--------- Hi, Kiki. Can you hear us? She's not. Yep, I can hear you. How's this? Wonderful. We can hear you. Awesome. Sounds like you've got her all recorded and on YouTube already, so we're good to go. I do have it on YouTube. So, I think
we're good at least until the next meeting. Very good. And my question to you, Kiki, is did you send this this link to um our labor attorneys? Yep. Okay. I sure did. Both him and Angel, I
believe. Okay. If I didn't have such a glare out my window right now, I'd show you a picture of the arch. Arch is right out my window. Brandon, are you able to hear us? I can hear you good. Can you hear me?
Yes. Thank you for confirming. Yes. So many eliminated. Yep, we're good to go. Okay, perfect. Well, we will officially call the city of Nisa special council meeting on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. It's 50
1 p.m. to order. And this uh special meeting is for interviews of the interim city administrator position. Um, so just to set up and give everybody some
background, at our last special council meeting, I think Mark, you said it was May 5th, um, the council passed a motion that allowed Joe and I as personnel liaison to start sourcing and looking for potential candidates to fill the
interim city administrator role for NYSA. Um, and so what Joe and I did is we worked with our labor attorney, Flarity and Hood, and we also did outreach to the League of Minnesota Cities. They have a what they call like a list of seasoned professionals that
are well experienced that have, you know, run cities before and can come into interim roles like this. And then also just other folks we knew through our network. Um, and we conducted interviews, first round interviews for that first week. Um we did kind of a
debrief then with our labor attorney and then from that point forward we had some conversations about who we felt um from those first interviews would be positive candidates to bring before the full council for what is a special
council meeting for the final round interview um tonight with all of our council members. Before I go further, did I miss anything, Joe, that you want to add to that so far? That sums it up. Okay, perfect. Um,
and in going through the first round interview process, our labor attorney did provide um, guidance around interview questions, things we should be looking for, right? Um, as personnel liaison to make sure that we would get a good um, a good feel as we went through
that first round. And so now for tonight, um, just to make sure that all of council is on the same page, our labor attorney has sent out multiple confidential and privileged communications to everybody, and I just want to make sure before we go further
that council has received those and had a chance to look over and review. Okay, perfect. Okay, perfect. And just also just to note this because it is important and the labor attorney did note this on any correspondence that
went directly to council is that the the correspondence and some of the attached data are not public. So therefore, disclosure, distribution or discussion of this correspondence or some of the attached data in those emails except as otherwise specified in the correspondence below um is prohibited by
law and could be subject to criminal, administrative, and civil sanctions. Um so very important as well, pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13.43 43 subdivision 3. Um there's information that's redacted and we do have a responsibility as council members and
staff at this um city of Nisa not to be violating any of those terms and that's why this went directly to council. So I would just ask as a friendly reminder if you guys did print anything um if if we can give it to me after so I can go shred it and make sure that you know it
it stays confidential so we're not uh violating anything. Um, all right. Any questions? Anything, Joe, that I missed that you want to add? No. Um, just maybe do we need to talk
about why we are at this point or is everyone up to speed? You know, what the goal is for the interim city administrator? Does any questions from anybody on that? I guess I have a question. Um, you know,
it was my understanding a while back that we appointed Kiki that, you know, she was going to be the interim person and all of a sudden then we went from that point to here we are today. And I guess, you know, I just kind of feel like I maybe a little bit left out of
the loop as far as what was really going on to how we got here today. I think do you want to start or Yeah, for sure. And so that's that's the question I want to answer for everybody. So, um, once again, back to our labor
attorney, um, getting in, um, there haven't been very many days, I don't think, where Jennifer or I or both of both of us have been talking to him over the last several weeks. um as he [Music]
um um actually his team started to dive into um the current way our city is set up um with policies, rules, ordinances, you know, uh the structure of the city. Um
uh I'll quote his word that he used and it was clumsy. um that he said uh the way that some of our our stuff was written and put together um for us to start to
um you know for instance a request came forward from staff to um with the building project for instance for Tom maybe approve um you know some change orders or something with this above a higher dollar amount for us to I'll to
get some authority or power back to make some of those decisions. We need to actually change our rules and our laws first because that's not the way that this city set up and ran. And in order to do that, um, it's going to take a
deeper dive, um, and a full-time job where Kiki already has a full-time job. And this is, um, in a very short term, um, a bigger issue that needs to be looked at and dealt with on all sorts of
levels. And therefore right away within a day or so of him looking at stuffs like um you guys need outside professional help in a lot of different areas to to look at how to do this to
help streamline how the city operates, how it runs, um how to um yeah, give some authority back to the council to make decisions to help staff do their job properly. And so we're looking at um
looking at that and therefore that's when it was decided okay we need to bring in you know some seasoned professionals to really help us with this because of the situation and where we're at. So does that kind of help
that's kind of the broad overview of the conversations? Yeah, and I would just add to that, Bruce, as well that when we did make the motion as councel right out of the gate to appoint Kiki, it was very specific that it was just interim duties and responsibilities because Jenny was
going to use her vacation as she was transitioning to another position. So, I'm not sure that was ever intended to be a long-term approach, but per our city code and ordinances, we have to have someone being able to do some of those duties and responsibilities to
remain compliant. Um, but all those additional like our special council meeting we had a couple weeks ago. There were no other conversations outside of what we had as a group publicly in that to get us to the point today. Um, but there was a motion passed by council
that did give Joe and I the direction as personnel liaison to go down this path of sourcing and interviewing. Um, and that's what we did. And I think we're we're very excited about the two candidates that are here today to interview because they have incredible experience and I think it's a good
chance for everyone on council to get your questions out, right? ask those conversations and and for all of us to make sure we're doing what we think is the best thing for the city, right? And so at this point, we don't have even another option except to have somebody
in this role as city administrator to do this and then um from there um start to make um the changes and and really to come in and help analyze the city. you know, city or size, the way that it's
set up, what what is the best and most efficient way that it should be running, should be operating all the way across the board. And um so we're we're we're also seeking um um both the labor attorney and uh
advice from the professionals that we're going to be interviewing here tonight. Do you have any more questions or followup, Bruce? Uh just a question, you know, before this um Jenny Max was the first city administrator and before that we had a clerk and things at that point
seemed to be going fine and we got Jenny on as a city administrator and I know that initially we had thought about giving Kiki a six-month trial, trying it. Now we got to this point, I guess there's, you know, I just didn't
understand how we went from that to this tonight. to to sum it up. Um we learned in a short time period that um there is just [Music]
um there's so much work that probably needs to be done um within the cities with the policies, the rules, the law, the ordinances that um to have Kiki do it. Um, nothing against Kiki, but it's
not her expertise. And also too, we already have her in a full-time job. And to do this right, to do this properly um to get it going, we need somebody looking at these areas full-time. It's
going to be a big undertaking. what needs to be done much bigger undertaking um than than you know what Kiki would be able to do for the city in both her roles and positions and also kind of
unfair to put her in that spot also on on doing that. um you know, it'd be kind of like here here's your job, but by the way, here's this overwhelming, daunting task
that you're going to be forced to do, too. It's it's Yeah, we we learned very quickly talking with the attorney that that uh it's going to it's going to take quite some time. We don't even have a time
frame on it, okay? You know, either. So, that's probably another question. Well, what time frame are we looking at? We don't have an answer to that. We we need we need to get somebody in this role and to let them start getting their feet wet and then come back to us and say here's
the time frame that we might be looking at because we we can't even answer that. The the attorney everything that he's gone through all the stuff you know he's looked at all the different aspects of the codes kind of the stuff that we're up against looking at doing. Um,
and yeah, um, I'll just say again, his his word that he used was clumsy. The way that we're set up, that's that's how he described how the city's currently operating. So, it is. Yeah. So, that that's how
we're there, Bruce. So this will be an open-ended uh not well we should get to that after the interviews because part of it in the redacted information or sorry the privileged was also uh tenative contracts for both candidates that have
been a so we should wait till we get to that point if that's okay. Um Bruce do you have anything else otherwise I'm going to bring up the first candidate. Um, you know, one other thing I just will say this personally. I felt I feel that as a group, as a council, maybe we should have talked a lot more about this
rather than just dive right into it. I think we did at our last couple council meetings, didn't we? I mean, that that was the intent of those. We got to this point tonight. That's my concern. Yeah. And and part of this it goes back
to the open meeting laws, all this stuff that we're sharing, you know, it's nothing that anybody's trying to do or do behind anybody's back basically. Um even myself, um when Jesse made the motion
the night to in, you know, to uh you know, appoint Kiki there, you know, okay, well, this is what this is what we'll do. Um, I I would also say maybe Bruce, you know, too, you could reach out to the
city labor attorney directly yourself and he would do a much better job of explaining kind of the work that will need to get done, you know, too, and and have a conversation directly with him on
on uh kind of what we're up against, per se. you know, the thing spelled right out and it was confidential. Won't be talking to anybody about it and I haven't and I I abide by that and uh I
would be very cautious in speaking with anybody about this because you know warning's in there you talk to anybody what could and may happen. So I'm very cautious of it and I wouldn't feel comfortable in reaching out personally
to him as an individual. I would like to do it as a group. We can't do that because of open meeting laws as you can reach out to the attorney as an individual. There's attorney client privilege. So that's completely permissible but not Yeah. not. Yeah. And and I think I think they would be, you know, uh they're more than willing, you
know, the attorney would be more than willing to talk to anybody here and kind of fully, you know, spend an hour talking to them or whatever and fully bring you up the speed because by no means is it uh is it just information for Jennifer and I to know it's
information for you to know 100% to, you know, Bruce and I would, you know, or Mark or Jesse or whoever, you know, reach out and they can share sure share everything that they've kind of found and earmarked as they went through um the way our city is currently structured
and laid out with our policies, you know. Well, right here in fact um they're on via Zoom. Should we do you have any more questions or should we get started because I want to be cognizant of the time too. Okay. Well, let's um go
ahead then and call up our first candidate, Tim. And Tim, if you wanna you you're welcome to come sit here and then that mic turns on. Shake all of your hands. Yeah. Thank you. And I think you just have to push the little button when you're ready. Oh,
perfect. Okay. So, I think maybe Tim will have you introduce yourself, give your background, and then what I thought we could do is Joe and I have already interviewed Tim, right? So, I want to give the rest of council an opportunity first to ask questions before it comes back to Joe and I. So, we'll do around Robin, but why don't we start with just
letting Tim share a bit about his background and experience. Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you. It's a a great pleasure to to be up here in wonderful Niswah. I've uh been up to Brainard Baxter area quite a bit but not in this as much and what a lovely lovely little
community you've got. So it's a pleasure to meet you all and to see your your town. Um so I don't know how much time we have so I'll try to you know get to the point and as well. Um, so I've been in the city government, city management
business for uh, well about 35 years actually, 34 35 years, including internships and so forth after after uh, school. I don't know if everybody has had a chance to see my resume. Um, you have Okay. Um, most recently I was with
the city of Golden Valley for about nine years as their city manager. I retired I did an early retirement with them about a year ago. Um before that I was with the city of Anoka for about 15 years and then prior to that um I was the city administrator
for the city of Minatrista on the west um side of Lake Minnetonka and then uh prior to that I was the city administrator for a a tiny community in the kind of the heart of the metro area called Lauderdale. That was my first um opportunity to to sit in the lead lead
chair. Prior to that, I was a an assistant to the city administrator and had done internships at uh a city or two before that as well. So, um and then my education, I have a a master's degree in public administration from Hamlin
University and an undergraduate degree in government from St. John's University just kind of down the road. Yeah. So, uh, maybe I'll stop there, mayor, and you can ask more specific questions as we go. Yeah. Um, Mark, do you want to
start? Do you have a specific question or topic area you'd like to ask about? I'll start. Um, can you tell me one more time, what is the city that you're currently with or most recently have been with? The city of Golden Valley. Golden Valley. Yeah. Yeah. And that was for nine years. About
nine years. Yeah. Got it. Um, so you mentioned that you've been through or at least into Briner and Baxter. How much time have you spent in the Niswah area? In the Niswah area, not much. Not very much. Got it. Um, so is
this an area I mean, so a city of this size compared to obviously Golden Valley, Anoka, Min, Minitrista, Lauderdale, which I'm not familiar with. Um, obviously much smaller on a municipal level. Uh, do you feel like your experience at those larger cities
and towns has given you enough well-rounded experience to come here and be able to lead our proverbial ship as a city admin? Well, I do I think all of those uh cities that I've worked with in the the different capacities um has given me um
a really broad array of experience to deal with a number of complicated um matters that may come up whether it's uh financing, whether it's development, whether it's uh personnel related. Um, organizational structure is a is a big
one as well and have had an opportunity to uh uh you know do reorganizations uh restructurings and so forth. Uh the smaller community that I worked for, Lauderdale, was about a community this size. Okay. And then and I was a city
administrator there and then the city of Minatrista at the time was about three or 4 thousand folks. Um, I told the mayor earlier I grew up in a small community just uh west of Buffalo, Buffalo, Minnesota. And uh uh I enjoyed
all of my experiences I have, but I really enjoyed working for the the smaller communities in particular. Tim, how much experience would you say you have in regards to the process of grants and either writing them or working with internal resources,
external resources for grants, whatever the grant application may be. Mhm. Well, lots uh grants are uh and and other opportunities are a significant
part of what we do and how we um leverage the funds that we have to do what it is we want to do. We as um cities, because that's who I've mostly worked for, if we raise taxes every time we wanted to do a project, we would be
um not in very good shape. And so we recognize that we've got partners uh out there with other um funding opportunities, funding sources to be able to apply for whether it's a grant or whether it's to work in partnership
with um a different level of government, whether that's a county or the state. Um so you've got a DNR project I think that or a mindot project going on right now. I don't know if they're bringing funding to the table. I would imagine they're funding the project depending on what's happening there. Looks like a county
road is involved. So probably there's county funding involved. Um and if it affects the city then there'd be city funding as well. Um so I've been a part of or have directed folks to apply for uh all sorts of grants at all all many
different levels. I've also led and been a part of uh partnering with um different organizations um and levels of government to help um offset costs uh for cities to to do the things that they want to do. And let me just give you one
quick example in the city of Lauderdale. So, right off of Highway 280, um just north of uh 490 or Interstate 94, um as you go north on 280 on, uh what would be the east side of 280 mostly is
where Lauderdale resides, but there's a little piece of property u on the left or the west side that uh was owned and operated by the University of Minnesota for years. It was they called it their lightning and um transient research
center and their scientists out there years ago would uh study lightning strikes and so they would try to attract strikes and and study the lightning strikes. Well, that facility became defunct and it sat there um for years
and um uh wasn't uh revenue generating for us because it was owned by a government agency, the University of Minnesota. Uh and being a smaller community, uh we're looking to grow our tax base. We ended up um putting together a a plan about what we wanted
to see happen there and ended up applying for uh various grants and received um over a million dollars in funding from the Metropolitan Council. I know the Metropolitan Council doesn't apply here uh to help clean up that property. So, that property got cleaned
up, was redeveloped, and is now a tax producing piece of property for for that community. That's just one example. I could give numerous examples. Yeah. Appreciate that. Yeah. Um, another one I have for you, Tim, is in regards to the roles that you've had in the last four
cities that you've worked with. It was city administrator in Golden Valley. City administrator in an NOA. Is that right? Well, city manager in Golden Valley, city manager in Would that be comparable to city admin that we have here? It's a little bit different structure. Okay. But city administrator
form in in Minitrista and in Lauderdale. Got it. Yeah. So over in those positions as city manager you were more or less overseeing the staffs at those at those cities. That's correct. Got it. Okay. So a question on that note is from your
experiences as you have taken those new positions within those cities and obviously have some great tenur at a lot of those positions. Um, how how how what was your takeaway from walking into that new role, say Anoka or Golden Valley,
and walking into an existing culture, existing structures with personnel, personnel having relationships obviously amongst themselves and starting to plant your own seed, not just as the as the quarterback of of the team, but as the
new guy on the block. Mhm. How can you give us some takeaways as to how that went and and obviously it was successful enough with your tenure there at both your two most recent cities, but give us a little walkthrough as to that and maybe what we would expect as you coming
in as a city administrator. Yeah, thank you. That's a excellent question. it gets at the heart of I think a lot of um opportunity and challenges that that leadership can experience. Um specifically I would say that um it's
not easy and u uh all of those cities that I had worked for had uh tenured and fairly long tenured uh staff and uh when a new person comes in who leads uh uh how do you go about making that happen
and and how do you uh become effective in doing that and uh there are multiple ways to go about that. Um my initial approach has always been get to know the lay of the land. You know what do we have? Who are the folks? You know what are the areas of
responsibility? Do we have the right structure? I just think that's a really outstanding question because not always and as a matter of fact maybe most of the time it's not always the right structure because the structure was set up maybe years ago, right? And then over time things change and and and so forth.
they develop the way they develop and uh maybe it doesn't always meet the the current needs of the community. But but anyway, come in, get to know what what the arrangement is, what the structure is, who the staff are, uh honestly, what their pros and uh are, what their what
maybe some of their weaknesses are, and are they positioned right? You know, the old adage of making sure everybody's on the on the right bus, the same bus, everybody's in the right seat, and got the got the right person driving, you know, all of that. just sort of doing that that kind of gut check. Um, and I'm
going to work with folks. I'm going to work with folks to make them successful. Um, we want to put them in the best spot that they can so they can be successful. Sometimes that means things get changed around, duties, responsibilities, what have you. Um,
sometimes that means additional training is is required or needed. And that's okay too. And uh in in a perfect world, we would have highly efficient employees all working together with everybody on the team moving everybody in the
direction that we're supposed to go. That direction being that direction that you all give. That would be the ideal scenario. Getting there is is I think a big part of what this this position does. Um, so, uh, that's where I would
start and that would always be my hope. Um, that's not always easy to go about maybe having those conversations with folks that, hey, you're super good at this this area over here. We want you to keep doing, but we need need you to do some training. You know, that doesn't
always maybe feel the best, but it's okay. That's okay. Um, sometimes restructuring, maybe moving responsibilities around and and if some of your job duties are getting moved away from you, sometimes that doesn't always feel so good. So, we want
to make sure we go about all of that the right way to make sure that people still know they're a valuable part of the team. We're just trying to make sure that everything is lined up the best way possible. Uh, if that doesn't work, uh, there are multiple other options that I and I can keep going here. um and they
become less and less um great. Uh they're they just become more and more hard and they can include um performance improvement plans, you know, where you sit down and talk with somebody and really try to uh let them know uh what it is we need them to do and how we need
them to do it and give them every opportunity to to succeed. Make sure we're communicating that clearly. Uh if that doesn't work, uh there can be discipline, you know, whether it's uh verbal reprimands, written reprimands,
uh suspensions, demotions, um up to and including termination. That's just the reality of of any organization. Um so all of those things are in play. They have to be in play. Correct. Good
answer. Appreciate that. Last one on that note is when you talk about change, how would you say or even rating yourself. How would you say the change that was implemented by your new positions within those respective cities was adhered to by the
legacy teams of those cities? You sir ask great questions. You get really to the you're getting to the heart of I interview a lot and sadly I have to terminate a lot. So yeah, you you you tend to just you you start to see things from a different angle as to how can we
make this better for the person that's going to come next. And uh this position of city administrator as council member London was already uh disclosing was Jenny Max. Our previous CA was our first CA. There was a clerk system here prior
to and understanding the the size of this city of 18.32 square miles half over half of that or yeah just over half of that being water and 2100 and some residents and growing on a pretty
consistent basis is uh it's a small city feel but we have an influx of folks that come up here and provide a great deal of business and do a great deal of business with our downtown and our uh resorting community in this town. Um Croman County
full-time population is 66,000 and some change. Don't hold me to that. It's around there. But in summer months, um last data I saw increases to north of 300,000. Yeah. And that includes across Lake Area as well. So we are very small
town in regards to I think everything on paper and we want to maintain that. want to maintain that culture and feel, but we also need to be very cognizant of what we have in front of us, the task at hand in regards to the swell that we so to speak feel in the uh warm summer
months. So, uh, having the city administrator position within the city filled by somebody that's competent as a strong, as I mentioned, quarterback, understanding, uh, the task that we have at hand within the city, legacy problems of, uh, infrastructure that we're trying
to upgrade or new land acquisitions that we've recently made and figuring out how the heck are we going to develop this and go about it while also working with the legacy staff and providing modern solutions is something that I think is pretty keenly on the top of our minds um
just based on the change that we've had. Uh we're a relatively fresher council um after this past election cycle, but I would say some of us have been working together now for a few years. Um Mark and I in particular and Joe, I think it's been just over year and a half, two
years now. Um council member London, I want to say last summer and of course Mayor Carneahan this past uh January. So going back I guess to the question, not trying to burn too much time here, but uh um how would you perceive uh or how would you rate yourself in effectively
implementing any of any change at all that you would have made in those positions with the legacy folks? Yeah, thank you. I appreciate the context, too. So, and the mayor knows this because I've talked to her about it, but um I describe myself as um as a change agent everywhere that I've gone. And so
I've experienced the challenges, the pros and the cons that go with all of that as well. Um I want to start with this because this is so important and I think everybody always needs to remember this. There's a hierarchy in place and the hierarchy has to be followed and the
hierarchy goes like this. Residents, residents first. Residents are everybody's bosses starting with you all. You all get elected by them. then you're in charge. Then you hire a city
administrator. Three or more of you give direction to the city administrator and that has to be carried out by staff. And I've told this again to the mayor unless it's illegal, immoral, unethical. But if it's something that staff doesn't
like or care for or maybe the the folks that are elected giving the direction or maybe there's a a faction of the community that doesn't like it experienced all of that as well. Um kind of the the old guard if you will, you know.
Um but if we remember that principle that the residents elect each of you, each of you gives the direction to in this case a city administrator. The city administrator works with the staff to carry it out. All of that becomes much
easier. So that's where I would start. Uh change beyond that, whether or not they're newer or or have been around a little while or legacy employees is still hard. It's still hard and um I for
one am a stickler for the hierarchy and have to keep coming back to it. Have I been in situations where longtime employees don't like the direction that three or more of the council members
have given? Absolutely. Have I been uh part of a of a city where three or more council members who have been elected give a direction, but there's a pretty significant and loud faction of the community that doesn't like it. And
maybe that lines up with some of the employees opinions as well. Yes, I've been through all of that. And the thing that matters to me and has to matter to everybody is the structure and the hierarchy. If we don't follow that, we
don't have democracy. Otherwise, we've got these folks wanting to do this and these folks wanting to do this and so on and so forth, and it's it's chaos. So, as the person sitting in the middle, that's my that's my anchor. And I always go back to it. Did three or more council
members give that direction? Yes. Do I agree with it? I don't know. It doesn't really matter. Doesn't matter what I really think, but what I think is we're going to carry it out and we're going to carry it out to the best of our ability because as staff that's what makes us professional. Great answer.
You have anything else? Otherwise, I'd like to give the other two a chance if they I yield the floor. You don't have any questions? I yield the floor. Bruce, do you have a question? Yes, I do. Uh, sir, I understand you're currently retired. I am. Okay. Um, what truly
motivates you to apply for this position for the city of Niswah? Thank you for that question. I think that's a a very good question. It makes a lot of sense to ask that. Um, it was always a part of my plan to retire when I did. Um,
uh, my significant other and I thought that that would make a lot of sense and it did and it does and retirement is great. So, for any of you who are thinking about it or have never retired, it's a wonderful thing. Yeah. 43 years I got. Yeah. Say that again. I got I got
43 years left. 30 34 years. Well, it's it's wonderful. And and um there still is time in the day to do some things. And uh prior long before I decided I was going to retire when I
did, I always knew that I was going to um want to do interim work because I like the the temporary nature of it and I like the part-time nature of it. So, uh, I get to do the things that I want
for, I'll say, uh, half the day or half the week, whatever the case might be. And then I can do more workrelated things the other half, you know, of the day or the week. So, um, that's my answer. I that's been part
of my plan and this fits nicely into it and, uh, I look forward to an opportunity to to do this. Yeah. I have another question if I may. Um, have you ever been in this type of position an interim city
manager elsewhere? This would be my first interim. Yeah. I have one other question for you. Have you ever applied for an interim city manager position elsewhere since you've been retired? Have not.
And uh, how did you get involved in this? Well, Mayor Carneahan sure knows how, but what what uh retired city managers do who have an interest in being interim city administrator, city managers, is um
we get our name on the list and the list is kept at the League of Minnesota Cities and through the Minnesota City Managers Association, I believe. And so, uh, my name is on the list and, um, it's been on the list for maybe a month, so
not very long because I just decided recently to begin this venture. You said your name's been on the list for approximately a month, right? And no one else has contacted you for any interim positions there. There have not
been other interim positions out there. No, I have no further questions. Mark, do you have anything? Did you say or no? Okay, Joe, do you have any of that? Well, I just maybe a little input or maybe um I spoke to you on the phone a
couple times, so kind of switching topics, so to speak. Um, one of one of my questions or or something that we spent some time talking about is what as we look at a city, you know, and uh, one that maybe um, needs some tweaking in
different areas, setup, structure, also to, you know, um, we brought up, you know, that the city has some land that they've purchased, want to develop it, you know, um, also, you know, working with, uh, planning zoning ordinances,
touched in on some tough. Uh when we had spoke, you kind of shared with some of your expertise in th those areas in helping a city to get set up successfully to accomplish a uh a job, a project like this, you know, related to
maybe like tiff districts or um different ways to fund stuff, different situations that you've seen that um you you shared some of your experiences with me. maybe you could share with everybody on kind of your experience to um maybe
be able to help guide the structure of the city so that we have um a better a better uh setup as we move forward with some of these things that we're currently up against. Yeah. Thank you. So, it's a development question, right? How do how do we deal with the
development? Well, uh in the in the metro area, we're required to have um what's called comprehensive plan. And I I don't know how familiar you are with comprehensive plans. Maybe some um you're not required here to have that. However, there's no reason why we can't have something like it. It's it's
basically a strategic plan, right? And those are documents that city should have in place. And it outlines um the reason the city has to have it is because uh the Metropolitan Council wants it for sewer purposes to plan where they're going to put bring sewer
to. um so they can do it in an orderly orderly and cost-effective fashion. Uh there are sub regions out around the the rest of the state that probably have the same reason to need uh to have a a plan
around development so they know what your sewer and water needs are going to be and how are we going to provide that sewer those sewer and water needs. Um, Minatrista is a really great example of that where we were taking down not we, but we had a a plan, comprehensive plan
that talked about areas that were in our development area and then others that weren't, but those areas that are in the development area, developers were very aware of. Um, and we would uh make that known through our plan.
that plan put together through using planning and zoning staff, input from the community, obviously the council, planning and zoning commission, uh all of those inputs to create the plan to begin with. So things are done in an orderly way and Minotarista
um where there were a lot of uh fields frankly a lot of corn fields those are much easier to develop. They're much easier to plan for. Uh typically what happens is the development pays its own way. Development pays for uh making sure that
the water infrastructure, the sewer infrastructure, the street and road infrastructure is all uh taken care of as part of that that development if it's a residential development in particular. Um, and when I was in the city of Minatrista, and this was back now in
the, you know, the early 2000s, I think we built built out about, and I say we, I mean it wasn't us, it was developers, but, you know, staff and everybody worked together. There were about 18 12-,800 units, residential units built
in in uh that community in a pretty short period of time. And we ended up having to plan appropriately for water towers, you know, um the street and road infrastructure, u uh water mane, how's the water man going to get there, you
know, and and so forth. So, we put all of that planning together. So, that's more what I would call just raw development. We also had that in the city of Anoka. They had about a 40 acre piece of property that had been what they called the nature preserve. this
beautiful, beautiful piece of property in the northern part of the city, but it was surrounded by a city Ramsey on the the west, city of Andover on the north and the east. Um, and then of course Anoka on the south and the community had struggled for a long time what to do
with that that property, which was the hardest decision. Once that decision was made, the development was was pretty straightforward, but it was along a river. It was um part of it was being farmed as a as a field. The city uh uh had a lease with a farmer who who
planted corn or whatever it might have been. The rest or or a big portion of it was wooded and uh what ultimately came after a lot of hand ringing and hard conversations was um a happy medium of let's develop half of it
and we'll preserve the other half. Right? So, if you drive uh on Round Lake Boulevard right now, well, it used to be Round Lake Boulevard, I don't know what it is, but there's a just a beautiful uh housing development um that added a lot of great tax base to the city. A lot of
new families were able to move in for the school district and um and then the other half was preserved as as a park and it's just really really a gorgeous area and along um the Rum River. So, and then I would just say one more thing uh
very quickly is those again are more raw land type developments that tend to be easier. Redevelopment is is a lot more difficult in my view because you've got a lot of times buildings that have been there for 30, 40, 50, 80 years. Sometimes they're buildings that um have
generated waste that uh have adversely impacted the soil. you know, maybe it's a gas station, maybe it's a manufacturing facility, maybe it's a a laundromat where chemicals did seep into the soil. And so, you got to figure out how to pay for removing the structures
uh and then mediating or or mitigating the soil so they're clean enough once you prepare that. And that's when creating tiff districts can really be helpful um to help pay for that to prepare that property to attract
development to to that. I understand the city, this city just has purchased or recently purchased a piece of property is looking for development. I don't know a lot about that piece property. I don't know if it if it's a raw piece of land or if it needs clean up, but it's a raw piece of land. Okay. So, I don't know if that answered your question. That was
way more you bargain for. Yeah, sure. Um do you just again I'm trying to be sensitive of time um and whatnot and we do have another candidate to interview tonight as well. Do you have any closing thoughts? Um, any anything last from anyone before we let Tim give closing
thoughts so we can keep on pace here? Uh, I would just make a comment more than anything regardless of who gets selected here or how it goes down. I think you're doing the right thing by looking really pulling back and looking big picture at your structure. Once you figure that out, I think things will fall into place. Um, and and that
structure can be in place for for many many years. And maybe you already have the right structure. I don't know. Maybe it gets changed. Maybe you go back to what you had. I have no idea. that ultimately will be your decision, but I applaud you for pulling back and and taking an objective look at that. I appreciate Council Member London's
questions around that topic and I understand where you're coming from. Um, but I think there's a lot of If you take a really long view, I think what you're doing makes a ton of sense. So, well, thank you, Tim. We appreciate you
coming up and taking the time to meet with council tonight. Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to We can Oh, okay. I think I think I saw Um I think he's coming.
Okay, we'll take a one minute little allow everyone to go to the restroom Well, um, two of the council members just ran to take a quick I saw that, right? But as soon as they come back in, we'll have you come up here. Are they far enough along with the roof
now it doesn't leak when it rains? I just think well I'd say that's progress. Check and see what's going on. idea what happened. Okay, Keith, do you want to come up and take a seat? I sure will. Thank you for joining us. Oh my gosh,
thanks for having me. Yeah. So Keith is our um second candidate when we were going through uh Joe and I as personnel liaison and doing through the first round that we uh felt very positive about bringing to this final round to interview with council. Um so as I said
on the first one, Joe and I have already had multiple conversations with Keith. So we'll let the three of you go first. But Keith, if you want to maybe start by introducing yourself, giving some background, and then we'll we'll go through with interview questions from council. Sounds fantastic. So, if I talk a little loud tonight, I got over a cold
and for some reason my left ear is just doesn't want to let the fluid out. So, if I ask to repeat yourself, uh please don't be offended. Um I'll keep it relatively brief so that uh counselors can get to to know me and ask a lot of questions. I'll run down my kind of my
bio. So, I did about 35 years in law enforcement. Uh my last stint was in the city of Oatana, Minnesota, where I was a police chief for about 12 years. Uh I did retire in 2022. Uh shortly thereafter, I got some calls from cities around the state of Minnesota wanting me
to do uh private and confidential investigations. They're mainly personnel matters. Uh some people refer to them as conflict cases. Uh that can be anything from they're too busy, um they're too uh too big, too complicated. Uh could be just simply you have an employee that
says I'm not getting a fair shake. Uh can we bring somebody in from the outside? So, uh, that's what I've been doing, traveling all over the state of Minnesota, everywhere from organizations that have 1500 to 2,000 employees all the way down to an organization that might have 10 employees. So, it kind of
runs the gamut. Um, I have been an interim city manager for the city of Wasika, Minnesota. My boss, Chris Bussy, left and took on another job and I filled in there. Uh, that was fantastic. Uh best part about it was uh the entire council wanted me to be the interim city
manager. So uh it's always a nice kind of step to go forward with um elected uh positions. I did serve as a chairman of the board for the uh uh public school system. So from an elected body governance uh understanding um I have a
small piece of it uh and I really enjoy that. Um I was also an investigator for years. uh did everything major crime related everything from homicide on down. Uh also was a adjunct instructor at the University of uh St. Thomas. I
taught graduate students uh intellectual leadership and ethics. I did some other teaching around Century College, etc. As far as formal education, I do have a master's of uh arts from uh University of St. Thomas. I went to Cardinal Stretch where I got my uh business
degree and then I started off with a two-year degree at Alexandria Technical College in law enforcement. Um not just public sector, my wife and I ran a cattle ranch for years. Got all kinds of stories for you on that one. But uh getting our fingers dirty and uh having
a good time carrying on kind of the family farm stuff. Uh my family owns a trucking company. So soon as I get my CDL, pops want to put me in a truck. Well, uh, matter of fact, just, uh, within the last year and a half, I even had to jump back in a little bit to help
out a little bit. So, um, kind of have a lot of experiences from 12 years old all the way up to, uh, this young spry age that I am today. Um, other than that, um, I enjoy working in public service. I think it's extremely rewarding. I know
sometimes we look around the country and we think it's not. Um, you know what? We are here for the people. And I always liken it to a 401k. You know, nobody likes to dump a bunch of money into a bucket and then when they go to cash in on it, they got nothing there. They got
no reward. So, that's kind of how I've approached life in government that people pay us their taxes all the time. No, we can't do every individual thing for uh every individual citizen, but at the end of the day, they need to feel like their investment pays off. So,
that's kind of how I've always approached uh governance. And with that, I will be happy to take any questions. Do you want to start this time? You want Jesse to start again? You're off, Jesse. Thank you for coming in. Appreciate
that. Um, did you say you have a masters? I do. And And where is that from? University of St. Thomas. St. Thomas. I went to St. Thomas for a year as well. Oh, wow. One year. Go Tommies. Tommy,
how long ago? Uh, 2004 I graduated. A similar question I asked a previous candidate that was in here was um in regards to their experience at previous cities when they're taking over as the city administrator or the city manager um and
walking into existing cultures and trying to be able to work with those existing cultures. Um sounds like you've had that experience one time with the city of Wasika. Y right. um give us a little rundown as to how your experience was with that and being able to work
with the city staff at Wasika and being able to work through and get yourself implemented as the quarterback of that team so to speak. Well, uh one of the benefits was obviously I was already there at the city of Wasika, so I've established a lot of relationships with
a lot of the department head level. Um as far as a culture, I'm very participatory in nature. Um, I think it's really important to have buyin from all staff and ownership. Um, you know, you do kind of have to understand, you know, the custom of the
organization. Uh, and that's usually, um, when you have a really good strong city council. Uh, that's usually set by the city council through their strategic plan. What their vision is, what their mission is, what their goals are, what their objectives are, and they're usually derived from the community. um
you know at the local level you don't see city council members coming in and you know going against their ward and just coming up with ideas that their community members don't want to pay for support um and that they actually encourage their representative to do. So uh I think it's um it's really important
that that team that you're building within the city understands that that's where their objectives and goals are derived from. And then you have to have a a team that wants to approach that with success in mind to meet those goals, meet those objectives, and meet
them as a team. And I'll give a a simple example. In law enforcement, it's always pretty easy to go into budget meetings. It's really easy to get things that you want, right? Um because who doesn't want public safety? And I don't just mean that flippantly. I mean, people want
their community to be safe. But you know what? Sometimes when the parks department or the streets department we only have money is a finite amount of money. So sometimes you have to forego something on your capital improvement or on a program or service that you want to
do in lie of something else that might be at this particular moment better for the community to go forward. And I think that when you have entire director level department heads looking at it from that approach, I think it really helps build a cohesive management team um that's
really supportive of what that uh goals and objectives are that the council sets. Appreciate that. Um kind of a followup on that. So how long was your role as interim city manager city of Wasika? Only three
months. Three months. Yep. Okay. And if I could just expound a little bit about on that, that's what it was supposed to be from the beginning. I will I don't want to be braggadocious, but at the end I I mean they did want me to stay on full-time. However, I really enjoyed law
enforcement. So, um that was never kind of the set of parameters that were set to begin with. It was let's keep this um city running well. And then I also was very instrumental in the hiring process of the next uh city manager, Miss
Crystal apprentice that uh uh came in and filled in. So Okay. So the interim position that we have here at the moment, are you interested in seeing the interimm title if we were to select you? Would you have interest
in seeing the interim position become full-time and permanent or are you looking to maintain the interim and fill the role while we say we have a role here until Well, I I I think it's always important to never say no. That's a good answer.
Um I think that what's being uh presented and and to me as a candidate is the expectation that I come in and the interim role. Um I look at the organization as a whole. Um, and I
report back to the uh council on even a consultant base of what's working really well, where there's areas of improvement. Um, where there's barriers. Um, you know, I know that you have, uh, you know, labor contract negotiations
going on right now. Um, so from that perspective to look at the organization to make sure that when the interim passes it on, the organization is in a much better place than it was before. Um, now if that would turn into
something where uh we have a super good relationship and the council would say, "Hey, you know, if do you want to stay on longer?" Like I said, I I would never close the door uh on that, especially if I'm having a really good time, then I would definitely consider it. Well, this is uh this is leisure country, or at
least it's proclaimed to be. Is uh today your first time in this? My first time in this? Uh no, my first time in this one was in 1985 and uh that's when I met my current wife and they had a place on Upper Cullen. Uh, so no, I've been coming up to Nisa
for a long time. I love I love I love the I love the city. I love the area. I love the I love the lifestyle. Um, we resonate pretty well with the with the culture and customs um in the area. So, it's not
just leisure to us. Um, you know, we live here and work out of this area. It feels like home. Oh, absolutely it does. Yeah. That's That's why we're here. I don't have any more at this moment. Okay. Um Bruce, I do. Sir, um I
understand you're currently retired. Um what truly motivates you to apply for this interim position as a city manager with the city of Niswah? I really like the opportunities or opportunities that give me um the
opportunity to come in and look at something that um is run really well. Um but yet needs a new fresh look at it. So I'll use the business that I do. Um
you know, you'd say, "Well, why do you love personnel issues? You come in and you do conflict cases for for individuals." Well, a the city needs help and I worked in municipal government for 35 years. I do believe I can make a difference. I can make the
organization better than it was before. Uh I can provide assistance uh valuable service based on 35 years of professional uh service in the area. And I would apply that to the city of of Nissa. Why? Because I think I come in and make a
difference. I can work with the council. I've worked with councils. I've worked with school boards. Um, I can definitely keep the ship going in the direction that you currently have it in. I'd like to think I can make it go in even a better direction. Uh, I like working
with staff. Um, staff is the lifeblood of operations. They get things done and they know how to get things done and with the light right leadership and guidance, uh, I think as a team we can all be better. And when I say that, I don't think it's always just me making them better. I think the staff can also
make me better. in a city in uh administrator role, I think the council and the community can make the city administrator a better person and a better operator. So, any chance I get a chance to come in and make something better, learn and grow in a positive way, um it just keeps me really
motivated, sir. So, that's where I get my motivation from. Another question. Uh you had an interim position with the city of Wasika. Yes. Three months. Yep. And uh since then or other than that,
have you had any other interim positions such as a city manager? Um any of that stuff any other cities? No, sir. Have you applied or been interviewed for those similar positions at other cities?
No, sir. Thank you. I have no further questions. Mark, do you have nothing? You're quiet tonight, Mark. Um, as I had mentioned, Joe and I have already talked to you multiple times. Joe, I don't know if you have anything that you want to readress
or bring back up here before we move forward with additional discussions. No, I mean, uh, maybe just one if you want to touch on other stuff, you know, um, your experience with these other talents. she briefly mentioned on it,
you know, working together um you know, um this area of the city um forego something to help this other area out. You know, we talked about that, you know, we talked about some of the current challenges that we have in the city in regards to, you know,
infrastructure. Um you know, some of the projects that we're currently working on as a city and staff and stuff. Maybe can you share an experience or two where you've seen um um your skills help another city or something where you've
been involved in with doing a project like that back and forth, you know, just kind of give everybody a an idea on, you know, a project or something you've been involved with. Um well, I'll just use the most recent project before I left. And you wouldn't
think that this is something that a police chief would do, but um I've also run a construction company in my life. So, uh we're remodeling uh city hall putting on a multi-million dollar um addition. Um so I worked with uh
planning and zoning. I worked with the park and recck director, the council as an entire body um city administrator and the assistant city administrator. Um we sat on panels for years actually to come to this comprehensive review of what we
wanted to have as a project um and what we wanted that outlook that outcome to be. Uh and it was complicated because we're on the national historic register. Um, but I think it's just an example of, you know, you'd think that you'd have
building and grounds working on that committee as opposed to a as a police chief. And I think it's a testament to uh the value that they had in me as a uh senior director. Uh, I also remodeled
the uh construction project um in the police department. I always find this a really interesting project. I came in there that my predecessor wanted to build a $15 million uh new facility. Uh we took uh police
forfeite funds. We used our building crew. We had had a construction building crew right on site and we remodeled the entire police department for about a quarter of a million dollars. Most of it came from non-t taxpayer dollars. So, as far as projects go, I think
that's um two pretty good projects. One that shows fiduciary responsibility and then one where they're reaching out in a project that you typically wouldn't be part of. Um, as far as projects in general, when I was chairman of the school board, we were in statutory
operating debt levels. We were running a referendum. Um, I mean that's a really big communitywide project that you're really trying to, you know, operate, get community buy in, teachers buy in, uh, at that level. As far as,
um, projects, I mean, I was president of Rotary, as president of Minnesota State Juvenile Officers Association, president of Donus Scholarship Committee. Um, within nonprofits, you run a lot of projects. um a to create money but also
to give back to the communities. Um so I've always kind of felt that uh whether it's CIP or projects um I've always kind of had a an interest in it um and I've been pretty successful in it
and it's a wide range of uh projects. It's not just a CIP for a street project for road construction, which is also very important, but um typically communities are made up of a lot of partnerships and you're going to be running a lot of different interactions
and having a lot of different relationships if you want to be successful. I hope that answered your question. Very good. Does anyone else have any more? Go ahead, Bruce. Sir, one other quick question. that going back to
Wasika there you were there for 3 months and then that ended and again why did uh didn't it last longer than the 3 months? Uh cuz I didn't want it to. Um I was asked to fill in as an interim uh city manager which I graciously accepted. I
was also their d uh uh uh police chief and director of public safety in charge of emergency management. Uh, it was supposed to be a three-month term and in that three-month term, I was continue operations and in addition do a city manager search with the city council and
find essentially my replacement. Um, as I mentioned before, they did offer me the job to continue permanently. Um, but it wasn't my chosen profession. My chosen profession at the time was to finish out my career uh in law enforcement as a police chief, which from there I ended up going to the city
of Otana, finishing that up. I was there for about 12 years. That's where I retired in 2022. So, as I understand it, you could have stayed longer if you wanted to, but you chose not to because you wanted to go back to your police job. That's correct, sir. Yes, absolutely. They did uh uh offer me the
job. They really wanted me to stay. A matter of fact, I was just at a retirement party for the police chief that retired there and uh Mark Christensen, a city council member, said, "Hey, you remember when we wanted you to stay here?" I said, "Absolutely, sir." And I I really it it's really a
nice gesture. It just wasn't my chosen profession. And for a lot of reasons, which you all understand, there's a peer a component. There's a job chosen profession. There's a happiness in your workplace. Uh I had all that. I mean, I really liked doing what I was doing and
I wanted to finish out my career, sir. Thank you. I have no further questions. Last call. Keith, do you have any closing remarks that you'd like to make for council? All I just want to say is just thank you for having me in here tonight. Um, my goal
is to make an organization better. And I do think better together is done through partnerships. And whether that's the community, the city council, that's your health care system, your nonprofits, your school district, your city staff, I think you need a cohesive community that
works together in unison uh to make it a really happy place to live, enjoy recreation and work. Um I'm pleased to be here and if I can be here for a short term and make things a little bit better for you, um I would do that. Like I said, my job is to make your your life's
a little bit easier and the staff's jobs a little bit easier. So, I appreciate you having me here. Thank you for taking the time. We really appreciate it. You're welcome. Um, I want to Is Brandon our attorney on the call? Yes.
Good night. You You too. Thank you so much, Mayor. Can you hear me? Oh, yeah. We can hear you. We just can't see you, but that's okay. Oh, now we can see you. Um, I just wanted to pause real quick now that we've done the two interviews. So, we should go to open discussion about the candidates, but I want to make sure
that we're not again sharing any information we shouldn't be. So, I just thought I should do a quick pause and a gut check with you first. Okay. Yeah, just opine on that note. I'm sorry, mayor. What exactly do you want from me? Oh, I just wanted to make sure
before we get into discussion about the candidates that we're not unintentionally or inadvertently um you know, sharing or talking about things that we shouldn't be. So I that's the gut check I wanted to do with you before we go to open discussion as council. Yeah. So full circle I mean
what is fair game is their educational background and their experience. So mayor I again I'm tuned in. You all got to talk about what you need to talk about to determine who's the best candidate. So I think mayor you sort of do treat it like you would even in the
private sector discussions you would have and if I've got concerns or issues I'll jump in. So, I don't know. Mayor, is that clear enough? I mean, I think you all got to have some meaningful discussion here. It is. Is that good for everybody? Okay, perfect. Thanks,
Brandon. All right. Well, we I guess can start discussion. I'll just kick it off like I said. Um Joe and I for the last council meeting, we went out and worked with the League of Minnesota Cities, with our labor attorney to source different candidates. And these are the
two individuals, Tim and Keith, through actually probably a couple first round interviews with both Joe and I, that we both felt very encouraged and optimistic by from not only a a background perspective, but also an interview perspective. Um, which is how they
landed here tonight. So again, Joe and I have probably talked to them a bit more than you two have, but definitely want to open it up to discussion as to feedback, thoughts, um, in terms of candidacy viability. Um, do you want to
chime in before we do like a first round robin? Um, yeah. I mean, uh, like Jennifer said, uh, I've talked to both of them, um, at different times and stuff. Uh, Jennifer
and I both talked to them together also, too. Um, yeah, both of them have, um, um, of a lot of experience in the public sector. Um both of them have
um I'll say maybe areas of expertise as as uh we heard here you know um what they've both been in um you know as we have been learning um you know
kind of in a fast um um education on ourselves you know and kind of back to your question, Bruce, too. You know, they both brought up something here, you know, too that I want to talk about is, you know, our comprehensive plan in the city of Nisa,
right? Needs to be updated, right? And Mark, you can speak to this a little bit too, you know, about that. and just looking at it and even um this week for instance I had conversation with staff about the comprehensive plan and and um
you know um it's no secret that that really has not been the guiding factor of the city for a very long time. Even uh our previous mayor even had said, you know, he was part of that process. Um,
and when that was voted in, it was kind of voted in as in some aspects a lame duck right from the beginning, you know, and as and as we've listened to both of these staff or not, excuse me, both of the the
people that we're interviewing tonight and looking at a lot of the a lot of the situations that we currently have going on in the city and stuff. um and kind of looking um deep into what we need to do to make
sure that this is structured, you know, um that's kind of the lens that I've been using, you know, when we've been talking to both of these candidates because, you know, um neither one of them, I believe, you know, they're both intern
um um we as the city um we need help, you know, on guiding it forward. What do we do? How is it structured? How is it set up? You know, like they both said, how can we make this better for the city of
NSA, for the citizens, for the community? You know, what can we do? And so, you know, that's kind of the viewpoint that I've been looking at, you know, when I've been talking to all them is um we have just all these different points of um of discussion in the town,
points of um hey, this needs to be cleaned up, this needs to be looked at, you know, if if uh comprehensive plan is what we should be looking at all the time. When was the last time we looked at it? you know, in 2019, what last time
it was looked at was 2019. We were going to bring that up, but it right. So, I I just bring that up in going, okay, here you go. We have two um two individuals that both brought that up in their in their talk tonight and kind of going, "Hey, we need somebody that truly
understands the importance as we move forward. you know, how how to kind of get um the city back on track and also compliant and working working well
together and um and uh kind of going forward. So that so that's what I'd say, you know, um as far as you know, the candidates, like I say, um we interviewed um other candidates, too. they both stuck out to
Jennifer and I, you know, right away is, hey, both of both of these individuals we want to bring in, have everyone else have a say, too. Um, you know, uh, yeah. So, I I guess I'm interested in hearing everyone else's opinion on them. You
know, I just wanted to state one thing, too. Um, as Joe mentioned, like the lens when we were going through that first round of interviews, it was you talked about like and they talked about this when I look at Tim and Keith and how they interviewed here tonight, right?
Tim has extensive experience with, you know, metro uh, suburbs, um, large and small, which is good in a sense because he's got strategy. He's got pillars of city governance, city structure, project management, organizational management.
You know, Keith comes from a bit of a different background, but he also brings that structure and strategy. That's what I felt I heard from him in subsequent interviews as well as tonight. And he really has a forte in uh personnel management, workplace culture, making
sure that we have people in the right roles, right responsibilities, are we set up the right way to be most effective at the city of Nisa. And one thing I'll just say, and this may sound really little, but this stood out to me like in the phone interview with Tim is
he said, you know, because they're both looking at um doing not necessarily being five days a week, but a partial uh day a week, but he had said, you know, well, the day before your council meetings are Tuesday, the day before it would be my job as interim city administrator to get aligned with all
the council to make sure that they're clear on the packet if there's any questions, right? so that everybody goes into the council meeting set up for success and then you have the council meeting on Tuesday and then the day after it's a debrief with staff. Here's everything that came from the council meeting. Here are the motions, the
votes. Here's the conversation and making sure there's that clear direction and everyone's marching on the you know in the same way and I think Tim did say that in his um interview is that there is a clear hierarchy. It's the residents first. It's council. um as our
ordinances are set up, it's administrator and staff and we all need to be working as one team whether folks do or don't disagree with what we may vote on up here. Um so that was just kind of my high level from previous interviews and tonight. Um Jesse, do you
want to you want to start Mark? Yeah, I just want to bring up the open-end thing again. So I mean interim I mean what do we I'm just going to bring that up again. Is it open-ended? because it might we might say, "Okay, we only need them for X because we know each one of them they're
just going to be about what 20 hours a week." Brandon, do you want to I don't know what we're allowed to say because of those contracts. Um how to answer that. Yeah, this is fair. I I think it's fair game to talk about because you're shifting from not only candidate but for the duration of interm. So, it's fair
game and I'll just give bring up the technical note is in the draft agreements we provided to you that the candidates reviewed, we do put in 6 months, but that's only because then the city and the employee don't have to contribute to the state public employee
retirement association. However, that's just a legal and financial issue. If both the uh individual you employ and the city council want to extend it, that'll be easy to extend it. So full circle, you're not in a legal box on how long you have the person. We just said,
well, it's going to be top 6 months, but that's just for P purposes. You know, you should have discussions as you get closer to that 6 months if you want to extend it. Okay. And Mark, we those contracts that were sent to all the council under a privileged memo um that is in that and
both of these candidates did agree to those contracts that were sent to everybody. So those are already agreed upon um you know for tonight. And one of the things that we're looking at with the timeline on this, and maybe Brandon can speak to this too a little bit, um there is going to need to be some
restructuring done of the policies, the rules, the laws, the or you know what what governs us, right? And there's a lot of timelines with that, you know, too, you know, um some of the rules that we're going to need to change. They're going to have to go through a process,
you know, um, put out there, published a set period of time to review, come back, vote on them, amend them, all that stuff. And to do to even get that step, you know, some of those can be 30, 60
days, right? You know, even. And so as we start to work through this to um um tweak, redefine whatever word we want to use um in that is is going to have a
time frame to it. But like I brought up too, you know, as as we do it um um tonight, hiring um this person is really going to be step one also for us as a council. Back
to your point, Bruce, um it's going to require us to get together and one of the things when we're interviewing both of them, they both set up, well, what is the uh what is the direction? The council all wants to go what what is the
plan? You know, you're um they use the term for it. Forgive me, I'm I'm drawing a blank right now, but they said the council's leading this town when you guys are meeting together as a council to put out your objectives for a year. we want to sit down, we want to hear all that. And and so we had brought up, you
know, that we had the workshop, you know, with all the staff, that we had the town hall with the council, but now to actually formulate that, you know, and blend the two together to do that. Um, that would be kind of the next step for us. And they're kind of like, hey,
one of our first things is they want to meet with all this. What is the direction that the council wants to go? So tonight in um picking one of these candidates, it's really still step number one and us as a council are going to have to be very involved with all
this process as we go forward. Um just because it is going to be a new and different way also for us as a council um with helping them guide on this is what we're looking for from us
that maybe has not existed um in the same manner or structure here in Nisa before. Just kind of give some reference on that. Um, so but I don't know, Jesse, you have thoughts or Sorry. Did you have
anything? Oh, no. I' I' I've just been, you know, thinking of everything that has to be done. Six months. I mean, well, it's not it's not necessarily a hard stop at six months, right? But that's kind of where we're at today. And
um my assumption is the end goal is to figure out do we need to continue with the city administrator or not? No, nobody knows. That's so far down the road right now. Way down the road. Yeah. That that we don't even know, you know.
And then also too, um, you know, what what is our goal? What is the goal of the five people up here? And I think that's where going back to it where I don't want to speak for you, but I felt very encouraged by
both of these candidates that they both are well adept and have a breadth of experience that can help us as a council, right? Get to those goals, get to that strategy to be able to lead and figure out the best path forward so we can be the most optimal with our
residents, business owners, and whatnot. But did you have any feedback either way on either of the candidates because you didn't really touch on that more just kind of like the the timing of it? Well, I think with with with Timmy has more of the background with like you
said with large small towns um and working with with organization, you know. So, just my thought is I I'm thinking he might have more knowledge into helping
us than Keith, but I might be wrong. It's just how I'm looking at it. Bruce, do you have any thoughts, commentary? Undecided. Okay, good point. We can come
back to you, Jesse. Um, what is the working location going to be for this interim city administrator? So, both either one of them would be relocating here. Both would I can say this, right, Brandon, or no? Here. Yeah. Can I disclose or? Yeah.
Yeah. So, that' be three days a week in the office per the agreement you saw. Yep. Both would work three-fifths time. They'd work out of city hall three out of the five business days, but we only worked four and a half, right? Anyway, because Friday is a half day. Um, so both would physically be here
three-fifths time. Um, and three-fifths time technically like 24 hours out of a 40-hour work week, Brandon, more or less. Yeah. This is why we've kept them salaried. So, you all can work with them. Is it really eight hour days? I I don't know. You You all
got to work that out. They're sell. It's just if they work I mean side note I want to shift a little bit to economics. If you want to have them work more than three physical days in the office in a week then they'll just get paid 90 an hour. But for those three days we left an intentional. It's not by the hour.
They just get their their set salary regardless of number of the hours they work for those three specific calendar days. All right. That clear or not clear? Yeah, it's clear. Okay. Um, well, okay. So, for interim consisting as a
temporary part-time non full-time employee status. Well, if they're working three-fifths, that's is that that technically classifies them as a full-time employee. Doesn't matter. Yeah. Did you hear that, Brandon? Yeah. Can I jump team legal?
So, we always go how you classify them doesn't matter. And here's why I'm saying that. As we drafted the agreement, we just say all you're getting are salary, travel expenses, and a phone. And even if you're deemed full-time, they still have that one clause. Side note, if you're just focused on economics, where they get
zero, no other benefits. Yeah. Okay. Um maybe perspective from YouTube would be good on this one. uh if we're going down the path of an interim and I understand based on you know Joe's comment about it's down the
road but I look at a three five tenure plan in a lot of aspects of my life. So when it comes to this position we just had a full-time city administrator we appointed an interim for the time being for us to get our ducks in a row. Now, we've done that with these interviews
here, but is there prospects of us wanting to go and fill a full-time city administrator position? And if we're doing so, does this interim route with these two individuals that are effectively retired, is that the route
that we all want to go, is that the approach for the interim, hence interim CA, but are we trying to set an expectation if interim? Otherwise, what are we doing if we're not planning for a full-time city
administrator? But I think that's part of this process, right? And and it's not to say we're not planning for a full-time city administrator. That's the point of this interim is we need someone I think this is my opinion with the expertise in governance to set us up for success to come in and analyze the
organization right the projects the programs how we're doing business uh how we're operating as a council um you know staff structure staff responsibilities like to really someone that's got that ability to come in and spend time here
right the six months or whatever it is maybe it's longer maybe it's nine and to say Hey, operate as is, right? I mean, we don't know. We don't we don't know what that is, but I think what's become very apparent to me is we do need someone
with a breadth and depth of experience in this role. We've been trying to band-aid things as a city and I think it's put strain um across resources with staff and perhaps maybe even connectivity, communication with council. And I think it would be in our
best interest to to resolve that because that's how we're going to set ourselves up for success. I think my point on the matter is is simply let's re rewind a month and a half, two months ago prior to Jenny Max putting in her notice. We
were on that trajectory of a full-time city administrator quarterbacking everything that we have going on within the city, the staff itself, and as well as getting direction from us. Um, I think it would be wise for us to be very cognizant of what we're doing now being
a step forward future. So if there is a if this is to perceived be perceived as a a band-aid solution for us to recalibrate some things within the city to individual or collective liking up
here as a council. I do see value in us understanding what what is that next step and understanding that next step before we jump into having a interim city administrator for the duration of six months that's been proposed. Uh we
do have a lot going on within the city. I think I would probably for sure say you too and I'm sure you guys as well. I mean we're we're picking up as much as we can in the interim working with the staff to keep these various projects moving forward and there's been a lot of
engagement and involvement and this city in Niswah has very unique situation at hand with a handful of projects in particular but of course with the demands that we already have. So, if there's any intent of us
not making the city administrator position a full-time permanent position long term, I think we should discuss that. Discuss that now. I see exactly the way Jesse's coming from. I agree with him 100%. And u I see this interim position
as a uh band-aid. And uh I think we need to cut to the chase and make up our mind exactly what we're going to do. And I I uh this interim thing right now I um I guess I don't agree with it. That's
fine. And I think we need to make a decision what direction we're going and what we're going to do. Let me ask this to to the broader group. Sorry for interrupting. Um, has there been discussions with say Tim for example of ever being full-time
versus just the interim discussion? No, we have because that's not how the direction came to us from the last special counsel meeting. So I but I think this is where we need to pause and and and understand and maybe Brandon will have to jump in here too. Um
um I I agree with with everything that everybody's being said, but um where we're at is we're not here to make one big decision. We're here to start making hundreds of small decisions
to get to the big decision. So tonight is to make a small decision. I will I will go back to our last our last council meeting when staff asked to just
say, "Hey, um we would like to be able to have authorization to spend more money um for this roof and stuff right now. Um you know, for Tom that hey, if there's a change order over x amount of dollars authorization, we still have all
the legal steps in place." And at that night I we don't have the ability to do that right now. So we need to come in here first and evaluate the way the city's working and
set and set up right now because it doesn't the way that it currently is set up. It doesn't allow in many cases for our staff and our department heads to be as successful as they can be in their
jobs and in their roles. Point blank. And we need somebody to look at that with experience to help evaluate it to help um adjust some of that that has that experience, has that knowledge, has
worked in another place where you've heard both heard them say this works better. Um we've we talked a little bit more in the weeds with them on it and they're like, "Yeah, we we would probably agree to change this right away. we haven't been, you know, certain
situations like what I'm saying with the spending thing um to do that. And so that's what that's that's really the goal with this is to look at what we are doing now to have a city administrator. Yeah. The title city administrator. What
we've also learned is that role, those duties, those responsibilities aren't defined by just one by one organizational chart, one structure. So if it's a city administrator, city manager, how that works. You know,
Brandon has shared many different structures within the city that a city could be set up. Um, I don't think Jennifer or I are in a disagreement that, you know, somebody is going to need to be in charge and lead, but what
is the best way to do it? What is that title? What is that role going to be? We are at a point in time looking at the way that we are currently set up and functioning and running and we're like,
"Hey, before we can explore that, we need to um have somebody come in here and come back to us fairly often and say, this would be my recommendation for you guys as a city to make this run smoother. We're not in the dayto-day
operations with any of the staff. We need somebody in that. We need somebody that listen to staff and say, "Staff, what do you need to be more successful at your job?" We need somebody in there to look to listen that has other
experiences. maybe say, "Hey, we understand what you are and here's an here's a new way to do this, a correct way to do this, a different way to do this to help them be all successful right now to help the city be successful and then come back to us as a council to
help us be successful also both ways. And so we aren't in the position today to go, let's just skip an intern person. Let's hire somebody because
um I fully believe we are we would not hire somebody with the same roles, the same job descriptions, the same responsibilities, and the same authority that Jenny had. We we we we have actually been advised by our legal
council that that would not be in the best interest of the town, the community, the citizens, and we wouldn't be doing our job if we just did that. Once again, this is an opportunity for us to say we can do better just like these candidates. Us as a council, I
feel that we can do better. And by doing better, it's taken what seems like a big step, but it's actually the first small step in a series of big steps to then make that decision a few months down the road. Hey, this is what we want. We want a city administrator. We want a city
clerk. We want a city manager. We want a X. We don't know that. Let's get input from them. let's get or from one of these candidates also getting input from our staff you know we need we we need them
to talk to staff interview staff what is the best for the staff what's the best that is that will be their role to decipher that and then get back to us and two and so also sitting here tonight and just saying let's make a decision to move ahead I I don't I don't think
that's the right move I understand that we don't want to prolong stuff, but I want to do what's right for the town, what's right for the staff to hear them out and have somebody that's, you know, they both said, you know, they don't have a horse in the race. They just want
to come in and do what's best for our town. So, that's that's why we're doing this. That that's where we're at. We we do need to correct it. We already know changing a bunch of these rules will instantly make stuff better for everybody on this side of the table and
on out there too for staff. So that that that's really where we're at. So I don't know if that helps out. It does, Joe. Thank you. Um and you know staff is very important. Right. Okay. These are our worker bees. Okay. Right. And they do
one heck of a nice job. Okay. And I've lived in this law for a long time and I've seen what these current staffers do. I've seen what former staffers do. And I don't see anything that's broke, you know. And now here tonight, we're
going to try to fix something that I don't see as broke. Okay? And I think that our staffers are very important. I believe in them. I trust them. And um I think that they should have some input into this and a big part of it. Okay,
they're the ones that are here 40 hours a week and plus. I've seen these staffers when they've been sick on their days off, they come to work on Monday and Tuesday night they're here for a city council meeting after they've been sick for several days and they give it their all. Okay, this is not not just my
opinion. It's the opinion of the public. Okay. The people that elected me, you, Mark, and Jesse, okay, and that's who we represent, and that's who we support in their best interest. And I I don't feel comfortable
tonight with what's happened so far. And um I just think we need to look into this a little bit longer and more. We're seeing the same. John, yeah, I'd like to say something, too. Yeah. I don't think Let me let me let me do this a little bit. Wait, I just want to say one thing, Mark. I I do work out of I I spend an
extensive amount of time doing city work, right? I'm here in the office, you know, a couple days, a couple hours here and there, right? And I see a huge opportunity we have as a city. We have an opportunity to level up here and get our city on the right trajectory for all
of the big things coming down for us, right? We're on a regular council meeting. We've got the land purchase to talk about. We've got the parks master plan. I mean, there's all these different conversations. You can't fly a plane without a pilot, right? Or a part-time pilot. You need to have someone there based on our city
ordinances to help shepherd, govern, lead, and help get the right structure. And that's the whole reason we went down this path because these are two independent individuals. They don't have a stake in the game, right? They're just here to try to help the city succeed, to
help the council succeed. Um, I hear your lens about staff input, but we were elected as well. So, it's our input also to share our perspectives and we have had staff input when different things happen with Jenny um stepping away and
taking a new position. There was an all staff meeting with every department head and we let them very openly and honestly share their candid feedback and that was shared out with all of council. So, we're not we're not dismissing anyone. We're not discounting anyone's abilities or capabilities or their commitment to
the city. What we're simply saying is in a structure like this where we are responsible for millions of dollars of of people's money, right, that they earned and have to pay to the city uh to run operations. I think we have an accountability to the folks to make sure
that we have the right operation, organization, and structure in place. And that's not to say a city administrator isn't a permanent thing, but I personally strongly feel this interim model that's set up right now, it's not serving the city well. And just
because things have run a certain way for so many years, doesn't mean that was always the best path and doesn't mean, you know, and that is not dismissing anybody that works at Niswah or any of their capabilities. It just means that if we have an opportunity where we can
go to a place to help our city take it to the next level, why would we completely discount that and dismiss that? Because I think there have been disruptions since Jenny resigned. And I think a lot of them for me being here more have been very apparent and I think
there's an opportunity to resolve some of that and get us on a healthier forward path as a council and staff. So, an organizational assessment to see whether we're going what what path we're going to go down, right? Admin, manager,
clerk. Yeah. Right. I I mean, I'll just speak. I think, you know, I think the the consensus from I'll say the majority of the staff was maybe not to have another city administrator was was the takeaway from the department head meeting. Okay, great.
Um, we need to hear that, but we can't we still have to we still have to follow the rules that are set in place and the policies and the procedures that the city is currently in. We can't instantly snap our fingers and make that go away tonight by us voting. There's a there's
a strict process that that Brandon knows and has to help lead the city through if that's what we're going to do and change. If that's what we're going to do and change, great. You know, we we we need and we have to have the input, you know,
and Bruce were saying the same thing. We have to have that input from the staff, but it has to go to one person. It has to come back to us. And then if that's the route that we're going to go, then we as the council, we have to start to
vote and make the decisions and do the proper process to make that change to happen. But we don't know. We don't know all this information. We don't know that. We can't make that decision tonight. And so I guess you know my
question would be if if we didn't want to do the interimm thing then then what you know what would your proposal be tonight to not do the interimm thing? I guess that's what I'm not clear on. Well quite honestly Joe and I appreciate it.
Um, based on what I know and what I've heard, what I've seen here, um, I can't make that decision tonight with good conscious. Um, I think more needs to be
known and stuff and rather than to jump in tonight and make that decision, I I can't do it with good conscience. um I I need to I need more um before I can make that decision. I I
I I can't do it and stuff like that. And I think we need more input, city staffers, maybe some citizens as a whole. And I've heard other things out in the community and and things like that. And I don't know how the other council
people feel, but I myself I don't feel comfortable in making that decision tonight. To me, it's a big decision. Even though it's an interim position, it's a huge position and um I'm a newbie here. I'm a council. I I
don't feel that I can make that decision this evening. Sure. But it's it's not doing us any good. It's not doing the staff any favors. We're we're not doing the citizens any favors by just staying in limbo. Yeah. You know, we can't we can't stay in limbo. Not saying stay in
limbo. You know, rather than make a knee-jerk reaction tonight, um you know, we appointed Kiki Lindberry to this position as interim and give it a trial period and I agreed with it and I
thought that she could do it and others did. we voted on it and then all of a sudden we're here tonight changing things and that's what I don't get, you know, and um I'm thinking, am I missing something? Yes, I
think you are. And I respectfully inherently disagree with you. You are missing something. When that motion was made for Kiki, we were under the fly. It was under the gun. Jesse was literally writing the motion in real time as our labor attorney was talking to him. It wasn't thought out. It wasn't
structured. It was something that had to be done which was driven by other inputs behind the scenes that perhaps in hindsight may not have been the wisest, but it is what it is. And so it's not this isn't a knee-jerk. Joe and I have spent extensive time for the past couple
weeks on with our labor attorney daily uh in these meetings interviewing people being very intentional uh doing our research being educational. You know, it's not like we just pluck these folks out of anywhere, right? that list from the League of Minnesota Cities. It had a
lot of people on it, right? But we went through it with a carefully, you know, a comb fine tooth comb to try to find who are people that could be a good fit potentially for the city to take the time to interview and who's available. Yeah. So, you you I mean, we're all entitled to our own vote. You can feel
the way you want that you don't feel comfortable voting or making a motion. I do. And, you know, if no one else is comfortable, I'll make the motion. We'll see if we have a second and see where it goes, right? you know, and I think the biggest thing though is um you
know, I I think we're all in agreement that some change, some cleaning up of the way the city needs to go, but this is the process that we need to go through. So, if we want go down this
process, here we are in limbo. There's there's not another option, you know, to to have a city administrator to have that conversation to remove the city administrator position and go back to the clerk position the way that was set up before. There's a huge process to go
through, a lot of steps to go through, a lot of decisions to go through. And we we need a lot of help in that area because it's just not in one area. It it it is going to impact all these different areas in the city. It's also
going to potentially impact staff and their roles and how they do. All of a sudden, a city administrator is gone. Well, that impacts how all the staff works also, too. I mean, it's just it's a domino effect and that and that's what we're doing. So, we're just saying this
is a bigger thing um than we have anybody on staff. It's absolutely nothing against Kiki. does a great job, but what we're up against in in dealing with this is we need some outside help, some outside expertise so we do do it
correctly for everybody involved. I guess I don't know. Do you have any comment, Jesse? Any insight? So, there's been no discussion, I'm assuming, based off everything I've heard with the candidates of it being more than a full-time, excuse me, more than an interim/partime. No, it was interim
three-fifths time for a set period of time. But again, option to extend. It doesn't mean it just cuts off, right? And and I get your point like you don't want to all of a sudden not have someone. We're trying to get to a larger a larger place here. I'll say candidly,
I would not hire a president for my company that is going to be there three days a week for six months and then I'm going back out in the street. With that being said, I see value in the points both of you are making. I think we all see the need for a multitude of
reasons. I also think that we see a need for a long-term solution. Yes. Which I only bring up the point I would like to see a consensus, unanimous consensus that we have a long-term solution in mind as to what perhaps that target
looks like 3, five, 10 years down the road. And if that has if there's any inkling of no city administrator at all within the city. I don't I don't know if I agree with that. After going through this process, I I feel like I don't I don't know if we're going to get full,
but I feel like a city administrator after going through these past couple months, it's very apparent to me that there needs to be a structure in place uh with someone to be able to lead the administration. Outstanding. Great. So
with that being said, I I don't want to that's a way to word this. I would feel more comfortable with the understanding that we are all on the same page that that is the solution long term that we would like to see this city be before I give my personal yay or nay
to either one of these two candidates. Now refer to the city attorney. Does that need to be a council motion or can we talk amongst friends here and get that consensus? Brand. Yeah. Just to
clarify, you need what are you are you asking what you need consensus on? Can you clarify what specific action I would feel comfortable in my personal position taking the next steps on either one of these two candidates as an
interim city administrator if I knew that the rest of this council has intentions to maintain the city admin administrator position at the city of Nisah to it I understand but beyond say the six-month window.
That's so I I think you know without all of you having all the conversations that Jennifer and I have had with Brandon without having um the phone interviews um that we've had with these candidates and stuff. There is no preconceived
notion on my part on should the city of Nisle have it administrator, shouldn't it? It should be a clerk system, it shouldn't be this. What I have learned and what Brandon's helped educate myself on is that's that decision's so far down
the road because we don't know the best way a city our size should even operate. We don't know what it means. We haven't had uh we don't know what all the individual staff
feedback is, what all their wants are, what all their decisions are. We need to gather all that. There's been, as far as I know, maybe one meeting with department heads, but we need to have a more comprehensive plan on on what that is
from department heads and uh and to go from there. So, I will say this, I am 100% in agreement that there has to be one person in charge going ahead. If that's city administrator and that's the title, great. What I'm saying is the
title's a little irrelevant. What I will title is irrelevant to me as right. Right. What I'm in agreement of is there has to be one person in charge and and the structure governs that. There has to be one person in charge. Whether what the exact title name is, it's kind of irrelevant. City
administrator, city manager, clerk, whatever that title is is to be determined, but one person does have to be driving the bus. We have to have a centralization. That's been very apparent to me over everybody's understanding that we want a quarterback
for our 11 football team. Yeah. Can't have a team without a quarterback. Yeah. Run with it, Jennifer. All right. Um Brandon, I just want to make sure we're doing this right. So, I move that um the city
council appoint Tim Crookshank as city administrator. The employment agreement between the city of Nisa and Tim be approved and the mayor and city clerk execute the agreement. Um, the city council designates referred
to in the employment agreement be myself and council member Hall as personal liaison. Based on the foregoing, Kiki Lindber's last date of performing city administrator duties and responsibilities and receiving any related pay will
be I think May 27th, 2025. Um, the previously mentioned city council designate notify Kiki of this action. Did I do that proper? That is a proper motion. Correct. Okay.
Is there a second? A second. Is there any additional discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I. Opposed. Hey. Okay. Motion carries. Um I
think are there any additional business items related Brandon? Anything else we need to cover? Well, you've covered what needs to be done. First day for Tim would be technically when again next May 27th. A week from
today. Yes. Is that right? All right. Okay. If that is it, do we have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. All those in favor signify by saying I. Okay. Special meeting is adjourned. Thank you. We'll take a break so everyone can run to the restroom. Okay.
Thank you, Kiki. I'm going to close you down and we'll start the next meeting. I know you have different opinions about Part: 2
Can you hear us now? Yep. How about me? Yes, I can. Thanks. Thank you. Hey, you're ready? Yeah. Okay, I think we're uh ready to go. Sorry, the special meeting ran long. Um, we will officially call the city of Nisa
regular council meeting on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 to order at about 7:04 p.m. And if we can start with the pledge, perfect. Um, one note before we go to approve the agenda. Our first item of
business under new business um involves uh Kim Pascet and a property and use planning and zoning question. We do need our city attorney to be present for that item of new business. He had a planning and zoning meeting in Irondale, so he might be running a bit late. Um, so I'd
ask if we could make a motion to move item one under new business to item make it like item number eight. So to put it before the city property in future development. Madame Mayor, I'll make a motion to move uh new business item
number one regarding Kim Pasc property um to be a topic discussed once our city attorney arrives. Do we have a second? Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Okay.
Motion carries for that changed agenda. Um, next up we have the consent calendar. Again, notice to the public. All matters listed are considered routine by council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless good
cause is shown prior to the time um that council votes on motion. Madame Mayor, I make a motion to approve the consent calendar as presented. I'll second it. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving the consent calendar signify by saying I. I. Okay. Motion carries. Um
before we move to open forum, um there are some folks from the chamber here and we did share this at the town hall, but we also wanted to share as well. Is Emma still here? Oh. Um so with the chamber, Emma Krueger, who owns A&W, was presented the heart of Niswah award this
year for being such a good business leader, community steward, stepping up. She does uh fundraisers for the fire department, police. Um she is a great heart of Niswah and the Nysa citizen of the year. I do not think she's here. Sher de la Hunt. Um we also wanted to
recognize her as well and just take a moment to appreciate the wonderful people in our community. Okay, with that we'll move to open form. Do we have anyone that would like to make any public comment? If you can just at the microphone state your name
and either your address or business or your title. Good evening everyone. I'm Cali from the chamber. Um we had our all downtown meeting this morning which we hold annually for all the downtown businesses. Uh, I want to first thank
Todd from the police department, Amber from parks and wreck, Steven from planning and zoning, Tom from public works, and Mayor Carneahan for being there and just kind of catching everyone up on what they've got going on. Two topics of discussion this morning were ending the downtown garbage
service and the use of the new city land along 371. First, I want to touch on the garbage service. As you're aware, one of the items proposed to be cut from the public works budget in 2026 is the downtown garbage service. As stated in the proposal, it
is believed to not be equitable to a non-down business or resident to subsidize this service. I can't speak on the feelings of either of those groups because I don't belong to either of those groups. Um, but I do want to remind everyone that downtown property owners are also taxpayers and several
business owners are also Niswah residents and taxpayers. From my perspective as the chamber, cutting downtown garbage service would be a detriment to the overall charm of Niswah. Visitors and residents alike love to come to a neat, clean, well-kept downtown. I do understand that there are
a handful of businesses that produce more garbage than others, like ice cream bowls and coffee cups. However, people come get their coffee, walk through town, patronize many of the businesses um along the way. While a clothing boutique probably doesn't output the
same trash as a coffee shop, we are a community and we all need to help take care of it and each other. At this point, I've only spoken to a handful of business owners, but the feedback has all been that the garbage service cannot go away. I will share feedback with you
as I receive it, and I know several people are reaching out to the council directly as well. Uh now for the newly purchased city property on 371. I know you're in the early stages of determining uh what the plans are for this parcel. I want to urge you to be very thoughtful
throughout this process. Developing another shopping center would be destructive to downtown. A sentiment we hear over and over is that Niswah has retained its integrity over generations and we'd like to keep it that way. Please consider engaging an economic
development entity such as Blade who will help navigate the process and ensure the businesses that set up shop are complimentary to our community. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak this evening and look forward to continuing to work with this council. Thank you. Thanks, Kelly.
Believe we have another Oh, yep. Come up to the mic and if you can just state your name. Yeah. Hi, I'm Mary Kay Boowberg, uh taxpayer here in Nisa. I just wanted to encourage the council not uh to hire long-term an administrator. I
feel it's high cost. Uh there's not always been an administrator. We elect you because you think you can do a great job. Um I'm would just kind of stand against putting a lot on one person who's not elected and giving a lot of power into the hands of that person.
Just prefer to keep that small and local and not pay a person hundreds of thousands of dollars for what they do. Thank you. Hundreds. Thank you. I'll sign up for if you do. Um, do we have any other public
comments? Going once. Going twice. Okay. Next up, I think we have a quarterly report from Terry with the pickle. Holy cow. No. Anyway, here we go. Um, thank you for uh having me here tonight. Uh, so for the
first quarter 2025, the on sale is up over 3,000 compared to last year at this time and the offsale is down three 3,000. So, it's kind of like a push. Um, percentage- wise, the uh gross profit
percentage sales went from 28.4% 4% of last year to 29.7% in the offsale this year. Um I'm sure the the reason we're up in the bar is due to price increases over the last month and a half.
Um one thing that I've noticed as far as uh municipalities across the state, their beer sales and wine sales are down. their mostly their craft beer sales uh due to uh increased sales in
THC products right now. Um also too, and you'll see in my report, uh we had a loss last month of quite a bit. A lot of that had to do with uh large sales or large buying of
anniversary shirts and sweatshirts. Uh we also had u tables, chairs, TVs, things like that. And then uh also there were some great liquor buys that I bought last week that uh that'll go through that'll last me about three
months. So um numbers for May are looking really really good. Uh last weekend of course this weather's helping. Uh we're elbow to butt from 4:00 to about 11 o'clock last Friday and Saturday we had a lot of uh um bachelorette bachelor parties in.
Uh Steve Ham down here on lower Cullen. He had 24 guys in that were supposed to go golfing and fishing. Well, the bar is full of quitters. They quit golfing. They quit fishing. They just came in and started drinking. So, it was a great weekend. So, uh, college staff is back
and, uh, we're excited for them to learn the new POS system behind the bar and they're excited to get back to work, too. So, any questions or comments? Any questions for Terry? Thanks, Terry. All right. Thank you,
Terry. Um, we did have Brian on, but he had a personal situation, so he is not um here this evening. Oh, Tom's here. You made it in time. Okay, great. Uh, well, we'll give him a moment to get
settled here. Do we have any um up a city attorney report? Good evening everybody. Uh no, I have nothing to report tonight. Okay. Do we have a city engineer report? Sure. Um just a little bit of stuff I've been working on is uh 2026 streets trying to
get the rightway stuff figured out. give that to Tom and Tom Bloomer and we're proceeding with that. Um the other some of the working on quite a few proposals here recently to kind of look at some different projects to uh kind of look at the preliminary portions of it to uh add
see if we can add them like one of them possibly that you're going to talk to tonight to the G Lake Trail. Um been also working on uh Royy's Landing topographic divide and should hopefully have an answer to that here soon. Um,
any questions? Thank you. Um, all right. Well, since you're here, we didn't need to maybe agend amend the agenda. Um, so the first item under new business is Kim Pascet. Do we have Kim? Oh, I didn't know if you were
coming in person or on Zoom. Kim, we'll turn it to you uh to start and share. Thank you. My name is Kim Pascet. I've been a seasonal resident here in Nisa since 1985. I bought my first property when I was 25 years old.
We my husband and I have been married 34 years and we raised our five children in San Jose, California. Uh but since all of our family including moms and dads, aunts and uncles lived in Evergrove
Heights and or Nisa, we brought our children up every summer so that they could have a relationship with their uh grandparents and cousins. So what I'd like to and thank you for having me today. Hello everyone.
What I'd like to um discuss is my husband and I are owners of parcel B, C, and D. We purchased this parcel, these three parcels January 29 of 2024, and uh we're not sure what we're
going to do with the parcels as far as building. Our neighbor Moxy Salon is proposed to have a laundromat built on their parcel A and there's several questions that we have with regard to
reading the staff report, the NISWAM minutes from February and what we have learned from pulling an abstract of our property of the parcels BC and D and also uh seeking
legal counsel from Ray Sharper Sharper and Lang in Brainer. Um I believe Tom has received all of our notes via email as it was sent to council
members and I'd like to go through those questions if I may. Sure. Why don't you take those Sorry, my mic's off. Why don't you start at the first and then Tom I'll defer to you to jump in or help um steer because you've been or and
Stephen as well. Okay. Um first of all it is the review of the February 4, 2025 minutes from the city of Nisa and our question is have the conditions been met for Moxy Salon and the laundry mat which
is uh prior to issuance of a land use permit performing grading works revised landscaping and storm water management plan that is one of the conditions. The second is application for land use
permit for the additional load to city sewer. My questions are have these been met? Thank you council. Thank you Kim. Um so yes uh we had since the planning commission meeting gone through um
review of additional storm water proposals from the applicant as conditioned by the planning commission um and eventually landed on one solution that retained all storm water on site um
subsurface beneath the sidewalk and and again entirely on site beneath the sidewalk that is part of track D, part of tract A. Part of tract A. If I may, tract D. Uh, in 2019, Moxy
Properties had a clause that they were going to um give um what do I want to say the uh track D easement. However, that was in 2019. And
in 2024 January when we purchased B, C, and D, there was there is no easement because of our purchase of these three parcels. Tom, could you talk to me about that?
Well, Kim, other than to say that the storm water management plan that was issued now in conjunction with the cup doesn't involve a storm water implication to track D or to your track B.
So there is no seepage, there is no overrun onto B. The storm water management plan for Moxy for tract A was pretty carefully conceived to keep all that water on site. Good. While we try to figure out
other solutions that may come down the road here. But so the answer to the question is the cup was issued. The storm water water management plan took a bunch of work to get to the point where we were able to um verify that the water
from A will stay on A through that plan that's approved in the storm water management permit. So track D isn't an outlet for that water off of A. I'm sorry. Did you say track B or D? D is in David or B for that matter or B. Yep.
There will be no seepage. The stormwater management plan is a self-contained stormwater management plan that involves the water on a being retained on A. Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Has uh public works requested an updated of the estimation of water that will be used for the laundry mat. Tom, do you or Stephen, whoever wants to I can kind of touch on that too. There was an ERC agreement that was approved.
The ERC agreement is tentative. Um, it allows for any u increase in flow that might happen. So, we are monitoring it going forward. Um we have taken some information that was provided by the owner of the laundromat and
we've accepted that for the time being. Yeah. Um should that prove to be an error, we would be doing some further research into what we're being provided. So, if I may add to that, a question would be uh do we know what chemicals, what type of
laundry chemicals, bleach chemicals are they going into a a a tank? No. So, this is just strictly a regular laundry. This isn't a dry clean. True. I understand that. But I use
bleach. Right. So, bleach in the quantities here won't adversely affect our treatment system. Okay. And so there's no um industrial pre-treatment that's required for this at this time. So when you said it was tentative,
so it's it's very it has to be verified. So So we go based on an estimate from that council and what's charged for ERC. Okay. The city has agreed to I would say the low end of that estimate to begin
with. However, we will monitor to make sure that that's where it stays. If it doesn't, it's mostly just a flow issue. It would affect the property owner mostly. It won't affect the treatment plant even if they hit the max. Okay.
So, um Jake, I heard you mention in the hallway that there was that you were going to um start a septic install. Did I hear you? Not a septic. Well, oh well. Specifically for the laundry mat.
And what is the what what does both what does Moxy use right now? Oh, you're going to move the well, increase the size. It's probably overkilled what we already have. So, it be And it'll be for both. Correct. Okay. Okay. Thank you very
much. Okay. Uh, if I may continue. So, Stephen, good to see you. Where are we with track D? We are hopefully going to propose to you
and your attorney that we have a meeting, you and he and Stephen and I here so we can look at paper. Yeah. And we can look at solutions. Okay. Um along the line of the meeting that you had with Stephen already that I couldn't attend and but certainly wasn't avoiding
you but just couldn't attend. But now that you've got Ry involved, it makes sense that the four of us would sit and try to work through that. I I feel like there's a solution there involving track D. It benefits both the city and you, but the only way to talk through that is for the four of us to get together. So,
that's the proposal. Wonderful. Um, I would like to uh recommend that I will be in Canada uh welcoming a new grandchild until June 15. So, anytime after June 15, please. Okay. So we'll ask Stephen to interface with you and
then you in turn with Ry to get that meeting scheduled for whenever you're ready to do that. Very good. Thank you. Having said that, will that impede the laundry mat? No. No. Okay. No. That track D is is lots of implications of
track D as you know there are there are lots of issues around that around that little sliver of of of we call it the boomerang with love. Yes. So, it involves planning for future hopefully street improvements, etc. They impact
your property certainly. They impact the the city's infrastructure there. So, yes. Um, again, a meeting between the four of us to plow through some of these I think kind of maybe either misconceptions or confusions about some things would be helpful. We're highly
concerned about our access for prop uh for parcel B and C because uh with with D going to the city and I've mentioned this to Stephen, we need access no matter what we build on those two lots.
We're aware of that. We have a solution. Very good. Okay. Thank you so much. Um then I believe I'm just going through my notes. Uh I will uh ask Stephen that on the
staff report there was a conditional use permit 004.2 or -25 to construct a commercial addition to the Smiley Road which is where uh Schaers and um
Spirits is that there was going to be a a tenant to be a laundry mat. Was that a typo? No, that was a separate application for another property and a different applicant. So, there would be two two laundry mats, two proposed at the same meeting, correct?
Were you aware of that? Okay, Miss Basket, if you can hold for a moment, please. Yes, Mr. Attorney, I have a question for you. What was the intent of putting this on the packet tonight for the business? Oh, for council discussion. I probably should have given a little intro.
Appreciate it. Uh, yeah. uh because um the paskets have had a series of questions um and you see this email and so Kim's kind of going through some of those questions. At some point the questions became difficult for staff to keep kind of cycling through and we
thought that it made sense as a staff to have this conversation in front of the council. There's no action items we're asking of the council and to the extent that the council needed to weigh in with any questions that Kim Pas had that just made sense to have this conversation with everybody in the room.
Wow. Thank you. Um is there a drawing Stephen for the new storm water management? because the only drawing that I have seen, and correct me if I'm wrong, showed storm water on parcel B. Yes, there is a new
drawing here. Um, it was signed off by the applicants, authorized agent and and engineer. Um, which I believe to be public information if you would like to see a copy of it. And what date was that? Just in the last couple weeks,
Kim, I think it's signs are dated 59. Yeah. Yes. I have not seen that. Yep. Yes. And and that's that's what I was referring to earlier, which is tying up the whole storm water management plan to keep to have a plan that keeps water contained on A. Yes. Unless
circumstances would change, i.e. um city street improvements or us hopefully working out track D with you because track D is a possible um at this point it's a possible solution for storm water
not just at A if it comes to pass but also for your B and C along with your access issue that that track D serves a bunch of masters here including whatever building plans you might have for B and C. Mhm. So, but yes, in order to get the
applicant, get the users where they need to be as as far as moving this project along, that storm water management plan and getting it done and approved uh was a bunch of work, but it was necessary so they could begin their work. It was the last piece of information they needed to
get to us so they could begin. Yes, please. I would like a copy of that. Is there any other documents since the uh since my proposed email that was sent that has been updated for the laundry mat? No. So that
was the final crux for permit issuance which has n now gone out the door. So the permit verbiage has been drafted um conditions referred to from the planning commission's authorization and approval. Right. and be happy to respond to any requests
of that information that you'd list. Very good. Well, I thank you for your time. This has been helpful for us. We will uh the four of us get together. I'll make sure of that and I wish you a good evening. Thank you, Kim. Thank you. Thank you for attending.
Okay. Next under new business is the wage recommendation for Scott Williams, police sergeant, effective June 26th. I don't see Todd. Did Kiki want to talk to that? Or if council's looked at their packet, we could just take a motion as well.
Madame Mayor, I'll make a motion to uh accept the wage recommendation for Scott Williams, police sergeant, effective 626 25. I'll second. Um any additional discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries.
Congratulations to Scott. Um, next up is pay application number one for the city hall remodel project. Tom, no. Bill. Oh, Bill. Is it? No, I think it's Tom. Tom.
Oh, Tom. We got two Toms in the house. I'll just give you a nod if it's needed. Go ahead. Or do you want me to jump? I want you to jump. Why is that? It's got your company name on it. We don't know everything about
everything. Hope you do. Bear with me a second. I have to find it in my packet. Thank you. Okay. So, we have the pay application number one in the amount of $12,142.13. Um, it has been reviewed for work completed and schedule values
submitted. Retainage 5% has been held with on this pay application. Work for this period includes the cost of the roof trusses, dumpsters, and equipment rental. Please have this payment application included in the May 20th, 25th council meeting, which obviously we're
at. This is signed by Mike England. Thank you for the opportunity to provide this project update and please let me know if you have any questions regarding the project. I would concur that this work has easily been completed. They're much further along than this.
would recommend paying the application. Outstanding. Uh I'd like to make a motion to approve pay application number one for the city hall remodel project as presented. Second. Any additional discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Okay. Motion carries. Um
next up is the Oh, do I have anything else, Tom? Sorry. No, I'm sorry. Okay, no worries. um parks request for council action, the Gull Lake Trail, Nisa Lake Park engineering proposal. Amber, good evening. So, in your packet you have a proposal from Woodsth. Um this is in
reference to a topic that I brought up back in March where we are looking at having potential um excess grant funds that we get to utilize. Um and so part of the process is determining what that work would be, the cost associated with that, and then bringing it back to
Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails um for an adjustment in the scope. So this is evaluating and determining um what we agreed would be the best use of those funds and paving a trail into Nisa Lake Park and adding a
vault toilet or a washing toilet. That's what we're trying to assess through this Any questions for Amber? Were we going to look at doing a um collaboration with the DNR in case
they wanted? Um there's a lot of I have spoken with the DNR. They are conceptually on board with this. We have an existing um agreement, cooperative agreement with them that they felt we could update with Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails. I believe
they would want that on city land. um up in updating the agreement, we'd have to make it for 25 years because that is part of the grant funding is that we have to maintain and keep these amenities for that duration. So, it' be
my advice to put it on city land. Good job. Couple quick questions. Um the dollar amount for Woods, the $7,500, does that get paid by the grant either way? Um with the grant, you can
reimburse up to 20% for professional services. Um and with the bid numbers that came in, and we're only two weeks into the project, um it was well under the grant funding by almost $400,000.
Um, so I'm pretty confident that we'll be able to do some piece of it, in which case this would be eligible for reimbursement. So you had mentioned we're trying to figure out either a vault system with a holding
tank. Correct. Correct. Or a flush system. There's We've Tom, Stephen, and I met with Bill on site um and they did pull some stuff. There is a force man that runs through that area. Um there's also a very tight
timeline on this and so we're going to do a quick this is a two to three week um assessment here to figure out a plan and then I would need to bring that plan forward to Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission at the end of June would be their next meeting.
Are we within a th000 ft of the force man? That's what we're in part looking at here. Yeah, it looks like the force man goes very close to where we're thinking about putting the uh uh bathroom of whatever type we're putting in.
Yeah, I guess just for a public lens, you know, um something to be talked about later, but our rules um that we have for the rest of the community states that if we're in 1,000 ft, it's mandated to hook up to that.
And I guess I won't want to see the city bend their own rules for themselves on that. Yep. Stephen and I have talked about this. Um he's been very instrumental in telling me where we can and cannot place it and what those stipulations are. So that's part of this
assessment process. All grant funds have to be spent by June 30th as well of next year. So, it's a very tight timeline and um trying to figure out the best course of action with where we can put it with those ordinances with the funds we have
and with the timeline we're given. And if I could just clarify in relation to the mandatory connections, um there is a section of our ordinance that um talks about a,000 ft of connection. Um that would be for commercial property containing a new
structure generating wastewater or 500 feet for a private residential property containing a structure. Um interpretation of that language might lend to how we have the park properties currently zoned um as public and
recreation potentially neither commercial nor residential of nature. So just wanted to add a clarification to that language in their current ordinance. question. That's I mean that's part of the evaluation that we're going to do when it for the $7500 is to look at the
two options and kind of do like our due diligence to figure out the pros and cons of each of the options and provide a cost estimate for both of them. Yeah. Once again, from the public lens, you know, putting a vault system in and not trying to follow these rules that we
have by a technicality of the way that it's written to include a city park. I I think it's a very poor look for the city to evaluate a vault system there. Even I just I think I think that's it's a poor look for the city to do that when this
is a issue that has been scrutinized amongst property owners over and over. I even know on the upcoming planning minutes, you know, um another uh commercial property in town is running up against this issue. It's something
for us to talk about later. But um what's good for one is good for all or we need to look at changing these rules. So that's my opinion on it. I don't think that we should go ahead investigating this or spending money on it until we maybe have more discussion
later on with these rules. That that's my opinion on this. Uh margin of error 5 10%. How far away are we footage wise from that force man? That's part of like looking at this we have an idea. We only have one property
line surveyed and that's the line between Nissr property. Y um so we just have to confirm the survey work. Um and so I think it's pretty close or well feasibly
close. I'll say that without giving exact numbers. Yeah. So yeah, I mean cleanliness, all sorts of factors or whatever. I don't know why we'd investigate a vault toilet this day and age in the city park. I guess I just
I view that as a waste of time and money. Once again, a bad look for the city to do something they would not allow anyone else in this town to do or even consider. Would you feel better if we gave
you permission or authority to move forward with connecting to the force main and by going this forgoing this, excuse me, this survey quote to just investigate that. My biggest concern is the timeline. All grant funds
have to be spent by June 30th of 2026. We do not have a well. We do not have electricity out there. Can that be part of the grant though? Yes. And it all work to be done by June 30th of next year.
Still seems doable to me. I think I'm I'm kind of with Joe on this one. Hate to say it, but but no, I mean, if if it's all right, you can admit it. No, no, no. Um, you're correct because it's it's the
perception. I mean I mean, yes. Okay, it's park and wreck. I understand that. But, but it is kind of I mean, I would look at that, too, going, "Well, wait a minute. I've got a I've got a hookup, but the city doesn't, right?" Um I I think if we're going to do it, let let's do it instead of a
vault, let's look at the hooking up. Yes. But then again, like Amber points out, you've got the well electricity. Is that we're playing off of money that we don't know how much we have, correct? Like I know with the top amount and we have the bid coming in on
the existing trail. So I'm trying to shoot the gap, right, and the timeline. And so I 100% hear what we're saying and that's why we want to investigate all of it. Um it's just a tight window and we don't exactly know how much money. So I think
it would be best to find out what the cost is, what the timeline is. Um and then ultimately it'd be up to council is if it's without of the budget or without of the timeline how you'd like to proceed. So regardless of what other
what what what routes we go for this bathroom in Niswah Lake Park, the $7,500 will be able to be recouped regardless from the grant for the professional services. 20% maybe part of the adjusted 20% 20% of only%
20% of the total project. Oh of the total project. Yeah. Which the 7500 falls within which is also what's going on with the existing G Lake Trail. So better question, will the 7500 investigation actually have any
merit towards working plans of getting this put in or is it just purely investigation for 7500? Are we are we going to get some information that we can work with off that? We won't have like uh plans and specs in
order to uh um like get a bid or something like that from a contractor. I mean, our idea and hope would be nice is that if we could use the Gull Lake Trail contractor to do the work. Um we've talked to him about it and he's sort of interested in some of the work, but he
hasn't he doesn't really know the scope of work that we're talking about. Um but so there would be once we figure out which option from the 7500, we'd have to come back and say um it's going to cost an additional so much based on
the option that we chose. But if we're choosing the one with the uh the bathroom, then it's probably going to be more engineering fees because of the the well the uh power building. This is mostly to help me get information to get the scope of
work approved. So, we still have to go through that step. Um, if correct me if I'm wrong, anybody. Um, but if we're above 175,000, we have to go back out for bid. I would sure hope a simple bathroom
would cost more than 175,000. I mean, it's also the paving into the park. It's the well and the It's the well, the power connecting this, you know, connecting to the force main is probably the small part. It's the power and the well that are going to add the cost
pretty pretty quickly. How hard would it be to get more of a complete proposal put together just instead of an investigation one investigative piece for what? We just thought we'd start with this
just to uh get going. um that we know that the contractor is going to be done here pretty soon or it's not going to take him very long to do the the trail job. So, if we could get going and get the uh the option figured out and get the plans done by the time he's done,
that was the goal. Weren't there plans just done for that other park over on um that we require that we Between the Lakes Park is a vault toilet and I have all the specs for that. Okay. And so that was a pre-fabricated
concrete structure and that was they also make flushing right shells. Can we just contact them and get a quote from them? Yes. And then we'd still have to figure out the location, the trail
connections, the power, the connection to the forest man and the well. I think that's the avenue we should go. That's just my opinion. Yeah, I I would agree that we want to get a quote from them. Um, yeah, I mean, it's just a simple
bathroom. We don't Yeah, you know, I don't know that we need to be spending tons of money on on um researching a lot of different options. I would just say that we'd pick a pick a product that we already know
that we've worked with and move ahead with a quote on it would be my opinion. So then we're just going to pay all of cart forth to do all the other specs and prepare the cost estimates for the well and the power because I'll need
all I'll need a budget when I go back for an adjusted scope. So, are you looking at revising this proposal to have a different deliverable or build hourly by WIDS set?
Um, in the park plan, um, there was already a bathroom location picked when that park was put in. That's not an option because that one covers um both the DNR and Niswah Lake property
and the concept. Okay. Yep. So that's that's out because we had already paid for all that stuff, right, when this park was put together years ago that this was already a planned portion of the park, you know? So once again, we're just redoing the plan. So are we just pausing this it sounds like at this
point or um I'm not clear where it's going. Yeah, I guess it'd be nice to know more of a of what we're talking about dollar-wise, you know, um, you know, if
we are reaching that 175,000 where the location is, we can't figure any of this out before we spend money is the question. We can't figure out approximate location in the park where the toilet would go.
Well, we have it narrowed down, but trying to really um dial in. It's more so all the well, the infrastructure, things like that that you're talking about. We'd have to lay all of that out. I mean, at some point, like we I don't
need all of that specific specs to go back to greater Minnesota, but I do have to have a basic cost estimate for what I'm proposing for the change in project. I mean, what we're proposing to do here is just come up with like some
preliminary numbers for, you know, like if we if try to figure out the best place to put the uh the bathroom, if that's the the flushing bathroom, let's say. Once we figure that out, figure out, okay, what what do we need to use? What do we need to bring in in order to
get it hooked up? Power, water, hook it up to the force man, what is the cost of all that? And uh in this proposal we are going to compare that to the other option which is the uh vault toilet. I mean the difference in cost is going to be a lot
but at least then we would know we'd have something to compare. It's kind of like we just we knew of two options and that to me it's like this is a it's a preliminary thing. We knew that there was going to have to be some engineering involved in this to in order
to come up with and answer the questions that Amber had as far as uh um the solution for this bathroom. Well, I think we know that the vault toilets cost what was it? 36,000. Yeah, 36,000. So, we know we're there on the
vault. It's just the placing of it. Understand that. Um do we have any motion? we want to make or otherwise I feel like we're kind of at a Yeah, I'm just I'm still here. Yeah, I guess what I'm trying to
determine is how much money do we need to spend, you know, before we go out and get this. Like Mark said, we already just did this other bathroom. We we know right here tonight the vault toilet is 36. I feel like we've, you know,
um, yeah, I guess um, so what I say, so okay, so the 7500 bill, would that cover a looking into what the flush system would be? And then the basic costs for the you know water electrical
looking to the for correct so look yeah looking at the different components in order to do the flushing bathroom um figuring out the separation that's required figure out the location the best location um the one that meets everybody's requirements the DNR and the
city and yeah have a motion well I think That's the avenue we should look at. Yeah, I just maybe I just have a little bit different view. I mean, the separation between the well and the
force means 50 ft, you know? I mean, a lot of this is basic information that we already know. So, I But if I guess if we got to spend 7,500 to figure this out, that's what we got to do. But I would say that we've got to look at
um you know, look at hooking it to sewer, not doing the the tanks. That's just my opinion. Well, I'm I'm on board with hooking to sewer. So, plus it's going to be a nicer facility longterm. Who wants to go into
a bathroom with the bolts underneath? Right. So, do we have a motion? Because a motion here is not where the conversation has gone. We're just trying to iron a few things out. Yeah. I think
a motion would be about spending the 7500 to check out this flush system. Is that a motion? That's not really, but Where are we tableing this? I I would I I'll make a motion to approve Widess's
proposal for professional design services at Niswah Park for 7500 to look into the flush system and all that we will need so that we can have a cost. Do we have a second?
Okay, we have no second. [Music] Um, it kind of sounds like this is just at a pause right now. Yeah. I mean, because I'm not seeing a clear motion about it. Maybe some more information. I mean, when we throw out a
$175,000 number for a toilet in the park, it's like, what are we what are we doing? I mean, can't we can't we narrow this down a little bit? I mean, do you have time, Amber, to come back to council? Can can we get some preliminary numbers on what grant money is there
till June 30th 2026? Right. So that's over a year though, right? Okay. But essentially, if we just get a quote from a contractor for the full kitten kaboodleoodle for this flush system to hook up to the force main that's nearby, you can probably get a quote within the next 30 days for our next June meeting.
I can try. Okay. Can't then it's in July. At that point in time, we approve it and I still need to go back to Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails. Correct. And the risk on that is we run out of time and we get nothing
because they can take a some time to say yes or no. Do you have to have a proposal to be included in I have to have an a updated scope of work that clearly defines what we're trying to achieve with a price estimated budget with it. So I
will work on it and we will roll with it. Are you comfortable? Your decisions. That's a no. We just heard all night. I said it. We
follow it. I will work on it. Yeah. I guess it seems like a pretty basic project, especially since we just did that other bathroom. You know who already to contact. I would say, yeah, let's try and get our proposal just put together. I mean,
um, you know. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Amber. Thank you, Amber. Um, next up is public works request for council action 2027 road bond preliminary engineering proposal. Okay. Good evening everybody. Um, with
the Bill, please jump in if you have something to add. Yep. Uh what this will do is this will get us started much like we're doing on the 2026 road bond currently. We're working on a 30% plan so that we can begin to purchase right away. Um look at where we are going to
take the drainage on these two areas. Um the [Music] proposal jumping to the [Music] end total fee for the proposal is $116,000. with with that they're going to look at City Hall Street and the Niswah Avenue
corridor mostly that's the intersection of City Hall Street and uh Main Street. Um and then we're also going to be looking at the Church Street corridor with the objective of achieving a 30% plan. Is there anything you'd like
to add? I mean the the idea is similar to to what we would do for or what we did for the 2025 or 2026 street project is uh this is where we started. We we're just starting this process a little bit early
in 2025 for the 2027 so that we can start doing the preliminary engineering portion of it. Try and get it to 30% or further so that we can identify um all the different issues with both of these roadways. figure out what we're proposing to do, get everybody to
concur, and then have that uh plan kind of approved so that we know exactly what we need to do when we move forward. Um what this includes for like area one would be to basically look at a lot of the things that we talked
about be before for the 2025 streets. Um the additional stuff might be some um you know if there are other things that might want to be looked at. Lighting for example on on city hall street or I mean I'm just throwing stuff out lighting on
Church Street. Storm drainage um different things like that. Uh what this proposal does um include is uh for area two, which is St. Church Street, is the plan right now is to survey it all the way from Lakers Lane all the way up
to Birch Street, I think, or what? Popppler. Is it Popppler? Yes. Oh, so pretty much the whole way. And it does include doing some uh property base mapping for it. um
finding some of the property corners, a little bit more um evaluation than we did for the 2025 streets. And the same thing with City Hall Street, doing a little bit of um digging as far as like some of the property information so that we can uh locate the property lines or
the right away. Um the other thing too is uh you know like oh just we're not going to do like a boundary survey or a property boundary survey. there's a lot of information that you can find that will help us define where the property lines are just you know internally or
using the computer and stuff like that. Um, so once we do, yeah, so once we get this plan done or or try to get this plan done, this information will be used for the 2027 street projects. Um, and hopefully we can get all this get
everybody's consensus. And so in my eyes, the delays we've had with getting to this point with the 2026 road bond, we definitely need more time. And that's why I've asked Bill to get started on this now so that we don't run
into those same delays. Are we looking at aligning City Hall Street with Nisa Avenue? You know how you Yeah. Well, yes, we have. Those are some of the issues that we're going to look at with City Hall
Street and Nisa Avenue. Um look at the alignment of the roadway. Look at the alignment of Main Street with the two that intersect. Okay. Um, look at all the intersections, you know, City Hall Street, how it intersects with Church Street. Um, even a little bit with
Church Street and Lakers Lane, but that intersection is going to or Lakers Lane is a something separate issue that we're going to talk about probably the next council meeting, too. And I suppose this is not brought in front of the public works commission.
No. Any feedback from them at all about the lack of meetings we've been having? Excuse me. Have you had any feedback from them at all in regards to the lack of public works committee meetings we've been having? Yes. They don't appreciate it, but I do think that these projects
are large enough that the city council needs to be involved in what we're working on. Um, so if you don't want to address this at a regular council meeting, we can do a workshop. However, that hasn't been made clear to me whether we're going to continue on
with our public works committee or if we're going to work on this at the city council level. It would be my recommendation the city council be more heavily involved given the size of these projects. Yeah, for sure. Just want to double check, right?
Yeah, I I would I have no issue with them uh being involved and you know maybe attending those workshops if we have them so that they can offer their opinion, but I think it would be wise for the city council to be involved in the background information when they
make the decision. Yeah. Anything? No, I mean I think we got to move ahead so we know all this information. So, I'd make a proposal that we'd move ahead with uh what's presented from WSN here uh for the 27y
old bond. I'll second. Any additional discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Um next up, Stephen. The recommendation from the planning commission to initiate chapter
20 ordinance revisions. Thank you, mayor and council. Uh so yes, we held a regular meeting this May um for the planning commission. Had some public hearings and one new business item as it relates to initiation of a chapter 20 ordinance revision phase
building upon the revisions that we've experienced such so far. Um motion was made by that commission to initiate the conversation to hire an outside consultant to work through identifying sections of chapter 20 within the city code of ordinances that could be reviewed and revised along with the
priority list that I provided to city staff in your packet. Um, so I did volunteer a couple sections that have been um, frequently looked at as I work and engage with land owners, contractors, as well as in discussions with planning and
zoning leazison to the city council and other planning and zoning administrators in neighboring municipalities. Um that list is not intended to be exhaustive of all potential areas for revision, just intended to foster discussion, but um in conversations with my liaison. Um some
of them might be um good candidates for um taking a look at seeing if that language fits our current intent and direction for the city. and previous conversations this evening have tied into the comp plan which is frequently referred to by
my planning commission and myself as I review applications and proposals. So, um with that I open it back to you. Any questions for Stephen? Do we have a motion? Well, I guess just
a couple comments on this. Um you know, this is just the start of the list. There's been some questions brought up, you know, that um Chris um has already gone through and reviewed that uh and just want to clarify that a little bit. What he did was go through
it and reorganize it so it made sense. It fell into a more um organized manner rather than having to read the whole thing to find your answer. He he put the right groups in the right
sections. also cleaned up as much con um conflicting information in that as possible. Um this is yet another step further in reviewing specifically what
was there um as far as um if it's what we want as a town is what we want as a council. Stephen mentioned too, back to the comp plan, some of the conversations with this, you know, in looking at the comp plan. Um, him and I had several
conversations this week in regards to the comp plan, looking at it and kind of going, this is what it says in the comp plan and nowhere in our rules does it jive, you know. So that once again back
to the discussion earlier tonight, even back to this thousand foot setback that I just referenced with the park or offset with the with um with the septic. Yeah, I'm I'm all for hooking up to the city sewer, but there's not a
plan in place that allows people to do that. All these items that Stephen's presented here, these are all things that um he's identified, previous plan planners have identified that need to look that need to change place. These are all common things that people are
coming in getting variance after variance in this town and we need to do something to start moving in this direction. So, you know, starting with this, starting with the comp plan, where do we want to go?
Where do we want to start? Do we want to hire an outside person? You know, um do we want to look at just adopting uh for instance, Crowen County's rules first and then adjusting the rules within that to fit in our city because
obviously that would be a ideal fit for that. Um there's a lot of different areas to go. Um also too, one of the questions been brought up, why don't we list out everything right away?
Um, Stephen doesn't know what doesn't jive until somebody walks in and asks him the question. And when he starts look, then he finds another issue. Somebody else walks in with another parcel, another issue, that brings up another issue and topic. And this just
keeps happening and happening over again. Whether it be somebody with a fence, a septic question, a setback question, you know, is that kind of a fair assessment of what's going on? Yeah, I can build up on that. So, um, as I work and deal with land owners and
contractors in the area, there are people that do approach me and they're like, "Well, if you receive permits, uh, for say RIPRAP in the city of Nisa, and some of the standards that are in place in our ordinance, they state to me that
haven't been enforced on or administered uh, through the permitting process in the past." Now, that's not necessarily to pick on any of the previous people in my role, but there had been prior to me significant turnover in this capacity. So, um anytime you have someone new
looking at the ordinance and trying to administer and enforce it, um you might stumble upon some of this stuff in the in the scheme of turnover. So, um, certain sections that I've put into this list might be easy for asas to take a
look at a neighboring municipality or even the county standards as it relates to um, rip wrap, fences, any of those things. And those might be easy things to adopt a change to through an ordinance revision process. Um, there's statutory requirements as to how much notice I need to provide to state
agencies such as the DNR. Um, and some of them might be easy to throw through on a faster trajectory than others. For example, if we start getting into uh what makes sense for the planned unit development processes, that's a deeper
dive than it would be for something very specific such as rip wrap fences, impervious surface maximums, accessory structure size requirements, things of those natures. So, um, my goal in presenting this list to the planning
commission was just to get the conversation started, take a look at what areas are good candidates on different potential phasings. Um, those easier ones being phase one. Let's kick off a public hearing and talk about those
specific sections, dive into the details, host the public hearing so that public can provide comment whether it be land owners, contractors, city council. um and see where that conversation goes and then take the deeper dive into some of the more complicated elements such as
planning and developments and mixed use things like that. Um and so sometimes I guess in a person a role such as mine um it might be easier to facilitate outside counsel especially as the
uh busy season is kicking off in my department and I am a singular employee that you know has to be observant to the needs of the community and turn my permits around in a timely fashion for these folks. So, the decision I guess I'm requesting is whether or not we can
um talk to the person who's been touching our ordinance and looking at it and taking the dive into the restructuring. That person would be Chris Pence and see whether or not he has the capacity this summer to work alongside with me to establish such a
scope maybe of phasing process and come back to this body with a an idea of cost timeline and build upon that conversation and potentially initiate a public hearing. Sounds good. Yeah. And so, you know, I I
guess us as a council too as we read through the rules decision making for us, you know, if we just pick out one and go auxiliary building size, you know, and requirements right now it's 2500 ft. There's just an ordinance again or a
um variance passed a month ago on a property owner um somewhere down in your neighborhood, Jesse, to allow that to be bigger. This is constantly going over. Why do we why do we have that rule? You know, everyone has a a boat, a pontoon, some snowmobiles, an RV if they want to
build a 5,000 square foot building, and they meet all the other setbacks. Although, you know, why do we have this? You know, people are paying their tax dollars on their land, it's my opinion, they should be able to use it if they meet all these other setbacks and ordinances. So, that's that's one thing.
It's just one example, just a random one right in the middle here, but you know, us as a council, do we want to see that change? Do we want to see that happen? Absolutely. You and I have been talking about this, you and I have been talking about this for a long time, right? So, so then and Stephen for that matter.
So then what's the best way to go through it? You know, do we want to, you know, is it is it counting, you know, somebody from the county to help us? Again, opinions. Well, I think we identified that in Chris Pence. I think we identified that in Chris Pence. And
like we've discussed in the past, having a master list, there's a hundred items on there. You're not going to tackle all within six to 12 months, right? It's a good goal, but you set yourself up for success taking tranches. What you have here is a first
trunch. It's going to help build the guidelines for what we want to start tackling further. Really cleaning up everything. Great. Y do we need a motion to reach out and get an engagement quote
from Okay. Chris Pence. I believe this is a money that's going to be very well spent. Absolutely. So, do we have an official motion? Madame Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to uh accept the recommendation from the
planning commission to initiate chapter 20 ordinance revisions. Uh any additional discussion? I would add that we don't want to just limit it to chapter 20 that we want to have this discussion with them across the board
because that would also benefit us with like the land purchase south of town with the highway business district too. So I don't I don't think we want to limit just to chapter 20. No, I think we can I'll make an amendment to it. We need an amendment to the motion
to focus mainly on the city of this code of ordinances. Perfect. Okay. Do we have an a second to the amendment? Second. Okay. Any additional discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. Um,
thank you, Stephen. Next up is the 2025 2026 city of Nisa liquor license renewals. That information is in your packet. Do we have a motion for those renewals? I so move. You have a second. Second. Any additional I have one quick question. Is is Nature Link Resort? Do
they sell alcohol? I think they use like a caterer. Oh, so it's like a third party. No, not only thing that came to mind on the list. Otherwise, I'm good. Okay. Any additional discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
I. Okay. Motion carries. Um then we have updates to the earned sick and safetime law effective May 25th, 20 um 24. So, this is a policy change recommendation regarding the volunteer paid on call
firefighters. Does anyone have any questions on that? Kiki, is there anything you want to add? No, pretty self-explanatory there. Um, it was a policy change that was made by the state way back a year ago in 2024 and we just
have not adopted that change as yet. uh legislature made the change in May of 2024 and I am just requesting that we follow the state recommendations not to have to track
time per firefighter calls and trainings. Do we have any questions or a motion? Radio silence. I'd make a motion that we uh accept the memo presented by Kiki on the second
safe time. Second. Okay. Any additional discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Okay. Motion carries. And last under new business is the recently purchased city property and future development options. Um there were a couple of council members that
wanted this on. So Jesse, I'll turn it over to you. I' like to have a broader discussion again with you all. Follow up on the town hall. There's obviously I I would say that was probably the longest topic that we had. Um love the feedback from the community. Um I think what it's
going to or at least what the town hall presented was an opportunity for us to be able to get a more pessimistic view of what what the land purchase has done uh to the city and its residents. Now, um I echo the chambers's opinions on uh
having there be any detraction from our beautiful staple of downtown Niswah and the and the phenomenal shopping that we have there. It's too unique to uh try to even entertain disruptions. However, uh the city of Niswah has uh in his
possession now uh north of 70 acres and uh from the two I forget the title of documents I asked Kiki to kick over to all the council members today that uh Jenny Max previously put together of two potential layouts that WSN helped support on where
it showed I believe it's Hazlewood Drive South as an extension um as to how that could really shape up. Appreciate it, Amber. How that could really help shape the Thank you. how that could really
help shape the uh layouts for the highway frontage lots. Now, I don't want to be in Defcon one and saying we need to get moving on these and sell them in the next 30 days. However, I want us to start and continually talk about this.
Um I believe with these two tracks that are shown here, it again can be derived in any which manner. Spoken to a few members of the business community uh even as recently as today of what type of infrastructure would we be looking to
do and when uh and to really uh what lengths uh above and beyond that once we come up with a first plan of attack. Um, I think we do need to start considering working with a representative, either a
uh real estate agents, broker in the Lakes area, such as we did with the real estate group um, Bill Breen, yeah, Bill Breen, um, to be able to help us start putting together
a loose or rough plan as to how we're going to be tackling this. So identifying primarily what the future development a future development uh a on both of these potential layouts showing
uh 19.5 acres and again 16.1 acres uh respectively on the two potential layouts as to how that can be carved out and how we can start to determine uh potential interested uh developers buyers and what type of businesses that would maybe be wanting to come in there.
So like previously discussed at city uh town hall event we had a book trip uh express interest. Now some could call that a nice interest but that is in one way or another a hot lead. So, does the
council have any interest in starting to take some next steps in working with don't want to call them a developer, but perhaps somebody that can work with us on our behalf such as Bill Breen did to be able to get this thing moving. And second to that same point,
is there interest by the council for us to potentially establish something very similar and reminiscent of what we had for the uh G Lake Bike Trail, a committee uh to be able to continue to
push this forward. Uh, I think Joe, you might even had an idea in regards to like an economic development committee to be able to keep keep even just a slight push on the gas forward so we don't get too stagnant. Do we see any
value if this new interim is coming in next Tuesday, having that individual, given all the experience he has to help us put together this plan before we make like a vote and we can always come back and do a special meeting. We don't have to wait a month. Absolutely. Yeah. And
and my first thing is I'd recommend is, you know, maybe we start to get on the schedule a set um maybe workshops schedule to just talk about this plan specifically because even before we bring in somebody like Bill to
help us with this, us as a city, we need to decide first what's the plan, what's the vision for the city, you know, um and think through these aspects. Um and so we need to get ourselves in a row. Um
also too, um it's a bigger picture. It goes back to the planning and zoning. Are we going to look at changing the highway corridor BI district? You know, um for instance, 50%. One of the things right now Stephen
and I this week were talking about in our current comp plan. One of the goals in the current comp plan was um mixed mixeduse infrastructure um in the plan loosely defined in there, but are we going to implement that? Are we going to change the comp plan? How
does that tie in here? What does that look like? You know, also too, um you know, building height requirements. Exactly. You know, all of those discussions need to come into play. you know, as we look at this, you
know, lift station number 12. Also too, there are no current real set guidelines with the city as far as like um or um development agreement forms. There's been many of them used over the years with a
developer in there, but does the city want to kind of put or present something together that we could advertise to developers? You know, also to tiff districts, you know, um when America National Bank, Kitty Corner, was built,
tiff money was granted to the bank to build that structure back then. That's just Kitty Corner. Are we going to look at TIFF TIFF money for this? If so, what sections? what corridors, how is that going to be applied? You know, um does everybody up here understand what tiff
money, tiff districts, all the different options with that are. So, I think all that being said, to start scheduling these meetings, maybe also to bring in some experts for us too to start helping identify some of these questions would
be a good starting point, you know, with that. And um you know, that'd be kind of my suggestion is we reach out to that Are you thinking maybe just continue the path forward to keeping it on the council level or if we I would say right now keep it on the council level because
as soon as we nothing against committee but as soon as we get in committee um it's going to slow the process down a little bit and we want community involvement 100% on this but we also need to start defining these guidelines
at the council level first because right now none of this is defined what I just mentioned. It's so wide open where I think us as a council just take the tiff. We need to make decision first before we get a lot of other
involvement. We need to look at planning and zoning. Are we going to change the highway business district from 50% coverage? You know, are we going to require storm sewer in there? Are we going to raise it to 7580? Let's start to look at all that at the council level
first and then put it out there when it comes time for what type of infrastructure. Would it be a minute clinic that we'd want to see going in down there? Something that would help the town. Is there going to be another, you know,
um, you know, workout facility, you know, is that what we want to see down there? I think that's when we roll it over. What does the community want to see? What does the committee want to see when we get to those questions? If that makes sense. It makes complete sense. I'm on the same page with I'm on the
same page with you. I think my I don't want to say fear, but my uh concern is is that this thing potentially just gets slowed completely down. I think we have the power to keep moving it and we it'd stay with the council for a while and we
could maybe even come to agreement tonight that when this when Tim starts this could be a priority. Yeah. For him to get back in front of us and start you know coming up with plans. Having a special workshop once he's in a little
bit acclimated so we can be able to get rolling with him on on many of Joe's points which thank you. It's many of my same points and concerns, too. Never thought of a one minute clinic, though. That'd be a great idea. Um, but uh, so I
think coming Well, he'll be starting next Tuesday, so perhaps we can have a special workshop. We already have a budget workshop before the June 17th regular city council meeting. So, It's probably a lot to pack in that
Yeah. that that night, but perhaps we could uh but we can look at that. And this is one question that maybe WSN could help find out for us too even before then. You know, part of this goes up against that wetland. Can we find out what type of wetland it is? There are
several different types of wetlands. Didn't we find that out last year? Well, I'm not sure if we do we know the exact answer on that. Do we? I think we do. I think we do. I just don't know what the answer is off my just if we knew that the only reason I bring it up um wetland in there you
know are we going to um potentially that in itself could be a uh we want to say it correctly we would want to make a wildlife pond out of there and we'd have to remove the material off of there. what we do with
the material once we remove it off of there. If it would be sold for black dirt or something like that, that could be a money generating thing for the city. Also, if we knew what type of wetland it was. And if we were going to
make a um uh environmental pond, we could potentially be sitting on several dollars of revenue right there. um and we want to know that information. All right. Well, let's get Tim in here.
Let's get them started and get a workshop and make sure we're moving the conversation forward and not waiting 30, 60, 90 days. I would I would maybe think on that note that we can try to target something shortly thereafter the June
regular meeting maybe into the next week. If you guys are in agreement with that, we can work with him when he I don't think we need an official motion. No. Okay, perfect. Anything else on the property development? Um, okay. There's no Oh,
did you have anything? Nope. No old business. Um, council leazison reports. Mark, do you have anything? I don't have anything tonight. Um, Jesse, I had discussion with our public works director last week in regards to um my desires to talk on a
broader subject of testing. if there's testing that can be done of our aquifers within the city of Niswah. Um I have seen other cities munis across the country I don't know how the test is exactly conducted but I'm sure they're taking a drill and
going straight down and taking water samples. So understanding what type of contaminants are in the aquifers, what's the stress test on those aquifers. Um, we got a a small we got a lot of water in this area, but those aquifers get
replenished at a I would believe a consistent rate. So, I'd like to see if there's interest by the rest of the council. We can talk about it maybe at the next meeting. It's not like it has to happen tomorrow, but um to see what the stata status is of our most valuable
resource underneath our feet. the water study that we completed and we talked about these probably November right before um yeah I think it was November last year. Um, in that water study, it does talk about the
aquifer and u about what what the next step would be in order to if we wanted to put a well in there um would be to test do a test well and uh from that you can determine a lot of the things that would be required in order to you know
what's what what is the consistency or what is with the water I mean what so what type of foreign pardon what type of foreign chemicals or substances have contaminated these aquifers if any at all be discovered and what treatment
needs to happen if if any correct. So again I want the public to be very aware I'm not bringing this up to go down the route of city water. Let's talk about just how our natural resources are right now. That's all. So that's all I got. Sounds good. Joe, do you have anything?
Um, the one item I have is coming out of that town hall, there was a lot of response and feedback from people to do like a educational session might be the wrong word, just to understand better the property tax levy as it relates to like the county, the city, the school board. Um, and so I did meet with um
Gary, the director of land services at Crowing County, and he has offered to come up here um for anybody that's interested for an hour on June 5th. not a special council meeting, just an educational session for anyone that wants to show up and he can talk about all the stuff at the county level and then we'd be able to share at the city
level and people can see the school board and whatnot. So, if there's if people are open to that, I just need to get back to him with a green light. Yeah, I would say that would be something that we'd want to put out there on our social media or whatever and try and see if we can get thatundred
people back that were there. Okay. If everyone's good with that, I'll reach out to Gary. Okay. Thank you. Um, anything else? Otherwise, announcement and upcoming meeting dates are on here and we would be a motion to adjurnn would be in order. So moved. Second. All
those in favor signify by saying I. I. Okay, we are adjourned. Thank you everyone. Thanks. Kiki, you