all right it's February 18th I believe we call to order the city of Brer personal finance committee meeting and we'll start with introductions Kelly B James gr community development director Nick Roy City administrator Chris Schubert HR Director Al large
Kevin stck Joe langle City attorney Teresa B greater dispatch and Gabe Johnson chair of the committee we have two items before us tonight the first one is to discuss municipal dispensary partnership Nick okay so law does allow
um municipalities to establish own and operate a retail cannabis store there is an advantage to this because Municipal license are municipal licenses will be issued before licenses are approved and issued to the general public as such
we've been approached by several private companies that want to partner with the city because this is obviously an advantage to them to get their foot in the door before everybody else um so this is really just for discussion and any uh direction that you would like to
provide to staff this would not the if we had a city a municipal canabus door it cannot be included in any limitation of the minimums for our area so that would not count against our minimum of two is that correct two yeah so we would have immunity and plus allow plus two
additional per okay hello are you here for the personnel and finance committee or the city council meeting City there are stairs in the council chambers at the top of the stairs thank you so we've just been approached by a lot of companies now we just had a couple couple highlights here the alternative options this would be 100% upfront
capital investment from the partnering group there would be shared profit structure benefiting Municipal infrastructure and services um they have professional management for the for the establishment Etc one case study Grant Rapids recently unanimously approved an
agreement with voyager cannabis on February 10th to prepare and submit a license application um this this allowed staff to continue to look into the municipal dispensary however the city has not yet fully committed to opening and operating a municipal dispensary so this is just
up for discussion any direction for staff K thank you Mr chair when I initially read this I my my first reaction was no and and here's why one is it hasn't it's been in the paper at least five times about dis and their
financial trials with their mici liquor okay so I see that as a possibility I notice it says there's some profit sharing but that presumes a profit the second is I'm not exactly sure based on what we heard when we
approved the two municipal dispensaries that are citizenship are 100% behind selling Po and I I just don't I mean if if there was a lot of money to be made
gly you'd have to consider it but the chance that we could lose money and also go against a large p a portion of the citizenry I'm not sure we want I'm not sure that it's as Grandpa used to say
I'm not sure that juice is worth the squeeze thank you I'm against it too I where does it end now we're going to Str out going to sell drugs and we're going to what are we going to do next so I just think it's wrong if once you let it happen you never reel back
in so I'm outnumbered on the committee you can still grow this stuff I can still get my four plants per adult Grand Rapids projections which government projections and consultant projections are always wrong and R Rose
Colored I get it they're projecting a million dollars a year in Revenue so that's that's kind of big that's where squeeze and it's not like a municipal liquor store because we wouldn't be buying the inventory we wouldn't be employing the employees we would just
have somebody do 100% of all of the work and then give us a cut of the profits so it's a if there are any so I I I think it's worth exploring at the very least this synopsis says there's been numerous inquiries why don't we have some
proposals I mean I'm giving you my thoughts Chief's giving you his but I don't see any reason why we couldn't have look into a proposal if I'd be willing to look at that but I don't know if I'm going to change my mind right I
just think once you allow that kind of stuff to happen AG you never stop the ball keeps getting bigger but if there's something to be had in this we have at what cost well there is that and of course the projections you know
our projections if we could add to that um Grand Rapids just was kind of working with the one person I'm not sure if they had multiple inquiries um there have been multiples from the city of Brainard uh you know to hear a proposal would you want to hear a proposal from all the groups um come in and talk about it
would you like to hear from one group kind of direction from there if you do decide that Rel can we get a written proposal from all of them I think everybody who's interested should submit a proposal of what they are proposing to do and we would review that and decide to move forward or not from that point
yeah that's what I I would motion I'll that any other discussion is that clear enough Direction I think so I mean we'll see what the motion is and what comes out of the full Council but it sounds like if somebody's interested the staff's response to them is going to be submit a
proposal we have no we're going make any commitments or obligations say we will get this before the council for consider consideration the council understand what it is we'd be looking at but it'd be very open-ended without any okay we see we'll see what the the motion is yeah staff will comply whatever you guys
do okay any other discussion all in favor say I I same sign that motion carries we will look into it further and request some written proposals next up discussion of the
number of years of Interest collection on deferred assessments Connie was going to present she her daughter to turned 21 over the weekend so she was down in Lincoln visiting her she's not back yet Kelly you wanted this on the agenda
I did Mr chair simp simple simple explanation the assessment pays for the project the interest pays for the fact that you are not paying your assessment I think the interest should go on we charge very minimal interest r 1 and a
half% on this project I believe I think they should you should it it it if you choose to go past the the amateurz of the Bond as these some of people have chosen they should pay interest because they're
not paying their assessment you always got the deal to pay your assessment up front that's at no interest if you choose not to pay it to extend it the pro the process has been once the
the term of the bond was ended then your interest ended and I don't think that's fair to the people who paid a front or who paid in three years and paid three years wor the interest you should pay interest for as long as you are not paying your assessment and the second
part of this if you sell the property or develop property you should pay the assessment so we just had an interest circumstances where interest quit accumulating after seven years because the bond issue was seven years and the other thing is the people
passed the seller passed the assessment plus the seven years of Interest onto the buyer who then we agreed to wave and I just don't think that's fair so my recommendation is you as long as you're
deferring assessments you should pay the interest and and the interest the assessment with interest should be paid if you sell or develop the property I like that are you talking about financial hardship def that's a totally different thing so you're just talking
about deferments that are just like the Beaver Damn project that choose which which and that was a special circumstance right I we we we also there there's a whole other thing which I'd like to bring up at the next meeting and
that's the people who are within the contiguous city of Brainard but are not in the city of Brainard and those people were allowed never to have to pay the assessment but if they chose to hook up to the Sewer then they had to pay a kex
fee and come into the city of brainer well we remember just last year that we had some confusion as to how much interest is on that but that's another issue this is just people who are in the city of Brainard if I had an assessment
and I was your neighbor and I chose to extend it forever there has to be a c there's a cost to if nothing else the city's covered the entire cost of the project and if you're and if we've given you the option to never pay your
assessment as we did on Beaver Dam never then you should have to pay interest because there's a carrying cost to the rest of the citizens that are paid their assessments so and I I agree with you on that I know Connie shared with me
recently there was a deferred assessment from 1978 paid off and it was like $2,000 so that was probably water sewer and Street reconstruction for $2,000 in 2025 that's a relative you right Joel
can we do that can you continue to impose interest in perpetuity on certain projects well
for for Road for um development deferrals yes well actually any of them you can up to 30 years statute talks up to 30 years okay so statute limits us to 30
years my my my motion is to UND defer assessments to continue charging interest until they're paid and they must be paid when the project is sold developed and that would be up to 30 years that's a motion yes I'll second
that okay any other discussion right all in favor say I I OPP same sign that motion carries I might need your help to make that motion again upstairs yep and then staff you
Nick you got that the Canabis one no the what Kelly just motioned but we'll motion upstairs that we're going to want to amend deferred assessment policy move to a j second keep collecting interest for up to 30 years or when the property sold yeah the CH
comes first we don't charge enough interest on the deferment