##VIDEO ID:GyRzWxgyDXA## [Music] a [Music] she's a Dandy I think yeah I know I like them Sten what's the auction reserve on too late 9 yeah that's too much it's too think I can get a 36 month note should all consolidate in the middle here no know a friendly Banker that'll easy6 a balloon at the front end [Music] right thank you James [Music] running behind here all right well call a meeting to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Ali America the stands [Music] indivisible good evening and welcome everyone Tom take the roll call please mayor King presid council member at large Austin council member heli present HMA Baker yeah Basin present fiser present we have a quorum your honor thank you Tom we uh welcome anybody in the audience wants a comfortable chair we got plenty of room up here tonight sit up here uh also James your last meeting tonight thank you as honorary council member welcome James uh item number one is a motion for the adoption of the agenda with the addition so moved second all in favor I opposed motion carries item number two is approving our amendments from November 4th 2024 moved second all in favor I opposed motion carries item number three under recognitions and awards say it's not true assistant uh city engineer Mitch Wenham is leaving the flock can head into uh greener pastures with a promotion of the mo County system so thank you Mitch Stephen if we table this does that mean Mitch doesn't go oh we got going away pres we got we got presents Stephen what do you have I don't know if I'd call it Greener pastur you might have went out on a limb there but promotional opportunity there you go there you go so Mitch uh has been with us for nearly 10 years and uh wanted to acknowledge uh some of the work that he has done for the city in his public service over that time period um Mitch has been instrumental in different programs that have been that he's implemented in the in the city engineering department like uh developing a Street rating program which has helped us to build our our 5-year CIP more accurately uh he's also developed a street mapping tool similar to Google Maps where all of our streets in the city you can pull up a map and see different images different sections of the roadway and uh that's a very useful tool as we look to design and develop different things in the community uh he's also helped to expand our GIS program but some um you know one one big thing that I think our community connects with is uh his success in helping us get multiple grants um through whether it be Trail grants or roadway grants and we talk about we're going to talk later about the First Avenue and Oakland Avenue project coming up where uh he was instrumental in getting uh almost over 7 million in Grants for that project and then also the Whitewater project that he's been a part of here in the infancy stages working GA grants for um the initial design for that as well he's been our city lead on that project so um really just wanted to recognize Mitch for the work that he's put in the the public service that he's um put forward here in Austin for the last 10 years and just congratulate him on becoming the mo County uh engineer year and also look forward I look forward to working with him in his new role excellent thank you Stephen certainly a loss for the city I think it's a gain for the community though when you have two Engineers that work together so nicely together with the county and the city that'll be just a bonus for the whole Community um Mitch i' would love to have you come up here and accept two two small gifts a token of appreciation uh uh from the city council uh one is recognizing your service here from Austin come on up here you can face the crowd and get all blushy if you can so we have a key charm to the city that's the city portion thank you it's I wish I could one but I can't find it and then also to Welcome to the county we have a County uh more County coffee mug and it's our saying on here we do the best we can with what we have thank you for your service from the city from the city of auson [Applause] and any words you have Mitch will take them too if you're looking to say anything I guess I don't have much to say but other thank you I I've enjoyed my time here and I I'll be kind of Bittersweet looking forward to something new but I'll I'm just working here too so but I'll get to watch from a distance and help you know uh the county and City interact on different projects so I'll be around you won't be far away thank you Mitch I appreciate everything you've done thank you uh moving on to the agenda looking for a motion do so moved a second second all in favor I I opposed that motion is motion carries uh nothing under public hearings under award biding nothing petitions and requests we have I number five is a resolution certifying the results of the November 5th 2024 election threee so attached we have a resolution with the 2024 2024 election results for your review uh the following candidates were elected to public office for mayor we have Ste Steve King council member First Ward Rebecca Waller council member second ward Michael posma council member Third Ward Paul Fischer and utility board members Jay Lutz Kristen S Johnson and Tyler hleb so I want to thank the election judges again for their hard work and commitment which make the election process possible in the city of Austin thank you to more County and their diligent work and support throughout this election season we had a 77% voter turnout countywide and 81% voter turnout in Austin we registered 1,450 new voters on election date and we thank the citizens of Austin for a great election turnout uh we do have abstracts available to anyone who would like to view them and if you have any questions feel free to contact me very good thank you for your work on that election Bri and all the election judges that gave up their time also uh I believe Bradley Johnson the back row thank you for uh a great race you put a lot of effort into it and I certainly appreciate uh seeing you around and you've been a a tough competitor so thank you thanks um anybody else have anything on the election or you know I've I don't know I think this is my sixth time dealing with certification of an election and I got to tell you um Brienne you and your it was like you had been doing this for 10 years when you went through this with us um last week you know it's just so nice to be able to have absolute confidence in the quality of work that is done by our city clerk's office especially when it comes to elections um just can't thank you enough and uh you are absolutely come across as an expert in this and appreciate it motion to approve well said thanks Jeff looking for we have a motion for the resolution is there a second second and I would add before we vote um I would build on everything that the councilman baker said I mean we've got a long tradition in Austin of safe secure elections highly professional from you know Brie year in your team to you know when an queso was doing it to the election judges and I mean you hear all the stuff on a national basis the reality is in maer county in Austin I think there's an incredibly high level of confidence there's an incred there's never been a concern or question or issue and I think that's just something we take for granted I know there is a massive amount of work that goes into it so Bri thank you to your team um thank you to you and everybody that that put their time in energy into making sure that we had safe secure elections and thank you so I don't know it's a long way a second but sure vote thank you Jason uh we have a motion in a second uh Tom council member heli I Baker yes Basin i f sure I resolution passes four nothing on thank you Tom item number six is a motion setting a public hearing for December 16th 2024 on the adoption of the 5-year Capital Improvement plan Thomas uh we went over the capital Improvement plant the proposed capital Improvement plan a couple work sessions ago so now we need to schedule the final hearing and that's scheduled for December 16th 2024 motion to approve second all in favor I opposed uh that motion carries item number seven is a resolution granting the 2025 offsale liquor license Club on sale license and wine on sale I don't have anything on that looking for resolution so moved second Tom council member heli I Baker yep Basin I fiser I resolution passes 4 Z your honor thank you number eight is a resolution approving these two donations the $432 6.34 from the Austin area foundation War leans to the warle park and $200 Library floral club for the 2025 flower program motion to approve there a second second Tom council member heli hi Baker yep Basin I Fisher I resolution passes 4 Z thank you Thomas uh did we move on to Citizens addressing the council there any citizens present wishing to may speak all the dish the trucks we got to sell the $500 truck what's it going to take to get someone to be in these vehicles by end of the night these two trucks Stephen is there a county offer on the table for these two bad boys these these trucks are being rotated out as part of our CIP program um in front of you tonight are two pickups and a topper and our request is to be able to take those to Hamilton Auction Company they're holding an auction in early December and we think that these will fit well and the timing is good to get rid of them as uh they are replaced or their replacement is in the very near future very good to approve 25y old truck and a 20y old truck we' they've served us well I'm sure second all right is that a resolution or is that a motion all in favor I opposed motion carries moving on to Citizens address in the council with several hands go up I know we have mayor Steam and maybe a relative and then Mr basky too so I'll take whoever it doesn't matter well if you could step to the microphone and state your name and address please my name is Maya eert I live at 21046 Avenue Northeast um I am addressing you guys because I got a citation for keeping my car parked in my driveway um I got it while ago when I was talking to my Grandpa about it who's your grandpa me who's your grandpa oh I don't know you had credibility up until got to be somebody in here to like me Maya you'd have a better chance if you didn't have your grandpa here but that's okay we'll give it a whirl my had called me when I was in the hospital originally on this and I didn't recognize it it wasn't a it didn't sound like a city thing to me and I was still somewhat medicated and I told her it sound like a scam and then after I got out she called me another time on it and said the price was going up and I said Maya that's not it's not a city thing it's don't worry about it and all of a sudden we started checking into it a little deeper and it's defines up to like $400 now and it's really kind of my fault so I told Maya that the city council is very sympathetic to said how many jobs are you working Maya just one okay Maya's a new homeowner fairly new and she was working a couple of jobs and you know maybe you guys could do something was it expired tabs what was the deal was well what was it my car was par in my driveway we don't usually site people for parking their cars in their driveway a while I think it had some flat tires didn't it be the tabs yeah must have been would you register was it current tabs on it yeah is there pictures who's the the we can look at the Hollywood you about that yeah that was our department I do recall talking to brunt Johnson our inspector about it and I do recall talking to Tom steam about it um that was before our assessment hearing um we hadn't heard or gotten any response from uh sorry what's your last name eer uh from Miss eert uh and so the fines just kept piling up the uh issue wasn't addressed and I think from what uh from what uh U Miss wolf just showed me she had 1,00 in assessments actually holy Hannah is that right so the citations are from March April June July and August for illegal storage of vehicles so there are multiple citations on it we did have the hearing and like Miss wall stated there was no response so those assessments um have been certified to the county for taxes wow mayor King I'm kind of like you I mean she told me what it was and I'm like no you can park your car the driveway you know this doesn't sound like it's legitimate to me so apparently it was you know I guess I'm the blame more than she is cu if you can't trust the me who can you trust so there was unlicensed Vehicles what it was so did the police department give the ticket or did the city those were administrative fines okay why don't we do this why don't you take a first run at you missed your your hearing if you could schedule appointment with Holly and see if there's any resolution that we can do before city council rules on it I wouldn't mind having you guys meet on first and just see if there's something that English what's that I didn't understand what you're saying oh just meet with Holly you know she missed her you missed your hearing I mean these are right these are important things to miss and so that it there is a process as anybody gets a citation so i' just soon have it one-on-one meeting with with Miss Wallace and you before a city does anything on it city council then does hly make a recommendation to the probably yeah that's what we did we did with that with the park and wreck not too long ago so if you could just schedule a meeting and then we'll see where we go from there it may it may end up that you still have to pay it um but at least I just soon have a first look at that oneon-one so I think the really important thing to remember here is this is Tom's fault and you've never heard me say that before so try to just schedule an appointment with I mean to be fair I don't think we have a strong feeling about it either way but I'm not sure what the process would be now that it's been certified to the county right that's true too what decision is it now may be too late cuz it's been certified I'm not sure what that process would be we could look at I mean give us I guess if you could give me a feeling about what your thoughts are let's just look into it with the county and see if there's a process and and please meet with them and get some more information on the what's and the wise because I you weren't understanding you that non-licensed vehicle you just thought you were parking your driveway but there must have been something to get the attention it must be an unlicensed it was I believe it was inoperable was the issue I don't know if it was also unlicensed I'd have to check get the okay we'll look into it thank you thanks thank you good seeing you Tom thank you ha thank you thank you uh now Mr basy you had something please if you could just state your name and address for the minutes Doug bathy 808 Oakland Place Northeast I'm just here to address the U vehicle noise ordinance section how 1031 article e which deals with basically Jake breaking it's already in here that it's not legal in the City of Austin my home faces I90 and I'm close to the 218 Corridor and in the last four years I would say the Jake breaking has probably increased 80% because um all the vehicles coming off 218 brake and everybody coming off of the interstate brakes um you don't need to use a Jake in the city limits flat land they do so they don't have to use air brakes but all the people that live along there it goes from 4: in the morning till 2:00 in the morning and it's all AGR related basically trucks livestock and Grain and most of the freighter do not use them but it's getting to the point now where it's nearly around the clock and some of them are much more obnoxious than other others and I would just like to say that as long as it's in there if it could just be enforced and I've had councilmen say well how do you enforce it well 80% of them are going to the same place and 100% of them are using the same roadways you know who they are it's just it's getting to the point where it's nearly around the clock and it's just irritating and I've talked to a lot of people along there and it's gotten to the point where it's beyond what it was 5 years ago and I would just like to see if there's some enforcement what could be done to solve that problem the next issue I'd like to talk about is the Youth of 8th Avenue Northeast as a truck route to the horal plant the road right now is so rutted up that the plows are already cutting off the top high spots of the pavement and I don't know what the I'm sure it's basically a residential street it probably wouldn't be allowed to as a truck route but what's happening is it's so grooved up now the water don't drain they're plowing the black top off and I don't know what the future of that street is if it's going to be redone or whatever but there's only curb and gutter around about a third of it so if you're going to replace the street and assess people 2third of that street goes around East Side Lake there's no assessment to it and there's only curb and gutter on one side of it and in that area if you're going to assess people that's going to create a financial burden to those people that are living along that out side of 8th Avenue the truck route should be 11th Drive come across the bridge that way they're always on concrete and you're not going to be ruining ruining a paved Street which is basically a residential build of street but by the time they're done plowing it this winter half of that Street's going to be plowed off so it's just something that I don't know what the future that Street's going to be as far as repair or if it's even on the agenda but it's in pretty tough shape and it's getting getting used more than it was intended to be used and I'd just like to just voice my opinion and see if there's anything that could be done on those two issues well we certainly appreciate coming before the council I'd say on the Jake breaking issue this does become an Enforcement issue unless you hear it unless an officer hears it there's hard to hard to write a citation so it's being at the right spot at the right time well but it it's a question of uh you're going to have to have a slight considered effort to get it out there and a little signage and within two weeks time it would stop yeah Chief mck can you have something to add to this please in so far as it being on I90 and again uh I'm going reference it as engine braking um we cannot put signage on there that's not the type of signage that's approved for that roadway we've we've looked into it um you know several times in the past Interstate uh and Stephen can correct me if I'm wrong or Mitch can are very very specific as to what can go up there and signage related to a city ordinance is not one of the things that we can place there uh it's a little different I know I think we have one in 218 South uh that's got a different set of rules um that's just vehicle you'll see it as vehicle noise or noise ordinance enforce there's there's reasons why you can't use some terms on your signage uh in so far as as that goes so we can't sign the interstate mot simply won't allow us to do that uh and then it becomes again it it's just very problematic to identify you know as an officer was was the brake used um you know maybe you know Jeff can also correct me here I think there's the engine breake but there's a muffler maybe system that goes with it so again it's complicated and trying to identify when it was used to stop to to take enforcement action I agree the signage or something would be would be better because I think a couple tickets handed out here and there if that's the depth of the problem probably aren't going to have a deterrent effect um in in so far as as the operation of that goes thank you Mr Lang do you have anything on the street 8th Street is there as the I guess the resident trucker in the room um I hate Jake breakes I think they are obnoxious um I don't buy them buy a lot of trucks I don't buy them I Chief respectfully I I think you'd be surprised how a couple of well-placed tickets would change Behavior you're dealing with a very there's a it's a small group of people we talked about this when we were built when we talked about the the wall on 90 um I I kind of said my piece about this in the past but I think that um I think we need to be if we're going to I think we can in the city put more more signs that um about our city ordinances I this is on my list of about a hundred things that I think mind's completely wrong about um but I I don't think that selected enforcement over a short period of time wouldn't I think that would have a positive impact on the few people that do this so Doug you're one of a lot of people who has complained over there I live over there too and I've had other residents and I've talked to to mckin about it like Jeff said it's it's those folks going to harm that just like to hear themselves and and it doesn't hurt the it's not the safety of operating the vehicle it or the truck you don't need to use it you know it's just that they don't have to use their air bres and the reason they use eighth is if they go take the offramp on 90 they can't get back on because that Road's so busy going across the bridge yeah so they yeah and that's the truck R CU it's all concrete but a has given Beat to Death I agree all right sorry we're not much help for you tonight Mr bathy but uh we'll certainly as the APD does they enforce wherever they can enforce and often so if they catch somebody with a jake break I'm sure they'll do something about it but um well time will tell anybody else wishing to speak to councel honorary council member James any comments closing comments your your term is up with us so thank you for serving is there anything You' like to comment on thank you so very much appreciate it I have no comment to make thanks for uh so being with us and thank everybody all the members for welcoming here and part of excellent thank you James appreciate it uh City administrator any comments from the I don't but um Mr Daner and Mr Lang have a couple items Tommy so let you know we uploaded the truth and Taxation documents to the website and they were dropped into drop box so those are now available for the December 4th hearing and again we've talked earlier but a big thanks to Bri and Wanda and the clerk's department and all the election judges for a job very well done excellent next time Stephen yes this past week was the a the Minnesota Association of flood plane managers conference it was held in Austin and uh I think they had a this year was unique where it was a joint conference with Iowa as well and I think they had a good turnout by combining the two groups like that from uh Holly Wallace is our flood plane manager from a staff level perspective um but we also get very involved from an engineering department with all of our flood mitigation projects our buyouts our our levies and things so it was there were about 80 people that were involved in a tour of the city of of four different um projects we showed them the Turtle Creek flood control project we showed them um residential property acquisition down on South Main Street by markuson ballpark uh we took them over to the Whitewater project and Mitch talked about that project and what that could involve and then we walked from the Spam Museum up toward the North Main Street project and talked about what we did there how it was able to benefit and protect um commercial properties so just a wide variety of things that we showed them uh Cody Fox was also there and showed them uh what's being done out in the wed to help slow down water before it gets to Austin so all of that together kind of tells our story um so I thought it was a good conference I want to thank the mayor for being there to uh give an introduction and a welcome to the to the folks that were there so thanks for everyone involved right that was pretty impressive to it was it was very well organized there was a lot of folks there it was nice that Stephen got to take some Poes at me and I got to take some pokes at him so that was kind of fun but yeah uh Steph and Cody both presented on projects uh that we've done over the years and uh just very very impressive conference those folks too you guys do great work and our the city has benefited from our local option sales tax and all the projects we've done over the years so thank you Stephen it was impressive to have those folks here flood plane managers uh Council uh let's move on to Laura anything uh sure I just wanted to uh thank the uh residents of Austin for their patience and understanding around all of the changes with the I90 construction um it's a a tough time it's going to continue to be tough um I forget too which way I need to go to get on 90 or off 90 um and I know our streets department Public Works and law enforcement have had a lot of additional work to do um around the Fourth Street Bridge so um thank you everybody and please uh slow down and pay attention um because we don't want to make even even more work for law enforcement and fire department thank you Laura Jeff yeah to continue on that um I just um frustrated beyond words with the way that mindat has handled this construction project um it's been very costly to me personally um but I I want you to to help me and remember there are businesses that are dramatically negatively impacted by this work you know think of Burger King think of scooters um the list goes on and on go out of your way to support these people that got dealt a really bad hand please um second Stephen you and I talked before the meeting can you kind of give people a update of or a your elevator speech on the summer average yeah this whatever the hell it is so for Residential Properties in the city of Austin we have what is called uh summer averaging so with your with your sewer bill um generally in in someone's home you have one water meter and that water meter is used to meter your water coming into the house and generally all of that water that you're using in the house goes down the drain so that same value of quantity of water coming into the house is what is used for your sewer bill um that consists uh you know seven months out of the year but in the summer people may be watering their lawns watering their Gardens washing their Vehicles so there's water usage that occurs that goes outside and doesn't go down the sanitary sewer so we have what's called Summer averaging where we take your winter water usage and we apply that to your summer sewer bill that occurs during a femon period uh generally from May and through September five months there may through September and in a in a year like this year where it continues to be dry into October there are a lot of residents that will continue to may not be aware of this program and will continue to water their lawns into October and all of a sudden that water usage in October reflects as a as a higher sewer bill as well so the the program has uh to my knowledge looking back has always been a f Monon period and it needs to sunset at some point um so it's it's looked at as those five months from May through oo May through September and in a dry fall like we had this year it can bite some people with a an unexpectedly High sanary sewer portion of their utility bill and it's my dad that ask and so Basin you owe me you owe me you owe me cuz he is not in my ward and you haven't given me anything that will help me tomorrow morning thank you you so much challenging stuff we refer to postma he just realiz thank you Stephen no I think build on the conversation around the bridges and the rerouting and everything like that I think number one just want to start by thinking you know Stephen Mitch you know your staff I know there's a lot of it's outside of our control and I appreciate how you guys have advocated for us not just recently but over a long period of time of let's figure out what we've got to do from a state standpoint but let's also figure out how we do it from a local standpoint I Know Chief McCoy chief mckin play a role in that in terms of making sure that we're still responsive and the second piece is I mean it's a pain in the butt right now but I think as we think about the next 50 to 70 years where we're not going to redo Bridges where we're going to have a lot of this infrastructure you we're doing the right things for the long-term benefit of the community as I remind myself every time we drive so that was more for me not your dad thank you Jason Paul I'd just like to continue on Jason and Jeff's comments on bri and Wanda's hard work during the election they had a long day and night as was said it ran smoothly and it went well so thank you guys very much thank you Paul yeah I think that it's to me the price of progress when you got these bridges that have been up there for 60 years there comes a due date on them and it's going to take some patience from folks uh to get through the process and we'll we'll get through it there's no doubt and we'll be better for it uh also want to congratulate Mitch on his promotion to mo County and also thank you for your service again to City of Austin uh um with that looking for a motion to adjourn to Monday December 2nd