##VIDEO ID:lncrQTqvjnk## order Brainard city council it is February 3rd 7:30 p.m. council chambers uh Tony please call the rooll Erikson here bevans B here chesak here Johnson president dunck here Jagger yes OD here B here please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all next we have the approval of the agenda I believe uh Mr Johnson would you like to add something to this agenda uh yeah Mr chair I'd like to approve the agenda with the addition of one item on Personnel finance and that's a bond Council discussion second all right we have a motion a second We'll add that Direction on on bond Bond Council discussion as number eight for PNF is that good yes thank you all right motion and a second any more discussion hearing none go to a vote all in favor I I against same sign we have an agenda next we have the consent calendar this is a notice to the public all matters listed are considered routine by the council and will be enacted by one motion there will will be no separate discussion discuss of these items unless good cause is shown prior to the time the council votes on the motion to be adopted by roll call do we have a motion motion to approve second motion by chzo second by bevans any discussion none Tony please call the rooll Erikson yes bans yes chazak yes Johnson yes stunich yes Jagger yes OD day yes next we have item number six this is public forum this is time allocated for citizens to bring matters not on the agenda to the attention of the council time limits may be imposed so if there's anybody in the audience that would like to come up and address the council now is the time there's anybody in the audience that would like to address the council now is the time or if there's anyone online that would like to address the council please press star three looks like there's no one and we will close the public forum at 7:32 moving on we have Council committee reports first we have personnel and finance and this is Chairman Gabe Johnson thank you Mr President we now have eight items on the agenda the first of which is to consider approval of tech department or chart and job descriptions this has two motions the first motion is to approve the technology Department job descriptions and classification points as presented and I so move second we're motion by Johnson second by stunich we have any discussion as you as you can see in the packet there are now five positions that will be in the technology department they were all uh graded in their points and placed in pay grades and you can see what the the wages will be for these five positions thank you Mr Johnson Mr chz yes um I guess this has to do with integration of it and if uh both of these items are approved word uh at what point in integration for it were we would we be at would this be all we need or is there more to come that's for anybody who cares to answer Chris Schubert would you like to answer that yes I will um so what we are doing right now is a or the next part would be to approve aou with the union and at that point after we set wages then we can start advertising for the positions we will post for them then it needs to come back to council again uh for hiring of internal candidates and then we would do external so there are several more steps to go through for the integration okay so what I heard there is once we hire all the positions we will be completed with integration for the IT department yes or technology department that's all I have thank you thank you anybody else have any questions uh Mr Johnson yeah sorry speak again but I I wanted to mention during the council meeting I've had employees ask why they have to apply for their own jobs within the city and when I asked that question Chris Shubert showed me the language in the union contracts that say if we create a new position it must be posted internally to the union for 5 days so since these are new position descriptions new position titles our current IT staff outside of Shan who is just hired are going to have to apply for one of these four positions within the city to maintain a job with the city thank you for that clarification Mr Johnson anybody else do we have a motion we already have a motion um if there's no other discussion let's go to a vote all in favor I I against same sign motion passes again Mr Johnson thank you Mr PR we got a second item on this second motion on this item and the motion is to direct staff to negotiate the wages for the new technology department positions with the IBEW administrative support Union and ISO move second motion by Johnson second by bevans any discussion no discussion hearing none let's go to a vote all in favor I against same sign motion passes Mr Johnson thank you next up is uh some distribution of 2024 Statewide affordable housing aid funds and the motion is to uh to give $70,000 to Lakes area Habitat for Humanity from our Saha funds and ISO move second motion by Johnson second by bevans Mr Johnson thank you Mr President so we uh advertised for this 96 $888,000 but we have 96 a little bit left from last year or 104 total I guess from what we had left from last year we did get two people to apply for the money we had Lakes area Habitat for Humanity and my neighbor to love Coalition we decided in committee to fully fund the habitat Grant and then just hold on to the remaining $34,000 and change this money needs to be spent by 2028 so we're in no hurry so we'll wait and see if a housing need comes up in the future thank you Mr Johnson any more discussion Mr chz I have a question for chairman Johnson do you feel you get uh better perhaps return on going directly to Habitat without sharing any of that with the coal what's the coalition to uh my neighbor to love Coalition I believe yeah thanks councilman chazak I I mentioned this down in committee a habitat we've worked with for a long time it's it's an organization that's been around for decades it's a it's a proven model that gets families into housing and they've been doing it for Generations my neighbor to love Coalition is trying something very unique and could be very positive but we just don't know it's not a proven model I'm not comfortable sending government dollars to an unproven model that could end up not only not putting people in housing but causing more people to be out of Housing and that and that that could be a problem so I don't think government money should be going to that at this time until the model can be proven over decades like habitat thank you any more discussion hearing none let's go to a vote all in favor I I against same sign motion passes Mr Johnson thank you and this next item is about the country manner development they requested some delays on fees and the motion is to approve country maners request to delay payment of sack and whack and deferred assessment for the county manner development project and further to defer the park dedication funds under the same model and ISO move second motion by Johnson second by stunich do we have any discussion Mr Johnson so they're not the Country Manor is not asking to get free sack and whack or anything forgiven they're asking to defer when they pay the fees until after they're operating after they're in business and then they'll pay the full fees over the course course of 5 years we added Park dedication funds downstairs because they I don't think they were aware of them yet and it's just another city fee that can be put off a few years to help them just get going and get off on the right foot and be as successful as possible in our town thank you Mr Johnson any more discussion I I have a question about the park dedication um when did you say you added that downstairs did I hear you correctly yes so this has been something that we should have been doing all long but it just got brought up tonight the park dedication is that my understanding Mr Johnson well my understanding Jeff is that the country manner developers weren't aware of our Park dedication fees and to save them the time of coming back and asking us to defer them in six months we'll just take care of it right now if they're if they're looking to get as many fees deferred as possible that's just another one that is there an amount of the determined on Park dedication what James estimated about $38,000 very much Mr chair Mr bans I I spoke against this in committee and I'm going to speak against it now I'm I'm in favor of the sack and whack I I think encouraging this type of development and us being able to help and the park dedication fees is worthwhile I I'm against the absolute zero interest on the assessment on the RO mod this was a very controversial project back in ' 06 and since people were allowed to defer eternally uh as long as the interest accumulated um that was what the council decided back in ' 06 everybody who has paid their assessment including as you recall the one from just recently had to pay interest through 2012 I believe so um to tell this one property owner that they don't have to but everybody else does all the little people do isn't fair it isn't fair to the people who have already paid their assessments plus interest with the firment and it isn't fair to those that are going to have to do it the other reason is these people knew of the assessment the assessment is the seller the seller should have paid or cleared or made clear of the assessments from the Geto to now have to take those assessments and put them on every single other taxpayers so these people can make a few more bucks and everybody else can't it just isn't fair Mr chair so I'm going to vote against this if that if they were paying the principal plus the 10 years of a assessment that we agreed with the last person who did this I'd be 100% in favor of it but not not this deal it's just too it's just too much money that's not available to everybody so thank you Mr bevans has that um I guess to Mr beans's point I would got a couple of questions uh um because I do believe I agree with him on this and uh I'm glad he brought it up because it never crossed my my mind um when this property by the developer now it was purchased is that a correct statement from somebody recently so they could uh develop that site is that a fair statement maybe Mr crvi knows that it was purchased um probably approximately five to six years ago is it not my understanding that when there's assessments on a property which there would have been on that property five or six years ago they get paid at the time of purchase not to so there there could have been a um assessment search on it certainly from a title company but uh at the time when you have deferred assessments or connection charges they can transfer to the next property owner okay that's my misunderstanding of deferred assessments um but I I think Mr bevans makes a valid point U because everybody else again is uh got to pay into this um uh my only misunderstanding was I thought if they lived there for years and sold that that assessment would have to be paid but I just learned something um so I I would have to agree with Mr bevans on that deferred assessment I'd probably be voting no unless I hear some other information thank you Mr chz is there anyone from staff that can tell us the difference between what what amount that would be in interest so the 10 years of interest that they're asking to be waved is $ 37,3 47 they are asking though for this to be an interest rate of 1.5% so it's not quite the whole 37,000 that they're asking that they won't be paying if that makes any sense thank you um in this area having to do with these deferred assessments has there ever been any project near $50 million that's providing services such as this or any other type of commercial or Economic Development besides residential I do not believe so and the reason why this ass assessment was not due in the property was sold is because with this project it was due when the property was replatted or developed normally when someone has different assessment against their house and they sell that that's when it triggers to be due but with the Beaver Dam assessments there was a project that it could be transferred as long as the property wasn't replatted or developed that's what's triggering the assessment to be due on this parcel thank you anybody else have questions well I I guess I appreciate opening up here I um I it we're doing Tiff on this correct we're doing um um taxi batement we're doing um what's the other thing we're doing tonight or the sack and whack well sack and uh yeah deferred sack and whack we have the U uh what's what's the other thing we did last the park dedication Park well okay the the bonds the bond what's that called that we did I forget conduit a debt and we haven't done it yet it's still coming that's next and again like U Mr Bev's Point everybody else has had to pay into this uh the little guy so I I just it's a kind of this this 37,000 again um I I I guess I didn't know the city was so flushed with money we could just wave and give away and not collect all the time so that's all we got Mr chair thank you Mr chazak Mr habar I just want to indicate that they are going to be paying 1.5% interest on some of that money so I just want to bring that to everyone's attention so it's not a complete wave okay any other comments hearing none we have a motion and a second call roll call Mr chair let's do a roll call Tony Erikson yes peans no chazak no Johnson yes stun yes Jagger yes OD day yes that motion passes 5-2 and Mr Johnson go ahead thank you Mr President the meeting got really fast after that motion [Laughter] the next motion is to uh ratify the hiring of air enforcement as Transit operation Specialists and further that he be placed at step two of the transit operation specialist wage Grid at 2539 per hour and ISO move second motion by Johnson second by stunich and bevans Mr joh motion yeah this this position was budgeted for and we've we've actually had it in the past it's just we had it vacant for a while and we had it in the budget and we're filling it thank you comments questions hear none let's go to a vote all in favor I I against same sign motion passes Mr Johnson thank you Mr President next up is the uh consider the approval of the revised employee policy manual and the motion is to approve the updated employee policy manual as presented in ISO move second motion by Johnson second by stunich Mr Johnson this is the third packet it's been in and we finally made it it to a Personnel finance committee meeting so it can be acted on we've all had plenty of time to review it so I I hope we all have thank you any questions on it no more discussion we read the whole thing here tonight not we're not going to do that we have a motion in a second any more discussion hearing none go to a vote all in favor again same sign motion passes Mr Johnson thank you Mr President next up is the annual review and approval of the investment policy and the motion is to approve the investment policy with the changes and I so move second motion by Johnson second by bevans any discussion Mr Johnson the only changes is that we will be uh doing our interest allocation on a quarterly basis instead of a semiannual basis as was recommended by our Municipal advisers other discussion hearing none let's go to a vote all in favor I against same sign that motion passes M Mr Johnson thank you Mr President the seventh item is uh consider allowing peringer to assume four parking spaces and the motion is to approve Mr perer to assume four leased parking spots previously leased by Bob and fr in the alley parking lot so long as Bob and fr agrees and ISO move second motion by Johnson second by stunich Mr Johnson so yeah Dave came to me quite a while ago on a different issue but brought this up that since the city was making him provide four parking stalls for his new apartments he's developing he's wondering if we could work out some way to get him four stalls that would be right next to the building in the in the city owned parking lot there and it's just the perfect opportunity right now with Bob and fr's closing and having four spots that those could just be assumed by puring for his tenants in the apartments he's developing so we uh we approved doing that down in committee with the caveat that let's check with Bob and France first and make sure they're okay giving up their spots because they may want they may have some reason to want to keep them I don't know what it would be but they are the current lessers of the spot thank you Mr President U these are all paid leases that uh Bob and France were paying us the required amount that the city charges and it'll just be taken over by Mr burer correct and then he'll be paying the lease rate too thank you I I I guess to further explain we generally have a wait list for this parking lot there is a wait list with like seven names on it but I thought since we're making him get four off street spots and there is this opportunity with Bob and Fran's closing that would be a good helpful thing to do for the the city to help him transfer those spots to him thank you any more discussion hearing none let's go to a vote all in favor I against same sign that motion passes and again Mr Johnson hey thank you Mr President our final item is a discussion on our bond Council and economic development matters and the motion is to continue to be represented by Sophia Lick in like in likey in connection with Bond and economic devel matters and I Soul move second motion by Johnson second by bevans any discussion Mr Johnson so this was not on the agenda as of last week but it came up today that the entire Bond council department if you will from Kennedy and Graven left and joined a group called CAC Rock LLP so they don't have Bond council at Kennedy engraven currently they may in the future rehire some they don't have any right now so we're in the midst of this conduit debt and some some bonding and development issues that Sophia has been working on for years that staff recommended and the committee agreed that we should just stick with the person who's knowledgeable and has all the history on what we're trying to do as a city for now and if we need to go out for proposals in the future we'll address that then thank you other discussion he none let's go to a vote all in favor I I against same sign motion passes end report thank you next we have safe safy and Public Works chairman Tad Erikson all right thank you Mr President just two items coming out of committee for safety and Public Works the first of which is Direction on active code enforcement within that there's two properties the first of which is 823 Willow and I uh recommendation coming out of committee is uh to provide an administrative warrant and Abate the property and modify the $300 monthly citation to $100 a day and I still move second motion by Ericson second by chzo any discussion a little B more context on this one so this property they've received uh a notice of violation letter and three citations um additionally there's uh other issues off street parking violation that has been abated um not they have a non-licensed rental since 2023 and multiple letters and legal action have been undergone by the city thank you Mr Ericson any discussion any other questions not let's go to a vote all in favor I again same sign motion passes Mr Ericson all right the second property is 430d Street Northeast and a recommendation coming out of committee is obtaining an administrative warrant to Abate the garbage junken debris at 430d Street Northeast a motion and I so move thank you second motion by Ericson second by Jagger any discussion on that hearing none let's go to a vote all in favor I I motion passes Mr Erikson thank you the last item is a discussion of uh City maintained flag polls and for this uh there's several flag polls uh throughout Town one at City Hall uh three on the historic water tower uh five downtown and uh again several at the parks it brought to our attention that um several of the flags were not at half mast uh during the latest recommendation to have the flags at half mask and uh motion coming out of committee is to uh continue to we uh well to take down the flag poles during the winter in the Parks uh also on the water tower but leave up the flag pole at City Hall and leave up one of the ones downtown with lighting as well as uh go out for bids for flag poles that are equipped uh to bring them to half mast and lighting and I so move second motion by Ericson second by chzo any other discussion I'll just add to that um staff was going to put together a little diagram or map of of those the locations for us to and they'll have the recommendation of the one flag pole that we keep at full Mass operational during the actual winter months thank you Mr Johnson does this include like the fire department police department polls and all that no those are City polls do they manage however we don't have the operational capability of lowering a flag here what's that yeah we do we do it's just that we need a lift for the ones that are downtown we need a lift to lower and and raise them because the they they're not accessible for you know when you're on the ground there's some designs with a flag pole with just a key slot and they're nicer they're a little bit more expensive but you don't have to rent a lift to uh remove those flags or add half mass or full Mass right thank you Mr Good Mr Mayor I just want to add that the park board did discuss this at their last meeting for the parks and they were in agreement for the ones within the parks yes thank you anything else we have a motion in a second let's go to a vote all in favor I against same sign motion passes Mr Erikson end of report thank you next we are moving on to unfinished business 8A is a call for applicants Mr Mayor yes it is the following applications are available on our website Charter commission two terms expiring 2025 two terms expiring 2026 housing Redevelopment Authority one term expiring 2027 Library board one term expiring 2027 Transportation advisory committee two terms expiring 2025 one term expiring 2026 and that's it look at us thank you and for council president I have one term expiring 2027 for the airport commission and two terms expiring 2027 for the Planning Commission next we have 8B this is a final reading of proposed ordinance 15 80 amending section 600 of the city code and this is for uh Finance director Connie Hillman thank you chair um so this was getting rid of the shy Bond requirement for the garbage haulers we copied the same language from the contractor's license and we also updated the um where the the reference to where the fees are included in the code at the last council meeting Council elected not to hold a public hearing for this ordinance so tonight's recommended action is to conduct the final reading and dispense with the actual reading of opposed ordinance 1580 and ordinance amending section 600 of the city code and note that a vote to dispense with the reading must be unanimous and then consider adoption of proposed ordinance 1580 thank you Connie you have any discussion not we're looking for a motion to conduct a final reading and dispense with the actual reading of the proposed ordinance 1580 so move second motion by Johnson second by beans any discussion hearing none go to a vote all in favor I against same sign that motion passes uh next we're looking for a motion to consider adoption of the proposed ordinance 1580 I'll move Johnson second motion by Johnson second by bevans any discussion hearing none go to a vote all in favor Mr same sign oh we got to do a roll call again let's go ahead and do that then go ahead yes bans yes chz yes Johnson yes stun yes Jagger yes OD day yes that motion passes moving on to new business 9A we have a consideration from Public Utilities Commission requesting to add conference attendance requirements to the commission description believe this is uh Public Utilities director Chris Evans go ahead uh thank you Mr President uh the Public Utilities Commission recommended unanimously at their November 26th meeting that an expectation for Commissioners to attend at least two State events and one National event during their five-year term to be added to the public utility commissioner description thank you um any discussion questions Mr chz yeah I'm going to vote against this um I'm looking at the word expectation and uh for all intents and purposes this is a volunteer position for the most part there is a there is pay and uh there is a an actual um tabled I believe a motion or held off to uh ask the council to actually remove them from the city's insurance and that uh there was just one member that had a issue otherwise I think that would have passed and we would have probably had that before us um but this expectation I I look at it this way if uh if anybody applies to do a job Planning and Zoning Park Board and we we all get our packets you know it's like uh uh for those meetings as well and you say I expect you to read it well yeah it kind of goes without saying and you you you can't make anybody do that but you would expect them to uh this is a little different uh some people may have a job they can't just take off maybe this is on a weekend but that's still their time and and I'm and I listen to this and it seemed like it was one of those things that had virtually no discussion it was a long meeting it was getting late you might stay and just say yeah what the heck let's just you know and and who's going to hold them accountable to doing this who's going to keep track and then what happens then if there's a um what's the consequence of it if you don't uh well you don't get reappointed for 5 years is that what's going to happen if you know if you've done a good job and people have businesses and that type of thing they can't always get off the time and oh we're going to expect you to go so I will go KN unless if there's a motion to approve it thank you Mr chz Mr Johnson yeah I kind of had questions along the same lines like what's what's the teeth here what what if somebody my understanding is public utility Commissioners are appointed by the mayor approved by the council for fiveyear terms so if they set an expectation of you must attend three events well whose expectation is that are they going to be removed from the commission if they don't attend the conferences or do they still just serve out their five years like I don't understand the point of I don't understand the point of it right are they going to be removed from the commission Chris Mr Evans uh I guess the I guess the commission would look for a mechanism for that but the the thought process was primarily focusing on having Commissioners go to these events because of all the legislation and Regulatory things that are happening just so that they can be aware and meet with the decision makers and just help the city have a presence at these key decision locations or meetings and that uh obviously the more people that we have boots on the ground in addition to lobbyists Etc that you know we can uh plead our cases to the powers that be at the state and National level to you know Aid with funding and uh P provide information that can be disseminated to our citizens thank you Mr Evans so no no teeth nobody's getting kicked off the commission so so it's it's pointless to have I I don't disagree with anything you said Mr Evans and I think that I I would hope all of our commissioners are engaged in going to conferences and lobbying our representatives and whatnot but I think it's pretty simple enough just have the mayor appoint and Council approve and the commission just does its thing so I think I'll be voting no on requiring attendance of conferences there's a difference I think in the wording it says expectation not quite a requirement um but Mr Jagger I know you had something you wanted to add um that question was most was mostly answer but I'm wondering if there's a softer way to incentivize this somehow that Mr Evans might be able to uh mind craft over um a period of time to come back to instead of requiring it to maybe incentivize some of these some of these do this some somewhere around the maybe the language of encouraged um I I do think I I think uh personal development and education on matters that you're dealing with are definitely important I think it would be great if we had more um involvement in this type of thing not not only at the Pu level but at the council level as well um and that's something we can talk about more going into the future but um yeah I can see where the expectation of Commissioners to attend at least two events State events and one National event during a 5year term the other thing that comes up in my mind is what you're going to do them all in year four well that's not going to help much either so maybe we encourage Commissioners to attend in their first year or maybe the chair each year goes along with the public utilities director to an event somewhere along those lines where we just start off with in increasing that involvement um more than what we do right now but I'm uh I would be in favor of it I guess if the language were changed a little bit but the motion that's on right now is the motion I believe that's on the memo there's no motion yet do we not have a motion yet okay I I got one more comment yeah go ahead Mr chz well I I expect every one of us to go to a couple League of Minnesota City's conferences and uh maybe uh Coalition of Greater Minnesota cities too but uh um city will pay for it you know why not and any Commission out there can go to these at their whenever they come up there's uh they I believe we have uh development funds or whatever we call it here to uh pay for their travel and uh expenses and so it's always there it's up to the individual like I said uh this is uh you know none of us are told what to do here um and I just I I don't know I don't think it was given a full full full thought process at the actual meeting when I listen to the the agenda item so thank you any more discussion Mr stunich I would just say let's direct staff to come back with a cleaner option so it's more black and white because it seems really gray and vague right now student Mr Mayor has there been any lack of involvement in these or an excessive amount of these are people beating down the door to go to them or well again I think uh the the driving force is that there's a lot of things happening in the legislative and Regulatory uh Arenas now uh more than ever and that again this was just a mechanism to make sure that you know more people and more in-person events were being attended and that the city was being represented okay I are they showing a concern for it though it's unanimous but was there is there a concern that not enough of it is being attended uh yeah this was this was a commission's recommendation in directives themselves for themselves yeah I'm just wondering where it came from unanimous unanimously that's be my question yeah so I just wondering where it came from if they all unanimously believe that they should be doing this I don't know it just seems it seems a little odd but I don't I I don't uh disagree that we absolutely should be doing those things thank you Mr Mayor anyone else anybody want to try to take a hack at this one I'll make a motion to deny the recommendation second Johnson we motion by chzo and a second by Johnson to deny this recommendation are we leaving it at that do we want to see this again that's up to the public utilities commiss I think I was going to say the same thing if they want to come back with something else uh Mr jger the the the current Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously for themselves to attend this it seems like we got the right group of people there and they can self- police this at least in the short term yeah thank you any more discussion Mr chair Mr bevans I'm just a question a clarification on what something Mr chz mentioned it doesn't say anything about funding on this but there is personal development I know in the city budget is there in the in the um Public Utilities Public Utilities budget Mr Evans uh yes we do have travel uh uh money available for events and training and development for appointed people not staff well it it's it's all lumped together so oh okay that I just know that's not the case with the city it's separate because the union contracts are different than the contracts we have sure all right anything else Mr Johnson yeah I I'll just add one final thing and I I support the motion sorry to belor the point but I know bill ruy was on the publicity commission for a very long time and he was involved with national organizations he was involved with State organizations for energy and electrical utilities and it's not like the the funding mechanisms are there and if the Commissioners have the interest they can go do this as evidenced by the commission members who have gone and done this so I I that's all I have to say about that thank you Mr Johnson anyone else he none let's go to a vote all in favor I against same sign that motion passes next we're moving on to 9B it's a public hearing and Adoption of the resolution ordering Improvement and ordering preparation of plans for improvement 2316 South brainer resurfacing project and this is I believe uh Mr habar thank you Mr President this here project you've already voted on this twice uh this is on step three of step five and we have representatives from Bolton and mink to give us a quick presentation on this thank you thank you so you could say name and organization before you get started sir uh thank you Mr President uh Brian drown I'm a project manager with Bolton and mink thank you so uh yeah tonight we have the uh Improvement hearing for uh the South brainer uh Improvement project uh we'll just go over uh quickly uh presentation that was in your packet uh go over the scope the improvements how that um applies to the uh City's assessment policy the estimated cost from the uh feasibility study uh and then just uh where we're at in that uh 429 process and then this is a public uh uh hearing uh to have an opportunity to take public input uh so uh where we're at uh just quickly um the uh feasibility report was accepted on January 6th um so tonight here we're having the Improvement hearing and then with the uh consideration of the resolution to order the project and uh prepare uh plants and specifications um if that moves ahead uh we plan to be back uh with those plans uh in a couple weeks uh to get authorization uh to move to bidding uh that takes about a month in March um and then be back uh to to you to um have an A a contract uh uh award recommendation um looking for project construction at the beginning of the of the summer um and hope to be wrapped up I think by July 4th and then um have the final assessment hearing um following the completion of construction uh the project area is in the uh Southwest portion of the city basically residential streets north of Buffalo Hills Lane um and uh including Gren Avenue uh that being the Eastern uh boundary so those kind of those streets north of Buffalo Hills and west of uh Gren um also um in that uh project area uh BPU is requested there's 10 um fire hydrants uh to be um replaced and um gate valves added on the hydrant lead such that they can be uh serviced and um uh shut off without affecting the whole whole system uh so the proposed uh improvements uh for the street portion uh Gren Avenue uh that has a little thicker section than the other streets so that would include uh Milling off the top two Ines of the existing pavement um just between the curbs and then uh Paving that with a a new pavement uh the rest of the streets have a slightly uh uh thinner uh pavement section such that they're not a candidate to be uh Mill and overlaid and so actually just removing that uh entire uh top layer has one uh lift of pavement compacting the existing uh base material and then placing uh a new binous pavement uh throughout the project uh identified a few two areas of concrete cbon gutter that need spot repair uh and as well as uh two uh some storm sewer castings on the North End of Carol Lane and the culdesac and then uh with the uh culdesac roads off uh Ridge uh Avenue uh May some concrete Valley gutters just to improve uh drainage uh in those intersections and then the 10 um fire hydrants and gate valves that was mentioned uh looking at the uh City assessment policy um we are uh following Minnesota statute 429 uh the city policy would have uh assessing uh 50% of the project costs um to the to the benefiting properties uh on a front foot basis with that uh repayment either being uh as a property owner could do that in full or uh assess uh over over a 10-e period uh to the property at an interest rate yet to be uh determined uh so this is kind of the project area a couple exhibits um out of the feasibility study so each property the front footage um was uh labeled and calculated um that being the Ridge area and then this the Eastern um portion of the the uh the project uh so all these each property um their front footage um assigned um and then added add all added all up and I'll get to that in a couple minute with those calculations um here's the estimated project costs um we have two two columns uh the one in green that's the uh resurfacing and Street uh items um and then in Blue uh has the uh construction items that would be associated with the removal and replacement of of the hydrants uh right now the estimated cost for the resurfacing portion is $575,500 and the hydrant Replacements $234,800 one uh for a total of $895 which at this point with these being estimates does include a 10% uh contingency so those are those numbers uh broken down for this project um the uh cost associated with the hydrant Replacements would not be uh assessed just the uh improvements uh with the uh Street resurfacing um so uh 50% of that 575 470 uh comes up with an amount of $287,700 adding up all that front footage and and there's a total of $ 17,360 or 363 ft on the project and so uh that dividing that total footage um into that accessible amount uh comes up with a front footage of uh $16.57 per per foot uh the assessment policy does have a a sidey yard uh portion that the uh City uh takes um and uh provides for 50% of that for Corner Lots with the corner lot being the short side um being your front footage and the long side of a a corner lot being your side footage and so um these have all been calculated with these rates um if a particular property owner um I don't have it as a uh as a slide tonight but in the feasibility study there's a preliminary role that each property owner based on these rates and what is considered side footage and front footage could look and see what their estimated assessment is um at this point again um an assessment or an estimate so again um that's kind of the estimated costs and the methodology of of what the the how the rates were accepted or determined so um yeah tonight we're here again at the Improvement hearing with the estimated costs and a chance for for input with the next step um being that to order the project and the preparation of plans which is also on the agenda tonight Mr President Mr chesa can I ask him a question yeah go ahead yeah I did I see correctly mobilization for this was like over 500,000 like 530 something uh 35,000 35 okay I don't know how I got that so it's five or 3 35,000 that's the cost of the contractor to mobilize their equipment right that's what you estimate yes okay so my question is when you estimate that cost doesn't that depend on where the contractor comes from I mean yeah and this is in line we um you know we administer uh projects similar to this and generally it's a a a about in that 5% um with this uh being um not multiple a ton of contractors probably uh expected for this project we're we're just under that 5% okay thank you Mr Erikson yeah thank you Mr President uh thank you Brian um I have a I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the pavement needs but what I have a less of a grasp on is the hydrants and I don't know if maybe this is a question for you or for staff but the current hydrants are they not equipped with the gate valves are they deficient can you talk a little bit about the hydrant needs um or I can direct that towards staff if yeah I can clarify that uh so the the 10 hydrant that are out there they are original to the neighborhood uh so they are pretty dated uh and they are ones that do not have gate valves on them uh so like Brian mentioned uh to do any service on those those do require us to shut down the main uh so that is a water outage for those folks that are connected to that segment of Maine uh to be able to service those fire hydrant so this replacement would obviously replace the ones that are original to the neighborhood but also install gate valves that we could Serv as those hydrants in the future without having to affect the main and uh put people on a water outage all right thank you Mr jger thank you uh thank you Brian I just have a couple quick questions the uh when procedurally when you guys establish unit pricing is that based on 2024 historical data or is that 2025 Futures uh it probably mainly based on 2024 with uh a a little inflationary uh in our estimates for that inflationary number uh generally we're assuming about 4% okay and a second question is uh part of the scope of work is part of the scope of work is is Turf establishment that's a very broadly described work can you explain is that um hydro seeding hoping that uh hoping that nature Waters this is that relying on us to self-perform the watering uh no watering can you just talk through the turf establishment please so yeah that would be anything beyond the the curban gutter that uh is disturbed by construction U generally um I'll be honest this is my first project was the city of Brainard um generally you know we will specify that in the plans and specs uh I'm guessing seating and Hydro Seating there is um typically in contracts um a 30-day maintenance period that the contractor needs to to water um and and maintain that that was my question if we were self-performing the watering or if it was included so yeah that's all thank you thank you anybody else have questions Mr Hors I just wanted point out Brian is this correct in the sense that so $16 57 cents per foot so essentially within this neighborhood it's on average of 100 foot Frontage it' be $1,700 yes per so per family on average most of these lots are 95 ft to over 120 and stuff so on the average it's 100 foot Frontage so that would be about $1,700 per household on average again thank you Mr abar anything else Mr drown that's all I have thank you yeah thank you all a is all right next we're looking to hold a we're looking to hold a public hearing do we need a motion for this no just open it all right so it is 8:23 and we will now open the public hearing so if there's anybody here that wishes to address the council please do so now name and address John Forest 159 Pine View Drive um and I missed the original hearing on this I was out of state celebrating the birth of a probably the world's best looking granddaughter um so but some of these questions could have been answered there but uh so I got back and I started pick things up and I started looking at the street assessment project and uh I started to have some questions and one and I think the city is wrestled with this issue in the past is about assessments on a culdesac now I live on Pine View Drive and Pine View Drive is kind of a kind of a lazy comma instead of a round culdesac it's kind of a comma so it's kind of flat on the top and then it kind of bulges down at the bottom well I'm down at the bottom where it bulges so I have four pieces of property that are I don't know if can you see I have a pointer here that I can point out where we're talking about if my pointer oh it doesn't work on the screen does it uh I it's so I'm at uh 159 Pine View and I think I'm the next lot over from what's highlighted there as you notice those lots around me are very large lots and I they haven't hit my lot yet but they're go east I'm over to the east there there it is so you can see by comparison my lot is really very small those are very large lots are around me now there are four houses that are served off of that culde act three of them have their driveways off that CAC I don't mine is up the way off a Pine View Drive uh because of the lazy comma effect of the culdesac like my neighbor immediately to the left there he's got about 70 feet of Frontage on the Colac and the his neighbor has about 70 ft maybe 75 ft so using the $165 number their assessments around $1,100 $1,200 or something like that now because I have all that Frontage on the CAC plus running down Pine View Drive even though my lot is very small I've got almost 194 ft that I'm going to be assessed on so I'm looking at $32 $3,300 so we got four houses being served and we have assessments some as low as $1,100 and I'm looking at an assessment of about $32 $3,300 so I think there's a little bit of question of equity here and I'm wondering you know if the city has a culdesac policy because I think this issue has been wrestled over the years uh about how do you really fairly assess on a culdesac uh and if not would that be a side Lot a category where I would be maybe assessed on let's say the the part on front on Pine View Drive as a a regular assessment and maybe the part on the culdesac would be the side lot or something but it just you know it just got me asking some questions so I thought i' use the opportunity to come to city council tonight and just put the issue out and just see if there's any thoughts thank you Mr Forest yeah the I I don't know if we're going to be able to answer your question on that exactly tonight that that's you kind of answered it the way I would have answered it uh considering one side a side Lot which would be less of an assessment but have you spoken with staff about any of this no this kind of I just got back and I just started looking at it so I I I really just kind of discovered it this afternoon so I know I haven't so uh and I thought that the city might have a culdesac policy that I wasn't aware of and that I got that's part of my question does the city have a cuac policy for assessment I would I think it's been on I think the city council has wrestled with us yeah I don't remember coming up when I've been on here but um I would encourage you to reach out to Mr Habor either after the meeting or early in the morning tomorrow um I think he'll be able to help you out with the answers to some of these questions that you have Mr President Mr chz you typically don't uh in a public uh hearing we don't usually engage but um my question would be I guess uh due to my limitations here um is any portion of the property Mr Forest has is it uh could you uh uh uh plat it or or develop portions outside of what he currently lives on could it be I would doubt it I it's pretty it's a pretty small lot than the house obviously between the house and garage it fills up a whole lot of it that's what I figured so okay thank you you bet Mr Johnson all right uh two things one can we put the our assessment policy on the SP andw for next meeting just so they can review it and see if we have a culde provision or if maybe we should it's a good idea and then secondly this is the this is the public hearing to say whether we should or shouldn't do the project the assessment public hearing will in August after we have all of the actual costs known excellent okay and then maybe I would just suggest that maybe the city would have a discussion as to having an assessment on a cuac discussion well we're going to have uh safety and Public Works take a look at that and see what we have for a policy currently and if we want to install one thank you thank you Mr Forest anyone else want to address the council please do so now if not is there anyone online that would like to address the council if so press star three anyone online want to address the council please please press star three doesn't look like we have anyone else that wants to address the council so we will close the public hearing at 8:30 p.m. next we're looking for a motion to adopt the attached resolution in which orders the Improvement and preparation of the plans so move Ericson second we have a motion by Erikson second by Johnson any discussion hearing none this is a roll call vote Tony please call the rooll Erikson yes bans yes chz yes Johnson yes stun yes Jager OD yes that motion passed all right next we are uh at 9C this is consideration of amendment to planned unit development for Country Manor development project believe this is uh community development director James cranic go ahead thank you Mr President So Country Manor is proposing to amend the Pud by expanding the Southwest Memory Care building to accommodate additional memory care units removing a portion of the main parking lot reducing the size of the Northwest building and removing a detached garage uh as explained uh by the applicant these are all items that can be added at a later date if needed uh the senior living facility has proposed to be comprised of 44 senior living apartments 32 luxury apartments 30 Memory Care units and an attached child care facility for eight infants 14 toddlers 40 preschoolers and 30 school- age children and for rehabilitation services for residents and the public uh the original PUD included 92 apartments and 18 Memory Care units uh the Planning Commission considered this request at their January meeting and unanimously recommended approval of the Pud Amendment subject to the findings of fact and contingent upon approval of the development agreement and uh just to note the development agreement will be brought before city council at the next meeting I can certainly answer any questions and representatives from Country Manor are also here thank you Mr cranic does anybody have any questions for staff anybody have questions for staff doesn't look like it we're looking forward uh motion to approve the Pud Amendment subject to the findings of fact with the following conditions approval of the development agreement motion by bevans second by stunich any discussion got the name right any discussion hearing none let's go to a vote all in favor I against same sign motion passes all right next we're moving on to 9d this is to to conduct a public hearing on tax abatement for Country Manor Brainard campus LLC and adopt a resolution granting a property tax abatement for certain property in the city and approving a tax abatement agreement with Country Manor brainer campus LLC again uh community development director James kic thank you Mr President I'll start this off here uh so the Eda considered this request and recommended a structured abatement with 100% abatement in the first 3 years of operation as a fa facility is most V vulnerable during this time uh also the county did provide new taxable values to the property as directed by the Eda for city council consideration um M Michaela from Baker Tilly will go into greater detail regarding the numbers on the tax abatement uh so with that the recommendation is to conduct the public hearing number two to adopt a proposed resolution granting a property tax abatement on abatement property and approving a tax abatement agreement with country manner brainer campus LLC so I'll turn it over first to Michaela Sophia um is also here to answer questions on the abatement and afterwards I can certainly answer any questions as well thank you James thank you James um good evening Mr chair um members of the council um to add on to what James had described um this the Country Manor did come before the city requesting an increase um in their tax abatement assistance from um what was considered a year ago their request is for up to 20 years of tax abatement assistance um or 1.2 million whichever um uh would reach first the total estimated taxable value based on additional um analysis by the county is about 18.8 million and that does include um a breakdown between the um unit types of the standard um standard depart the standard housing units the luxury housing units and then the daycare retail um um portion of the project the structure of the tax abatement which again is based on the um increased taxes um generated by the city share over the maximum 20-year term with the um Blended approach of 100% for years 1 through three um which would equate to based on that um 18.8 million of taxable value in the city's proposed um 20125 tax rate of 53.9 75 uh% so years 1 through three is estimated to be about 128,129 and then um years 4 through 17 at 65% would be um based on these same value and tax rate estimates of 83,8 and then the final three years at um 35% um would be about 4,24 So based on this over Maximum 20-year term the current value assumptions of 18.8 million and the propo proposed pay 25 City share tax rates that total tax abatement would be um uh is projected to be 1.69 5 million um and would be more than what the maximum amount pursu into the terms of the agreement are and so we're projecting that even though the um term can go up to 20 years based on the staggered percent um Blended 65% the abatement um would uh or is projected to be done in closer to 13 years again based on those assumptions um the project is is uh pursuing to the terms of the agreement expected to start construction in 2025 and will be done by December 31st of 2026 and therefore that new taxable value of 18.8 million would be realized for taxes payable in 2028 um that's a brief uh overview of the the tax increment numbers um the the term of the abatement and I would be happy to answer any questions you have on tax abatement or on the abatement analysis um or additional uh discussion thank you does anybody have any questions doesn't look like it is there anything else anything else from the our attorneys online that's it for my perspective okay thank you if we don't have that's why we kept her on okay all right so if there's no questions from Council we're looking to open the public hearing to consider granting property tax abatement under Minnesota statutes sections 4691 1812 through 4691 1815 for 65% of the city's share of property taxes for the abatement property and we will now open the public hearing it is 8:37 p.m. so if there's anybody here that wants to address the council please do so now doesn't look like there's anybody in here that wants to address the council but if there's anyone online please press star three I ask again if there's anyone that wants to address the council please do so now we'll now close the public hearing so next we're looking to adopt the proposed resolution granting a property tax abatement on the abatement property and approving a tax abatement agreement with the foundation for Health Care continuums second motion by Jagger nope ches second by bans Johnson Johnson by Johnson whatever one at a time one at a time BR we got a third and a fourth over here yeah we're already okay all right any discussion hearing none let's go to a vote is this a resolution Tony yes all right let's do it yes bans yes chz yes Johnson yes stun yes Jagger yes OD yes and that resolution passes all right moving on to number 10 we have staff reports Tony Gage Chief Holmes yeah thank you Chief Davis nothing Mr it Sean strong nothing d h hman Finance yes uh tonight I handed out the related party questionnaire needed for the audit there is a front and a back so if you could sign that and return it to me that would be great thank you Connie Mr Hors Public Works yes just a few items next meeting we'll you'll have a lot on our Transit uh program and then also just uh coming up this Saturday we're going to be having a skating party at Memorial Park and uh Kayla our Recreation specialist did a great job she got a lot of good sponsors new sponsors this year so hoping everyone can make it out there it'll be starting at one o'clock on Saturday thank you Mr course uh James cran Community Development thank you Mr President uh block metrics has asked for a special meeting from the Eda as there were a few minor changes to the overall building and site plan as part of the final design package uh the Eda will need to consider an amendment to the purchase development agreement high-tech will attend the meeting and is very close to submitting the building permits for this project uh also Paradigm Auto has submitted their land use application and is within the 90-day requirement from city council they are proposing a pavement option for their uh property and that's everything thank you Mr cranic and I apologize our City attorney just to let the record reflect it's Christian Schaffer here for rat Wick instead of Joe Lang today other than that Joe didn't send me with anything so no we're good thank you Chris Schubert HR nothing to add Chris Evans Public Utilities nothing to add thank you uh Mr sharpen here if your computer is working yes Mr President I think you can hear me I do not have any we can hear you this time happy that you can hear me and we'll look forward to chatting soon happy New Year thank you Mr sharpen deer City administrator BRS just one quick note I did attend a Down business event last week at chicken rice um enjoyed some great food I think uh we were uh we were we we had some trial Taste of some new menu items which were amazing so no good food good people and just uh it's always good to see these downtown businesses doing well and thriving so absolutely thank you next we have the honorable mayor Dave Bedell well Nick I was going to say the same thing so I appreciate you mentioning that thank you to those business owners that that attended and thank you to U chicken rice for the delicious food great place go check it out chicken sandwich best you'll ever have best ever best you'll ever have uh secondly ladies and gentlemen you are witnessing before your eyes M day is learning folks the gavel game is still strong but the resolutions are just coming around and I really appreciate that mic uh but lastly the I just want to share the parkboard has already begun its process for looking at the budget for this year ladies and gentlemen it is what February what is it the 5th today the oh excuse me the 3D February the 3 the parkboard is already looking at their budget and I just want to thank them for doing so and getting ahead of the game and I will also extend that to all Departments of the city it's never too early to start looking at your budgets so join in the parkboard in doing so so nothing else to report thank you Mr Mayor moving on to council reports Mr stunich I have nothing Johnson Johnson yeah johnon Johnson I let's go to Mr chesi yeah I got one thing um there was a uh um a lady that lived over in southeast brainer that uh happened to get my phone number from somebody from public utilities and she had a concern about the chlorine smell and tasting her water and um every one of us I think are sensitive to different things and I actually went over to her home and smelled the water and it was no different than what I drank and I she talked about utility staff helping her talking to her trying to figure out a way and they gave her a suggestion and uh she called me the other day this has been a few weeks ago this all started and um she said she actually would boil her potatoes and they smelled like chlorine and she was just buying water from the grocery store and spending all this money she didn't like it at all well they suggested that they take the water from your tap and put it in a container and leave it set uncovered and she did that for like two days had it in her fridge and put it to a filter and she can't have she has no problem anymore with chlorine flavor or smell and I thought it was a remarkable story she couldn't thank the BPU staff enough for helping her and giving her ideas so good story thank Mr CH Mr bevans thank you Mr chair I also attended chicken rice for the uh business social last Wednesday and it was delicious my first time there the north side residents met last Thursday at the center to discuss an upcoming big building project on the North side with details to come in the future and I attended my very first Library board meeting uh understand if you're jealous it was interesting and one thing cool that's going to happen is they are entering into an agreement with a company that's going to digitize all of the old brainer dispatches and if you've ever had to go over to the library and spend days on microfish trying to find something there's no way to search on microfish you have a date and that's all you can do this will allow you to search like any other computer program dispatches back as far as we have which is a long time so it's kind of cool so exciting news happening at the library every day I recommend you go thank you thank you Mr bavans Mr Jagger yeah real quickly uh following robust conversation H eagly will be having their meetings uh here in uh in these uh beautiful surroundings uh under the promise that Mr boil will be providing coffee so uh he did step up to the plate there and U and and brought that forward I would also secondly like to just say we've been working on this country manner thing for quite some time with several different departments and um just uh it's exciting to be getting close to possibly seeing that happen and and I'd like to re extend my appreciation to a Country Manor for wanting to build a facility like this in Briner and uh we're happy I'm for myself uh certainly happy and uh excited about the work that we've done there and F last thing there's a fantastic uh hockey rink built in a yard on Four Street with lights Nets uh backdrop if you want to see something cool just go check it out it won't be there much longer but uh I it's a cool thing so go check it out that's all thank you Mr Jagger chairman Johnson I'm uh I'm a little upset with h Kevin joerger's dress code here I think think he's overdressing I think he's making us all look bad Devin is that a motion you are wearing a shirt next time is that a motion maybe he's got shorts on he's covered that's all I have thank you that came from a guy wearing a hat I think some of us it doesn't take much to make us look bag I just wanted to thank staff uh being a new again member uh they've been really generous with their time answering my questions and getting me back up to speed so thank you very much thank you uh I just want to do a shout out for everybody that uh came to town or went out to G Lake from town this past weekend and stood out in a blizzard for 3 to 5 hours or whatever it was um sounds like some fish were caught prizes were won it was a major success I heard this morning on the radio it was record attendance that's probably because they were all told it was going to be nice out but I unfortunately did not make it um I do want to extend gratitude and welcome to the Country Manor group here um looking forward to that project getting underway and uh big things in 2025 thank you everybody now we're just looking for a some motion to adjourn oh God I'm sorry motion by bavans no Johnson motion by Johnson second by Johnson by goodness what is wrong with this world all right all in favor I go