all right we're all set yep okay the time is 6:31 and with us tonight is Patrick Knight Michael Gary Bill loves Craig schy Ben Peters myself uh we have Kim
vanbeck With Us online and City attorney David assoff am I missing anyone else Patrick I don't think so okay we are all set then um oh we know John tonight though maybe not huh uh yeah I don't
think so so okay he's just wrapping wrapping up Loose Ends down there okay uh is there anyone here for open Forum this evening no one is here for open form
okay and that means unless do you have anything Patrick for the city hall Liquor Store updates anything know about that all I was down there today setting up we have Wi-Fi down there that's all I know and and looks really nice I did take a tour last week that was really
fun try to do it tomorrow yeah see two Arbors I think is open yeah they're open and everyone's scouted them out I don't know I just drove through there and I yeah when I got the stop light it's like Clos we
moved yeah yeah but I know Chris has been down there a lot I've heard a few people um and then I heard that the the city hall sign is um up is it completely up it's up and I saw it lit up today I was at the co-op and it was dark enough to see it lit up have to drive by
tonight there we go St gone through the electrical systems today or yesterday today they went through the plumbing and heating and tomorrow we have another session about how things work at City
Hall when interesting thing is that some of the outlets are controlled which means there's a occupancy sensor and if it doesn't sense any movement the lights will go out and those Outlets will go
off so the ones that would be your normal computer ones will stay lit but the other ones you might have something else plugged into will go off so that's a good good know it's like going down the hallway at
Target through the cooler aisles and watching turn off or something huh that a new cold electrical C I don't know interesting the sensor things are kind of nice as far as room lights
off all right thanks Kim uh let's see so moving right along um oh Patrick I'm GNA throw this in here now as well so so I saw in the utility bill the text my go announcement do you want to make any
little comment about that now in a public meeting is also to increase awareness yeah um if you go to our website there's a widget that kind of hovers in the lower right hand corner uh inviting you to sign up for SMS updates
so you'll just text message the the number on the website and that will opt you in to receiving any updates and uh right now the updates will be things like power outages uh road closures any other type of
emergencies and then as we see um what is you know what positive ways we can use it we'll we'll add to that and grow what we can do with it in the future but um we yeah we're just encouraging people to sign up we're going to send out the
first test text message for everyone who has signed up on the 24th I believe of February y okay how many public utility customers do we have with with cell phone do we know what do we short
percentage wise I think like we've got like 20% of our existing customers that we have cell phone um numbers for or you know yeah so do we have a continued communication plan to increase that to
have yeah I mean this this uh text myg as we keep rolling with it we're gonna have a lot more um media output about it encouraging people to sign up um and then all of our new customers are required to um not sign up for text my
go but to uh share their contact info with us so it will continue to grow over time okay um I will I have a downtown business Coalition meeting NE it's next Tuesday I'll make sure I mention that to
all of them I always try to encourage them to sign up for the E newsletter yeah but if any of the rest you have any Outlets like that what you can make any spread the word okay anything else about that um no I'm excited I think
it's going to be super helpful we'll be able to localize uh on a on a map Communications to make them more concise so we don't have to bug everybody if it doesn't pertain to them but it'll also be a great way to communicate to the
whole Community when we need to super helpful for people who are possibly not here when there's some kind of an emergency which is one of our big drivers for this as well our second homeowners whatever that aren't
physically know that all right thank you all right moving on to the consent agenda any questions with the meaning minutes or the bills and we also will need to add the liquor license application um as well I to add
that okay any other you know I just wanted to understand that didn't know I was like oh wait so they're have a liquor license there at that shop it's a one day event so they're doing like a special okay yeah I was like
I like of coverage oh four it's just like a party I see there yeah well it's one year one year that's their that's their
work cop policy that's a one day got it terms for that oh that you're read dates of coverage up there that got itn't really it wasn't clear the yeah
application that'd be all the discussion I had okay anybody anything else on them all right all in favor of the consent agenda there we go now that he's here in front
of looking up there where heing and so that was unanimous with the consent agenda how's that and next up is the Planning Commission report resolution 202-02
CCF variance uh Michael yeah so as you can see this is our third time around third time the charm getting smaller each time the request so this is all to to the good and for the readit but it is
a smaller area of the roof now that just is encompassing what it's needed for the elevator shaft to come up and I guess for the Mechanicals at the top be doing their thing but since it was smaller than what they has for last time and we
approved that and even smaller than the time before that he's like yes this seems reasonable and yeah well I guess the building also moved it's location which prompted the which made any um
questions comments oh and we didn't yeah we didn't receive any comments there just so you know were no public comments does anyone in the council have any questions or comments all right anyone would like to make a motion for Planning Commission
that's for resolution 2025 d02 Cook County real estate fund variance I would make that motion second okay any further comments or questions all
right all in favor for resolution 202-02 K County real estate fund variance hi hi I I all right and with that I passes unanimously thank you thank
you we're signing lots of people spring will eventually arrive exctly all right thank you yes next the cook Chamber of Commerce service agreement and this of course pertains to um
our the cities working with the um Chambers lobbyist in efforts for our wastewater treatment plant and city is not allowed to uh have a membership the chamber so this is the
the way this handles and instead we have a service agreement with them that okay basically does the same thing and this allows us to work such as where Mike is right now with the chamber down at the
cap spent today down there they had things last night today and tonight and I don't think any I don't think anything in the morning but anyways it was the whole group them down there and uh they organize the um meetings with
the legislators and then there's two different larger events that um the chamber joins in with and that that brings a good group too this is all about building relationships
getting to know us the whole deal but that's what this this for other questions is this the first time we've had a service agreement with yes okay I was gonna say I don't think so we never we haven't done this
before um this is the first time we've wanted to make use of the lobbyists for this yeah we don't in other words we don't just join the chamber to join the chamber you know in general and this is a
ter is a five year is that right considering what's at stake seems worth it yeah and we really don't know where where things are heading with the
legislature you know Federal or Statewide and these things don't happen overnight right so it's important to start building those relationship showing up um one of the things which I
don't remember if that's in here or not but has been suggested when the legislators go on tour to look at se projects has been suggested they come up here and obviously wouldn't be just for this project but any others as well that
the county is there discussing so that would be nice if we got on the four list and they would be here in person yeah to actually see um some of this as well so it's $5,000 each year for five
years um that I believe was the term of yeah contract 5000 Carnival group let me see um there new their new lobbyist The Other Women retired that they used all
these other years so then the chamber went through a big selection process this pastor and this is the group that they um chose and um I did meet them both at the March luncheon that we had
um with along with the county and we um sat in a group and that was well Mike and I had a telephone introduction meeting with them but we also met in person that day as well and we discussed this in some of our other issues that
the city is working on with the doing things like that with them um and it's not to say this isn't the only thing we you know can focus on with them but we made that year that so we're saying Wastewater this year but we can pick
other projects as yeah it doesn't limit this um and we've given them talking points as well it's not like this is the only time this this day at the city is the only time they'll be advocating and doing things on our behalf they'll be
other pieces as well to this so This Mike's joining them today is just an example of some of the work that will be done Carnival and burns there we go I think for two
seconds um Carnival s pa [Music] um Doug Carnival and John Burns are the two primaries on that I
don't know the rest of their staff um they're both attorneys and Doug's done quite a bit legislatively in the government for a long time he's also been very um heavily involved in sports things as well when
you read bio and things he's done and um John Burns is also the chamber gonna provide any any sort of communication you know with with with the city council as far as like what what they've done for the year you
know I mean I feel like fiveyear term is it's fine right like I know it cost money to go down in lobby and I imagine that ear this cost goes to to offset those expenses and that's that's fine but seems like a five years how much of an off ramp I mean how do we know we're
going to get what we're getting you know well and remember you you know you're all welcome to any chamber events and you can participate in chamber you know you have a voice at your local chamber now as well sure um I mean I know we're
tonight we're focusing on the um lobbyists but we're also sitting there as CH you know involved in the chamber as well so you can certainly um you know was I think so I think that and I
wouldn't speak to it but I believe that just says we're all set for five years but we we don't we don't have like if we're not satisfied we can yeah okay no yeah um I think uh most people most groups in
our community have found this a valuable way to add support for their organizations like K count H at has been very busy for quite a few years um being a regular voice at the state legislature
and Care in fact Karen I don't know if this last or a year before she testified yeah in front and it's been very beneficial for high to recognize what they do for our community and because of that it's meant more funding
directed to them so they can continue to be successful because they make huge impact on our community jobs and and the well-being of our community and Al you know all the various classes they have so that's just one example of
making sure you're a constant voice and presence in the right Arena as well to do it any [Music] other maybe we'll point about getting you know information
back um and I guess said just don't maybe it said somewhere in here but um I presume that we're going to get updates to Mike mean it says that Mike is the point person found yeah that yeah
okay M should be the main I mean that's not to say like I said if anyone wants to start showing up at chamber meetings do it that's important but you're right we need a person to make sure
you're getting that communication definitely and Linda and Linda Jerick and Mike have month I believe it's a monthly I don't think it's more than monthly but they have set meanss and have had for over two so there is no
reason that Communications will slip right just because those are already set in Stall I guess though I was thinking about more with these guys and that would be something separate from um Aral guys I would assume through the chamber and
that will just come that way okay not that you know like Mike had a meeting with them to get all this set up I mean they will meet directly in those instances that way when you're busy planning something yeah
but but that's a good question you want what what comes directly and what gets what or they just use the local chamber for communicating whatever got it they do I mean they must render some
sort of because they mentioned the product in here so it seems like yeah there must be up thing yes okay that's a good one to have a better and you know that's another thing
too it wouldn't probably hurt even just to have Lind come to a councel and explain they've been working with lobbyists for a very long time um and explain how that works for us that
we um would that be helpful yeah some kind of progress and accountability report well or just to explain yeah and to explain the process a little bit better to kind of answer some the questions everyone's has right
now in the room yeah okay I'm seeing this more this is more than just being like member of the chamber right you know what I'm saying I mean the chamber lobbies
for obviously stuff based on tourism and the things you know within our city or county as a whole it's a county organization right so yeah know I see this fee as more thanate
Fe to be Amed speed to be more ofy we have AED concern of what something we want to make sure that if the opportunity is right not just if it's right to make
that opportunity but I mean like it should even yeah right if there's opportunity which there is when they're down their l these are things that the city is pursuing or looking at we have
other avenues we going besides just this but this is one of them yeah because we haven't spent any time making those kind of relationships really um at the state level we started it a little bit at the federal level mean I did have one short conversation
with Tim Smith but you know they're they're all going to sink together if the feds don't see the states or us ponying up you know it's of gets to be a circular thing we all have to have some Stak in the game here and I
think a lot of this money goes directly to the lobbyist they don't Lobby for free well of course actually builds us yeah PID so you
know but yeah I mean I I I do you so we get Mike down there I was going to go on March 6 I don't know if that's going to work but that the H yeah for the the liament associes but we probably do need to find
other avenues and probably all of us need to have more involvement in this because isn't going to happen overnight and just to say this is Mike's thing to do like don't think you know that's a lot and I think it's going to
take other ways of communicating and making those relationship and this is a good start but as we know any of these projects just get more expensive the long that they said and we already have one idea of what this one cost it's already over two
years old would this be three years old yeah it's kind of [Music] bad it was a couple years ago this year last year yeah because I think like they done going to do a bunch of work down there and then we decided order thing
we're going to we're going to spend some money and get this fixed well then things Chang and then all of a sudden it uh you know we got it under control and then we started moving on towards okay well if we're going to do this let's just wait you know so yeah because that
was a year ago well I was two years ago was right before um retired so that year before he come the time he actually showed up to present all the work they did it was over three years ago of
engineer analyzing it and figuring it all out but I think it was about two years before we saw it that's F late or there about okay anything further about this
contract or service agreement motion that okay if and if there's any anything else you want me to know there questions you want me to ask I you I've got one done please come and explain to us in general just a little bit about what this really means and how this all
works and then clarifying the kind of communications we would get directly from yeah okay all right yes the motion please make a motion to approve this service agreement with the County
Chamber com is there a second for that second all right all in favor of the Cook County Chamber of Commerce service agreement hi hi hi hi hi all right and
that's unanimous thank you all all right um this is not one to I don't know if you guys have noticed recently but it looks like they're ready to start rolling out the
um licenses a little bit sooner for Canabis and they put them back together again so there's 75 social equity and I'm talking just about retail 7 for social equity and 75 for the
General market and um they'll get those rolling now this starting those this month as far as getting them going Lottery they hope by late spring early summer was that May and June so the one thing we have not decided is we have one
we have attributed one license to ourselves or to the city and with d one of the reasons David is our attorney this evening is because I asked for guidance on this tonight and
um David has been focused on this more with the CI so as opposed to Chris Davids here tonight and then that's also why I um uh no I'm trying to do two things at once
okay that CA should be on um uh we would um I didn't [Music] screen okay um put together the
PowerPoint because I wanted to kind of keep the conversation S I don't know if you had time to read it at all the uh ocm keeps that guidance sheet for local government to utilize and they updated
it so a lot of this I just cut and paste out of it this first piece just basically comes from OC's FAQs and just highlights once again some of our options first come first serve rolling
approvals um they mention a merit based scoring system uh then um they pointed out I want to highlight this that it's the applicant's
responsibility to understand what local governments have decided to do it's not something they will find out from the state or we don't have to report that to this it's up to them say hey What's your deal when they want to do that and second I put at the bottom just a
reminder if you have one license you can have five operation ations so you may be in Minneapolis get a license and you could have shops in five different locations just a thought on that one just kind of keep that in mind then this
application process I just cut and pasted out of that sort of outline that the state has provided for retailers and that gets me to my first question for David I was try read through this it kind of highlighted in yellow the um
this isn't even visible sorry um uh the um where do we fit in here and trying and oh I highlighted in yellow just like the keywords to kind of read through faster but David is that right
do we fit under 11 as far as where does the city come in when it's time for someone to um if you hit that uh present icon I think it oh this well oh that's well I can
start the show but oh that okay that's what it does I a little bit more visible oh David's still muted thank you m c can you hear me just fine yeah y okay so if you're looking at
this chart there's essentially two areas that the city sort of fits in uh sorry this list I guess so during the licensing period for all of these businesses and this is all businesses both retail and non- Retail there is a
zoning cert certification that so that's that 08 on the First Column so this is during their licensing with the state the state will send over the sort of application information uh with the location of the business to the city so if you're whether you're a cannabis
retailer or a cannabis you know manufacturer if that's the license you're seeking the city responds then and that's where that 30-day period is yeah so that's in the statute the city has 30 days to respond on the zoning aspects of it once they're then sort of
licensed and through that if they're a retail business so your second column then it kind of comes back to the city where they apply for registration through your ordinance uh you do probably some of the similar check probably a you know pre-registration
inspection um and that's where you would sort of register your your one cannabis retail business uh under that sort of second second part okay
and so now when I think of the state's process in this and we're only going to have one it like do we have an idea what the time frame frame is on their end for getting these licenses out I
mean we only have like 30 days to respond but how soon are they going to get these licenses out are we like the first license that comes to us kind of backs Us in I'm trying to get a sense of time like how do we make a decision what our process will be if we have a
timeliness standard and we don't really know how long it will be before all the licenses are out the door to be cons yeah I I mean I understand that I think the the timeliness again applies to the sort of while they're in
the State Licensing so they haven't been sort of necessarily approved for a state license yet and so like I said that applies to kind of all businesses there's technically not a timeline on the registration and so that I think is why you see in some of the guidance from ocm
about establishing registration periods with potential Lottery because it really you know there isn't a 30-day window where the city has to register a business now I I would say my general advice for this in cities that are limiting their licenses has been to
stick to a first come first serve option uh I think you know it's in some ways sort of the Least Complicated I think if you maybe establishing criteria there's going to be questions of what you're sort of establishing Because by the time you know these retail businesses are
coming to the city for registration they've gone through the entire sort of State Licensing process right so the state has reviewed their business plans their security plans um you know they've gone through that entire First Column basically and
then issued a license um so you know to me I you know you could do potentially you know a window and a lottery I mean these are the ocm guidance sort of includes some of those options I will say the statute very clearly just says the city
shall issue a license if they you know have a or shall issue sorry a retail registration if the business applying has a license you know fits in the zoning criteria it it it's fairly clear to me that that's you know once they kind of get through that licensing
process it's supposed to be fairly simple on the city's end to register them um now again ocm guidance has sort of opened the door for cities to to take certain you know considerations in in in place but uh you know the easiest I
think is is the first come first served option so in getting ready for this I picked out eight cities to send a note out and ask them what they were doing and I heard back from four of them and
I've got them in here too and this doesn't really solve our problem but I thought it was interesting instead of picking a license limit they use zoning and so the city of
Alexandria um basically said that any cannabis business can't be within a thousand feet of another cannabis business in the zone that they're allowed to have a business and then um Detroit Lakes did the same thing but
their buffer was 5,000 and it's full you need to do that relative to the size of your area right but once again it still doesn't like totally solve our deal but I found it interesting and then David I don't you
maybe already knew this but I just learned this today reading the Star Tribune that the tribes can um will probably get their licenses out the door sooner y i I sent you that and then they of course have the five retail
but they are exempt from these zoning restrictions so if you were the city of if I read this right and David let me know but if you were Detroit Lakes or Alexandria then the zoning if your zoning was more restrictive than the states they don't have to follow them so
they do have to follow the basic zoning that the state set so like 5,000 so I I I found that interest and plus there's other things like their ex
I didn't get to read that I'm afraid but that strikes me as because hasn't the state given us that ability and so we would be in essence we should be on the same level as the state so when when the reservation comes in that should be same
thing so they should not be able to do I that's what I would say but Mr David what what do you say to that did I read that right uh I have to apologize I I didn't have time today I saw the article come through I haven't read it um I can review it and provide the council with
information okay maybe after this meeting um once I've had an opportunity we've been getting sort of updates I think pretty regularly from ocm these days so trying to keep up with everything but um so I can I can provide you know maybe a sort of further analysis of that to the council uh later
in the week and no sales tax change on zoning one more I mean I can see the tax thing that but I mean those registration and that kind while this this whole brand new Department should be able to pay for
itself from sales tax and you benefiting if you're running an operation then you all these you know compliance checks and whatever they all cost money to do and that's where they're getting the money put taxing
what rate 10% what it yeah and 20% of that comes back to us any tax cigarettes 100% so figure that out well then you're probably in great in in um
volume okay so back to our issue so you're suggesting first come first serve um anyone else have thoughts on this at all what you'd like to do I know initially was commentary about you know how do we help our local businesses in this whole process I know and that and
that certainly was where I was coming from because I'm like okay so we're screwed we or screwed but we have to have one and so if we have to have one it would seem great if we could make sure it was somebody local if we could and it doesn't seem like
that going to be a thing so I'm kind of I do feel like the C come first makes sense it's simplest easiest and the only way that you could maybe get some some preference points allotted
to locals would be through some sort of a merit system right and we'd have to set it up and we'd have to show like oh we're being this and that yeah but it's doable right like that's if that's a priority yeah then it's it's no yeah
you're not wrong I mean it is um so this is only you know if I'm if I'm understanding the process maybe correctly so that they're going apply at the state level right through this Lottery system if nobody applies through the lottery
system right away initially for Cook County right and then we can encourage or somebody else could pick up a local could potentially want to setup shop right and then they would go out of the state and maybe three or four locals want to do that right well okay so
that's a question I was reading like depending on what the demand was they would decide if they would have future L lotteries so it wouldn't people still have to get a license through a lottery is that right until
2026 or not do you know David so the yeah I think the license those limits you read out on the the license they're giving out so that is uh the limit that they're going to do and that I imagine certainly for the retailers that'll be probably filled up
at this you know this first Lottery until 2026 when they sort of would re-evaluate whether the you know Market would withstand more businesses and then they would sort of open the licensing procedure again um presumably there'd be if there's you know interest they would
do it through a lottery system for rewarding those licenses sort of that that Next Period so this initial sort of Licensing period That's just about to open uh next week through you know that Lottery is kind of that that first go round on those licenses they're doing
now and that's 150 Capp well there's really no guarantee that karay is going to see any of those sure I mean in fact it's quite likely they wouldn't seal right like yeah if you're
gonna be a roll the sidewalks up right now right well and I think the thing I think the thing is with the two licenses we'd have to have two licenses as one at once to actually use our system otherwise we just have the one and we
have to accept it so that's why it seems like there's only one opportunity we might have you know I'm not saying we shouldn't have like some sort of system set up and maybe what we could do is set a window you know we'll have a period of time like
we'll say once we get our first one we'll leave say that's the beginning and then so many whatever and then we use a merit system and and that way hopefully maybe we can guide it to somebody we prefer sure I think I mean at the end of
the day if we could at least say with sincerity that we gave it all of our best effort to ensure that we didn't get some big chain retailer in here we tried
yeah so just to confirm David with what Ben's asking if no one I mean the whole the state wanted to make sure that no County could right no dry count but now
if and we and they've stated in the FAQs that it's not a city or M County's responsibility to go out and drum up business if nobody you know they don't get anything but what what like yeah what if we don't I mean so if we don't
get you so if a local business wanted to have a license get drawn and no one else wants to come here we're just kind of stuck based on the state yeah based on on sort of what's
the the limitations on licenses now you know that'll be the case probably for you know a number of areas with the limit limit on license that they have 87 counties and cities all that's not no so 100 mean
know the max of that would be 150 five because you could have up to five retail I'm not saying most people would that would be like a Max and most people would probably just be one but there will be some like you're saying large ones they could go in and so they could have
five different locations yes anywhere in the state that's why I put that in one license so one for five and that gets us back sorry sorry coun I was gonna add to that
um so you have the those are the retailer licenses the specific sort of retailer businesses but the there is no cap on the micro business licenses and those can get a retail uh endorsement um same with there's there is a cap on meso businesses those can
also have a retail endorsement um so that's adds a little bit to it I don't know how popular the micro bus you know model will be but that's that's another opportunity that's true we haven't really given that much thought you're right yeah I gu so
um I really hav't just need micro businesses might be something that goes into these areas that have ups and downs on business Vol right yeah like just one one element they're adding to good
business you mean yeah right well and then you know the count is sitting there with potentially six you know uh that they would take um when whoever does something within this area needs to look at what's their
competition look like that might want keep wol from along to move that was another interesting part of the article this morning was one that caught my on first is because the
and don't want to miss speak on this so David you can stop me but you know that the tribal governments have already been operating they're sort of up and running and so the thought is that they will be up and running before the rest of the license license seats and who sets the
retail price on this stuff inside these businesses is it just based on competition or is a state of minimums on I'm unaware s for I mean because that eliminate you know a big operation is going to have an advantage over a small
operation well yeah that yeah they they can afford to try something if it doesn't work it won't sync them the other person yeah can't so yeah yeah it you know they'll throw it on the wall and see what sticks and a larger company can do that and walk away
from it it doesn't work right so so we could set up a period of time Y and then David are you aware of anyone who
set up some kind of Merit scoring or what it looks like sorry that the traffic went down the corridor yeah thank you may Council I I'm be honest I I don't think I've seen sort of that I think you would want to
be very clear in the criteria in your ordinance I would also add you know some of the discussion of sort of weighing local sort of applicants is something my office might want to review in terms of you know whether that that
would be subject to a you know potential challenge there in terms of prioritizing certain businesses over others just you know as as you're discussing it now um so you know I could research that but I you know none of the cities that I I've
certainly worked with or or ordinances for registration uh that I've reviewed have sort of set up a criteria I have seen one that set up a a lottery system but that was a entirely random not related
um okay I mean that's part of the reason it's a lottery right because other states were running into challenges when they put well I did that but the state comes out with this program and they say this is the B for your business within your community Well
yeah if an outside conglomerate comes in that has that's probably operating in other states not just this one right for sure you know what I'm saying that doesn't do anything to bolster our local economy other than it's a retail location but all the money's going
somewhere else you know all the money made is going somewhere else but I think that's where they ran into problems so they kind of got stuck because other states got sued on that and that's where I don't know how we set up a CR unless David said yeah I've got some clear cut
paths that so we didn't run ourselves into trouble with that either and yet if we said you know I'm thinking out loud here tell me if I'm off so if we set up a time period that means we have to have a criteria
right yeah we have to yeah my missing so thank you time period and then whatever we decide I mean I'd love to have some criteria make a preference for this and I I get that they have to research to
see how do we say it how do Let It Go but ultimately it be nice to have something like that in place well we can certainly ask that if that's what everyone wants we can certainly ask that
that um but David I just understand so the micro licenses are not limited is that is that what you said yeah that license type is not limited um under the statute okay so there's no way for us to limit that at
all so the city the city can Zone obviously for that so micro businesses as I'm sure you're aware can yeah do sort of multiple things right they're one of the few businesses they can so generally cities have zoned for you know where those those can be done if there endorsed for retail and they're planning
on making retail sales in the city they would be subject to your registration ordinance and so if you have a micro business that sets up and is retail and registers with the city that would be your One retail business um based on your ordinance got it obviously the city
can amend its ordinance if it would like to add more business more retail businesses but if it's limited to one that would include that micro business oh I was unaware of that I thought it only had to be the retail license well it's because of the endorsement
right it's that retail endorsement which kind of switches what's what's the difference between a retail and a micro what's the micro is it based on the square footage of the footprint of the business or what they're offering or they
volume what's a micro business versus one as a retail yeah so um if I might jump in there so the retailer can only do basically that's what you picture as your sort of dispensary right right you get a retailer license you can operate
you know up to five of these essentially dispensary locations you can buy and then sell to customers uh a micro business can you know based on sort of footprint can do cultivation if it gets an endorsement it can do manufacturing if it gets an endorsement but it is a
smaller sort of scale business and then it can also do retail micro business is also the one business that can have on-site consumption again if it gets an endorsement from the state for on-site consumption um so they they can kind of do a bunch of things I you know they can
do them in one location they can do them in uh multiple locations so maybe they open a cultivation you know or you know cultivation sort of like maybe indoor cultivation somewhere and then have a retail location elsewhere so they're one of the few businesses that can kind of
do those multiple activities selling Growers manufacturing V yeah could this any more complicated than oh sure they could just give them time and some rope
for the next update so but did I miss this did did you really Craig's question about size did we is that no I don't think know I mean I think the only thing that we can do is do zoning like right if we're
going to have 5,000 ft between we have we have an area that we set up where this can happen right M now you can come in zoning and say look yeah that's fine that's fine that's fine but you can't do this because can you locate within 5,000 or a th000 feet or 2,000 feet of this
other business that's already operating no you can't so you can't have a business here we already have this over here you know what I'm saying oh completely do zoning shut can't you control this through zoning that's what they're doing in Alexandria only way
that's why they're doing it except well well when I talked to these people they had a lot of reasons like they didn't think they could come up with a good process either to to make like a decision so they did it this way instead
of having a limit uh was one of them they said lots of conversation I see rather than having a limit to begin with two different conversations right yeah having two different conversations one is just revolving around how many establishments you're going to have in your city the other one is the criteria
but you're going to select which one get the get the get so we've already set up that we're just doing one right so that's that's done we set buffers up we like we have that we feel
pretty good about now we just have to figure out person preserve Lottery right because like you said they have 150 licenses but each license can have five retail retail that doesn't mean that
doesn't mean can of those people are going to come on to granday and say hey we want one we want one we want one we can see we get one we only got one and our zoning zones out everything else so well our ordinance our ordinance says
we're one we one yeah but this is where I start to get confused because I thought because the micro licenses weren't under the lottery system that we couldn't control them I didn't realize they sat under our one
I thought that's so that's that's what they're doing that's the work on like it's still our one still our one yeah and it's still a micro is still at retail they still do the same stuff that
yeah like if they were micro But but so but then getting back to Craig's question what makes them a micro then I mean I assume they were maybe something smaller within a larger business like here's just one thing out of many things we sell as opposed to
being the only thing we do is sell pot I would say the the micro business there is like a a size difference so if you get a full sort of cannabis cultivator license you are able to you know grow more than a
micro business is permitted to grow right and the other thing I will say is micro businesses so it the big difference of that you have the micro businesses and the me meso businesses the only two businesses that can do sort of multiple things and so that's why
those licenses exist basically so the micro business you might have one in town that doesn't want to do retail and therefore they wouldn't get a retail endorsement and therefore they wouldn't need to register with the city and they wouldn't count towards the one it is
only in the event in the event that they you know want to sell uh you know that they would need to register and then they would be that one business in town but it's up to sort of the business they can limit themselves to being a small you know manufacturing
facility and cultivator if they wanted to which they would still have to conform to our zoning anyway yes so that would be you know when we looked at this the this what's on the screen now they would still fall under that number eight there on that First Column you know the city would get information from the
state basically saying you have this micro business that wants to operate here in the city and it wants to do these things can it do those things there you would check your zoning and then respond within 30 days basically um and then again if they're
not registering that second column if they're not doing retail that second column then wouldn't really apply to them if they are doing retail then they would follow your ordinance so you could actually get a micro setup in this community that's
cultivating and growing which actually would be your one license you get well then we wouldn't even have retail no no they wouldn't have to go through that right hand up there if they're not doing retail yeah but can we they don't need they don't need our we didn't address
any of these and and they're not under the okay we can only address the retail licenses okay so here's an example I know that there is a local existing business that would like to manufacture um and I don't know if this
falls into manufactur in but like a food related um cannabis look product right it's not their primary you know it's one of many things they sell so would that make that their
application a micro business David or what other things there you know I'm say off the top of my head I'm not sure I know all of the manufacturing restrictions uh it would depend on probably the the size
of their operation what's allowed what you're allowed to do as you know if you have a cannabis license of any kind what other activities you're allowed to do um whether they're doing sort of the low potency hemp manufacturing which I think opens more doors because that's the kind of stuff you see at breweries and
whatnot if they're doing sort of the Cannabis the sort of adult use cannabis then you're going to fall under the Cannabis manufacturer and there's a lot of sort of rules and regulations that go with that so you know I think that'd be sort of up to them whether it fits a micro business sort of model or if it
fits the Cannabis uh manufacturing model I mean either way if they are a manufacturing business then that's sort of what you're going to follow in terms of the zoning regulations for that business and we missed um a certain
amount yeah I kind of had that in the back of my head about my growa but I thought then who manufacture up here whatever but now that I realize it's a I think this makes sense if you wanted to put it in a food product you're a
manufacturer right or no yeah I mean I think it also depends on how you're selling it are you selling it to other businesses to sell if you're trying to sell directly to customers then you'd have to follow the micro business model and Retail and and you'd
have to register retail yes yeah you could make a buch brownies wholesale them yeah or or what but then you're that's their one okay now that's an interesting concept
because it has been brought up by local businesses all which to me doesn't feel like a dispensary yeah but the person who sells that product has to have a license to sell it right you can't just no that's I
mean but then if that falls under our one which I'm thinking we're limiting one dispensary I me someone yeah I understand what you're saying yeah yeah shakes out you know but yeah so
you're talking about the scale of it you're saying like it could just be somebody doing brownies wholesale and then they get a retail license and that's our one what we were ising was a full
dispensary of one does that do you know like all of a sudden my head's going different directions no that's what we were talking about but we also left ourselves some Opportunity by saying we wanted one to start with and re Vision right we're saying change our
mind yeah it makes sense so then another scenario as Ben has said what if no one comes through from the license but someone comes through then on a micro and asks for retail endorsement where how will they will
they be able to do that sooner than a lottery good question business or is the time frame the same uh I'm not sure on that that is one of the sort of gaps I've been kind of
thinking about in terms of how the endorsement Works versus the lottery for licensing um it's as far as I can tell it's not been sort of addressed in the statute I presumably at the time that they sort
of apply to the state they would be seeking that endorsement at that time because they need to if you're a micro business or a meso business they need to communicate obviously to the city what uh activities they're planning on doing in order for the city to respond um and those again they've said
those businesses won't be in the lottery so you know I haven't se seen information sort of clarifying that but I can look into it and see if there's sort of follow up on that I will say just to I don't know if it's necessary but if you're a micro business as you described and you're sort of creating a
product and you want to have a retail part of your business and so you register uh you are allowed to also um purchase products from other businesses to sell so it wouldn't be that you were limited only to what you create at your
micro business what you're manufacturing you'd be able to buy sort of product from other cannabis businesses to then sell you know in Grand marray uh if if you a you know registered retail business okay all right seems like to me
it would be a priority for the state to be looking at the lottery and the retail because half of those are already been selected through social justice or social right so social Equity yeah so it seems like they've already prioritized
that so why why then to work around through micro business and meso business that take up and eat up those spots that are available for those retail establishments that's not what we saying I would say the oh sorry no go ahead
David Council just to jump in the the meso businesses are sort of limited so those licenses would have to go through the same Lottery period at this time the only one that wouldn't of these is sort of the micro business of the ones that can
retail yes so the micro business is not in the lottery right but if the micro business gets a retail endorsement that's our one is that right
David if it appears to me that that would be the potential I think as you've stated part of the question and maybe you know I could see Clarity from the ocm on this but I haven't seen any yet in terms of the timing of that endorsement versus timing of the retail Lottery because I think the point you're
making to me seems to be the case basically okay and I just see a huge you know maybe I just still don't have a good vision of what is a micro business but I can see people either manufacturing or
as David just said as an example purchasing manufactured products but just at a small scale not a full dispensary and I envisioned that we were restricting a full dispensary because I can see and I already know there are
local businesses who have interest in I think the micro bottle is a little deceptive because it's actually potentially incredibly comprehensive right covering everything about right endorsement so like it's a little
misleading right your micro yeah ter why have it yeah to work around I mean my vision of of a full retail would be a full retail you can walk in pick out whatever you want and still buy manufactured
products yeah that are coming from other places that are you know so it's like you the same thing two different ways yeah yeah just about the time you
think you get in your path set pretty well yeah and then this whole thing with the fact that the the tribal groups will probably be out in front of everyone else just because of basic Readiness
okay where does that leave everyone too yeah I really yeah g do that but you know finding out more about that P and business is really important yeah uh so we have a list of questions
right yeah I mean I think I felt like we were pretty clear that you know in so far as we can do it you know that we would have some criteria for who we would choose over another you create a period in which to make those decisions
look at that if that at least so David could we ask you to give us some guidance on this so we can determine if that's a good path to to take or not or if we and also to help us decide if you can
learn more about the timing of all of this how it's going to be in real you know micro and these Lottery license retail licenses so we can make you
know just make some better decisions here yeah you'd like some written guidance for the Council on on some of this yeah to help us out um so we can have a make a better decision
yeah um yeah with the overall goal of of doing whatever we can in our power to um to support local business from local taxpayers and local entrepreneurs y
do that capacity we can do that legally that's true like to do yeah this whole thing about a retail endorsement right coming through feel like I gotta go back and read that whole thing again because now I'm like yeah I
didn't realize that consume our one I mean I would be have I mean if it could be like this local person during these brownies and then they can suddenly be like yeah I'll take that we that' be great all for that okay any other
questions for him before we um thank you David I appreciate that um thanks yeah and this other thing I just wanted to bring up did anybody read
their nor sh Journal this past week on page five is that so Li yeah so what did they go with well it's interesting this gets back instead to our earlier piece when
we were deciding remember if if the the county the city do we have to have our own um could we have zero right and and the thought was we can't that's exactly the opposite of what they did and they
this is just quoting the statue and this isn't even just conversation so they stat to Clearly say we have satisfied that in Lake County based you know what here's our population limit we' s this is been satisfied because the city of
Two Harbors has one so Silver Bay will have zero oh okay yeah so it isn't our question tonight but we took I think that was our question though at one point and we took a different approach to sure but I think yeah but two well
they're in the same county county so that's why they two cities in the same yeah so that's why they could say no well I mean I don't know if it's two cities as much as the fact that the whole deal was
as if as a governing piece for better way to say it if we decided to have our own ordinance the logic was given to us then we have to sit under that of say we
can't say no we can't say zero we can't say no you know completely know that it isn't based on they're saying the whole County's population limit them to one as well somebody already picked it up and they can utilize
that good enough for them yeah yeah it could have been the county and we took a different approach and I was never totally clear what you know I wasn't sure I cared what the answer was I just cared about the logic yeah that's what I that's why
we could I thought we couldn't say zero because then it opened it up to many so they took a different approach have you David have you run into this with any other do you represent any other smaller communities
like yeah I mean I if I'm understanding this discussion there is you know under the uh you know one of the statutes that provides the city some Authority there so where you have you know the limit on the city you must you know register one per 12,500 there's also a provision
under there that says if there's one per 12,500 registered in the county then the city is not required to register one so if if you're in a county if you're in a smaller City in a county with enough then the city could reject it um so that that is an option if you know
if there's one that sets up elsewhere in your county the city if you I think you would want to specify that in your ordinance that you wouldn't be required to register a business if you know there's one for 12,500 in your county so okay we don't have 12, right we have half of that so that
goes against so wait so that means that if somebody in cook count or somewhere in the county opens up an establishment we can say we're zero they don't have to open it they just have to have the option said they want to six six right
so we could say we don't want to do any we could say that yes that was the thing we talked about earlier and then the guidance from well whatever go there guance that I heard was that we can't say no because then we will have a
situation where yeah be unimited it might do moving Target or whatever right yeah if I might you wouldn't be able to say no until there is one registered in the county okay until until that so if the first one that wants to register in your county wants to register in Grand
morray you would still have to abide by that one limit right it's just once things get going if one establishes else established elsewhere you would have had the option or do have the option if you want your ordinance to say that you you won't have to register one if there's
one oh that's right that count um okay so I think count or don't count can't count yeah um you have dispens to meaning you're one in the count in the county we could or maybe they just
knew since the the county itself since Lake County was gonna say yes that they can say no they just did this recently and the two ARB was already d i yeah they're all they know two arbs is
going to get one so then sure when they figure out like if we knew Lon was getting one well we can write that into our ordinance I think that's what David is saying that we can say like if one goes to LS yeah and we're out yeah but that's still
different lot just back to the logic part of it that's not what we presented earlier they said the minute we did our own ordinance we were back under having to follow the one per 12,000 just because we set up our own ordinance if we'd sat with the county that that was
the that was the logic yes yeah David sorry I just wanted to jump in I think part of that is you know if the city had delegated the authority to the county to register then the county would be the the the uh local government unit that would determine
those limits so you would lose the ability to determine your limits had you delegated your Authority because you didn't then you know the city can set sort of its limits within the city but even if the city is it has kept that authority to register the businesses uh
there is that sort of out to say you know if there is one per 12,500 in Cook County the city should the city should not be required to register retail business yes that sounds fre okay well it gives us an opportunity to review right yeah I mean we don't have to say
no but at least it gives us right that's yeah yeah yeah that's a good thing that would be a good thing okay so when you're giving us written guidance could you kind of uh let us know if that but that
doesn't mean that then we we say we have one but in this if we set up a period we can't all of a sudden say Chang your mind we can change well I mean if our you mean if we're you mean if the time period like the clock has started
somebody put in their application the clock is started and then the county gets one yeah we can't then just say I would I would say we can especially if it's in our ordance I mean if our ordance says like well that's what yeah we'd have to change what we've written yeah yeah or we would
just add well we would have to change it but that that's it's worth doing yeah I just meant like as it sits right now yeah couldn't do it correct yeah yes you're right it's not in there we can't do it but we could do it but in light of that information I think it's worth
having a broader discussion specific to that yeah and revisiting that the can ordinance all right if you could put that in writing for us too David so we don't do ourselves up the next time having this conversation
again that would be helpful sure uh do we have any other questions for him this evening we thought and he thought was done thank you you've been very very helpful really appreciate thank you okay
so that was a super good conversation with a lot of learning all the way around okay um Council and staff reports I'll go first okay um okay so how was the north house
offsite you went to can you say a couple weeks ago you're going to they're having an off yeah I didn't make it they their um no they had uh they had actually great guest speaker I've heard really good things I talked to several board members and they had a great time it was a board retreat oh and they had some
really yeah doing some good work and they uh just went through their budget process as well and we plugging in with them to uh to to get straightened on that yeah they're anticipating a busy summer and and uh that's good okay yeah have we had
any conversations about the lease I'm going back to that we're going to yeah we're in that in that mode right now making acting towards A New Path with the with the north house on that back to the table
okay okay and that was it right yeah cig uh no uh Park Board art was in the hospital two meetings the puc
meeting and Par only thing I know that came out of the park board was the something coming to the city council on something they approved so it comes to us by S the current proposed art project will be coming to us and then I've asked
that it be at our next meeting okay um they have uh passed it but there's questions and ultimately sits with us okay with that so we'll get that prep
up I had emergency preparedness oh and yeah it was kind of what they were talking about a lot tied in with our last work session about structure I would say I mean they were talking a lot about
uh emergency centers like when the power outage happened you know how to how to PL for that where to go one things I found interesting they are under the impression that the city has a portable generator that can be brought
on site large yeah makes it very no we have we have City backup which will we got the power plant we got the power plant yeah that but they're talking about a mobile a mobile unit so what was the one behind the community center that there were problems was that
a city-owned one that last big storm a couple years ago there were that was one of the comments with these generators that nobody was keeping right right and I don't know if any of those were city-owned no we don't
have any separate generators other than what businesses have like the has the hospital right so I'm not aware of any c so I I found that interesting I said well that will be something for me to talk to Mike about because I've not
heard about that and then I wrote a note to S and when they asked me the comment I said well it'd be kind of nice to know how many fully supported facilities we have I mean we got law enforcement we got the hospital we got the clinic we have the
courthouse commun Center but on reliable right does the community center have a sh that's C public utility right I don't think they have Standalone they Standalone no the
city back up yeah what happened up there was a plow hit that it was a transmission line right there was a line coming out of the ground going up a pole by the clonet Hut garage and somebody plowed and cut right through that line that's so it cut off that power couple wiers ago
okay a while to find out what happened until tell how that there was they have this project they call the main project which is I guess kind of like I would say like firewise or something where they want to get these little things distributed where you can look at see
what to do where to go you know how to contact that's somebody's little project and then the other thing they're down to lot of like 42 applicants they narrowed it down to I I think four candidates that they want to physically interview
for um the County Administrator so um I just remember from that storm a couple was that two Christmases ago or whatever that brought up the generator issues yeah and they're they're lightening you know what with their Evac
or their emergency shelter and so forth with winter storms and need for heat and so forth to you know what how can we do this as looking like at Wildfire evacuations where you don't have a lot of options you got to get out I mean
where we and how can we do this we need to have Supply stage for you know people coming need to have food and warmth and shelter water and that's where the community center comes in right right that could have that could phasically
have a stand alone do you have go off grid that's the problem you can't take right we have to find the problem and identify it so that we don't fire up the back of generators and have feedback that can possibly kill somebody so
that's why we have to identify why we have the out where the outage is before we can put those online that's why burying line instead of these aerial like if we ever talked about that was
that Boston in Grandma well burying well we buried a lot of stuff downtown yeah except we never got that stuff buried onpl by Johnson's and through there that was supposed to all them buried in the Pate Pro but there was a
coordination problem between other stuff on the poles right that we don't own that we don't have and the timing of getting that stuff Century Linc and I know we're always burying stuff it's kind of ongoing progress cleaned up
downt you know considering what used to run down through the the alleys you know that's all on the ground that's you just meant in general utilities buried yeah right just in general these trees are growing up and
as you know a tree board it's like they're breaking off and they're you know some of them are not in good shape and it's causing a lot of problems running two or three guys in our electric company is it's too much work keep up with that major reason why this is all set up yeah was because of these
storms and trying to get rid of these trees that we know should go and the whole deal and but then there's always the cost right and a rocky thing of getting you know it's expensive that's why we had do last thing yeah yeah anyway I just curious
about that no I think it's really huge to we could get that so less people would be affected when these things happen well that's that's f for the uh lobbying group to oh well well we could fold it into
our conversation about Utilities in general infastructure that gets us back to my Keyport because under his organization through FEMA there is money for that and he's told us that I don't know how much we've ever actively looked you know what does this
mean how do we apply for this he said money for bearing lines so that's my comment to the tree board people too like well so where can you where can you plant new trees I mean look at all the stuff that's in the
ground and more that's coming and now you okay with planting only smaller Lots it still has this the infrastructure needing to get to these buildings lines not less places for roots and more hazards for trees to hit
when they blow over you know if you only got 8 ft of space it's not a lot of space for utilities and trees and roots and not falling on something that matters so yep yeah it's it's not an easy easy way to to go
off well so a couple years ago I read it came Vermont New Hampshire saying problem is that's too expensive to bury all these lines same thing Rock and whatever right so they are investing more in actually helping homes have
batteries to store power so that if there is a power outage they can go for a while until the lines can be you know cleared or set up again and then I just happened to catch it was on in MPR it's
a little bit bigger scale and that's kind of where the future around electric headed to but the same thing let's say you have an electric car and you have your battery charger and you have some storage capacity whatever they they
instead of once again building up these big transmission lines you store some of that there and generate and then um when it needs to be it can be released back out to the out into the the power system and also they're setting up um
intermittent cut offs so like this isn't us but if you're anywhere else and it's hot in the summertime here air conditioning they they can tap into individual homes and give them a 15minute cut and all that just you have
to read the article because I never remember numbers but it's a huge cost savings and not even cost which just lessening the infrastructure needs on a system because there's no way we can build up these systems fast enough to meet the demands and it also plays in to
the um uh you know um internet the data centers and they're huge drawn water and electricity that' be another way to help manage some of that it was an interesting read but it it also tied into the same concept for
monaster because that R TR similar to us like make people independently able to handle you know help be part of this solution supposed to thinking it's out here in a central system guess it's my easiest way to say that
and and way more cost effective way more but those are all important things and I think it's on everyone's mind here yeah it's a hard conversation to have with your with your customer right which is like hey just in case we can't provide you the service that you're paying us to provide you you should go
buy some batteries a generator right no but um so so like in once again ver New Hampshire so they actually they had already been doing on a smaller scale but they decided that was more cost effective but you know they help subsidize those costs that's cheaper
than yeah right no get building it and I suppose battery capacities and whatever just constantly are improving so anyways um good for thought all right uh oh was that
spell for keeping it short I didn't I didn't bring my little notes you forgot to say nothing that was the note that's that's okay thank you nothing really
cling yeah okay I got nothing nothing um we can remind everybody if it missed it the discussion we had 45 minutes ago about text my go
that was good um Kim since Mike isn't here I'll ask you you might not know the answer to this but um did that total compensation statement get created and presented out say it again did the total
compensation statement get created and presented to the department heads as part of the yearend process um I have not seen it okay we'll follow up at our meeting next week then thank you um because You' have been intrical
to that um okay and I would encourage everyone to read the start trib article today if you have not got the that's it great great thank you
everybody ends that thanks David thank you David I told Pete this so