we're just a couple minutes late but I'm going to call the meeting to order and this is the regular city council meeting for February 3rd 2025 for the city administ first just um you have cell phones with you please put them on airplane mode or on silent and then second would you please join me
for United States America and to the rep for which it stands God with liy and justice for all all right so again introduction as I'm Lisa way I'm the mayor and council
members present we have Peter Vick and UD cludia Lacy and Brian govern have re is absent this evening and then we have staff members present uh Gary Peters director of Public Public Works and Al paulos our
city our assistant City admin Jasper kral is to my right and he is our city administrator Brian Grim is our finance director David AEL is our community director community development director and Pa Paul is our chief of police so
with that um we move on to approving of the agenda are there any changes or additions that we need to make to the agenda if not is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented don't move thank you Mr Governor there in second Mr viory did you second that okay
thank you okay Mr vicory seconded that any further questions he none all those in favor signify with i i allos motion passes 40 and next we have we don't have any special presentations any persons we
don't have anybody signed up under persons to be heard uh so we'll move on to consent agenda items are there any you wish to be more for discussion all right so consent agenda items consist of a approve our work session meeting minutes from January
22nd 2025 B is approve our city council regular meeting minutes from January 22nd 2025 C is a resolution to approve claims D is a resolution for deferred special assessment request removal as you recall that was for the maor
property um e is the resolution approv side yard setback variants at 5435 County Road 51 and F is a resolution to approve the CIP purchase of infrared Asal heater for Public Works any
questions hearing none there a motion to approve consent agenda items a through F thank you is there a second second thank you Mr govern Miss CL of lacy made that motion Mr Brian govern seconded that all those in favor
signify with i i all those oppos motion passes you're good to go sure um when you read it off you said County 51 call I'm sorry okay okay it is 151 in here we have the right
answer all right um so next um we don't have any public hearings this evening but we have business items first is amending chapter five regarding cannabis and hemp businesses I will hand this over to David oh sure yes thank you
Madame mayor and members of council we've as you well know we've discussed several times um and got some direction from city council as to what direction to put a draft ordinance number 496 together um we did take that draft ordinance to the Planning Commission at
their meeting uh last week um generally speaking the ordinance uh stayed as is as to what was presented to you at your last work session um the the one uh change that the Planning Commission did did make was regarding uh growing of of
cannabis their recommendation was to look at allowing this to be grown in the Agricultural and the agricultural preserve zoning districts on with the caveat that the parcel needs to be at least 50 acres in size and we did um as
an exercise include a couple of maps as part of your packet um that shows properties that are over 50 acres in size in that egg and egg preserve districts you can see there's not a whole lot of them but I wanted to run that exercise to give you an idea what
that might potentially look like if you were to follow through with the Planning Commission recommendation um otherwise like I said the ordinance is generally speaking very consistent what you had seen before we do have ordinance 496 in your packet uh for consideration this evening and then if you do go ahead and
approve that we do have authorization of publication by title and summary for the newspaper as well just a call I you think the M that the uh industrial areas for it um a few of the properties
were the Planning Commission compared to one that we last meeting okay um I think like anything that had touched a um within the Ft of the park those were
last sure yes one second Al do you have that okay Al will do that y um page 48 so those are the that will the
parcels that would be more than 50 ACR cor and so those are light gray yellow ones whatever I'm not sure what color they are so um Brian was there too and I was the um the Leon so a couple things I
should just um point out the Planning Commission wasn't real keen on allowing uh the growing in the commercial area because that's more all along Highway 7 so there were a couple why clean on that
one they pointed out that um with the Cannabis growing you really consume a ton of water and we just talked about that that is one um industry that consumes a ton of water and so they're like they were concerned about that but
the other thing that they also pointed out is the smell the growing of the Cannabis is very pungent um and not necessarily in a good way and so they thought you know and then they also said because of our climate a couple of
people had done some research that it would have to be indoors so we' have this gigantic building you know with with this that would potentially be unsightly right along Highway 7 so that's why they were saying not not on
in the commercial area amongs them that's why they kind of pivoted and said maybe in the agricultural District only um and I said well if you do that at least say only on 50 acres or larger because otherwise it could mean anybody
in the agricultural District but whatever the council wants to do keep in mind we only have to allow one business and um we might even want to be the business and then we could control it but anyhow um we only have to allow one
business um keep that in mind to be sure I thought the light gr was scariest where they put you're saying was kind of yellowish are
aot yeah and that that's where you can do cultivation is in the gold area so that's the reserve the agult yeah and then the red areas are the commercial areas that could potentially have a dispensary do we know what kind of
traffic they would have workers coming for for the cultivation it could V it could vary significantly based on how they have it set up if it's a greenhouse if it's a open field um I mean there there could be people coming
and going they want to be conscious of the people that live on the pars next to them especially if there's you know so CLE something we consider when someone comes to us so we also talked about they
would need David correct me from they would either need an iup or cup I an iup that would run with the owner that's one thing you could put certain conditions on it but here's the other thing that we found out um at the Planning Commission
meeting uh by State Statute they require you to have it completely fenced and lighting so I'm not sure what that exactly means what kind of lighting but that's the other thing to consider too that's if it's outdoors Madam mayor council like you said I think the
reality of this situation is is someone's going to do this on one of these agricultural properties they're going to build a building how else so if it's outdoors then they need the lighting and the fencing but if it's an indoor facility then they don't well the lighting obviously goes away they might still have to fence it I don't know if
Sarah can chime in on that but the the lighting factor is non factor I that the lighting was for security well if it's in a building okay it's not big prison lights around well if they're going to do it outside it very well could be if if
someone's going to put the investment to try to grow and get one round of crop in Minnesota what's you know the likelihood of that I don't know I just like Lis is for security is for growing I mean
yeah I all of it all of that oh you think the lighting is also for Co well yeah you have to if you want it to grow you know there's an element to that and we can't say okay so then can we say there's no outdoor growing because I
don't think we want huge lights I don't I don't think you can okay actually question do green houses count as indoor or outdoor well it um from it you know the the the the definition would be defined
by um the building permit in terms of what it would need to meet structurally there because whether or not it's a temporary structure you can get by and have a temporary Greenhouse that doesn't meet building code nor need a building permit um and so that we'd have to look
at the specifics of what kind of building they're building we do like Three Rivers Park District up here at Gail woods they they have a greenhous they built a greenhouse that did end up requiring a building permit it meets building code but it's the greenhouse type effect of a
building so so Sarah is we're having some technical difficulties so she's messaging me a little bit here so she wanted to make sure it's clear that if if we do it allow cultivation we still may have one one retail license so the cultivation license doesn't fill the
retail license Cas so you can have cultivators but the license the 12,500 you know one license per 12,500 is for retail cultivators are different um and do you have to have okay so what if maybe Sarah would answer this if we had
a retail would we have to have allow a cultivator yes okay so then it's actually two it could be the the the licenses for retail are the ones I think a lot of people focus on the cultivators not as much but the cultivating is is different so you could have a retail
license and then they could also approve based on zoning code cultivator licenses so they're plural we could have more we could yep um well we wouldn't have to have more than one cultivator I don't know I don't know what the answer is there I think if they
meet if they meet the zoning code and they get an iup from the city then they we can have multiple cultivators so as long as they meet all the zoning requirements and go well you can go through the I iup process where you can give them feedback how about so then okay because
this I see I don't see retail being in Vista because of our location and we don't have like a down doesn't really make sense it doesn't make a lot of sense people aren't going to drive who knows two miles on Highway 7 just to go to a store when they could probably go
to Mound or St bnny I mean let's face it okay but what I do see is this would our community would be right for cultivation because I mean we have lot land you know
so and I don't I when I Vision or look at Minista having it dotted with giantz um green houses that smell aren't isn't really what I think we have to have
one we might have to have more so cultivation and and Retail are two separate things they're they're kind of mutually exclusive right the license that I think everybody's talking about is the retail piece the cultivation licenses and locations are based on our
code and So based on our code right now I think it's 50 acres in size in the egg preserve um with an iup I don't know if there's any other additional preserve egg and egg preserve so if they meet all those stipulations and everything we have in our ordinance then they can do
it but they do have to go to for every instance of of a cultivator they have to come to city council and go through the iupp point property that is in between elal spaces are those other Farms they are but they're less than 50 acres right but
they could say I don't want a giant weed farm next to my house and that they they would have that process they'd be able to come in and tell coun s that every day so I would think there's only a few like the corner ones and the one you know and David you just said that it was the
agricultural areas too so wouldn't it be the light grave it's it but it's over anything over 50 acres correct so that that's something that city council can consider during the iup process and that might be hey we need
you to build a building um and enclos this because it's close proximity to something that doesn't buing is it still smelling you oh yeah yeah so and then Sarah also wanted to indicate that if they enclose it in a building that's
that's one thing if they if they have it outside like we were saying they it would be like the prison fencing and you know so Barb with Barb Wire lights that's what she wanted to make sure is known too so um hopefully you're looking at it like cultivation and Retail are two different things we have two
different sections of code for that um I thought ni said we can't say it has I think it has to be an ability we say we we require it to be in the building can we say that in our ordinance that has to be in the building no you'd want to review that with each instance and each
iup okay so then another question and I think I talked to Jasper about this um could we then just say it has to be in um industrial zoned area which is very limited in our community but if they wanted to come in
anywhere else then they'd have to have it reson I I believe so I believe that's the original that's where where we started the origal recommendation planning Planning Commission added the egg egg preserve 50 acres and larger and it was in general too I mean they were
talking about if you recall about um you know allowing more opportunities for people that own Farmland with struggles of farming that if you know what's soybeans versus Corn versus hay versus you know if they if there's an opportunity for land owners to make money why wouldn't we give them that
opportunity right and that's that was their discussion to so you do have the ability to only allow it on Industrial if you choose we'd have to you know take that into consideration change the the ordinance um which we can do tonight I think on the fly
right we'd need that uh reflected in specifically in your motion and we' have to make that change yes yep um and then so then another question let's just say there's a farmer that would like to come in and and grow could they come in and ask for a variance if we say industrial
or they could come in and ask for reone right they could ask for their property to be rezoned industrially but that likely wouldn't make sense um you'd be dealing with spot zoning likely in that scenario if it was right next to the existing zoning District the the
industrial district that would make some sense but okay you know if someone far away from there wants to do that that wouldn't make sense it wouldn't be a variance because you you're deviating from a standard so you could not do that it would be
ax change the code change little farmer wants it's not bother neighbors well in the let's say the 2040 plan the idea was to keep that AED as long as
possible to keep it rural so I don't think D but I don't think we're planning any development in that area housing and things like that keep it as Sol as
possible keep concentration for South East so that probably is the least harmful area to to have rest and although like this cannabis
cultivation at scale is likely going to be a larger facility so me you say 50 acres I mean they somebody might come in and want to combine lots too um to go you know so they're not you know you might might be thinking of like
a mom and pop cultivator likely that won't happen for cultivation like there's going to be cultivation centers throughout Minnesota that are pretty large scale that Supply you know the the dispensaries so you know if you're talking about really small scale there's stuff in State
Statute that allows that already you know plants per person and things like that but you know the cultivation I think you're more than likely going to see something at scale to provide something larger you know than a 10 acre you know a small small parcel that's just growing or
cultivating um kind of as a hobby um I think you're GNA see it at scale if that helps so you know I would say if the if the group doesn't want to see you know the potential in in the egg that's something that you can change tonight
and if you want it just in industrial you can make that motion just have it be in industrial I think one of the most important things is that we get something on the books and we can always come back and revise and change as people come in with requests too like if there's something that doesn't make sense um but because we're getting to
the point where they might start issuing licenses sometime this year it's important we have some some zoning code on the books I'm really not happy about doing this so I guess flip on
that F to can we do that I just I worry about the smell and and about the the look and stuff that's that's what I well mean I understand wanting to 100 acres or 200 Acres not do
that yeah get the too can we make it for the egg theeg uh stuff we Mak that had to be the landowner and they could save sub it to somebody well they could buy it though true so boration well my thought
was that if there was going to be the planning um commission meeting they were kind of talking about you know people the right to use their land it's one thing if you're growing it have skin of the game it's another thing I'm Leasing marijana
yeah I think that might be very complicated to enforce um because we don't necessarily we're not privy to all the private leases you know something that we could look into I think for future code I don't know if we want to incorporate it but we could we could look into it but I think it would
be very challenging to even know the only other way to restrict this more other than what what you were saying Peter is to increase the size of the lot so that it has to be 100 acres or more something like that then that would probably eliminate about there would
only be a couple I think the the right I mean it' be one two three four maybe four if I'm look if I'm guessing right I would say if it we're
limiting it that much um it might be a you know if somebody wants to come in they can do a cext amendment to to change it you know we're limiting it to only four Parcels okay so do do the um industrial Zing I think that's that's safe and then if there's a request we
can we can take that request and there's a process there's a process defined for them to okay have us evaluate the request right so anything else on the um on the other part parts I know we've been
really concentrating or on the um growing part of it David excuse me David um have you seen what cities were where this is happening the most do we have any record
of where we're seeing a lot of canab this growing props I mean is it it's just everywhere that has got egg in in the the Minnesota no oh no I have not heard um I mean they they haven't issued
any licenses yet I mean that's the biggest problem I know the Bachman's is one of the biggest ones right now that has a you know a license and they're in the North Metro Area um they've shifted some of their production to to do this because they already have the facilities you know to do that sort of thing um but
no it really um they they can't yet you know they haven't issued licenses so people can't you know start doing that yet the bman is starting to go in that yep yeah yeah so the the cultivation licenses open up February 18th and close
March 14th so coming up here which is kind of why we're we want to get something P um Sarah did text she said Oakdale just received an inquiry about registration or I believe cultivation so there's oldale they're small they're not
yeah um that's what she said so so there's people out there kind of and we've gotten I mean I think David and I have both gotten phone calls from just speculators you know wondering about our code and if we're interested in you know it's this was probably last year so
there's people um tooling around all right so way well we we would like to I think we should pass something um and it could be this and then with the um minor change that it would be allowed in the um cultivation part would
only be allowed in the um industrial area and if we give staff that direction and pass this tonight like that then they can make that change and we can still get this on the books at least I think that's what staff is concerned about we want to get it on the books
before the 18th because it also has to be published and it's really not code until it's published so we need to have some time for that as well now let go back and change it the only common
have dispensaries it's limited to like four five units around seven there's that one I think it's the used Caron looks like it that's like Highland than seven on there um order it would make sense to
have like a minimum size of that to just exclude that because I feel like if we did have to put something in there that's just a lot of problems being so small well it's so small it doesn't have parking I mean I don't even know if you could build anything on there could be
difficult yeah you you'd be you know you'd likely um I think just the process itself of setbacks and hard cover would you know you you'd need probably so many variances that it would eliminate itself whereas you have control in that situation from a council standpoint to
say no that we're not going to issue you know that many variances to build a building there that it's not reasonable to allow for something like that been car just there for sale that I think that address my
concern I was worried about this yeah okay all right the good questions anything else all right and is there a I'm sorry you need a motion right and that's listed on one
page an ordinance amending city code related to cannabis um and hemp businesses in the city of minist it's ordinance number 496 amending it to include our discussion regarding changing um cultivation from
um egg um and egg Reserve to um industrial only anything else sure go ahead so B and is there a
second so second okay all right any further questions or discuss discussion all right hearing none all those in favor signify with I all those motion passes and then I need a motion to um
uh how do you say publish it thank you by title and summary so move thank you Mr govern and thank you Mr viory you raised your hand so all right
all those in favor signify I oppos motion passes and then um adopting regulations related to cannabis anding section 145 um and also then um can we just do this all at
once or do we need separate I mean can we just say um adapting the regulations related to cannabis and adding sections 145 and then adopting or approving publication by or ordinance by title and summary can we do that the title and
summary is important that we have majority vote of the council so I would do that one separately super majority super majority um okay anything else we need to talk about on um regulations related to section 1450 is there anything you need
to point out questions okay hearing none is there a motion to um for adopting regulations related to canis adding sections 145 so thank you Mr VI is there a second second thank you Mr govern all those in
favor signify with i i all those opposed motion passes then the resolution to publish by title and summary is there any questions on that don't think so um is there a motion to do that so move thank you Mr govern is
there a second Mr Victory any other questions you're none all those in favor signify with i i i motion passes 40 it should be we should be fine with 40 even though we have one absent so um and then
amending um section 3051 parks commission and Planning Commission membership so as you recall when we interviewed and some of you haven't been here that long so um we've had kind of um would the we've been challenged to
get enough people to apply for our planning in parks and so what we have of course we have seven member Planning Commission plus we have two alternates and we have we started the alternate positions two full one they're kind of um Commissioners in training if you will
but they they play a very important part because if we don't get a a full mission those alternates can step in and actually participate as a full commissioner and so then also on the parks we have five Park Commissioners and again two alternates and the last
year or two I think we've had at least one open Park commission seat and we've had an open um alternate and we've had two open alternate seats on our Parks as well so we we' had a lot of open positions and so what we're thinking is
um this last go around the the people that applied said some of them said they'd be willing to serve on both and so we need to change our ordinance in order to allow them to do that and I think for at least we don't have to in the future if we get more people apply
then we don't do it but it gives us the option of doing it and I think it's a good thing if we if we want to do that Madam mayor I I asked uh J this that they did just for argument sake um let's
say the only people that appli to seem very very unqualified that was not the case here but let's say that happens um now granted in a perfect world we have read their applications and discussed it before they came before the council but
uh it seems like we shouldn't have to there's two open spots and two people standing there we should have to put them on the in those positions what would be the protocol for saying we're going to step back and take another month to try to get
more people to come for I mean is that even doable it's at the distraction of the city council absolutely they're they're appointed by you it's a volunteer position and it's your decision to make and actually one time if you recall
we had some people apply they didn't even live in the city and we said sorry you don't qualify because that is one I don't think you have to have it but um it has been our standing practice that you need to be a resident of the city one was like I don't know 45 minutes away or
something and we just said yeah sorry but you don't qualify but um and I think there's been times where we've also said let's extend the um the application time frame because either we didn't get any or maybe there was something that so we
can always do that okay thank you right so are you in favor of allowing um Park commission and Planning Commission people to serve on both should we all right so then um this is an or
again an ordinance change so is there a motion to change um ordinance number 497 497 amending section 305.7 yes so Mo thank you Miss Lacy is second second thank you Mr govern any further question hearing none all those
in favor signify by I those opposed motion passes and then also then ordinance number 16-24 publishing that by title and summary thank you Mr govern is there a second thank you Mr Victory any
questions hearing none all those in favor signify with i i i all those opposed motion pass and then um approve our Public Safety department for motions effed March 27 2025 I'll give them to I'll take this one madame mayor members
of city council uh this is kind of the next step in our succession planning of uh Mr Fall's retirement think he's got a little bit over like 52 days maybe something like that how many hours and how many minutes um so on on the 29th we
met uh myself and Paul met with the Personnel committee um which consists of Mr or council member vicory and council member rkin uh and and went through um comp data regional market data about the
deputy chief and the and the um director of Public Safety positions I'll start with the director of Public Safety position so what we're recommending is the Personnel committee is recommending to promote uh uh deputy chief uh Craig swiers from deputy chief to public
safety director effective March 27th 2025 so one day after Mr Fall's retirement um so a seamless transition so um what we're looking at um deputy chief Squires has been here since 2001 so he's been here almost 24 years so
he's he's uh put in a lot of time for the community um this is something that's been in in process for some time uh kind of known that uh Mr Squires is going to fill the shoes once Paul decided to to leave so um we're looking
at you know I'm I'm excited for it and Craig will be a great public service or public safety director um police chief um looking at the fiscal impact of this this is something that we've we've we've planned into the budget um the deputy or
the the deputy chief is a grade 10 so if you're familiar with our um grade step plan that's it goes to 12 the deputy chief is a 10 um what we're recommending ending is is moving um Craig from a step seven 107 uh grade 10 step seven at 6430
an hour to a uh grade 11 which is the the police chief grade uh step or grade sorry grade 11 Step s which is $70.73 an hour which is a 10% increase from what he's currently making so but
it's a salary it's a salary position so is the Deputy Chief position is also an exempt uh salary position so that's a 10% increase um the sergeant promotion from two Deputy Chiefs so we're talking about uh Sergeant uh Patrick Cummings uh he
has been here since 2006 so 19 going to be 19 years this year so couple of employees that have been with the city for a long time so we're very very lucky that we have this opportunity to promote from within with people that are so experienced so um currently
um Sergeant Cummings is a union employee on the union schedule so it's a little bit different than to to match it up directly with our uh with our pay plan um but moving him from the sergeant uh to the deputy chief position um we're
looking at moving him he has currently a base rate of pay of $58.32 he is a an a non-exempt employee so he currently receives overtime so that's part of the and it's not it's kind of mandatory overtime he does a lot
of filling in of uh shifts that the officers can't fill in so he's kind of in charge of of that right now so on average it's a little bit under $11,000 in overtime so that was taken into consideration not a not a one to one uh but his his total compensation for 2025
is estimated to be around $635 an hour uh the deputy chief position again is is evaluated at a grade 10 um looking at that we're we're looking at moving um uh I guess Sergeant
Cummings to deputy chief Cummings uh moving him to a grade eight step or grade 10 step8 at 6655 an hour a lot of numbers here which is a a 5% increase from his current pay including overtime so you
can see that there's a little balance there between overtime and and that so that's that's what we came up with at the Personnel committee both of these are uh recommended for approval from that group um one of them's here so he can he can fill in if there's any any questions about that so the next steps
um since we got um a recommendation from the Personnel committee offer letters have been extended to both employees both employees have agreed to those offer letters and I've signed those so um looking at that there's some background that we're going to have to do in a in a think a psych evaluation
which we do developmental assessment so we do that for all all promotions within the the the police department um so those positions will get filled uh if approved on March 27th we'll have some internal positions or or Sergeant position to fill and then likely a
police officer candidate position to fill so we'll backfill those once um if we get approved tonight we might start that process sooner than later so it's kind of a seamless transition so we we have 15 officers right now we finally hit that number but in you know a month
and a half less than two months we're likely going to be down we're likely going to be down to 14 officers again so uh we do have some some officers kind of in the hopper that we can hopefully tap into um so we're not down an officer for very long so with that what we're
looking for is uh a motion to approve the conditional offers of the promotion of Craig Squires to the director of Public Safety and Patrick Cummings to the deputy police chief effective March 27 2025
second any questions Mr govern question okay great I'm looking forward to um it and and as Jasper said um I think we're very fortunate to have these two seasoned and and quality candidate employees that we can promote it's
always good to be able to promote from within and I do know that there's other um organizations looking for these positions so so we're we're really um fortunate that that they want to stay here but it's because they have such a great Council right all right um so with
that um all those in favor signify with i i all those opposed motion passes and we'll look forward to their promotion now do we do any now will we will they come to the city council and we get to do some kind of big deal yeah we will
we'll bring them in and you'll likely see Craig here you know as between now and when Paul retires might take a couple nights off a couple Mondays off um but we will once once they come in we'll we'll kind of have a public uh welcoming event for the new employees
because that director of Public Safety position is a is a big position and then we have another new employee that just started recently and is he going to be coming at our next work session we have saring in then we have Brendan right so we know
are you going to do it during the regular meeting then wearing in is at the next meeting I'm not I will try Okay Okay um then you know we were talking about psych evaluations Chief are you going to have to do a psych evaluation
once you're retired probably will to I guess acclimate to that new well you will be missed so just you know all right um with that then we'll move on to staff report yes madame mayor I have a couple
things so I thought I'd give a little legal update we have a couple legal things happening so just so you don't so you know that we're still working on it um we have the the um dog barking citations that uh have went to um
District Court uh there was a ruling in our favor I think most people know this uh well this is now going to the Minnesota court of appeals we've requested a one day trial date for July which seems like a long ways away but that's that's the scheduling um there's
been a counter offer to do it in October of this year um oh sorry the dog the dog barking is going to happen in July I'm mixing up the other one so um the dog barking will be in in in July so Minnesota court of appeals um if everybody under understands the process
they'll go to that if uh if they lose the the the Minnesota court of appeals they could have appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court which then they could then either take the case or not or the Supreme Court could then send it back down to the Minnesota court of appeal so you know
we're we're hopeful that maybe by the end of the year this will uh this will go to bed um it does cost us money just so everybody knows like it's there's there's legal fees associated with with these things y yeah
years so it's kind of in Peter's neighborhood so he kind of knows um but so that's the dog barking update um so we should know more here by the summer hopefully um the other uh more more recent I think at city council touch
point was with the um uh iup request that was withdrawn regarding the boat storage place um we've picked back up that lawsuit so the city is is suing them to get their votes other things off the property that aren't allowed per city
code that's now in kind of limbo because they're in between attorneys uh so we're we're using their current attorney um that he wasn't here I don't believe the night that uh yeah so that's still in limbo that is gon to we've requested a
trial date for that that is still under negotiation um likely the summer or fall and it's a similar process if it it rules in our favor then we would bring it back to city council and we would have to decide how we would like to
Abate the the boat storage and a baate means you know get remove the the either give have the property owner remove it and if they don't under a certain period of time then we go in get a search warrant have somebody remove the boats put them in an impound and anything else
that's not allowed um and then those costs those costs we can assess back to the property owner the legal fees the legal costs for this um are not generally recoupable um one thing to note is that
uh Ken Potts our our past prosecutor uh up until the end of this year um he was handling the this case under uh his retainer which was quite reasonable um you know thanks Ken pots now we've got Campbell kudon who's who's doing this
work and this is a separate piece that's not under their retainer um I think we were getting a really good deal with Ken um because he just said well we'll take this on it's not necessarily prosecution work this is more of a city Code Enforcement issue than prosecution so that's kind of why
the differentiation so I think we got a bill for $5,600 um just to file the brief uh for the one day trial request so there was some getting up to speed in in that nature those types of things so um we will track this so we'll be able to tell
you exactly how much something like this cost because uh in all likelihood we will have another request a code violation or something that we might have to pursue a lawsuit to aate uh so these things do cost money it's city council discretion if we pursue them or
not but as we get complaints we'll bring them we'll bring them forward is the uh was the city conservative a lawsuit related to withdrawn applications for the I no we have not so um they likely will not sue
us we are suing them though uh so if we would have if we would have denied the iup they could have sued us and in that situation the league of Minnesota City's likely would have taken on the case under our so but because we're the one
suing them it's all our cost so it's the you know essentially the cost of doing business to enforce our city code so as there's more developments I'll provide updates um but there will be slow so the the neighbors that are
distressed by this they have to wait how long in year maybe it is it is ridiculous to break the law and yeah you don't follow the rules break the law and then your neighb yeah um so those are the legal updates
so um in better news I can transition we have have a strategic planning session scheduled for 3:30 on Wednesday I think the agenda went out with some memos um so we'll see uh if anybody has any specific snack requests please let us know we'll have some snacks to kind of
get us through maybe the witching hour of that five to six there won't be any food uh provided but um I think we can get done in a couple hours so hopefully we can get done by 5:30 6 there's you know I we have it scheduled till 7 or
7:30 and I know Al sent out an emailing so if you have any requests beverage choices snack yeah we might be here all night um but yeah so we have that a lot of uh heavy
hitting items I think we work through the the water you know water treatment plant questions that we had that we can proceed a little bit more you it'll be another touch point but um so we won't really get into that too much but there are some things like the 2026 Street project that we have to talk about and
give guidance to Allison and Gary about the scope of that project I'd say that's probably the most um urg urgent or intensive because if we depending on you know what we're going to start that process uh the assessment for 29 process this year so we have to
know the scope in order to start that I have a simple question what about chickens neighbor constituent I've not yet but they're very much wanting chickens so uh I'm sure you've all seen the letters u
Mr Joe Rogers I believe he's done a lot of work and how do we proceed with looking at that yeah so there's a couple different ways if there's a couple city council members that want to talk about it we can talk about it at a work session if this resident wants to um
apply for a code text Amendment which is what beinged no but he lived in and you was talking about like two little H that lay eggs and I don't know what that sounds like or smells like or anything but you
know cost of eggs are they're hard to get I two yeah so good point there's a lot of you know people that live in a city that have couple little chickets and I guess I'm not opposed to that I don't know much
about it but yeah and one thing to consider you know there's other say that again a CO cext Amendment if they're in area that allows it or that doesn't allow it right now another consideration is if they're in an HOA there's HOA bylaws that might prohibit chickens as
well so we might be able to approve it but their HOA doesn't so there's things to consider um there's probably we can we can put it on our work session list and then put please put he's Sprint several times and makes
it we can get it on a future work session maybe this spring then should we invite him to come speak to council we can if you want to forward me his letter I don't know if I have it handy um and then I can coordinate that we will have uh at the next meeting too I'll just know we we're going to talk about at
work session we're going to talk about crosswalks at Wen Cove we've received a letter um from one of the HOA boards regarding a request to put a crosswalk in so we'll have some information we've looked at this in the past um from an engineering standpoint doesn't quite
meet the threshold but that doesn't mean city council can't say that we want want to put a a crosswalk in a location we'll just tell you what that'll do and you know the team is basically Alice and Gary and Paul um that kind of weigh in on the engineering piece and the safety
side of it so we'll talk about that but that's all I have um then do we have um a Planning Commission meeting in February and do you need a who would like to be February
27 27 is it 24 I will not be able to attend okay so Peter will be your l on do we have a park commission meeting yet okay um anything else on St and Council any
re okay I have a few things so just a reminder our next meeting is Tuesday February 18th you might recall a couple years back when we have a holiday on a Monday we've been moving up to Wednesdays however because of my schedule we can't do it on the 19th so
we're moving into the 18th so it's going to be the 18th of February and then the March 3rd meeting can um we're looking at the agenda but right now it's looking like it's going to be there's nothing on it right now right so there may be a
cancellation March 3rd meeting so just so you know and then um I attended um Marvin Johnson's open house he was he retired after 45 years and 89 years old and was the mayor of Independence for
all those years um and so I I was there was a huge Turnal I mean just huge and of course I me when you've been in office that many years so um anyhow I attended that and then um Kathleen and Jasper and I will
be attending the fire partnership meeting and that kind of um I have a question they've been talking earlier on they were talking about you know maybe cities should hold a meeting talking about this fire partnership and I'd be happy to do that so I'm wondering if we
want to do um a twofold I don't know we can think about it um town hall meeting regarding our water infrastructure and what we've been talking about and struggling with and I I think it you know the more information we get out there to people and the more
they know that we've really thoroughly vetted this and thought about it and and discussed it and then also um talk about the fire partnership that we've been working on um it might be worth doing a town hall meeting sometime maybe let's
say in in June I I didn't want to do it the same as the state of the city address I think that's a little different and I thought um maybe it will pick a but are you guys do you think that's a good idea does staff think it's a good
idea yeah I think more information thing but um I just think it's good to have as much communication with your residents as possible all right so staff and I will work together on a a time frame of course you would be encouraged
to be here as well so that the only one they all right um with that I I don't have anything else so is there a motion to adjourn so move thank you Miss Lacy is there a second second thank you Mr Brian
Mr we have two Mr govern and there's Brian govern and Brian grim and it's like oh jeez all right all those in favor s all those post motion passes for we still finish nothing