##VIDEO ID:nHHJ4GP5yio## e at all right I hereby call to order the city of niswa regular city council meeting on this Tuesday January 21st 2025 at 7 pm if we could all rise for the pledge thank you um the first order of business is to approve the amended agenda the Amendments include um first is LG the lg220 application for the fire department as item number 18 under the consent calendar uh the Second Amendment is a JC's request for the closure of Woodward Avenue access for the ice fishing contest that is item number three under open forum the third is the council received two emails from the public related to the police chief's succession plan both emails are included in the packet this is listed as item number one under new business and lastly additional information has been added to the packet as it relates to the resolution for the direct purchase with e talk which is item number four under new business Madam mayor i' like to make a motion to approve the amended agenda as presented thank you is there any discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I all right the agenda is approved the next item is the consent calendar all matters listed under the consent calendar on the agenda are considered routine business by the council and will all be enacted by one motion if there is no discussion or commentary I would ask for a motion to approve the consent calendar Madam mayor I make a motion to approve the consent calendar as present any discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I I all right the motion carries okay next on our agenda is the open Forum um do we have anyone from the public that would like to address the council this evening if so you can please come to the microphone and state your name and is it address Jenny name and address my name is Mike French address is uh 22038 Crimson Lane brard Minnesota I I came to this meeting particular because I was here last month because I was concerned about my taxes but what it came up I saw on the board and it got my attention the revenue Generation by the city of misah in particular the liquor businesses that the city operates and I saw the gross revenues that were by both the bottle shop and the pickle and I've been I was thinking about that ever since then I was kind of concerned I'm going what is going on that these businesses so underperform any average business National Business National Bottle Shop business n bar business how come they so underperform in Revenue generation and I thought well I wonder does anybody ever pay attention to this you know it's what what I saw you know cost versus all I saw was cost versus what was sold which really doesn't address where the profit went and I wondered if anybody had paid attention to that on the console had really looked into it because there a business owner when we ran our coffee business and we like the Bottle Shop we sold bags of beans we always kept in our point of sale system how many were sold how was sold whether it was cash or whether was credit card which types of beans we had this all L out so we could look back and keep track of what was actually going on in that business dayt day if not hour to hour but day to day week to week and month to month and so we know where our profits were how much revenue was actually coming in and how much was going out at the same time but what we did was able to really identify sales because you know if you have 100 pounds of beans coming in you should have 100 pounds of beans going out and I was wondering what's wrong with those figures because the profits what I looked at and looking back 10 or 12 years you're talking these things should go at least 20 to 30% net profit that's after you pay everybody and I didn't see that in those figures and I didn't see it going back back I started adding that up and you're talking millions of dollars of Revenue that is not showing up so it made me ask another question why n is even in the business I think munis were actually done to help provide revenue for these small towns that's why they allowed munis to operate fcker businesses so I just wanted to bring that up for you guys to look at see try to figure out what what the heck has G on and why these aren't generating more money for the city of nisah I think it's going to take a deep dive but I think you need to look um anyway that was a concern to me that's all I that's all I have yeah no thank you Mike um so we have um the liquor committee which we had our first meeting I guess a couple weeks ago and we did in that meeting we went through the financials which I think I had a chance to share some of these with you but top level just talking about so this is just talking about the pickle not Spirits um and again this isn't the final final number for yearend because I don't think the books have fully closed yet but at the pickle the the Topline revenues were approximately 1.5 million again this is not final final and then what flowed through the bottom line is 109,000 so you're correct and that it's under 10% but one of the yeah so one of the things we're doing within this committee and we discuss this as one we're we're having the committee meet or the goal is for the committee to meet in this chamber so every meeting is open to the public for people to come participate listen give feedback and for the the city to be fully transparent with the numbers um the second thing is we're looking to sit down with the managers of both the pickle and Spirits to look at what is the 2025 business plan and look at it like a business owner right and discuss hey you know what are we going to project out for our revenues this year where do we think we might be able to drive incremental growth are there ways that we might be able to be more efficient with the operating expenses and find areas to cut costs right so we're going to go through that process with both spirits and the pickle and try to set targets like you would when you own your own business right of how you're going to grow that three five 7% each year and really try to take a different approach that now I know neither Terry or Brian are here tonight the managers of both those organizations um so I don't want to like step on their toes right but we we want to approach it in a in a different way this year and so we appreciate you for bringing this up because there is always opportunity to improve and you know if this is a way where we can bring growth cut expenses and then flow that over to the city which in effect then will cut people's levies right or or save the city money in other areas that's the goal of it and I would let Council memb Z chiman too because he's on the liquor committee uh he was on it last year as well so he has a lot more background information than I do at this point in time I just don't to understand the full context of your question because there's a couple in there so is the first question in regards to the actual underlying profitability of either of the two entities no the I think that they're both could be highly profitable I'm wondering why they aren't for one and who's in charge of making sure they are you know I mean it's a city business it's millions of dollars we ought to be looking really close at where that's going and is nothing against the people that operate it CU I don't know who they are but what I saw in those figures really shock me because I I would expect 30% from that bottle shop at least and maybe even more from the retail side of it so 30% net oh yeah yeah that's why all the restaurants sell liquor The food doesn't make the business it's a liquor that does interesting I own a couple businesses as well and I would dream to have 30% net hell I dream for 15% net but to be able to pull that amount I would well like to know if we've even come close to figures like that historically speaking I'm not sure but even looking at figures after our last liquor committee meeting we had record number this year and regards to either both spirit and pickle I believe um the boom and the sales in the last fivey year average has really drive from the covid however any of us want to classify people wanting to consume more alcohol during that time frame but when I first became a part of the council and was on the liquor committee as Le aison I think there was a total dollar profit on an annual basis in 22 don't owe me to it but was $188,000 about that's really scary very scary it's it's but you also look at on the Bottle Shop side I think revenues this year are you got the numbers up so I'm and a half million on the top line in the bottle in spirits and then the flow through to the the bottom line is just under 400,000 so 398 so closer to 10% and Spirits is certainly not a discount liquor store the if you bought anything there anyway what I'm getting at is I I ran a business for 20 some years that had a lot higher cost basis and had much more Revenue generation than these what I'm saying is there's there's something's gone wrong with the efficiency or or something in there that needs to have somebody take a good hard look at yeah and I was on the liquor committee the last couple years and what you're saying has not gone unnoticed um it's just uh what's unique is there's not an owner meaning that there's a council that has turned over and the people have turned over and that was one of my realizations with this too is who's making the ownership decisions and that is something that needs to be addressed and I know we've had conversations on that because that hasn't happened and I believe you know what you're seeing is a result of that because it it's a business being ran without the owner you know making decisions without supervision you're going to find that it doesn't matter what business it is pretty soon it's the employee are going to be the beneficiaries and not the owner and you have to keep checks and balances in a very close eye uh on things and this is not pointing fingers at anybody I don't mean that but you because sometimes they get extraordinarily generous with a product that's not theirs but and that's what we found would happen and uh I think it it just needs some supervision close supervision so that we so that the niswa and the citizens of niswa can get the benefit of the revenue so their taxes don't go up 73% yeah and that's what I like about this new current group be I think some more um business sense will be applied versus past councils I just I just want to bring it up so people be aware take a look thank you thanks Mike thanks Mike is there anyone else that would like to come up during this public comment period okay I don't see anyone um all right the next item under open forum is the fire department annual presentation so we'd like to call on Chief sha Bailey from the Nisa fire department Sean the floor is yours welcome how's you guys this evening yeah so here's our here's our fire department today um that's not all the members right now we have 26 members and one first responder in our group it's not working so this year we did 347 first responder calls 14 alarms 11 hadous conditions 22 fires 18 car WS two other calls good intent calls we have 25 so a total of 439 is what we did this year we are about 33 off of last year so that's good that's good people are starting to dial back on their medical calls and saying you know trying to re-evaluate what's an emergency and what is not emergency so things are getting a little bit better for us as you see on this screen in July is obviously our biggest month you know may surpris us and shot out through the roof but July is obviously our biggest month and as you see we just spool down now December we ramp back up for some reason I'm not sure around the holidays it gets a little busier it doesn't work at all next sorry so calls service by incidents and districts Lake Edwards got 19% of those calls Lake Shore got 20 this one I got 57 and then peat and sibi got the other ones just the little pieces different call types as you can see Medicals run us there if anybody wants to copy of this presentation we can pass it out to you it just shows our different fire calls here so fire calls 6.3% of all calls for services fire related not very many right but we have to be prepared that's why we train next EMS accidents and rescues you know this is this is where we're pretty much running these days a lot of you know EMS and accidents especially with 371 out front rescue calls but like I say the Medicals is what picks up most of it car wrecks I believe if you can turn it to White you'll see car WX around about 12% next so good intent calls here they are public assist is like 2% and power lines down we didn't have a lot of storms this year which was good only it turned into like three calls um carbon monoxide they seem to be the biggest thing that's hitting this big now like eight calls over the years and then as you see dispatch canceled and we're outout we had 22 this year and here's some highlights from our trainings we do our EMR EMT training has hazardous environments bus extrication that was a big one for us this year vehicle extrication and then we do a ton of pumping and driving in our in our trainings community events these are what we do Safety Town fire awareness at our at the school the ice fishing derby which is coming up here on the 16th um Brainard Outreach we've really started enjoying going over to outreach and packing we've invite other fire departments to join us through these things that's been a real Opening Our Hearts to from our families to the outreach program it's been great do a pancake breakfast an open house in a haunted barn here's our layout myself the chief then we have Joe as the assistant and then we have four captains and then we have squads underneath it which like I said comes out to 26 people and then you can't see this one on my screen you could it was white basically if you look at the top three it goes uh 28 the top three there's three of us that have just under 30 years of service on the department and then the next one is Joe at 20 and then we have a pretty young department and then the top 10 the top 10 um I lead the way at 225 calls Lizzie thos at 191 Richard G's at 187 Joe Hall's at 128 Doug Beal's at 120 Mike hr's at 106 and Justin's at 99 Matt Hall's 99 Caitlyn 84 and then Andy Schaefer at 77 so we do have quite a bit of dedication from our guys in these in these calls so it's it's a lot of time as you saw go ahead next one I think it's on training so this year we uh we have bought a new command vehicle that Joe will be receiving um to get rid of our old Tahoe that we got from the police department I'm years ago that they ran for years and we're working with a new training organization and we're just continuing on recruitment efforts trying to keep people coming to our fire department you guys have any questions Bravo thank you yes we try anything else nothing thank you okay thank you all right last under open forum is the JC's request so this is the closure of the Woodward Avenue access for the ice fishing contest um do we have a motion from the council be before mayor Karan if we kid um we have someone here um which is great and just sorry about that so I think just maybe some some some context or some ideas would be really helpful in years past the council has wanted to maybe hear about some plans or ideas just so that they're on the same page in case there's questions from either for either Chief biley or chief Taylor just want to make sure that we're all on the same page so thank you hello I'm Shane Meyer here on behalf of the brainer JC's um we're looking at shutting that particular road down um 121 on February 1 um twofold reasons as to why number one um to stop traffic on the ice um so that we can better control the weight distribution of the contestant since we don't want the lake to become a parking lot that's always been like the opposite of we want we' spent off a lot of money on busing and parking and and things to make sure that we don't have a ton of people parking on the ice now this year we have an ice heave that's corner to corner on where the contest site would normally be um we're adjusting that so we do want to let people up until midnight um pull Ice Castles and things through that area but then shut it off for day of traffic um second reason to shut it down would be unwanted traffic for Grand View Lodge and their and their patrons we don't want people parking where they don't belong people trashing places that they don't belong and aren't paying to be so um to protect them and and their patrons and then to protect safety on the ice is the two main reasons why we have any any want to shut that road down is a tournament side due to that ice is it shifting more south South yep so South if you can visualize what the tournament normally is um basically that ice heave runs corner to corner from PK's Flats to Holman's Point um we took the contest site and shifted it clockwise if you will and and South southsouth East um so we're running our our Northwest boundary will be the ice Eve itself it'll be about 100t off of the contest site and then um we just move South of that as as big as we could make it without running into Shore and still leaving some ice castle row um space on the Holman's Point side and on the on the southern side of hole in the day Bay okay it's plowed now if you I saw him Sunday night yeah we were out there Sunday a good portion live right there okay saw it I'm like hopefully they see the ice the other ice that's over there yeah there's a second one and after that snowfall there's still dark blue indicating water is coming through so over these cold temps are yeah it's seems to be less active but it's not not active so we're really trying to just control the flow of people um to try to keep them off of it I watched a guy jump it with the truck on Sunday and thought we were calling will fire to come and pull him out but he made it so um and we drilled where the snowmobile Clos across or the snowmobile drill um put out by the bars as I understand it goes across the heaven it's actually okay there I wouldn't send a truck across it but um foot traffic if we can vet a couple of places really well for foot traffic that would be the the goal is to get people to come up within 100 feet and then walk across okay um that's we can only control what we can control but we have a pretty good security department and with the sheriff's department and EMS in the area is out there helping us I don't think we're going to have an issue um securing that and keeping people away from it off of it to keep them safe thank you no problem does anyone else have any questions right do we have a motion oh ahead I would say that I mean we can we could certainly snow fence it ourselves um if you guys I think just Road closed signs barricades would be sufficient you're only going to keep the honest honest so if somebody wants to send it through there they're going to do it um and the sheriff's department would be around to hopefully stifle that a little bit but um at the end of the day we can only control the people that are willing to listen so I think if you guys had some barricades you could put up we could sure come out and help um at any sh right right and we I mean for EMS efforts on the north side of that heave we probably want them to be relatively accessible because in if in fact we ever did have a major issue we're going to have to be able to get at it from both sides um without hopefully without ever having to cross the heath in a vehicle but excellent appreciate uh Madame mayor I'll make a motion to approve the Brer JC's request regarding the closure of the wward Avenue access for the fishion contest second it is there any additional discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I motion carries thank you thank you good luck good luck and be safe okay next on the agenda we are at the section of reports so um Jenny I will turn it to you to start with the city administrator report thank you mayy carahan good evening members of the council uh my report is in your packet happy to answer questions um just a couple of items to highlight um Financial updates what I neglected to include in here is just that our annual audit is coming up mid-February so Maggie and I will be working on preparation for that so be sure to thank her for her work on those efforts uh more to come in the next few months on that um as you may have noticed I did include a section on the upcoming city council Retreat so the mayor and I are working on that agenda still in process and to be determined on all of the exact topic topics but I did include um some of the ones that uh we have been discussing downtown master plan will likely be added to that if you have anything additional you would like us to consider please let me know um these topics are pretty big and important so we'll have a definitely a full day on that um lastly I just wanted to mention that I did provide um the 2025 League's legislative priorities just for your information um there's a lot of good topics and things that they'll be keeping an eye on this year and I'm happy to uh help provide some more background information if and when the council needs it or if you have any individual interest just feel free to reach out thank you uh Jenny I have one in regards to the financial update for the 24 Insurance dividend yes is that $3,194 a dividend being paid to the city of nisah back back to the city of nah correct so we just we just recorded as um uh miscellaneous Revenue we do get a dividend check every year it's not typically this much because they don't normally do a dividend for the work comp program but they were they budgeted too many hours yeah um they actually I under budgeted for my business stinks so will that just be allocated to the UN Reserve fund correct okay and then I had a comment about this Verizon swer that I already talked to you two about via email so just again going back to the discussion last know maybe it was December meeting regarding the new the new land that we have alongside 371 for a potential higher Tower there versus having a larger Tower in the downtown presence try to make it more effective but cosmetically speaking appealing all right any other questions for Jenny okay um do we have a report from our City attorney good evening everybody no I don't have anything to report here city engineer good evening everybody um I just like to tell you some of the stuff I've been working on um been working with Jenny and uh Tom about LIF station one and 12 location getting that information for the um Retreat also working on the 2025 streets and working with Tom on the some of the rightaway issues and how to uh deal with those also finished up the goal Lake Trail phase 4B plan specs and the estimate and part of that's going to be talked about later today um and doing a little bit on this swap Park whatever Amber gives me but that's pretty much what I got thanks any questions from anyone all right thank you okay next we are to new business um the first item under new business is a presentation from our police chief regarding the police chief succession plan um the goal for tonight's discussion is to ensure that we as a council are aligned on the foundational elements of the process before we move toward the hiring phase it's essential that we focus on key areas such as the Department's Mission Vision Values and goals as well as alignment on the job description I think this will allow us to proceed thoughtfully and collaboratively as we shape the future of the department so tonight we will provide an opportunity for input from Chief Taylor and members of the public and then we'll gather initial input from each council member to ensure Clarity and consensus on the process and as I mentioned our aim is to leave this meeting with a shared understanding of these foundational elements then our goal would be at a future meeting to finalize alignment on these areas to determine the exact hiring process um I will also add that the Personnel committee which is made up of myself council member Hall and our city administrator Jenny Max we met this morning and a memo was put together to outline these next steps for the hiring of a police chief so that should have been passed out here to everyone tonight so if you haven't had a chance to review the memo hopefully you can um and with that we'd like to turn it over to our esteemed police chief Craig Taylor thank you good evening I'll be short I promise so councilman Zan asked me to come in and to do this presentation and I appreciate the the invite I have uh put together three appropriate options I think that the city needs to uh consider as far as all they want to proceed with the new police chief um you can do a combination of any of these and and and just me being here I want you to know that I I recognize this is your decision to make and yours alone so I'm just making a recommendation for what I think is the best and then you will be responsible for implementing your decision your vision so the first option is that you could open this job up and do some sort of a regional or Statewide search to try to encourage a bunch of uh you know applications to see what kind of um people you can get if there's anybody that would be suitable if you were to take that option I'm going to guess that you would likely want to hire some sort of a consultant as was done when the city administrator was hired that they would assist with the the process of doing the search um maybe doing some original or in interviews and then I'm guessing probably uh at some point then the council would have an opportunity to do their interviews with probably a narrowed down set of um candidates but if you do this you know you probably going to have to have some expenses with hiring someone to advise you there will be staff time invested in you know putting um materials together preparing for interviews sending out letters or that could be added with a consultant if that's how you would do they maybe take care of that there would be some expense with you'd be required to do a background check and it has to be a pretty thorough background check and I think you'd want it to be pretty thorough you'd probably want another Police Department likely to do that they won't do it for free and you would probably want it to be very detailed and very thorough you would also have to pay for medical evaluation this is required by law a psychological evaluation and then you would have to engage in salary negotiations and you might go through all of this and never come to an agreement and have to either start over or go to your second candidate that's option number one and it is done that way at times you know it's different places do it different ways bigger cities of often do it that way the second option is to post the position internally and let the current officers apply and that way you can get a you know the whole lot the whole department a chance for advancement however you will likely if you haven't already imple going to implement minimum standards I have proposed uh minimum standards that you should consider for or that you can you don't have to that you can consider for for the hiring um and that includes years of experience in law enforcement and in supervisory positions uh I would say it's appropriate to require some supervisory experience for this job you do have officers that are going to need to be managed there's five officers and an office manager that will report to the police chief the last option is you could could promote somebody from internally without any interview without any you know other Pro process that you'd have to follow that would require no background check no medical evaluation or no psychological um psychological evaluation there has been some concerns from a couple of citizens on the regular way of doing things and I am going to this comes from my memory so it's very accurate since 1996 since that time there have been 20 police Chiefs in croing County promoted of the 20 that were promoted 15 were promoted from internal in their own department Five were hired from outside none of the five are police officers still in the area they have moved on retirements because likely you're going to get somebody that's older that is going to be eligible for retirement soon or they moved on to other departments so my recommendation is this that you promote Sergeant samansky to the position of Chief I believe that Todd has demonstrated the the skills the um character that any Police Department would be proud to have working for them Todd has uh been loyal to the city he has not applied for any other jobs he um sacrifices of himself to make sure that shifts are covered and that the operation runs smoothly he does a good job of it and sometimes I don't even have to worry about what has happened because Todd has taken care of it so I believe that he should be given a chance to do it and he will have a probationary period like any other candidate would and you will have six months with me or so so I can help him through uh the annual things that come up that are easy to forget about but um postboard uh Audits and postboard certifications of you know making sure officers have the required training these are things that will come up that you know it's easy to forget to do them they'll remind you but you'll have a chance to work through all of that one time before or he's on his own I think Todd um probably has the best knowledge of the community he is a local person he did go to Pequot high school and don't hold that against him but you know uh again I know it's your decision and I'm sure it's uh a serious and tough one to make but I think that for the best smoothest plan forward um I would recommend without any hesitation Sergeant samansky I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any thank you do we have any questions for chief Taylor I guess council member Hall we can start with you if you have any questions I don't have any questions at this time okay council member Z you answered any question I would have had in that great presentation I appreciate that council member London have no questions for chief Taylor I agree with what he say council member Frey I have no questions I think people know where I stand on this thank you well thank you I appreciate the opportunity to come in yeah thank you for taking the time um and then I guess we would like to open up if there's anyone from the public that would like to make any comments or ask any questions related to this process you can approach the microphone okay quiet group tonight um well then with that what I'd like to do is go back to the council for discussion um if there's any additional discussion around um the presentation or the process or this item before us and I guess we'll start again to my left with council member Hall yeah no I don't think so I mean um as we had met earlier as the Personnel committee you know we had just identified uh a few things that we wanted to do as we move ahead with new Chief position also to as a council um just making sure that job description is in line you know also looking at the Emergency Management rule you know potentially switching that from the chief of police over to the fire chief um taking that off um of the police chief role um both Sean and Craig are here if either one of them wanted to talk about that just the Emergency Management stuff switching it you know so I that maybe they both have a comment but there's just some I guess some house some housekeeping things like that to talk about you know to go over typically the fire chief is the Emergency Management director fire departments are trained better at events that are disastrous in nature we're better at uh things that are investigador nature and I mean it it's just great for the fire department they love this stuff and they have the equipment that you know that we don't have to you know utilize in in some of these events so my opinion is the the fire chief should be the Emergency Management director so I guess feel like I just got home just say yes just say yes but before Sean goes kind of with that those are discussions that we need to have because those are some house CLE keeping things that were brought up today that I addressed that we need to talk about ahead of time one thing though however before Sean speaks you know as the Emergency Management you know uh let's go back to 20156 like during the storms that would be an event that a um we are very much a part of however with that um when you have a bigger event something the council needs to talk about too as this um it is a volunteer role and we are getting paid $20 a call when we have had these bigger events in town when it triggers that title within fire chief we need to look at a different compensation for those time periods I mean U Back To those storms we were out um for a couple weeks doing stuff in related to that and not that it's all about the money but it does have a financial impact on the big events in the city we'll need to address that the council needs to talk about that because it's going to look different than it currently have versus having the full-time um police chief do it so that's that's one of the impacts with it and so I don't know if Sean has anything else to say with that but that's something that we need to discuss we may want to put this item on the agenda again for February to talk about how this is how this is done but with that being said back to to what you know just kind of addressing this um uh the other thing that I brought up is um there's a mission statement on the wall back there you know what's our new current mission statement I think uh it's always good to look at that um update it improve on it you know from a lot of the residents and business community that we've had out here you know what are our goals for a new Chief coming in the department what does that look like I know on our list down here for myself personally is the Cannabis thing you know one of my goals as a business owner resident of this town for the new police chief and police department is I don't want to take my kids and walk down Main Street and have it smell like the strip in Las Vegas so you know nothing we can do about that right well that's that would be a priority that we want to make it KNN that we're serious you're not going to do this stuff in public areas in this town and I think for us to spend a little bit of time coming up with a vision of what the new Chief and the new role is maybe just an example would be good to do to publicly say here's our vision here's our goal for this department and the chief so I guess very good council members on do you have any additional input thoughts feedback maybe 28 27 years ago Chief Taylor I think I met you for the first time I was a 5-year-old young man you were dropping off what was to be a classmate of mine your son and we ended up going through grade school all the way together through brard high school um being in this community my whole life most of your life I would imagine as well you've always been a figure here you've you've been a staple you've done a great job people respect you and your words carry weight and with the recommendation of Sergeant samansky I hear that and I appreciate the Testament you made for him and I can Echo that too from my interactions with with Todd and I think he'll further your legacy and and make his own Mark in his Department carrying to Joe's points as well too so thank you and uh I have no other comment okay thank you council member London I've known Chief Taylor for a long time knew him when he was a young kid and I've gotten to know Todd and um I think he'll do a great job as the next police chief very good council member Frey well they always say small town cops make great Metropolitan cops Metropolitan cops make terrible small town cops uh small municipalities from understanding with family background is small municipalities need continuity continuity the officers that we have know the area they know the people um I just go by the recommendations what we had with the uh Personnel committee go through that first the process should be fine okay very good well I just I would say I just I feel very fortunate to be a part of such a special community and chief Taylor you your reputation proceeds itself you've done an amazing job and we thank you and appreciate everything you've done and look forward to next steps on this and continuing to have a very positive and vibrant niswa we can still come to your and we can come and see you play too right so all right Jenny we don't need any formal motion at this point or it sounds like there's agreement about the proposed process so we will just move forward with that okay very good good all right um the next item under new business item number two is to approve a cannaboid license um for schafers Jenny is there any commentary or I see Andy's here uh no we have our first two in our in the city here and um very standard set forms similar to a liquor license process but everything looks to be in order okay any questions or commentary from the council otherwise if we have a motion to approve the license for schafers I'll make a motion to approve the cannabis license for schafers as presented second I have one item Jenny was there no application by um the brewery next to Andy roundhouse no I have not seen anything yet because they were here for yeah okay all right okay any other discussion all right all those in favor of approving the cannaboid license for schaer signify by saying I I all right motion carries next on the agenda is also approving a cannaboid license this one for big a I'll make a motion to approve the cannaboid license for big act as presented so all right any additional discussion for this particular license okay all those in favor signify by saying I motion carries number four the resolution for direct purchase um e talk Co Jenny is there anything here that yes I'll just give a quick U update since these materials were revised for the council and I wanted to make sure to identify the revisions that took place uh one of them was to modify the date of the expiration for the temporary easements to June 30th 2026 I think originally we had December 31st 2025 but June 30th is the date of the grant expiration so we just want as much time as we might need to ensure that we've got the work done so we did modify the date and then uh we did update Exhibit C which is that list of items that the city negotiated with e talk wanted to provide some more detail within that exhibit just Clarity so that everyone kind of knows what who's doing what and um and and what these uh this direct purchase is going towards um there is one potential technical item that we're still working out and that is um e talk has many properties they don't always have the same legal Name Across each one so I did ask that question of the City attorney to double check that and so he's going to do that so if there is um say something from EO Company Inc to e talk Inc or something like that we do want to be able to make those revisions as needed per Tom's Direction um but he's still confirming that so that we can present the right documents to the county so uh with that the total purchase price for the easements required for this go tril project um is $63,750 no all right do we have a motion I so move second I'll second I am not going to vote on this okay any additional discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I I okay motion carries okay next under new business is the recommendation from the liquor committee uh related to selling THC products and this is just specifically within the City properties so the pickle and Spirits correct yes are there any questions or comments Madam sorry no go ahead I was gonna make a motion you might say the same thing I so go I'll make a motion to uh uh approve the recommendation from the liquor committee regarding selling th products I'll second not sell them yeah I'll second okay any discussion they still are going to put in correct for the possibility of future if I understood that correctly we do have the paperwork with the state so we do have the ability right but wanted to ask the question of the council here yeah but yes that can be changed in the future okay any additional discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I okay motion carries um next is the recommendation from the liquor committee re the pickle improvements and Jenny would you mind just speaking to this one yeah certainly uh so the liquor committee did meet um a couple of weeks ago and we reviewed the financial analysis that was provided by pfm our financial advisers and upon review of that and discussion with pfm um that Terry and I had following the initial review of the the information it became clear that a new build for the pickle is is likely not realistic at this time just due to their financial um situation I would say that the the business is running well there are certainly improvements and opportunities that can be captured um but based on the current transfer that the pickle does make to the city general fund budget um and some of the capital funds that have been put away there's not additional money available for um a significant Bond payment if we were to construct a new building so the committee discussed uh modifying that approach and looking at what opportunities we might have to remodel the building and identify the priorities for that and then trying to work through that at a smaller scale project uh potentially using some Reserve funds that the liquor fund does have currently and then potentially working with a local bank to um you know create a small loan in in that in that way to you know bring in some local business and also um keep that you know debt payment low so with this then we we talked about the city hall remodel project and that we're currently using the gordian process um to help uh streamline that opportunity to really engage the local contractors to start to develop that priority list of needs for the building um and that's where the liquor committee landed tonight is to bring a recommendation to the council that we would engage wood Seth to identify a scope of work and uh professional Design Services proposal similar to what Mike angland brought to the council for the city hall remodel project utilizing that gordian process so we can work directly with some local contractors to uh identify those improvements needed at the pickle so what this would do essentially is uh wood Seth would develop a proposal bring back to the council in February for your consideration before any work or anything is needed so you can see what scope would be needed to to kind of initiate that project is that a fa summary that's great summary any any questions for I think in the past didn't Tom look at some of the things that might have to be done I think that's going to be very the cost no matter what we do is going to be seven figures that's just my opinion correct I mean we've already talked about this years past and PR has already put together a preliminary estimate that outweighs the uh the viability of remodeling that 50y old building so why are we taking a run at this again this is just a waste of money in my opinion I guess I was on the liquor committee for two years we've talked about this extensively and there is no you know I guess back to Mike French if the business isn't going to make money why are we holding on to it we could rent that property out and we could have less risk liability and make a more of a profit on our bottom line by just renting it out today than looking at hiring wsn to go in there and do the scope Tom has already done this for free for us and we already know the project like like uh Mark said we already know that it's way over seven figures just to bring it up the code so what are we doing you know a the question is not if we should or shouldn't remodel that building it's are we going to turn it into a viable business that's going to make this city money or are we going to get rid of the risk liability and overhead are we going to lease it out or we going to knock it down form a new business plan that does make viable revenue for the city but remodeling it isn't even one of the current options I mean you know Tom sitting right here I mean he can speak to the dollar amount that he saw you know I agree with what Mark just said that's we've already determined that years ago a year ago we had a proposal for $50,000 to figure this out we voted it down over we voted that down over a year ago so to come up with this again I just question what are we doing I'm not I am in no way in favor of this we are just throwing money away we already know how expensive it's going to be we already know some of the issues I mean if people want to know we can ask Tom he's sitting right here I guess that's one I think we need to pickle because it's a thing you need it to make money though right and I agree and and that's something that I mean when I came on we started looking at the need for like you said run as a business for the owners um I just want to know what Jess what was committee looking at when when when this came up looking at the numbers yeah we're looking at the dollars that's that it's bringing in um love the aspect of thinking that some's going to fetch 2030 net that's let's be realistic here this is the real world I don't know on what business that gentleman was Mr French was referring to but founde thing but but I'm talking when I got on to that liquor committee that net was one and a half% and think it was like 1.2% at at the the net profit it was at versus the overall uh Revenue gross revenue looking at the dollar amount that it's going to potentially take to build a new one even factoring in a revenue Bond the appetite I would say since we were last you and I were last on the committee was looking at where we're at for year end and it's pre- audited financials to understand there is a need for a a minimum XYZ list of upgrades to that building if that route was to be explored if you were to build a new Pickle Factory the numbers don't exactly justify being able to go down that road it also warrants your other point of why are we in this business if we're not making money that totally understand that from a me being a business owner I get that you get that right it has this cultural piece to the city of Nisswa where the Pickle Factory is just that it's the Pickle Factory folks coming in to this town that are either full-time residents part-timers or they're just going through 371 we all kind of agreed they like the Ambiance of the grease stink in there feel bad for the folks that are working in there we owe it to them to improve it but what's the doll the greatest dollar impact that we can help the folks that we're employing through the city that are running that business the bottom line has been improving year over-year at least for the past three years since since I've been on this Council seeing the data closely um I think it can continue to Trend in the better Direction I would like to see a full-blown scope of work that at a minimum basis is required to get that building one up to code and two that I think will help give us the better Clarity of okay we've pulled the Band-Aid off how bad how badly infected is this wound now we need to make make the decision are we going to amputate or are we going to try to surgically repair this so on a high level I would say hopefully that and the and the decision in the liquor committee was made based on only two paths right build a new building or remodel the existing building so when we were faced with those two paths based on the financials building a new building is not it's not an option it's not an option at all but the bigger the larger problem is and council member Hall mentioned this and on is this business isn't it's it and Mike French said it it's not making any money I mean to to sell 1.5 million to only flow through 109,000 to the bottom line I mean I can't tell you how many times I've been at the pickle and people are saying oh yeah I come here and buy drinks because I'm lowering my property taxes and I'm looking at them like um not really like you're really not to be honest so so we need this business either needs to like I said I'm meeting with Terry tomorrow we were going to sit down and go through 2025 and start building an actual business plan and revenue targets for each month and figure out can we cut cost and places can we actually get this place to make some money so if we're going to sell 1.5 million can we get this 109 up to 350 300 or 350 next year right so there's a couple things going on at the same time Mike French was was correct in his 30% yeah I know for a fact Nationwide liquor stores if they're not making 20% they close the doors the their profit margin is 20 to 30% but this is a good start going there I don't um well the question is not do we remodel or do we build a new building the question is what can we do to actually improve the health of business yes remove the remove the building out of it we got to look at the health of the business when Jesse and I were on a couple years ago I mean the there had been no increase in two to three years with that business over the highest period of inflation in the nation's history and we hadn't raised our prices just prices were being matched to a place down the and so back to Mike's thing it has not and i' and everyone that's been in the liquor committee and this is definitely no knock on the management but a manager is not an owner there has not been an owner that has been directing ownership decisions within that business and that's where a as a council need to step in that ownership role and either we can put together a guideline and criteria for future council members to carry that on or we close it down and it's not an emotional decision I mean it's a business decision sure the Pickle's been around for everyone everyone has the sweatshirts you know whatever they'll be tear shed over that but this is a dollar and cense thing we got to make the business healthy and then we talk about remodel building or whatever but right now we got to focus on the business not the building right and I say I I would like first step business plan yes um I'd like to see how it goes for 2025 I I don't want to step on anybody's toes or committees are there but is that something the council want us to look yeah us just you know we we'll start the business practices with you and and and uh councilman Zan and just see how that goes but I mean we know it's going to be pricey no matter what we do um it's it's a stapled in this La it's something we in my opinion we need to keep but it has to do better it is doing better than it was from when I came on from when Jesse came on Joe came on but it's our job to make do better too it's not you know Terrier whatever it's it's up to these five people right here to make these decisions and tough decisions to improve the health of it then let's talk about all the construction later I'm all for expectations and accountability if there's a if somebody tells me a Target or mayor carahan a Target hit 20 to 30% net we're going to get with Terry and we're going to come up with an idea to go hit 20 to 30% net three years ago I'm talking 1 point five net was where it was and it's starting to Trend in a better Direction go up yeah but there's a lot of room to go absolutely additionally though I don't know Jenny has the pfm financial Resorts been relay to the rest of the council they're in the packet of course they are um and it's very detailed I'm happy to sit down with anyone because there I mean it's a lot to it is I went through it there is one line in there in particular in regards to the situation that the city would be due to a pickle renovation either or even new building a dollar for dooll line of the ratio for the bond that would put long term how it would go backwards and the data is pretty straightforward it's pretty straightforward so if you're looking for a reason as to why we got to this point scale back the idea just like what we just did with the downtown M plan committee we know that there's some immediate things that we have to do can't stay continually stagnant because it has been one of those things where it's not it is a dollar decision but there's a lot of individuals in this room and outside of this room that view that place maybe differently than us sitting up here do they go there for their happy hour they go there for watching their uh prices right um it's just a part of I go there I'll be there tomorrow night after hockey with through the pickle pond hockey league it's just it's one of those things and uh we want to be diligent with it because it's kind of that pop culture icon of city and iswa we don't what else do we got I mean no offense to anything else but we got a lot of things but I'm talking I'm talking actual Center Hub that's been there that the city owns the city of nisah owns and uh honestly if if it can crank out 203% net and we got the management and the Personnel to be able to help drive that right I'm all for being behind that momentum but um even at a break even to five even 7 and half 10% that's still money going back to the tax base that's going against what the Le it's contributing to the levy on an annual basis yeah and I I think we can fix it and I think there's a lot of areas to Improvement and I think you know I would say let's focus the next year on that and the numbers will be different yeah let's do this um like I said I'm I have a meeting in way on the books with Terry tomorrow just to kick off the process for building the the plan the sales plan for 2025 so if it's okay I'll initiate that process with him we'll come back to the liquor committee and then again maybe at our February Retreat we can have a first draft of that plan for the council for everyone to review give input and see if we can't get these numbers to be much better than they currently are I think we can and then we'd be in a better situation and then we can just halt on this motion for tonight and and revisit this you know or revisit the forward state of the pickle um at a later date does that work for everybody yep okay good um all right next on the agenda is the recommendation to authorize bids for the Gull Lake Trail 4B project um Amber yes good evening thank you um you have some information in your packet it's not the full plan set um I did bring a copy here it's weighing down a chair um so in your packet you have the um advertisement authorize the bidding as well as the engineers opion of cost um that does come in under what we have for grant funding so that's a good first sign um also in your packet it outlines some of the grant information um um we awarded $855,000 with a matching of $80,000 um and has to be completed by June 30th 2026 so between Bill and myself we'd be happy to answer questions any questions and just for Council Clarity that so once bids are opened then it's presented back to the council the results for before you then would accept any bids so this is just to initiate that process do we have a motion I so move I'll make a motion to authorize bids for Gold Lake Trail 4B project as presented second any additional discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I motion carries thank you thank you okay next is Planning and Zoning um chapter 20 ordinance Amendment draft good evening thank you um um so this month here in January we had presented a draft amendment to chapter 20 um city has been engaged with Christopher Pence um to come up with some Renditions to the ordinance we're lifting the conditional approval that we have from the DNR um some of the elements are to adopt Bea flood plane regulations and to Define and clarify the plan development District so we added a bunch of um uses and standards to the tables in chapter 20 related to the PDD and also some FEMA flood plane regulations the to become compliant with the DNR in the state um we also had some general housekeeping clarifications that were in there um conflicting language adjustments that we struck or clarified um happy to answer any questions as it relates to the highlighted additions I don't any questions BR so the action then would be to set the public hearing for February 4th if we don't need to have that action so just as long as we just describe the the process so where when the public hearing will take place okay which will be at the Planning Commission at the plan commission and then final and then final ordinance adoption in March right February right for this one oh yeah February sorry yeah so just an F just an FYI for the council tonight plan a public hearing will happen at Planning Commission with final presentation to the council in February okay thank you thank you just comment you know as we move forward a lot of changes will be coming I think just let the council know on ordinances or on ordinances yeah just trying to clean it up just continue what Bethany started but you're gonna see this monthly some some don't J I mean you can you can't just FY very good um next is the request from Spirits the spirits of niswa for a step advancement for Kelly Walker I know Brian is not here tonight so is there any he's not this is a standard request one there's a new key holder um request uh that he has that that person um be given an a new step and then mayor k hand I make a motion to approve the AC the request from Spirits in this while regarding accept advancement for employee Kelly Walker I'll second very good any discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I motion carry Bruce is always so fast on his Gonzalez okay next is approve the 2025 uh budget transfers these are standard uh transfers incorporated into our 25 budget uh mayor carer I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 budget transfer as presented we have a second a second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I okay motion carries and then number 11 is the approve the 2025 audit engagement letter I had a question on that may yeah uh there's a 12.3% increase on the year-over-year cost did they give any explanation when the fee schedule was presented they did not what I can tell you is that it is extremely difficult uh to find an auditor to do Financial State for governments these days they are in short supply um so our auditor has for the last um three or four years done an annual renewal typically we've had a two or threee renewal but that's reflective of just the market maret right now um so they don't have as many people doing the work so it is challenging uh we are stuck a bit with the numbers as they are but I don't believe a lot of audit firms are taking new government clients right now and so uh well it's not ideal I don't know we have lot place from Texas call it hog tide or hog tide yeah there's really no other options they're well I would say not for for this year's audit I of course right but I mean certainly you could entertain an RFP and see what you get for response that's certainly an option if the council would like to do that in the spring or the summer I I would be in favor of that due to this double digit increase any client of mine would be alarmed by double digit increase you over year so if the council was inclined to accept this for 2024 and then authorize I could bring an RFP back sometime maybe May for review and then we can initiate that process yeah do we we need a motion though still on this yes so I would say just what I stated if someone wants to make a motion for those two items I'll make a motion to accept the 2024 audit engagement letter as presented and to initiate a 2025 RFP for set engagement second any additional discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I okay motion carries um next number 12 is the memo regarding the 2026 budget scenarios so in this one um we were talking about like as we look at the budget for 2026 having the Departments approach the council with three different scenarios uh 10% decrease a flat to cost of living increase only or you know kind of the The Grandmaster wish list so that it would give the council a chance to view the budget opportunities in their entirety for now next year so we perhaps don't get into a situation where it comes out publish this double digit increase that it's much higher than our surrounding communities and then it causes a lot of consternation and angst so if we do the work up front um so that's essentially what this memo is well I will say most of the Departments are running on a pretty pretty slim um can we say up to 10% yeah okay that's fine I think it's I think it's a great initiative to try absolutely why not so one just brief um comment I did receive um was for the council to also think about um let's just say if even if a budget reduction is presented as an example does that meet the goal of the council so what are the council's overall goals would help the staff also with then aligning our budgets to to meet that so y just some feedback but otherwise yes we can certainly work on this good do we have a motion I'll make a motion to accept the 2026 budget scenarios as presented do we have a second second any additional discussion I think back to Jenny's point about overall counil Target do you have one in mind I know you do 5% s and a half 10% it'd be nice to have a reduction absolutely just just a reduction but to give some clarity to to the city staff if we all have something in mind of a yeah of a five maybe we can too at The Retreat have a deeper discussion about it because then it gives a little more time to be thoughtful about looking through past budgets and whatnot right okay okay any additional discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I motion carries okay item 13 approve the Minnesota pea clerical contract for January 1st through December 20 31st 2025 is there any I'll move all right no second any discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I motion carries and lastly under new business approve the RFP for labor and employment legal services so this draft RFP uh is uh the City attorney um prepared the draft and I helped him with some of the details ensuring some of the specifics for uh what the labor and employment uh requirements would be needed from um an attorney um and so pretty standard RFP uh we would recommend that we would uh put an ad advertisement in the paper for that and seek interest from qualified firms and then present that um at a future meeting I believe there's a timeline certainly can be adjusted but uh just a proposed sequence of of steps to work through the process to review the proposals and then um conduct interviews as necessary and then present in a a contract to the council that was my only question that I had actually was on the interviews who would be conducting the interviews for this would it be the Personnel commit believe that is what is included in here let me see um I think I provided for initial review would occur with the city attorney um and myself but then the Personnel committee would conduct the interviews and present a recommendation to the council any additional discussion do we have a motion I'll move second all right all those in favor signify by saying I I I okay motion carries um old business first item is approve the letter of support for the rebuilding American infrastructure with sustainability and Equity so the raise Grant application for mindat and the cro and Crowing County for the 371 Corridor and Jenny I'll let you give some com additional commentary perfect um thank you mayor carahan so um as the council might remember this topic came before you at the December council meeting um that there was a Grant application that was being worked on um to be submitted uh by the end of this month here in January um at the time we didn't have a lot of detail as far as specific intersections within thisa and things like that to kind of accompany the request for support so the council tabled that item to bring back tonight uh we do have Representatives here from mindat and Bolton and bank that could certainly answer specific questions um but I did also provide um an email to the council uh the County Board did meet on this twice once at the end of the at the end of December and once in early January and the presentation from Tim Bray the um County engineer was really well done and provided a lot of the overview so if you didn't have a chance to look at uh or listen to that meeting um some of the some of the high points um really that it speaks to the um croing County comprehensive plan um that the transportation section identifies a lot of sustained occurrences of fatal and serious crashes on the state highway system within croing County and this raise Grant application is focusing on those safety Improvement needs that need to be sort of kind of one level improved and not creating a lot of new um intersections or adjustments at that point it's trying to address um crash rates and things like that uh niswa has a handful of intersections that certainly are of concern and have been monitored for the last couple of years as the council knows uh we have been working with mot over the last 18 months on the corridor study that complements this raise Grant application um as I noted the near-term improvements uh will focus on safety priorities um that could potentially also incorporate some new message boards specifically in that Gull Lake Area to warn motorists when there's um inclement weather and things like that that they need to be aware of um like that blowing snow accident that we had a couple of years ago um the Grant application is based on Concepts at this time so there's some some dialed in Concepts but the application will include multiple concepts for some of the intersections and so nothing is final approved if the funding is awarded then there is an extensive process that will take place with mindat to engage our local communities to engage the city council about furthering those Concepts and refining them um the application deadline as I mentioned is the end of this month notice of award would occur around the June July time frame uh with construction likely to occur in that 2028 29 time frame those are kind of estimates at this point but that gives you a rough idea uh the Grant application will be submitted to cover 100% of that project cost which is 25 million uh there will be a request for that full amount because there is an area of persistent poverty got it right uh within this Corridor study which then allows this application to be submitted without a local match so that's a good reason to you know to to use that we will able to have that opportunity sometimes grants have that 8020 or 9010 match um requirement um this is again conceptual um provided some of the um intersection detail in your packet we have representatives from indot if you have specific questions but really it's just a letter of support to say we'd like to apply and see what happens and we'll go from there yeah I think we definitely want to apply and see what happens um will this also address some of the backage roads in too as part of this concept or as part of it will not no no so the city can then start to let's say funding is awarded then that would be for us to start to say okay how do we align those projects um and which ones are priorities to connect some of these improvements with our own local goals and needs for that yeah because some of the intersections can't be shut off without going hand inand with the backage road so also too yeah we just want to calculate what that expense would be because I would think theage roads would actually surpass the expense of just cutting off these accesses on 371 where the cost would potentially be greater to the city if this if these funds can't be used for that does that make sense it makes sense I mean it's it's it's I guess it's the delineation between where the cut off is from the highway the highway access to then the backage or County Roads I mean it's it's a it's a continuous piece of pavement where that cut off would be I think would give a little bit better Clarity and then we can I if this Project's not going till 28 29 Construction window you got some Road bonds that'll be in that same window too you can match to see where those specific roads would be in comparison to this infrastructure project and maybe we adjust to be able to make it a continuous construction process so there's not one intersection or one area that's being worked on two different projects on a backtack construction cycle MH so just it's a broader discussion well yeah now also too I mean I don't know what our current negotiation is with them but years past you know four or five years ago when this was talked about it was talked about okay we'll give you this but you give us that kind of off compromise we'll shut this intersection off but you're going to help fund the backage roads and I won't want to take our negotiation also away with mot on doing that because we got a grant to shut these off and they're like okay you know I I don't want this I think we should still apply for it but also I don't want it to shoot ourselves in a foot by not by not uh improving on what we need to have done in these areas just from the meetings I've sat in here with mot stuff on over the years and the the question I asked today because we met with mot was what happens if we don't get the grant right right and I'm not going to articulate it correctly what you guys said but that there were three different tiers like tier one tier two and tier three with along the corridor of how they would be prioritized not everything necessarily needs to be done at once and that there are some potential State dollars in different buckets as well so because I wanted an understanding of that because I feel like with a change in administration right you never know how politics can come into play with how grants might go out around the country so yeah I think give it a shot though and see what happens and find out more information so do we have a motion I so move second any further discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I I motion carries okay the last under old business is the recommendation from the Planning Commission so for the 2025 meeting date Stephen hello again thank you um so following the meeting last month in regards to the Planning Commission uh calendar uh pertinent to public hearings I did some research comparative analysis into neighboring municipalities and their timelines for um their deadlines to submit an application sample average that I found was 29.5 days prior to the public hearing date the niswa 2025 proposal was 32 days prior which is five Fridays before the Tuesday hearing um that average is slightly higher but we're talking in a matter of weeks I've had conversation with uh council member Hall regarding you know an alternative maybe being four Fridays prior um I brought it before my commission again just as a notification that the motion did get T tabled from city council last month um provided this information to them and asked if they would um seek to change their recommendation they affirmed that they wanted to see it stay at five Fridays before and just kind of looking for a motion to set the deadline I guess see if there's Council input on such a topic so I recommend four you know just move it up like um Steve and I had even talked earlier today you know he'll work with whatever we set but you know in the summertime it's short and window period of time um you know so the notion of five Fridays before really leads um 12 days of lead time that's calendar days before the application dead for me to work with the applicant say there's an element missing like a certificate of survey or information on the survey that it makes that survey incomplete that allows me some lead time then to work with the either the surveyor the applicant whoever the authorized agent is on the public hearing to shore up on those elements prior to putting notice out in the paper um if there's anything unforeseen then it's a matter of you know mitigating risk on you know say I put a notice out in the paper that didn't contain all of the complete ask that was going to be reviewed at the public hearing and then we missed that publication deadline for that public hearing now we've abled effectively prevented that application from being heard at public hearing so um more lead time is beneficial but if it's the goal of the community to make the process more expeditious happy to entertain that so also one of the things I express too when somebody comes and turns in an application and uh Stephen goes through it and let's say that um there's a certain format between a surveyor and a house plan or something that needs put on one document and stuff that that is not a condition to hold up the process for moving forward yes um you know most time you're working with professional Architects Engineers surveyors to get this stuff done and that the application come in you know and to kind of say okay you know bring this back to me by next week and put these two page pieces of paper together on one um that I want to that is the way that it has been done by past employees in this position in the city and seems to work well be responsive by Professionals in the industry getting these permits and I don't want that to be a holdup now going ahead to like I say keep that ball rolling if that makes sense what I'm saying in the permit process some of that topic may be pertinent to um chapter 20's ordinance phrasings for minimum submission requirements so that would be um maybe taking a look at the language there to make sure that it's on par with the expectation um guess at this point we're just talking dates for the current ordinance and then we can talk about you know ordinance revisions as as it pertains means to those submission requirements and what's what those required elements are so right now kind of employing some best professional judgment on does it make sense to capture this a little bit after the fact and that's happy to accommodate but want to keep process at the Forefront as well keep everyone above board I'm in favor of four that's what it had been in the past it was between four and five I think we were setting it to the first Friday so some months it was four Fridays some once it was five Fridays the ones there it was four may have felt a little bit more rushed by the planner at the time I guess I only have a short window looking back so you have a motion then Joe or sure I'll make a motion that we do it for four Fridays I'll second that do we have questions discussion from other council members comments no okay all those in favor signify by saying I I motion carries you got this thank you okay Council reports I just have a a quick one um I want to thank everyone on staff fellow council members on the residence for your support as I've onboard onboarded into this new role it's only been a couple weeks but everybody's help has uh been tremendously appreciated um and as I reflect on the first few weeks and kind of the short-term goals that I have for myself new in this role I just wanted to share kind of four key things so one improving communication and transparency so partnering with City staff to create a detailed plan for enhancing how we communicate to Residents um including potentially launching a city newsletter expanding social media outreach and doing things for real-time updates which would come before the council at a later date for consideration um increasing Community engagement we already did this within our organizational meeting of adding two town halls and being more collaborative together with our two Council Retreats and then additionally um I'm seeking to work out of the city a couple half days a week here and there to do open hours for anybody that wants to come in and talk about anything um educate me as well and then just learning in collaboration I'm really trying to make a concentrated effort to build relationships with staff within the community uh with other Municipal leaders and network and attend as many trainings as possible so that I'm educated and get up to speed on the best practices uh following all of the regulations and having effective governance and then just planning for the future so laying groundwork uh for long-term goals including responsible growth and ensuring fiscal sustainability as we look to 2026 and Beyond so thank you all I do appreciate it and that's all I have for my report and I'll go to the rest of the council for any reports or updates and I'll start with you council member fre I don't any updates or anything I just want to say one thing um if I send an email to staff that email is between that staff member myself and I get a little torqued when that staff member lets the rest of the staff know what that private email was about that's all I'm going to say thank you council member London do you have any okay Council memb on I have nothing at this time all right council member Hall yeah I guess uh maybe one thing I have you know for the Personnel committee is I would like to look at the role of City administrator um within the city council and then also to the uh the role of um you know a clerk position like the city had prior to the city of administrator position I'd like the um Personnel committee to take a look at that and then kind of report back to the council you know just looking for any um efficiencies updates um cost savings anything with that area and then um be discussed um as a group probably in February at at our um town hall meeting but first start there and just get some conversations going with the um Personnel committee I guess is what I'd like to look at doing so you're saying you want to eliminate this city administ your position no I'm just saying look at what that all entails how that's set up um and just do a deep dive into that also to look at how that was set up versus the clerk position before the city was here and do a deep dive I'm not saying eliminate either one but as a group and a whole you know since I've been on it's been done one way and I want to learn about the different ways um to do it to run a city look for cost savings um if there would be any and then also efficiency um just well I will tell you one thing right now is uh with what city of nisah goes through what we're looking at the complexities of it um that's why municipalities to get a city administrator to do that um unless you're thinking that they need help in the clerk in the administration side I'm just looking at it as a whole and and how it's set up I'm just you know I'm just looking to learn more I'm not saying that this is any sort of decision making thing more of an information gathering um for myself and other council members to be brought up to speed on uh one of the things in the Personnel committee you know just looking at it you know let's take the fire chief position you know tonight looking at it same way okay the the Emergency Management stuff was done here should it be done over here by the fire chief looking at it all the way across the board and having a better understanding of what all the roles complexities are in this area so for for each area and um Department you know just kind of doing a deep dive into it and like I say coming back to council and saying this is what I found out this is what I know um I'm not I'm not disagreeing I'm not saying one way or the other but I think um so you just sir you recommending that we do that with all the Departments yeah just looking you know um one one of the goals that I have and i' I've spoke with uh mayor um about this is one of our things is to meet with every staff every department head and kind of do a deep dive into how it looks what we can do better and streamline yeah in streamline stuff and one of the things you know for the council to talk about is you know is the role um with City administrator and um you know how that's currently working um how it's worked in the past you know are there any streamlined stuff you know as we continue uh to progress with different stuff you know get into the grants uh more funding you know what are the other roles needs you know two years three years five years down down the road and just kind of starting that process of looking into looking into it as we are you know that's what same thing that's what we me about with the police chief today you know what how's that going to work how is how did it work in the past what are we going to do different you know same thing with with public works that'll be you know another one to come up you know currently we have Public Works committee you know my personal opinion on that is that would go away and we'd go back to you know having a couple liaison there but we want to take and do a deep dive into each one and I just like to start at the top and then go down through and like I say as the being on the person Alchemy then we'd come back to the council and share this is um what we found here's maybe areas of improvement that we can do and go from there so just you know letting everybody know you know that would be one of the things you any feedback but that' be one of the things for the Personnel committee that I'd like to look at doing I think that's a good idea you know time management accountability and just have a better understanding of what's going on do we need a motion I don't know I'm just saying I don't Tom shaking his head no you would need a motion to do it deep dive into that just something you look into and then you come back and say okay this is what this is how we can do this and that you wouldn't need a motion it's just more transparent on Personnel committee that's one of my goals starting a new year out that I'd like to do and start going through everyone I mean we can sit here and talk about every area Department you know that we want to go through but I just want to start from the top and go down through and look at it and report back to everybody so I guess that's what I have for tonight okay anything else from anyone all right then last on here is announcements and upcoming meeting dates which are listed and then a motion to adjourn would be in order I so move second all right um all those in favor signify by saying I I all right the meeting is adjourned