[Music] She wants to be a dancer. Like, okay. Like, I'm walking away. I do. I guess there's a part of me I had to remind myself. I was like, hey, what's the difference
of the 11? But yes, I did. That was I was like, "Oh, that's new." I feel like I should send someone should send that to Ann. That might make her feel good. Oh yeah. Sehonhan Sehon Jason
kind of photobombing here on the council. Photobombing already, huh? We got a photo bomb already here in the council. Everything for people. I'm okay with it, man.
I usually Wow. You sure? Yeah, I guess he's standing. All right, we'll call the meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. Good evening and welcome everyone. Before we get started, there's uh certainly some profound loss in the state of Minnesota. A couple of our legislators, one was uh was shot and killed, one was seriously injured and their spouses. So, if you don't mind, I think it just be honor them by just a
moment of silence and Patty, sorry for your loss of your colleague. So, just a moment of silence, please, in their name. All right, thank you. That was Melissa Hortman, Mark Hortman, and John and Ivette Hoffman. Um, again, tragically taken in gun violence. Just absolutely
disheartening. So, with that, uh, please take the role, please, if you could, Brie. Mayor King, present. Council member at large Austin present. Council member Hely present. Council
member Obala present. Council member Fischer present. Council member Waller present. Council member Baskin present. And council member Postma. Your honor, we have a quorum. Thank you.
I should have noted that we have the removal also the adoption agenda for removal of six and nine for right now. Item six and nine will be removed. Uh item number two is a motion approving our minutes from June 2nd, 2025. Motion so moved. Second.
Uh all in favor? I opposed. That motion carries. Item number three is a motion under awards and recognitions, human resource generalist introduction. Trish with Terry. Yeah, come on forward. Good evening, mayor and council. Um, I
am pleased to introduce uh Terry Derwin um as the city of Austin's first human resource generalist. Um, today is her first day and we are excited to bring her on board. Uh, she comes to us um from Mstead County um holding a very
similar role with Mstead County. Um, she's already jumped on board and doing quite a bit. So, I'm just anxious to have her and excited for her to be here. Just wanted to introduce to her to you all tonight. Well, thank you, Terry. Any words of introduction you'd like to pass
along? Again, my name is Terry Derwin and I'm very happy to join uh the city of Austin in the human resource department here. Um, as Trish said, I do have a background in human resources. Most recently was with Mstead County. I do
live in Rochester. I've been there about 18 years, but I am just really excited to be here and look forward to uh serving this community and our employees. Excellent. Thank you. Appreciate it, Terry. And we consider uh Rochester about a second ring suburb, so you're free to Exactly. That's why I'm
here. Thank you. And welcome to the Welcome to the city. Thank you. Um adoption of the minutes. Adoption. Approving the minutes from June 2. We had a motion. Yes, we did. in a second. But we didn't adopt the agenda. I think
we skipped the agenda. The agenda, not the minutes, I think it was the other way. I did. All right. Looking for a motion approving the minutes from June 22. So moved. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you, Bri.
Item number three, we did that. Item number four is a motion for the consent agenda. So moved. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Under public hearing item number five is resolution uh reviewing a tax abatement application from the HR. Craig. Uh thank you, mayor.
Uh members, we have an application from the HR for a house that's going to be uh built on 25th Avenue Southwest. Estimated value of the home is 350,000. This is a public hearing. All right. Is anyone here from the uh audience wishing
to speak on this item? If not, council, do you have any questions or looking for resolution? Move to approve. A second. All right. Brie. Council member Hely. I. Council member Obala. I. Council member Fischer. I.
Council member Waller. I. Council member Baskin. I. Council member Posma. Council member at large Austin. I. Resolution passes. Thank you, Bri. Item number six, we're skipping. Item number
seven is receiving bids for Todd Park sanitary sewer project. Stephen, yes. The engineering department has been working together with the parks and recck department on extending sanitary sewer to some facilities out at Todd Park, mainly. Uh we are looking at the
north complex of the Todd Park facility. And on our way to service that building, we found that we can also service um another some bathrooms that are along the way as well. Put together working with park and rec put together a plan
and um solicited informal bids for the project. Uh we requested bids from four different biders. Uh got results back from two JJD companies. LLC was the low bidder at $17,95120, which came in right in line with the the
engineers estimate for the project. So, we have $50,000 budgeted in the CIP for 2025. Um, and then we're also looking at using uh building fund dollars uh $57,94120 combined for this total project. and
we'd recommend awarding it to JJD. Thank you, Stephen. Council, any questions for Mr. Lang? Otherwise, looking for resolution item number seven. So moved. Second. Brie. Council member Hely. I. Council member
Obala. I. Council member Fischer. I. Council member Waller. I. Council member Baskin. I. Council member Posma. Council member at large Austin. I resolution passes 6.
Thank you. Under petitions and requests, item number eight, approving a change order number eight for the wastewater treatment plant project. Stephen, yes. We bring these to you quarterly and we discussed this at the last work session. The change order number eight is in the amount of $79,74
with costs split between the domestic and industrial budgets for the project. And we would recommend approval. Excellent. Thank you, council. Any questions on item number eight? If not, looking for resolution. So moved. Second. Bri, please.
Council member Hely. I. Council member Obala. I. Council member Fischer. Hi. Council member Waller. I. Council member Baskin. I. Council member Posma. Council member at large Austin. I
resolution passes 6. Thank you, Bri. Item number nine, we're uh skipping item number nine. Item number 10 is a resolution approving an agreement with SE for construction services for the wastewater treatment plant levy for phase one. Stephen, a few meetings ago, council awarded a project for the
wastewater treatment plant levy to Yulan Brothers in the amount of um about $7.5 million. The project is planned to begin in the fall of 2025 uh and then carry through the summer of
2026. Uh this is phase one of the project. SE was the original design consultant. We worked with them through the design and bidding process and now they have a proposal for us for the inspection services and some of the construction management on on the
project. uh this the cost for all of this work. We have a $4 million uh DNR grant that was approved a couple years ago. If you recall when Pat Lynch was here and we recognized Pat on as he
was uh going off into retirement, uh we were granted a $4 million uh DNR grant at that time. We will pair that together with our local office sales tax at a 50/50 cost split to fund construction uh the construction portion of the project as well as this these
administrative costs here in front of you tonight. Uh the total estimated cost for admin which I don't is $420,700 and we'd recommend approving for these consultant services. Very good. Thank you, Stephen. Council,
any questions on this? Otherwise, looking for resolution. So moved. Second. Bri, please. Council member Hely. I. Council member Obala. I. Council member Fischer. Hi.
Council member Waller. Hi. Council member Baskin. I. Council member Posma. Council member at large Austin I. Resolution passes 6. Thank you. Briam number 11 is a few a couple resolutions approving the easement with metronet.
Item 11 a approve an e easement on the library parcel. Stephen. Yes. So when when we look to authorize uh the use of public property for a private use. It requires council action and in this case it would be for an easement where
Metronet is looking to service the backside of the Paramont Theater. Uh the first action is for an easement that would a five foot wide easement that would run along a portion of the west side of the library. And then the second
action would be for another 5-ft easement that would run along the backside of the properties that abut 4th Avenue, but the 5-ft easement would run actually along across the city parkland property there. Um and we've we've
reviewed the documents. We've uh gone through some edits back and forth with Metronet. Uh we think this is the best possible option for the proposed easement. It does also follow some other existing utilities in the area and we
would recommend council consider approval of these uh two 5-ft easement documents. Very good. Thank you, Stephen. Is that would that encompass that explanation the pool parcel as well? Yes, correct. So we'll take them one at a time. If there's any questions, please ask. Otherwise, looking for
resolution on 11A approving easement in the library parcel. So move. Second, Bri, please. Council member Hely. I. Council member Obala. I. Council member Fischer. Hi.
Council member Waller. Hi. Council member Baskin. Hi. Council member Posma. Council member at large Austin. Hi. Resolution passes 6. Thank you. 11B. Uh, approve the easement for the pool
parcel. Need a resolution. So moved. Second. Three. Council member Hely. I. Council member Obala. I. Council member Fischer. I. Council member Waller. I. Council member
Baskin. I. Council member Posma. Council member at large Austin. I. Resolution passes 6. Thank you. Item number 12 is a resolution approving a request from the H for financial support for the Cedar View Apartments. Tagert.
I don't really have anything else unless the council has questions. Council, any questions on this matter? I I will just take this opportunity to say I'll be abstaining from the vote since it involves my employer, Three Rivers Community Action, just to make it
clear. And Tagard, is there a end expiration date on this funding? Is does it have to be started digging ground or any parameters around the date? Welcome to the DS. So our approach to
this is this is a new application window which would be two years. Okay. Uh the purchase option that we executed gives us the the opportunity for two shots at the application. So, so it's good for with the two years. Yeah, I think uh May of 2028
I think is when the option expires. Beautiful. Thanks, Tagger. Uh if there's no further questions, I'd take a resolution on this. So moved. Second. Council member Hely. Abstain. Council member Obala. I.
Council member Fischer. I. Council member Waller. I. Council member Baskin I. Council member Posma. Council member at large Austin. I. Resolution passes 50 Z with one
abstaining. Thank you, Bri. Moving on. Item number 13 is a motion reviewing a fence appeal from Armando Pedro. Stephen. Yes. This was reviewed at the last planning commission meeting. Uh request for an 8 foot high fence where typically allowed is a 6ft high fence.
So, the planning commission uh reviewed this and due to concerns for the surrounding neighbors, the request for the petition was denied on an 80 vote. Again, mainly regarding uh concerns for
the neighbors. So, it was uh denied with that recommendation to move that forward for council action. Very good. Council, any questions for Mr. Lang on that fence appeal? Otherwise, looking for a motion approving or denying the appeal request.
Motion to deny. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. That motion carries. Item number 14 is a motion reviewing a green space variance from Acrip Properties LLC. Steven. Yes.
With the changes going on from Medicap to Sterling Drug. the company was looking at changes to the parking lot to facilitate their drive up window. Um, in order to do that uh facilitate those changes, they would need to remove some
existing green space uh to make room for offsetting uh parking stalls, which would reduce the green space from the 20% required down to 11%. Uh, in your backup material on PDF page
81. If you would mind going to that, it shows the proposed layout of the parking lot and how the uh drive up windows, the existing driveup window would be maintained.
There would be, I guess, a queuing space for up to six vehicles that would be kind of parked parallel near the front of the building. That will um displace some parking stalls. So, that's why they needed to recreate parking stalls in
existing green space and and encroach into that 20% requirement. This was reviewed by the planning commission and recommended for approval to council on a vote of eight A's and zero Naz.
Thank you, Stephen. I know some of the discussion was that the lack of green space there would be sort of made up on the Oakland Avenue project when we're beautifying that Oakland Avenue. Some of the discussion. Yes. Right on. All right. Council, any uh questions on this matter. Otherwise, looking for a
motion to approve or deny. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I uh opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Item number 15 is accepting uh these donations into the city of Austin. The gift of $25 from Jane
McFarland for the 2025 flowers and a gift of $50 from Joe and Austia Hickey uh for the 2026 flower program in honor of Bonnie Best's birthday. Thank you for the donations from those folks and looking for a resolution to accept them.
So moved. Second. Bri. Council member Hely. I. Council member Obala. I. Council member Fischer. Hi. Council member Waller. Hi. Council member Baskin. Hi. Council member Postman.
Council member at large Austin. I. Resolution passes 6. Thank you, Bri. Uh, moving on to citizens addressing the council. Is anyone in chambers here looking to speak to the council on items that weren't on the agenda? Seeing none, hearing none, moving on to reports and recommendations. Craig. Uh,
thank you, Mayor. Um, members, uh, July 28th through August 18th, the Mondays we plan on budget meetings as you directed. Um, department heads will have their budgets into us by July 11th and timeline. If you could reserve each
Monday from July 28th through August 18th, that should put us on track to September 15th where we'll do the preliminary levy approval. Craig, do we know what time that's at? Um, I think we're
5:30 is what would anybody like to start earlier? Is there any I have no problem with 5:30 or would that be helpful? A little bit earlier. What do you guys think? 5:30 is is works. All right. Okay, Jason.
I I mean, there's school board that same night, so it's not great for our family, but we'll figure it out. Well, we certainly could take a couple of uh young interested residents of Austin. I'm sure they would want to pay on the budget. They seem to prefer staying home
instead of accompanying dad to listen to how the debates these days. And I think going into it, we knew that we wouldn't make get all the council members all the time to this. So just my guess is they get McDonald's and iPad time. So okay, they're probably on board. All right. Very good. Thank you, Craig, for that. Um, anything else from department heads?
Uh, no. Oh, Steven does have Oh, you do. Stephen special meeting. Yes, exactly. Um, so we had to re remove a couple items from tonight's council agenda because we haven't received approval yet from the state on their DBE
and Office of Civil Rights review of our Oakland Avenue project. Um, this isn't necessarily anything out of the ordinary. It just takes them some time to go through all the necessary documents. So, our next council official council meeting is planned for July 7th.
And once we do receive um authorization to move the project forward, we would like to request a special council meeting just to keep just to get things started. We're already we're already behind schedule on the project. So, if possible, once we get that approval, I'll work through Craig to try and and
get something scheduled whenever council is available. Excellent. Thank you. We'll look for that. Stephen, am I understanding that correctly? That the Department of Civil Rights has to weigh in on updating a street. Yeah, there's with the federal funding
that's um allotted to us, there are disadvantaged business enterprise requirements that um I think the goal is 10.8% of the overall contract. That was a $15 million contract. So 10.8% of that
needs to be needs to go toward disadvantaged business owners and companies and they're reviewing that process. Fant always appreciate the added complexity. So, thanks for navigating through that. Thank you. Uh on to city council for
their reports. Um Paul, I'll start with you. I think your honor. Thank you, Obala. Um I just want to echo um what happening in uh Brooklyn Park with the passing of um um former speaker of the house and
her husband. So, and shout out to all our law enforcement, you know, um across the state and also the local one here keeping everyone informed and what is happening. Let's continue to pray for everyone or especially elected official
and their family because at this time everyone is in fear. So, I appreciate uh representative Mueller maybe she's going through the same thing right now as one of our colleague as we always echo here. So again, thank you to our police officer for everything they do um within
here and across the state. Yeah. Thanks, Aba. Laura, I want to thank all the partners who help support um Fourth Avenue Fest, especially uh parks, the library, the fire department, and the nature center. And Tia and Holly from
public works um spent a lot of their uh time and expertise on it. It was a really great event and it's wonderful to see our community really come together um in our park system and enjoy our pools and our um stage and and our
amenities. Um I also want to thank the parks for the extra prep work that they are doing for the July 4th holiday. Um, it's a busy time and the grass keeps growing and it keeps raining and the grass keeps growing and uh I know they're doing a lot of extra stuff to
make sure that that July 4th time um is a celebration for the whole community. Um I too uh send my condolences to the the Hortman and Hoffman families. Um they are in our thoughts. Um, I wanted to to comment that the news on Saturday
really um convicted me that um it matters how we talk about each other uh when we're on different sides of an issue. It matters how we talk about each other when we're face to face and when we're not uh in the same room. And uh
for me, I can draw a straight line um from from leaders being willing to degrade and dehumanize other people to um the kind of violence that we're seeing. And so as a leader, it's especially important for me to be reminded again of um we're all on the
same side and and our language and our words need to um reflect that. Thank you, Laura. Jeff, nothing your honor. Jason. Yeah, I'll build on what my colleagues have have shared and just express my deepest sadness um over the events of this past weekend and
obviously sympathies for all those who are directly impacted. Um as well as you know just to say to Representative Mueller, to Senator Dornick, thank you. Um I mean you guys give a tremendous amount of your time, energy, and life anyway to serve and now you throw public
safety and you know threats to livelihood on top of it. And I can only imagine how traumatic and challenging that is. And you know, I think to build on that, just to make sure condemning in the strongest possible terms the usage of political violence, I think, you
know, disagreement is healthy. We should disagree. I mean, we we need a robust marketplace of ideas to be able to function as a democracy. And the second that people have to worry about what they're going to say because or what they're going to vote for or stand for because violence may come in, I think it
just tears at the very fabric of our democracy. And so just tremendously, tremendously sad time for our our state and country. A huge thank you to our law enforcement um both locally and the actions that you took as well as statewide. um the work to very quickly
apprehend a suspect so that he can be um brought to justice is incredibly I think important for our state to to heal and move on. So excellent. Thank you, Becky. Nothing. Thank you. I couldn't agree more with all the comments. U just want to you know what I'm going to remind folks that we have a potluck on June
24th. It seems seems wrongly placed, but I think it uh maybe at the this is exactly what the folks in public service need is to get together at a at a potluck on June 24th and come for lunch. which I know last year it was very wellreceived. So much food they brought. It was absolutely amazing. They grill
out right there at the Isaac Walton cabin. So I look for the folks to pop out between those two hours of 11 and 1 on June 24th. And Patty, would you like to say a few things? And you're welcome to the microphone. Thanks for coming. Uh Representative Mueller, um thank you
so much for your kind words and for um your uh your dedication as public servants as well. It is not lost on me that you also have to be in our community making decisions for um our constituents and um you are at the very
local list of of decision-m and that is uh very impactful. Um so I had originally uh had planned to come here today just to give you an update. I wasn't planning on coming here in such um horrible and awful circumstances. I
will tell you that um my that our law enforcement is topnotch. Um I received uh calls from both Sheriff Steve and from Chief McKean that morning and um they have been very attentive and I have police officers driving by my house all
the time now. Um uh one of the officers who stopped by my house when we were walking the dogs was like, "How come you don't have a security system?" And I'm like, "It's coming in the mail. promise. So, it's uh it's that is a change that
we are making. Um but I did want to tell you that we did have a successful special session um with divided government. I believe that we were able to kind of land the plane in a way that um was really important. And so, um, we our budget was, uh, um, ended up to be
about $66 billion, which is about a $5 billion cut, which, um, which looking at a $6 billion deficit is really good that we're able to kind of mitigate some of those things. Um, I thank you so much for your feedback. Um, many of you gave me a lot of feedback about the housing
bill, which I did not support. So, I thank you very much for your feedback on that. Um hopefully we will be able to do a lot more work about um permitting reform, but also making sure that we balance that with uh plenty of funding down in rural Minnesota so that we're
able to look at our housing um our housing dilemmas. Um one of the things that I wanted to tell you about and I've already talked to Riverland and I'll be going to all of my schools is that I was the chief author of the um statewide teacher apprenticeship program. And so
that was passed and signed into law. And so that was given about $7 million that will give our uh future educators a different way to come into the education field, which I'm really excited about. So or to talk to Riverland about how maybe they can fill in that hole since
there are are game changers here in in our community and I'm really excited about that. Um so there's a lot of things that we can talk about. um we were able to mitigate um $8 billion of tax increase, which I think was really important, but we were also um able to
look at how we were able to balance some of the funding that we needed for for you guys. Um there was no cut to LGA and there was no cut to CPA and so that was really important for you guys. Um no increase, but there wasn't a cut, so that was really important. Um, so, uh,
if at any point in time you have specific questions about specific things, I'd be happy to come in at a separate time, um, when you're not trying to get to your next work meeting and, um, and go through anything that you have any specific questions on. Other than that, thank you so much for being involved in the process. Many of
you came and talked to me during session. Many of you talked to me about your um, preferences and and certain votes, and I really appreciate that. So, um, as always, many blessings to you guys and I'll try to come back around in the fall as well. So, let me know if you
have any questions. Thank you for your service. Thank you, Patty. Appreciate your words. Thank you. Thanks for the work. All right. Look that looking for a motion to adjourn to our Monday, July 7th meeting until the special meeting, I guess, but or move to adjourn. Second.
Uh, all in favor? I opposed. Okay, we're adjourned. We have about a fivem minute break till the work session. Take your computer. Yes. Plastic.