quite some time today. I got a feeling it's something against me. I couldn't tell you. All right. Well, I I know, you know, everybody tries to be Minnesota nice and it comes to a point where you just can't be nice anymore. Obviously, you just heard a phone call that we always try to negotiate these things and it gets to the point sometimes where even we've had to go to court, start taking legal action. And when it gets to the point that these properties get that way, that's our only alternative. And I don't know if they're trying to make amends now so Mike doesn't pursue that legal action. I mean, we just can't run in there with a tow truck start hauling their cars out of there, right? And and I think that I was here maybe two years ago with the same issue and then also talking about replacing Fifth Court Road. Um, and I know that someone on the board had said that, you know, this is something we'll look into. It doesn't happen overnight. It might take a couple years. It's been a couple years and we, you know, nothing is nothing is moving. And I've been patient. I've been trying to look the other way, but I can't. when I drive in and out, it's right there. And I have uh all the emails going back and forth with Mike and I also have probably a hundred pictures, but I don't want to take everybody's time. um wondering if um there is somebody that I could meet with um maybe someday this week, bring a flash drive or print out a bunch of pictures to show that person what we're dealing with. Um so they have a little better understanding instead of me just trying to describe that there's a yard and this yard is tiny. Put it this way, there's every square foot there is a vehicle parked um because they have nowhere else to go. have too many vehicles and none of them two of the eight run and they had just purchased a a newer um Ford crew cab pickup truck and on the north end fifth court comes to a tee. I live on the south end of the tee and on the north end there is an abandoned vacated um house. This white truck from 2286 was parking up next to that house. And maybe two weeks ago, I think the property manager put a no parking sign on the corner of the house where they were parked. And now they're respecting that sign, but now they back into the yard and going. So, it's it's a grandma that owns the house, her son and grandson that are ripping the place up and they're just running her over. She tried to build a nice little pond bird bath area and the grandson just drives in and out of the yard just right over the top of her pond. Disrespectful and doing so is also dragging mud, you know, out into the street. So, there's all of these issues that I would love to and have pictures of everything that if somebody could tell me who I could meet with um after this, I would like to set an appointment up. Well, I don't think anybody meeting with anybody here beyond what Mike can do for you. Mike Johnson still it he has the legal authority to inspect properties. We don't What I what I would suggest to the board and to you, Bob, is that um I'll talk to Mike tomorrow, just put together kind of a quick synopsis of what the discussion was today and share it with the board and then I'm sure he'll reach out to you. Okay. Y um and then one So, Nate, what are you saying? That's that that's fine. I was just going to point out that one of the problems you have we have is this is the minute we we uh serve them with a criminal citation. It also now becomes the uh under the purview of the court and that we have very little control over what judges do. We've already gone through that with other problem properties and we know how long we know how the court treats those and basically they stretch them out for a long time. So I can understand your frustration but you you need to understand we've gone through this we being the town and it has not gone quickly. It took us 10 years to get a house taken down. That's how long it got into the courts and it went forever. So, I'm not legally anywhere. Um, no, no, no, not saying that at all. I'm asking what I'm what I'm going to ask in basic uh language is it's your rules and regulations, but you can't enforce it without going through a court. That's out of your if we cite it criminally, which is what would happen. It has it has to go to the court system. Yeah. Okay. That's the that's the problem. and they they give them the right to refute what we say and that slows the process down. So, it's correct. It takes a long time, but that doesn't mean it can't get fixed. I appreciate you your your frustration and you know, as Pat said, you you know, you can you'll talk to Mike about it and by all means, just you know, email your information to Pat to Mike. But if the board decides to bring criminal, you know, to sight, have them cited criminally, just forewarning you, it could take take a long time before uh that reaches any any conclusion. Okay. Um then then the other thing I wanted to discuss and my eyes kind of my ears kind of perked up that y'all have $7 million for the roads. That's really good. So now you don't have an excuse to fix fifth court. So when I was here two years ago, we talked about it and and fifth court, I've been there for 32 years and that road has been patched and patched and patched patch patch. And is that only two years ago when I was here, the board said, "Yep, in 25 we're going to go in there. We're going to tear it all out. We're going to put in new road." But it's complicated back there. Which I agree it is. The drainage, it is complicated. But now that you have $7 million um well back there every road is graded as a as of how bad a condition is from five to zero five being the best and all our road improvements go on the degragation of each road. So we try to when it gets below two starting to get at one that's when we go in and do them. Now I don't know when that road is up for if it's 25 or if it's been pushed back. And sometimes too if it's just one road, we just don't do one road. We have to do a group of roads. So those roads get rolled into another development. So, and I'm not sure that's something you can talk to our public works about. Actually, Bob, what I can do when um I talk to Mike tomorrow, too, when I respond to you and or the board, I can find out when fifth court's on our 10ear schedule. I mean, we're halfway through it already. Every road's on the schedule. Just matter when. It's it's going to get covered. Okay. So, and and just I guess I'm here to put everything on public record, you know, as well. And then if if the township takes some of this precious money and and replaces the road, um something would have to be done with the neighbors at 2286 because they're driving in and out of their yard onto the street and the tires are eating away because our road is so old. It's just brittle and it's just there's big cutaways from when they come come in and out and if the road gets replaced all nice and shiny. I'm hoping that the township can put a restriction that they can't drive in and out of their yard and wreck the new road. Well, that's part of another reason why we in our ordinance we specify curb and gutter on new roads only so they're not breaking apart at the edge because there's a curb there and that deters some people from driving over them too. He won't in theory. Yeah. Right. Thanks for your time. Thanks, Bob. Thanks, Bob. All right. Anyone else? I see we got a couple students. Want to get up on camera? Your turn. On your time. Going once. Going twice. All right. Seeing none, I need a motion to receive agenda material supplements. So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. I need a motion to adjurnn at 7:36. So moved. Second. All in favor? Bye.