This transcript appears to be from **June 7, 2022**. Please note that the names provided in your context list (Mayor Monge, etc.) appear to be for a different term. According to the roll call and dialogue within the transcript itself, the officials present are **Mayor Furlong** and Council Members **Thorson, Peterson, Wong, and Cole**. Here is the formatted transcript with speaker identifications: [00:00] **Mayor Furlong:** Very cute. We'll go ahead and call the City of North St. Paul City Council meeting to order for June 7th. If we could all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:10] **Group:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [00:25] **Mayor Furlong:** Jenny, if you’d take the roll, because the mics are working now? [00:28] **Jennie Kloos:** Yeah, they are and loud. Councilmember Thorson? [Present]. Councilmember Peterson? [Present]. Councilmember Wong? [00:33] **Councilmember Wong:** Here. [00:34] **Jennie Kloos:** Councilmember Cole? [00:35] **Councilmember Cole:** Here. [00:36] **Jennie Kloos:** Mayor Furlong? [00:37] **Mayor Furlong:** Here. Quorum is present. Uh, motion to adopt the agenda. [00:40] **Councilmember Peterson:** So moved, Your Honor. [00:41] **Mayor Furlong:** Moved by Councilman Peterson. Second? [00:43] **Councilmember Cole:** Second. [00:44] **Mayor Furlong:** Seconded by Councilmember Cole. Any discussion? [00:46] **Councilmember Thorson:** Yup, I would uh, request that we move city business action items and recommendations D and E up ahead of item A out of respect for time for Mr. Casey who's here to deal with that. [00:58] **Mayor Furlong:** Say it again. [00:59] **Councilmember Thorson:** D and E under the city business action items and recommendations. Just move those up ahead of Item A. [01:05] **Mayor Furlong:** Okay. Anybody have a concern with that? Okay, we'll move D and E up to A and B. Okay, so we'll do that. Motion to adopt the agenda with that correction. [01:15] **Councilmember Peterson:** So moved. [01:17] **Mayor Furlong:** All those in favor signify by saying aye. [01:19] **Council:** Aye. [01:20] **Mayor Furlong:** Opposed? Motion carries. We have no presentations and consent agenda. I’ll turn over to City Manager Stark. [01:28] **City Manager Stark:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council Members. The consent agenda contains several separate items which are considered by the City Council in one motion. Once the consent agenda has been approved, all the recommended items have been approved as well. Any City Council member can request that an item be pulled for further discussion or an individual vote. Tonight we have a number of items on consent agenda... [Reads items A through O]. And that concludes tonight's consent agenda. So at this time, if any councilmen would like to take off one of the items, they can do so at this time. [02:40] **Mayor Furlong:** If not, a motion to approve the consent agenda. [02:43] **Councilmember Cole:** So moved. [02:45] **Mayor Furlong:** Moved by Councilmember Cole. Second? [02:47] **Councilmember Wong:** Second. [02:48] **Mayor Furlong:** Seconded by Councilmember Wong. Any discussion? Not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. [02:52] **Council:** Aye. [02:53] **Mayor Furlong:** Opposed? Motion carries. This time the meeting is open to the public and I have one here, and that is John Small. [03:00] **John Small:** I just want to bring up that getting onto the website and reading it and finding out what new things are available is a surprise. In my case, in one instance, I didn't want to find my situation put my name getting out in violation of state statute which kind of made me unhappy. But another item showed up about the new notification tool... [Discusses garbage delivery day discrepancy]. I don't think we have a choice of a day. It's scheduled a regular day. I would like my day changed to Thursday... but I don't think I have a choice. This says that I do, so maybe you will get that corrected. [04:15] **Mayor Furlong:** Thank you, and we'll talk to Kerry when she gets back from her vacation. This time there's nobody else... Oh, he's on Zoom. Got it. Go ahead RT. RT, welcome. [04:28] **RT (Resident via Zoom):** Thank you very much. How are you guys tonight? [04:30] **Mayor Furlong:** Good, you can hear us? [04:32] **RT:** I can. I really appreciate and I listened to the workshop. I want to thank you guys for continuing to meet and discuss the community center. [Discusses finances and lease of the community center]. We would like a lease extension into April and possibly May... we're interested in continuing if we could certainly rent that gym space if it's available. [Discusses $70,000 profit]. Thank you very much, I appreciate your time. [05:55] **Mayor Furlong:** Thanks, RT, and that's good information for us to know. Thank you. Have a great night. Anybody else on Zoom? No. Okay. There is no public hearing. Turn it over to City Manager Stark. [06:10] **City Manager Stark:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I believe item number D has become item number A, and that is my resignation. As you know, I spoke with all five of you on Friday... It's really a quality of life issue for me. I do want to thank you for your support. [Discusses transition, vacation, and hiring of a Community Development Director]. [07:45] **Mayor Furlong:** I appreciate your what you've done for the city. In the last five months you have done a lot. I believe the council itself 100 percent backs you. [Discusses the 30-day notice and vacation]. I’m thinking maybe your last day, and I’m gonna leave it up to the council, but maybe the day before you leave on your vacation, and that would be the 15th, I believe, right? [08:15] **City Manager Stark:** Correct. [08:17] **Mayor Furlong:** City Attorney, do we have any obligation? [08:20] **City Attorney:** I mean, the 30 days obligation comes from a written contract. The two parties can come to an agreement that June 15th would be the last day. [08:45] **Mayor Furlong:** Okay. Is there a motion to accept the resignation of the City Manager with a stop date of June 15th? [08:55] **Councilmember Thorson:** So moved. [08:57] **Councilmember Cole:** Second. [09:00] **Mayor Furlong:** Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. [09:03] **Council:** Aye. [09:05] **Mayor Furlong:** Motion carries. So at this time we need to figure out replacement. I had talked to Brian Frandle... he did a great job last time. So my recommendation is to hire Brian Frandle as the interim city manager. [09:25] **City Manager Stark:** If you'd permit me, I would just add that Brian Frandle really had prepared a good ground for me. [09:40] **Mayor Furlong:** Is there a motion for interim city manager Brian Frandle to start on June 16th? [09:45] **Councilmember Cole:** So moved. [09:47] **Councilmember Wong:** Second. [09:48] **Mayor Furlong:** Discussion? [09:50] **Councilmember Thorson:** Yeah, I would agree that Brian did a great job covering for us last time, but unlike last time, I think we're in a little different position staffing wise. Personally, I think it'd be more appropriate to have our finance director step into this role... I think a better option would be going with our finance director for the interim role. [10:20] **Mayor Furlong:** We have a motion and a second. All those in favor for Brian Frandle to be interim city manager signify by saying aye. [10:25] **Council:** Aye. (Majority). [10:27] **Mayor Furlong:** Opposed? Motion carries. Welcome Brian, again. Oh, there he is sitting in the corner. I think another piece to this would be the permanent replacement. Mark Casey is here from David Drown and Associates. Mark, welcome. [10:45] **Mark Casey (Recruiter):** Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. As the City Manager said, my name is Mark Casey... This is covered under the two-year warranty, so no additional cost. [Presents options: re-interviewing previous finalists Kevin Kress and Willie Morales, or starting a new search]. [12:20] **Councilmember Thorson:** I think it makes sense to at least reach out to them first and see if they're interested. [12:45] **Mark Casey:** One candidate, Mike Anderson, was a DDA search elsewhere, so we wouldn't poach him. But yes, regarding Mr. Kress and Mr. Morales, they may be available. [13:10] **Councilmember Cole:** I would like to expand the pool and see what the pool would look like. [13:15] **Mayor Furlong:** I would too. I just really want to get this moving. [13:30] **Mark Casey:** Okay, then we will post the position and follow the schedule... [Discusses dates: August 8th and August 31st]. [14:15] **Mayor Furlong:** A suggestion I think about is offering to get Craig Waldron back here again to help. [14:40] **Mark Casey:** I think it's an outstanding idea. Mr. Waldron is extremely well respected. [14:55] **Mayor Furlong:** Thank you. City Manager Stark, next item? [15:00] **City Manager Stark:** The next item is an amendment to Chapter 117, alcoholic beverages. This is regarding fencing for outdoor patio areas on private land. I’ll ask Brandy Howe to come up. [15:20] **Brandy Howe (Planning Consultant):** Basically, the proposed amendment is simplifying the language, eliminating the fence requirement, and allowing owners to determine their own demarcation. [15:45] **Mayor Furlong:** Motion for the ordinance amending Chapter 117? [15:50] **Councilmember Wong:** So moved. [15:52] **Councilmember Cole:** Second. [15:54] **Mayor Furlong:** All those in favor signify by saying aye. [15:56] **Council:** Aye. [15:58] **Mayor Furlong:** Motion carries. City Manager Stark? [16:00] **City Manager Stark:** Agreement with Tyler Technologies for financial software. I’ll ask Finance Director Dan Winick to provide the memorandum. [16:15] **Dan Winick (Finance Director):** Thank you. We had planned to move to OpenGov, but we ran into difficulties. I am proposing moving our current Tyler Technologies (Incode) system to the cloud... It offers more flexibility and better support. [Discusses Incode 9 to Incode 10 migration and data safety]. It’s an approximately $6,500 increase. [19:10] **Councilmember Wong:** Does this have a forward-facing public data visualization like OpenGov? [19:20] **Dan Winick:** No, but there are other ways we can get that data out for transparency. [20:15] **Councilmember Cole:** Is the data proprietary, or can we recover it if we change software in five years? [20:30] **Dan Winick:** We own the data. [20:45] **City Attorney:** That’s correct. We own the data and can get it back in a usable format. [21:10] **Mayor Furlong:** Motion for the resolution approving the agreement? [21:15] **Councilmember Wong:** So moved. [21:16] **Councilmember Peterson:** Second. [21:18] **Mayor Furlong:** All those in favor? [21:20] **Council:** Aye. [21:25] **Mayor Furlong:** Motion carries. Thank you. City Manager Stark? [21:35] **City Manager Stark:** This is a planning grant for stormwater and community resilience. Morgan Dawley from WSB put this together. [21:45] **Morgan Dawley (City Engineer):** Thank you. This is a grant agreement with the MPCA. We were awarded about $52,000 for resiliency planning. [Discusses climate change, precipitation events, and working with the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District]. The city match is about $5,000. [25:30] **Mayor Furlong:** Motion to authorize the grant agreement? [25:40] **Councilmember Peterson:** [Reads motion]. So moved. [25:55] **Councilmember Wong:** Second. [25:57] **Mayor Furlong:** All those in favor? [25:58] **Council:** Aye. [26:00] **Mayor Furlong:** Motion carries. City Manager Stark? [26:05] **City Manager Stark:** One last thing, the development team for the Lillie building (Jim LaValle) is holding a community meeting next Monday, June 13th, from 5:30 to 6:30 here at City Hall to gather input. [26:50] **Mayor Furlong:** Reports of council commissions and committees. Councilmember Cole? [26:55] **Councilmember Cole:** Park and Rec met... they are moving back out into the community meetings starting June 22nd at Southwood. EDA meeting is June 14th. [27:40] **Councilmember Wong:** Planning Commission met regarding the sign ordinance. Arts and Culture is preparing the "Art Cart" for summer events like Music in the Park on June 16th. [28:20] **Councilmember Peterson:** The student-built house on 19th Avenue will be finished by July 12th. I’m also finishing my term with the League of Minnesota Cities. [29:15] **Councilmember Cole:** First Music in the Park is June 16th with Brio Brass. The first car show was last Friday and was very well attended. [29:50] **Councilmember Wong:** Thanks to staff for the shredding event. Also, Happy Pride Month and Juneteenth. [30:10] **Councilmember Peterson:** Shout out to Public Works for patching the pothole on Margaret. [30:25] **Councilmember Thorson:** I’ve had residents express concern over the 22-foot driveway ordinance. I'd like to get that on a workshop. Also, a reminder that off-site commission meetings must remain ADA accessible. [31:00] **Mayor Furlong:** Thank you, John [Stark], for your work. Best of luck. I’m hosting "Brew with the Mayor" tomorrow at Roddy’s Bar from 6 to 8 PM. Motion to adjourn the regular meeting? [31:40] **Councilmember Peterson:** Moved. [31:42] **Councilmember Cole:** Second. [31:45] **Mayor Furlong:** Motion carries. We will take a five-minute break before the HRA meeting. *** [32:00] **Chair Furlong:** Jenny, take the roll for the HRA. [Roll call taken]. Quorum is present. Motion to adopt the agenda. [32:10] **Commissioner Peterson:** Moved. [32:12] **Commissioner Cole:** Second. [32:15] **Chair Furlong:** One item. Executive Director Stark? [32:18] **Executive Director Stark:** This is for the purchase of 2170 Eldridge Avenue East for $225,000. The plan is to demolish the blighted home and build two student-built houses with District 916. [33:10] **Commissioner Thorson:** Have we determined if there is asbestos and what the abatement costs are? [33:20] **Executive Director Stark:** We are purchasing it as-is. Given the age, it is likely. [33:45] **Commissioner Thorson:** I won't support this. I think we’re paying too much, and we have other existing lots like the one on 6th Street that are ready to go. [34:15] **Chair Furlong:** Motion to adopt the resolution for acquisition? [34:25] **Commissioner Cole:** So moved. [34:27] **Commissioner Wong:** Second. [34:30] **Chair Furlong:** All those in favor signify by saying aye. [34:32] **Commissioners:** Aye. (Majority). [34:34] **Chair Furlong:** Motion carries. Motion to adjourn? [34:40] **Commissioner Wong:** So moved. [34:42] **Commissioner Peterson:** Second. [34:45] **Chair Furlong:** Meeting adjourned.