--------- said he might be running hot, but uh he said he was going to be here. >> All right. Thank you. Let's call the workshop to order. 5:15. Roll call, please. Council member Nordby is absent. Council member Woods >> here. >> Council member McKenzie
>> here. >> Council member Schweer is absent. Mayor Mongi >> here. Thank you very much. I had a motion to adopt agenda, please. So move. Council member McKenzie. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you very much. It's all you.
>> All right. Well, we got one topic on the agenda tonight. It's discussion about the RFP solid waste and recycling collection services. I wanted to put a special thanks out to Ken Roberts, our community development director, and um Dan Winnick, our finance director that really organized a lot of this um put
all this together this evening for you. Um but they've also had good help with uh Christian, uh Barbsman, and Terry, Taylor Lily. So, thanks to all them and all the work they put into this. And um I will turn it over to Dan.
>> Good evening, mayor and city council member. Uh tonight we're going to discuss uh get you up to speed on where we're at with uh the RFP on the solid waste and recycling collection services. Um we've taken a little bit of a pause before we interview u short list and
interview um some of the vendors that uh we've received proposals from because we really want and value your input and so we'd like to get that. But before we start, kind of want to say a little good news um regarding our solid waste. Um
and a lot of this credit, well, all of the credit goes to our council members and to our city manager. Um you know, we we constantly are are hearing that our rates are going up or our property taxes are going up. Our solid waste rates have
not gone up since 2020. They have remained the same. Matter of fact, when we went out for an RFP in 2019, um we actually reduced our rates into 2020 and we've kept them there all the
way through. kind of a value of of doing a financial plan that we've been doing with all of our funds and you know whether it's the general fund or enterprise funds is that we looked at the solid waste. We had fund balance and
even though we've been taking a loss um the last three years we still have fund balance in there which which has enabled us not to change the rates at all. good news, even better, is that these RFPs have come in with very good proposals
and very good um rates that there's a heck of a great chance that we will not be having to um raise our rates at least for a few years. Um but part of it's going to be dependent on on what you see as needs for our residents um in the
city. Um and we're going to kind of tell you what we learned through the RFPs as we went through them. Um, and so kind of want to get you up to speed where we're at. And then it's really to get discussion, uh, to get your input, um, because this is going to be valuable for
us to, um, come up with the questions, um, that we're going to be asking the vendors, um, and then incorporate those ideas and thoughts into the contract itself that we'll be bringing forth to you later on this year.
So, the purpose tonight is to update the city council on the request for proposals um and to see seek direction on key elements to the city council would like to see in that final contract before we do the interviews and negotiate with the uh negotiate the contract. Now, we've got some key
elements. You may have others. Um don't, you know, please add other elements that you saw. We just, you know, as going through the RFPs, we saw some different themes. um that we thought were kind of interesting and kind of want to feel um
city council to find out if if the sense is that we should really pursue those and if so, you know, if there's a cost associated, you know, should we um uh you know, what would be kind of the limit on the cost component to it so we have some sort of guidance when we get
into the negotiations. Um so what has been done? Um Ken Roberts has done the the bulk of all of this. He's been the project manager on on this project and has done an absolutely excellent job. Uh you've already heard
uh from our city manager. Uh Chris, myself, Barb, and and Taylor have all participated. They've been the standing committee as we we've worked through this. Uh we work with and I always get their name wrong, so correct me.
FA FO in um is a consultant that's through Ramsey County. Um the city does not pay um for this consultant. Ramsey County does um they have a lot of expertise in developing RFPs for um you know garbage
haulers. Um and so they've done they've been excellent to work with and and very helpful um in our process in developing the RFP and the timeline um for uh getting a a contract um so we can get it back in front of city council. Um at the
end of last year, city council adopted a motion approving the draft of the request for proposals and um we uh then got that out um for uh public uh uh advertisement um with a deadline of
September uh February 13th um for submitts. We're very pleased to tell you that we received seven proposals um which was quite quite good for for this and again u we did receive uh the
market is is very good at this point in time. We did receive um some very good proposals as far as cost is concerned. Um the committee independently reviewed and scored each one of the seven proposals on a scale of 1 to 10. Uh the
categories were qualifications, economic and price, um community values, past performance, and value added plans. Um the staff at FA Consultants tabulated the committee scores and they also completed a comparison of the base
proposals um for cost by doing a weighted percentage scoring for each of the seven proposals. These are the results of those seven um proposals. None of the vendor names are being shown because we're too early in
the process. It's not public information at this point in time. It's really to get the input from city council. So, they're labeled A through G. And you can see that there's a a weighted percentage. Um on the bottom there's points and then there's the weighted
percentage. You can see the top score is an 8.9 followed by a 7.99, 7.44 44 and so forth all the way down to 6.31. If we look at the second line, economics and price,
you can see the first vendor had a points of 9.3, the second had a 10 and the rest of them fall off pretty dramatically in comparison. Um there is a formula that uh VA used um to
um calculate the score for cost um where they take uh the cost minus the the minimum cost of all the costs and they prorrate it over from a 10 being the the the high uh the lowest price five points being the the highest price of the
proposals and again the RFP contained a lot of different pricing um for you know it it's got uh yard, you know, yard waste. It's got the recycling component, it's got the garbage at different um levels, it's got dumpsters and so forth.
Um and so after you see after A and B, you see quite a significant drop off. Um one of the things that you know we kind of would like to have um city council's input on is when we move to the interview stage in the negotiation
component to it. negotiation would be with the the one company that we choose after the interviews, but we we really feel as a committee that we should only select the top two just because of that price component to it. Um and then when
we get into these key elements, those are going to be questions that we would like to be asking um the two vendors that we select for interviews and find out where they're at for pricing. Some of some of them have included pricing
for some of these different options, some did not. But because this is an RFP, we do have the right to be able to try to negotiate those um and incorporate those within the contract. Um so kind of put you on the spot right
away. Are you in agreement that we just interview the top two just because of the big fall off? one in overall scoring and two pricing. >> Yes, for that >> I would I would say so. Yes.
>> I do have a couple of questions if >> Sure. >> Yep. Now okay, time for questions. >> Absolutely. >> Um so what is so value added plan? What is considered value added plan? >> Well, you know, one of the pieces that we had a theme throughout the the proposal was um like bulk pickup.
>> Okay. for those additional things that you know that are further not farther down but also included in here the questions for us about bulk pickup you know the app things like that those are part of the value added plan >> exactly okay >> yeah and you know we were really trying to go you know I mean
>> uh in my time here at the the city that um spring cleanup the bulk pickup has has been something that continuously comes up for dialogue and and my understanding is in the past that there used to be uh a bulk pickup um that was
provided um part of the the you know the garbage rate itself and that went away. So you know we really wanted to hear give us some inventive ideas how how do you handle it? What what would work? What wouldn't work? Um and we were kind
of in certain ways disappointed that not all of the vendors really provided that value added and you can see the scores kind of reflect that different component to it. But again, this being an RFP that if our city council, if you have that desire that we should have a bulk pick
up and we've got a question that, you know, we'll get into more of a dialogue um and get your input that we can bring that up and we can negotiate that component to it. Um and so um that's what the value added component was um
that we were trying to get at one of them. We did learn some other things that uh companies are offering um which we found very interesting and so we want to share those too and get your input onto it. >> Um the results of the staff scoring and
waiting um kind of just went through it and again it shows those two proposals that are the highest um and so really kind of want to make sure that we move forward um you know and kind of uh isolate those those two. Now, even
though we move forward with those two, if something just doesn't work with them, we can always reach back. And that's part of the reason why there's no names at this point in time. Um, and it's really, you know, kind of uh at this point, it's it's not public
information um until we actually come to city council with a contract and then we'll give you the information at that point in time. So, the next steps that we have is, you know, that we're going to select vendors to interview, and it sounds like we'll we'll do the top two. Um, we're going to
try to schedule those out in the next couple of weeks. Um, then we're going to negotiate terms of the contract, including the key elements, part of our discussion tonight, and we're going to finalize the contract, and then we're going to bring it to um the city
council. We're we're shooting the bring the contract in June. um that will allow um you know if a new vendor is selected three months for that new vendor to be able to um be prepared to start on September 1st of this year um because
the other contract ends at the end of August. Now getting into kind of the discussion components to it. one of the components that came across and we had a number of vendors that um offered this up
currently today. Um the city staff um is providing our residents with that customer service. So they're the first call. Um if there's issues that happen like somebody missed a you know that a resident missed a pickup, we end up
having to contact the vendor. we end up playing that middle middle role um to it which you know I you know many times creates frustrations for our resident that they're waiting for this middle person you know or the middle person
waiting for some sort of a response. There were a couple of vendors that said that they they would take over the customer service. Um, and so we're really trying to find out what the, you know, what is the city's, you know, city council's desire. Do you want to see,
you know, um, the vendor take over the customer service component to it? We would still retain the billing. And part of the reason for that billing is because, again, we haven't done we haven't changed the rates since 2020. We don't anticipate that we'll need at this
point in time. You know, again, it'll flush out when we do the final negotiations. um and depending on what key elements are selected, but we don't plan on increasing the rate. Um but we want to be able to have control over that that rate so we're not seeing it raise, you
know, raised artificially and we have no knowledge of it. Um so we would still do the billing there. there would be um uh you know language put into the contract um to make sure that they're they're meeting our standards um that there's
good communication back because if they when we get to the bulk pickup if bulk pickup was done the same way today um they would be contacting the the vendor for that pickup but we would end up having to know what those charges are so we could put it on the bill and so
forth. So, there's a lot of coordination that needs to to go through. Now, even if they do take over customer service, we're always going to end up, you know, playing a role into it. Um, we're, you know, you you're a resident, the first call you're going to go to is going to
be to the city when it comes to the utilities because, you know, you know, you're you're providing the bill. Um, we would hope that this alleviates some of the confusion for our residents. Um, but it's really to ask the city council,
what do you think of that as an option? >> Do we do we know what the volume of calls currently looks like? >> You know, uh, you know, we had invited all of the committee to be here. um Barb
who um is our utility coordinator um kind of of the calls that we get um there's usually about 20% of the calls are usually related to some sort of garbage whether it's a mis call whether it's a bulk pickup and so forth. Um, so
the there there are a number of calls that that do come in and then, you know, it doesn't end just there because then we end up having to send something, you know, via email or calling to the to the vendor because they're the ones who have to actually schedule it. Um, you know, we have some guidelines that we've
worked out with them. But, um, you know, um, and then >> a nuisance, is it a nuisance for trying to get a hold of the vendor? >> Uh, no. They've been they're pretty good. They're pretty good response. it's just that there's a, you know, there's a a significant delay and then we end up having to reach back out to the
residents and so it's really the inconvenience as far as the resident is concerned. Um, and so this is an option to, you know, at least we believe that this would end up helping that communication with the resident a little
bit more and be a little bit more, I guess, seamless instead of having it to be that inter intermediate step that they're they're taking. >> I was thinking if if they really can't help, all they're doing is a go between, you know, what does it really help? >> Yeah. and you know they're very helpful
you know as far as the bulk pickup um because you know we have a a pricing list so they can you know get that and do that but if there's some sort of issue that's transpired it's it's back and forth back and forth and and you know we do get some and and
I do not blame it we get frustrated residents um because of that delay I want an answer yes or no you know and I don't blame them um >> do Do they monitor calls? Do they do um reports? You know, if somebody calls up and you know, tells the city, I've been
calling and I'm getting no satisfaction. Do we have any kind of reporting that we can get for call reporting where we could, you know, see that see how that call went and see where it went type of thing? >> You mean as far as from from them? um not that I am aware of at this point in
time but those would be the pieces that if they take over customer service and that there would be some certain demands that we would we would put in our system tool to have that but I think any call kind of customer service you should have some kind of reporting and >> analyticals to see what you're doing
>> exactly and that would be a part of and that's where that's why we're trying to get your input if you're interested in this then and and we've already had a very good meeting with the committee we kind of went through this PowerPoint these key elements and really it comes
down to it's the details in the contract to make if this is something that we desire then how do you make it really work and then it needs to be re-evaluated every three six months until you you've got you know all the wrinkles ironed out um to make sure that
it's it's seamless and the city always has has the option to pull it back out um you know and that would be something that we would put again language in on the contract that would allow us to do so. >> Do we have a direct dial number for for trash now or they just call the 2400? Is
there a number out there 2480 or something like that? I think there's a a separate number that >> so we can take that and keep that number and just forward it to them so we can keep control of the number then probably >> that or have them directly you know we just publish that you call >> directly to like see it stay with our
number if we can just case things change on the line type of thing you know if we can do some kind of a forwarding where you know and if it doesn't work out we're not sending out hey that didn't go well guy we're going back to something else >> sure that >> if we can keep that number and just direct it I think at least we have
control over that then if something doesn't go correctly. >> Okay. >> My my thought is because we're in control of the bill, I like it coming to the city. The the last thing I want is let's say they decide on bulk pickup costing $5 an item or something.
If bill if bill mixup or or or things go ary. So, so if the guest calls the the company and then there's a miscommunication between the company and us and now someone's getting charged for something that they didn't ask for, I I
I can see that as a potential issue. Um, so depending on the call volume and the amount of hours you think it's saving, I I I'm not super on board or super excited about outsourcing that. Well,
and I guess I would agree with Jason a bit um because not to jump ahead, but if you know the next thing on the agenda or next item to discuss is the app, a vendor provided app. If that is an option, I could see that definitely
offsetting some of those calls for the not more technologically inclined people residents of the city being able to selfs serve them you provide their own self-service. you know, >> I have a question, I can do it in the app. I want to reschedule, I can do it
in the app. Things like that. Um, and then we're really truly just dealing with the billing issues for those people. Um, so I guess I think it makes sense to keep us in the loop. So, >> so, so I'm hearing from two that you would like to keep the customer service
still with the city. >> I would. Yes. without hearing the rest of the presentation right now. That's the way I'm leaning. >> Oh, no. That's No, no, that's good. This is good input. Well, you know, >> thing is to make sure that we can do something instead of just them gettingounded and then we're hounding. I
don't know how how the call how the call response is. You know, if the call response is, you know, when they do it, they call back right away. Or if it's ours and they're calling up the city and saying or calling up the resident saying, "Sorry, I didn't hear anything back yet." you know what kind of position you know as far as staff too is
it something they can really do ex you know that type of thing. So if we can, you know, if we had a better understanding with, you know, the call volume is pretty, you know, not much and it's, you know, they can get taken care of fairly quickly. But it's but I would still even if we
did something, I'd still like to keep control because if something doesn't go right, I don't want to have to republish numbers because people take that and they put it in spots and then all of a sudden they're dialing that number. So that'd be the concern I would have if we did something that was not with us. No, very good very good points that are
be that are being made and and um you know whether customer service stays with us or whether it goes to a vendor there's always a potential of issues. >> Um and that's where you know it really is how do you work through all of those components that are that are with there.
It's just that again I think virtually every single one of the vendors um that in their proposals offered up customer service. Um they all have call centers um >> free to a dollar
per month res >> and and we and these are just my throwing something out there just to kind of gauge you know um >> these aren't things proposed by vendors. this is to kind of give us throw out and say, "Hey, we would like to do this and this is
>> right >> the price that we would propose >> that we would be willing to willing to pay for that type of a service and not go over it." And so to so to me underneath this, we did have a number of vendors that would do it for free. There
was no additional charge to it. Um, from this dialogue, we're not seeing a huge benefit. Um, or and I'll I'll relate it back to a financial pressure are a cost savings to us. So why would I pay for something
um would be the piece to it. So to me I would look at it and it would be my recommendation that if we were to entertain that customer service um with with the vendor and that would be questions that we would ask in the interview. How would it work? Um and to
be able to come back to the city council if we decided to have it in there. Um, and and you can scratch something off of the contract and say, "No, we're decided not to do that." But it would be in there for my recommendation, it would be in there for free. We would not pay something to have them
do that. >> And I would also say if Barb or whoever were able to provide >> some examples of these are the types of calls that we get. This is about how many calls we get, things like that. Um because I could foresee even if we had them take care of it, had you know the
vendor take care of it, somebody's still going to call the city. >> Absolutely. >> Somebody's going to get frustrated if we just say, "Oh, I'm sorry. You need to call the vendor for that." And then >> we're still going to facilitate that communication. And so we're still in the loop regardless whether we're >> absolutely supposed to be or not. >> I remember when I did work for BFI, you
know, back in the day when they were our garbage hauler in North St. Paul, we would talk to them directly because I used to go over there and take care of their call center. That's what I did was, you know, call center work. So, they would just call in directly to there for your for your stuff. I don't want it switched to here, but that was
another option. >> Okay. >> Now, our system that we have now for phone system, we can't get any reporting or anything out of it as far as if we need to do stuff, reporting, recording, anything like that. >> I think we get call volume um through
the metro. Yeah. basic stuff. Yeah. Uh, one of the other things, not not all vendors proposed this, um, was to provide an app um that customers could access with information about pricing, schedule changes, delays in pickup,
pickup options, vacation holds, and etc. Um, and that's where, you know, really our question is is city council, do do you see that as a something that's desirable for our residents? Um, and if
so, um, would there be a cost associated that you would be willing to pay? >> So, your can text you on Monday night and say, "Hey, dummy, put me out in the curb. You forgot." >> You got it. >> There you go. >> Fine. I I could see I am I tend to be
technologically inclined and so I could see this being super valuable for me. I know I've got a vacation coming up. I'm going to put a hold on, you know, just like I do with my mail. I would put a hold on my my garbage pickup. Don't worry about picking up mine because I'm not going to be there. You know, granted my cans wouldn't be out either, but
>> um >> holidays remember pickup or it's a day late. >> Yep. >> How many calls they get for that? >> Yep. And then, you know, you know, if we do the bulk pickup, being able to schedule that bulk pick up in the app, you know, this is what I've got. This is what I want it picked up. Super easy for
me. So, I would say yes, I I would like this option. But that's just me. And for me, where I fall is uh on the list you provided, um I would entertain it up to the 50 cent
per resident per month. That's kind of the value I >> place on an app as as long as it's 24 hours and you know a looks like it's decent app not a now now part part of this as we go into
interviewing and I and I can't remember off the top I don't know if this is something that both of those um uh vendors provide but what we would do is we would say in
the contract, in other words, it wouldn't be a deal breaker, but in the contract, it would say that you have to be moving towards this and we would give them some sort of a timeline. >> Um, you know, and again, um, just like Council Member Nordby said that we would end up having to to basically accept or
approve whatever app that they end up coming with that it's making sure that it's it's meeting, you know, what we perceive as the needs for the residents part to it. Okay. Any other comments on the on the app? Um 50 cents um per resident per
month. >> Yeah. >> 2550 helpful. And then the another interesting component that you know you know as we're going through the RFPs was there were a number of vendors that talked about uh truck technology um you know of
having um you know cameras showing the driver and the load and and GPS so you knew where the the truck was at all at you know at all times um that a resident could access you and that would end up then going through that app in some way that there would be a map and that they
would end up being seeing seeing that. in as our city manager when we kind of went through all of this stuff, you know, that we'd like to be able to to see that map and see the route so they know where they're where they're at in that route component to it. Again, we we
look at this again as you know because it was overarching of of all of the vendors, but it was like it struck us as this isn't a bad idea that you know you know we can see some value to it. um would not be a deal breaker if somebody didn't have it today. But again, they
have to be moving towards um that component to it. And again, it would be something that whether we're providing the customer service or they are, it's something that helps our residents with that customer service component to it. So, is this something that um that would
be desired by city council? And >> no, for me, >> no for you. No, >> I would see this less as less valuable than the app necessarily. Okay. Um, I think it's more of a it's more it would be more beneficial to pro to the provider uh from the standpoint of
knowing where their trucks are, knowing if their truck gets in an accident, you know, having that camera footage of what happened and things like that for accountability. Um, but for the residents, I don't see this as a as big a deal. >> Okay. Number one, number one, one of the
residents would do, he'd look on that, go up, drive up and find that driver and say, "I need you to come over pick up my garbage right now." That driver's got his other stuff to pick up. Then you're going to have a war. >> Only thing I could see is if I forgot to put the can out and I could look up and if it was free, I wouldn't pay anything
for it. Go, oh, he's still down the block. I got time to go throw it out. >> It's for us procrastinators. >> Yeah. I mean, I I'm If it's free, sure. But but I I would have a hard time attaching a a you know a fee to it.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Then bulky pickup um bulky pickups uh would be so what we're thinking is a bulky pickups would be picked up at residences on a regular basis as at no additional charge to the
resident outside of a monthly charge. Um and then we kind of look at in two different components. The frequency of it and then the cost um per resident u and first of all is that something that's kind of some sort of interest
um for you know city council to to look at. For me yes ve very much so very much so >> I do like it but I sure hated the way it was abused when we had it. So, I don't know how we have to have a lot of, you know, be able to put some stipulations
on it because people were every week pile crap everywhere. >> Yeah. >> And and that's where, you know, you know, we could set the number of items. >> Yeah. >> Um that are there. Um and again, it's that frequency. It could be two items
per month. Um we could, you know, have it two per quarter, two per semianual, annual, or it could be four, six. But we would set some parameters on there and part of that is is because they're going to have to provide at least some sort of pricing that would be
associated with with doing that. Um >> my question is people put stuff out, they're going to come through at night, your scrappers are going to take it. That stuff's not there. That guy's going to get charged for it not being picked up, but he's still getting charged.
Well, see, in in this way, there would be a uniform charge is what we're talking for, you know, all residents. Um, and we would be looking at, you know, flip to the next. Again, we're not looking at it being a very high cost
component to it that they would have to offer. Now, we have had a vendor that it part of their proposal. Um, there there were two vendors that addressed this. Um, one vendor um had proposed two items
per year um at no cost. Um one proposed uh two items per month at I think 72 cents per resident. Um so what we're looking at is not a high cost component to it. Um but it's really to kind of get
city councils and then we would go in, you know, and try to negotiate and and find what the vendor can do. um what the cost, but we want to kind of have a parameter of what that ceiling is. We will not go above that. >> Well, this will then cancel our yearly
pickup then that we do for the How would that go? >> That that's definitely something that that's that's to me a different issue and and city council would have to have that as a discussion on to it. >> Well, it's got to be an issue that we're going to have to do because we're not going to have both. I don't think it' be, you know, it's a lot of work and
effort if we're going to be doing it on a monthly basis or something. They still did it even back then when um they had the bulk pickup that the city handled it and there was no restrictions on it which was part of the problem. But then we also did do a spring clean up. Once upon a time we did a spring and a fall
cleanup. So and if I may the idea with this also would they residents would still have the option if they had a special need. They got six items this week because they did a clean out. they get to still
call in to either the city or the hauler and arrange that special pickup and pay extra for that. This would be a built-in charge in everybody's bill whether they use it or not. And more than likely you would get some
sort of a sticker. you know, you would be getting, you know, let's say you say, you know, two per quarter, you'd get two stickers that would be mailed out to you and you would, you know, be able to utilize them. You'd stick them on whatever is out there so that the the
hauler knows what's going to >> When we had bulk before, was it a certain was it a set price? >> Yeah, it was like 235 a bill is what I remember. A month or something. Yeah. And they stopped it because of abuse. Was that
>> it was going to raise uh if I remember right, it was going to go from like 235 per month bill to I want to say like 580 or something. Um and they just felt that was too big of an increase.
>> But was that prior to the former vendor to the new one we have now? Was there a discrepancy in there? because the newer one did not have bulky pickup at that time because I know our other one did. >> I I I'm just know what
>> I really Yeah. >> When it was included in my monthly bill. >> Yeah. >> It it it it said it on the side and I want to say it was $2 and change. >> Yeah. >> 230 is what I remember. And then they the city sent out a survey asking what what they wanted to do. Um because it
the the current vendor at the time five and change is what's remembering in my head and it was decided that they they weren't going to go for it because they felt that was too much of a burden on the residents and then they went to a cost per item at that time. I think from res from a
resident's perspective, there were all there were those that did not take advantage that didn't need it. >> I don't want to say take advantage of it, but those that did not use it and therefore were upset that they had to pay for some a service that they were not >> I remember from I was hearing from
>> um so I think I don't know if we even pursued it when we went with our current vendor if we just said you know what we're not going to do it. we're going to try this other thing. And you know, I think I think moving back to bulky pickup makes sense.
>> I think keeping it on the low end, you know, two items per quarter, one item per month, something like that, I think makes sense in my mind. >> Um, one from a number of items that a general household can come up with in the course of a
month or things like that. Um and two in keeping that cost minim that cost increase minimal so that even if there is an increase for people who don't take advantage of it it's not an overly burdensome charge
>> and you said you can add more if you need to is that you >> yes if you had yet yes you could always call and schedule you know the just like now >> and one of the reasons why I'm somewhat passionate about this and uh glad we're
pursuing this. And this is anecdotal evidence, but I I walk my dog a lot and to me, I notice the amount of junk in people's yards, in my opinion, has significantly gone up since the bulky pickup went away. Um, you know, you you walk through the side
streets, you walk through the amount of stuff that I know people, if they didn't have to pay for it, would put out in front just to help the city be a little bit nicer and cleaner. Um, but again, minimal cost, not, you know,
I if you have, you know, 10 or 20 items, yeah, you're going to pay for that many, >> but just a So, I guess I mean, to me, we're all going to answer this individually, but but I kind of agree with what Troy um I'm anywhere from like one item per
month or uh to six or eight annually per household at the most >> um One quick thing I was wondering too is it you know if they do it quarterly quarterly is it cheaper than monthly? I mean as far as gas I mean what what is there any different in charges that
because they have to get trucks out more if they say you know quarterly if you can have three three items quarterly. >> These are all things that will get negotiated. >> That's one thing as far as you know is that cheaper if we just instead of doing it monthly just say quarterly or type of thing >> and we can come up with your top four of
what you'd like to get quotes on and see what comes back. I mean that you know travel the the you know somebody here and there type of thing if you can do it you know in sections or in quarters where it's not maybe that will help too on pricing. >> Absolutely. And I I would imagine any
vendor would follow the same routes that they have. Um so you've got the four days a week that they're providing you know trash. They would probably follow that same type of a schedule with with the bulky pickup. Yeah. if you can push it off instead of having it every single
month, if you did it on a quarterly basis and you could move it up to, you know, three items um on the quart quarterly basis or or or four items on a quarterly basis. Um um you know I mean it's it's really we'll go back to you
know looking at the frequency you know do we have kind of a consensus that we want the number of items and then the frequency month per quarter semianual annual um it could be every two weeks or every two months um those are up to you
somebody want to start kind of throwing out different options and thoughts on to that >> you want to cut this off in December mber. So there's no bulky pickup through the winter time then because sometimes this stuff you guys are going to be plowing snow out in the winter time. You don't want this stuff laying out there.
That's that's definitely a thought that you know that we've talked about. Um uh Ken and I um and then we shared with the committee. I believe that we probably would um want to do that, but then others say, you know, you still have the bulky pickup during those time periods,
but again, that's really leaping to city council. Um I there's, you know, there's some positives to cutting it off um for at least, you know, maybe three months. March, >> I mean, I'll start. We can just go down
the road. I mean, to to me, I would want to say at least four items per year, preferably more, but that would be the minimum. Um, and if it's more than that, I would be willing to go up to probably a dollar per month per resident, but that would be my absolute max. Um, but
it's all going to depend on how many items they get, you know, and how often it is. But that that's where I sit. >> Okay. Very good. >> I would say um you know, >> let's say six to 12 items per month. But if we can keep it
>> per per month >> or sorry, six to 12 items per year, >> sorry. Um but if we can keep it, you know, more towards the 50 cent per resident, um I think that's going to be more uh accepted among the residents.
You know, obviously the cheaper it is, the better, but >> I'm stuck between quarterly and semiannually. That's where my thought is. >> Monthly, I think is too much. >> I think a quarterly for me would be better. I'd like to 50 cent rate. Yeah,
more realistic. And >> will they be done then? >> As far as not during the winter. >> Yeah, basically. Yeah. Or you do it at the end of No. Yeah. You're right. >> So So maybe do four items, three
quarters. Yeah. >> And and don't do that January, February, March >> because you don't want anything laying out on the street >> because we have also parking parking rags out there too in the winter. One thing for the council too, we are fingers crossed,
if we're fortunate enough, the way the rates came in, we may up to 50 cents, maybe more, maybe a little more, would be able to include that in the contract and not have to raise
our rates. That's that's our hope based on what we've seen so far. Again, negotiations haven't started yet, but what we've seen, they're very, very favorable for the city and the residents.
>> Do you have a good pencil sharpener? We like our pencil pencil sharpen really tight. >> That's Dan's department. He's the money guy. >> Sharpen that pencil. Well, uh, >> if if any of the seven vendors are watching this or watching it on the
replay, um, you know, to to get this contract, they're going to have to sharpen their pencils and and and give the city. There's a lot of competition um that that is out there. And, you know, again, we had a vendor that gave a
proposal of two items per month, 72 cents. So, if you do four items for three quarters at 50 cents, you're probably somewhere in that ballpark and and that they should be somewhere in there. Um, yeah. So, I mean, yeah, it's
going to be uh yeah, I don't think we're going to we're going to give a lot of ground up here on on some of these negotiations, especially when we get the city council's backing on that. And that's the purpose of getting your ideas ahead of time so we have a better stance.
Um, and just to throw one thing out there, I don't know where everyone else is. Um, I I I for me car tires are not a deal breakaker. If they accept them or don't, because I know some some people So, for me, the bulky item does not if it does,
great. But if it doesn't, that wouldn't be a >> And I would imagine that there will be, you know, and we haven't seen Yeah. There'll be items that are restricted and and and Yep. And and understandably so. Um that's kind of how the the environmental um components to it. >> Yep.
>> Yep. Yeah. And we have the Ramsey County Environmental Center that a lot of those things anyway. So we can you know there's options there. >> Yes. >> About mattresses have to be elimination too. And and again, that'll be something
that'll be part of that whole negotiations is where where are they at with certain things and and you know, hopefully, you know, and and again, you know, hopefully vendors do check this out and find out. It certainly would be
a wise move that they would offer at least something up whether it's we'll do mattresses, but it's only twice a year um or some other component. And that's really what we're hoping again I think it was council member Woods that you had talked about what was that value added.
This is what we were hoping for um for for our vendors to come up with some different ideas of how they could do us and and share some pricing with us. Um but we didn't get as many as ideas as we wanted to. But that's for us now through this discussion to go back and kind of
hammer and we would like to see these different things and I think they would benefit our our residents um greatly. So, >> did they make any mention to I think most everything can be picked up by their regular trucks. I think they run a separate truck if they're doing
appliances. If that was any more for like a appliance as opposed to a regular item they can just pick up the truck. >> Again, there there wasn't really great detail. The the one um vendor, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think the one vendor who was going to do two items per
month would run a whole separate truck. Um you know, pretty much Yeah. and and go through and do that. But >> for all the vendors that you talked to, are are they all willing to participate in the the green bag?
>> Yes, that was >> Yes, that was >> Yes, that was a requirement. >> That was a requirement in the in the RFP. >> And I would assume all the vendors would continue on yard waste and recycling and everything like that. >> Oh, no.
Yes. Again, again, all all requirements and there was pricing that was >> weekly pickup, right? Correctly. >> Well, for you could be longer. >> Oh, yeah. Oh, I I just pile on the curb. That's >> and more expensive. >> Well, once sweeper goes by, just you'll
hook it up. >> Yeah. It's strange. The recycling seems to be more full than the trash can nowadays. >> Yes. >> They're a little smaller, too. Unfortunately, the recycling can. So, No, we we the RFP included all of the other services that the city's currently
receiving and that's where kind of the added value was trying to give us give us something different. Um you know and we did talk in in the RFP about the bulky um pickup as kind of being we use the term issue for the city but something that that we really wanted
them to focus on. Are there any other things that we should be aware of that is important to the council to include in the contract besides the all the what I call the regular stuff? >> Were there discussions back to what the mayor had mentioned earlier? Were there
discussions about what they see other cities doing in terms of bulky pickup versus the you know the periodic whether it's monthly or quarterly versus the annually annual like what we're doing now. What do they
see other cities doing? Is there a general consensus of what's >> I think it was all over the board. Yeah, >> a lot of cities are doing the cleanup days still. >> Okay. >> And as far as bulky pickup, it was all over there. Okay.
>> And the consultants even said there's no magic bullet. It's kind of a combo of >> people have too much stuff. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. >> Tell me about it. Um a and for me ju just for noise
where I sit I would do 50 cents a month if the trucks were electric so you didn't have the motor noise that early in the morning. Um I I don't know if that's any options in any but that's just where I sit. >> You would give an additional 50 cents if they were
>> Some of them are run on propane though. >> Yeah. But but those are allowed ju just like a a regular motor. In my mind, >> they have better luck than the fire trucks do that were electric. I don't know if there's any garbage truck. I never heard of one yet. Is there electric garbage trucks?
>> They they were just building a a station in St. Paul for them, I believe. >> Um but but like I I don't know if any of them have that option. Um >> it's definitely something that we can ask and >> I wouldn't pay any extra for that. >> Yeah, I mean everyone's going to be different on their
>> There's considerations with that as well. the uh once upon a time we just had a demo of a truck that uh it added what 7,500 pounds to the weight of the vehicle and like this time of year is pretty critical for the weights and what they running on the streets that you
just sometimes you don't think about that stuff but there and the additional cost was tremendous as well. I'm just curious, what do the trucks weigh when they're fully loaded after a day of recycling pick or pickup either truck? What do they weigh when they leave town?
>> I'd like to find out what their actual weight is. >> Cuz they're undergrowth when they come in, but they've got to be pretty close to overgrowth over four tons per axle. >> Follow the ruts.
Can't think of anything else. I asked just asking people what they thought and they everybody seems to be happy with our garbage service the way it is now. Nobody's saying that issues as far as you know miss pickups or anything like that. I was asking people that I ran into just to see if they had any thoughts.
I think there were some places that actually looked at requirements of single axle over double axle due to the weights or but I don't know if that was brought up but I've heard of it anyway. >> No ridden in never ridden in a single
axle. They're scary. They're not very comfortable. >> Don't they have air ride seats? >> Yeah, but you're still going like this. Uh really happy somebody picks up garbage. I think that's the best thing ever. >> I'll uh reiterate what Dan I think said
earlier if not tonight at previous night. The value of putting this out for the RFP. Hey, we got seven proposals. We did get a few ideas, but we did get very competitive rates and those top two are very competitive and we're hopeful
again that we'll be able to hold the rates for for the next five years of the contract at a very affordable. >> Let's not go that far, but >> we're hoping it will be a five-year contract. Now, there will be some
probably some inflation raises in there, but overall, and if we can provide some extra services like with the bulky pickup on some curbside versus people having to haul it, I think that will be a win-win for the residents and the
city. >> Yeah. just don't realize when you have kids at home, you know, the thing was packed to the gills and now if I have two bags in there, by the time I pull it out, that's a lot. So, it's really strange of, you know, how much less there is now. When you get an empty nest, >> I experience the same thing when the
wife goes out of town for a while. I don't even need to put it out. That's >> right. >> But I I I'm going to put it in my own words, kind of what what Ken had said. two years I've had the the privilege of of uh going to the council retreat and
one of the themes that has been there for two years is for staff to be looking at contracts and to come out and try to get better pricing. Um this is a good example of yeah it it works. Um and we're saving not just the
city but we're saving our residents. Um and this is a very good very good story. um you know and and um you know our our city manager Brian you know keeps telling us let's get moving let's get moving. We we did have the right to do
another two-year extension with our current contractor and Brian pushed and said you know no we need to get out there um and find out where it is. Well we hit we hit the market at a good time. uh seven proposals. Uh we got some fantastic um rates that are there that's
going to allow us some flexibility to potentially add some additional services and our residents won't see an increase um in this um at least for the first couple of years if not all five. We'll we'll be shooting for that. But uh but
yeah, so I mean it is a huge value to be able to have those conversations with city council and to be able to to get where you're at um because that's very meaningful for staff and it allows us to be able to then carry out um your mission.
Two of the things two of the things that I guess I'm looking >> our current hauler has been very gracious on coming out on the cleanup day to help its public works. That's huge.
And another comment I had about our current hauler, I watched a driver get out of his truck one day, went down the alley on 17th and Helen. He noticed the set of barrels were down. I forgot to get pulled out.
He went down and pulled them out and dumped them for the guy. Now, how many drivers from other companies would do that? >> You know, and that's the thing is I I don't know. >> Um except for except for >> that's what I see >> except for the annual cleanup. virtually all of them talked about that they
provide, you know, staffing for the cleanup. So, that one I think is pretty equal across any any vendor. Um, when it comes to an individual who's a driver, who knows, company A, B, C, D, they may have a fantastic employee who would end
up um doing that. And um nothing against our current vendor um but this is a process and um at the end of the day um we need to be able to provide good service at a very good price um that's
enhancing our residents you know way of life. So >> any other questions thoughts? I think you did a real good job and thank you for the work and investigating. I think you know go to the two two like we discussed and >> so we we'll go and set up interviews.
We'll have interviews, try to negotiate a contract and then we're planning on um at least by hopefully the second meeting in June, no later than the first meeting in July, that we would have a a contract um you know to bring forth. Again, there
can be some changes in that contract, but hopefully we've ironed out pretty much everything and again, it'll be in line with what this discussion was um today. So, >> thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate the hard work. >> Yeah, thank you for all your work, Ken and Dan, and the rest of your team.
>> Again, I give Ken a heck of a lot of credit because he's keeping us on task and he's done an absolutely wonderful job. So, thanks, Ken. >> All right. Anything else on this subject? If not, we're going to adjourn until 6:30. We'll get us all this time. So
much room. So much time. >> All right. Can I a motion to adjurnn, please? >> So move. >> So move. Council Woods. Second. >> Council Mackenzie. All those in favor say I. I. >> We'll see you in 18 minutes. Thank you everyone. Part: 2
Let's call the meeting to order. Stand for pledge of allegiance, please. >> Thank you all. Roll call, please. Council member Nordby >> here. >> Council member Woods >> here. >> Council member McKenzie >> here. >> Council member Schwar is absent. Mayor
Mongi >> here. Thank you very much. Can I have a motion to adopt the agenda, please? >> So moved. >> So moved. Council member Woods. Second. McKenzie. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. First up, we have uh two
presentations. First up is the Medallion Hunt presentation. Um, we have Nick Casey here to discuss. Step up, please. >> Hi, my name is Nick Casey. Um, and I came up with a great idea for uh a
community involvement project that I wanted to do here in North St. Paul. Um, I help out a lot in South St. Paul, my hometown. Um, I don't live there anymore. I live in Maplewood. But, um, >> because they won't hold you against for Jimmy Francis. We'll let you give you a break. Yeah, I was I was just there last night at their city council meeting presenting for a taco feed we do for
fill the backpacks for education over there. Um, >> but I help out a lot with parks and wreck in South St. Paul. Um, and we had come up with an idea when one of my friends was running parks and wreck over there a few years ago to get people back out into uh the parks because we were
doing a lot of remodeling of the parks in South St. Paul. Um, and we figured like what better way than to do mini medallion hunts. It gets people out. It's fun for all ages. Um and and it's a family event as well. And um we started it in the fall that year um because you
know it's not super hot out and it's nice and and gets kids out doing something right before school. But my idea was to also bring that here to North St. Paul. Um I think it's uh a good thing for the community and it and it gets uh more than just the people
out. It gets uh businesses involved and stuff like that and it just kind of brings everybody together. Um, so with the slideshow here, um, I made this, this would be the poster. Um, my idea would be to run six hunts. Um, each hunt consists of four clues. So they're
little, they're not meant to be super hard or anything like that. Um, and the clues come out once a day, usually Wednesday through Saturday. So it ends on the weekend because then people can get out too on the weekend. Um, because not everybody can just get out during the day. People have jobs and stuff like
that. um the way that the businesses would work and how I do it in South St. Paul is I I'm a huge supporter of small businesses and we have a lot of small businesses here in North St. Paul. Um and we want people to go to those small businesses, right? We want to keep them
in business. So you ask the small businesses to be sponsors for the hunts. So for instance, for an example, we could go to Max Diner and say, "Hey, would you guys want to be a sponsor of the first Medallion Mania hunt in North St. all. We're just looking for anything that you guys would like to donate. It
could be like a $25 gift card, whatever they want. If they want to make a basket, it doesn't it doesn't really matter, right? Um that gets them out there, shows they support the community, shows that they're supporting parks and wreck, which I love. I'm a huge park and rec supporter. Um and and we all work
together uh for a common goal of uh inclusiveness also. I believe it. Um examples of clues up here. Um, I know they might be a little hard to read, but those are usually how we send them out online. Um, the clues usually come out
at the same time each day. Um, and then at the end of it, we would post something bigger like this where it shows what the explanations for all the clues were as well. Uh, these are pictures of Medallion Finders. So, again, fun for all ages. You can get the family out there.
Doesn't matter if you're young, old, um, middleage, however you want to look at it. Um, everybody has fun and enjoys it. It's a good time. Um, these would be examples for you guys of kind of like how we've done the medallions over there. Uh, my buddy, uh,
owns Tatono Woodworks. It's, small little woodworking company. And he laser engraves and CNC engraves a lot of my medallions that I use. Um, so the ones in the top leftand corner are the ones that we use for parks and wreck, um, wood medallions. Um, below that, the
little pieces of paper, those are what we put in with the medallion so that when the uh, person finds it, they know who to call and how to claim their prize. Um, other things over here would be more of like concealing, so you can kind of get a little idea of how I might
conceal something. um with that bigger one that was for Caposia Days which me and my buddies run through the Caposia Days uh board committee. Um we had uh a really interesting story with that one. We found a family in the community and
we kind of wanted to base it around some historical stuff with theirs. They had a really old farm in South St. Paul and uh his grandfather was like the only milkman in the city so he would deliver it. So, I wanted to kind of pay homage and tribute to someone in the city,
bring some history into the hunt, which is what I intend to do with these little hunts as well, because we don't only have just people from North St. Paul looking for it. We want to bring other people in from other cities to be able to look for these as well. And there is a very big medallion hunt community out
there. I'm a part of that. So, um, that's also another thing that is good for getting people into the businesses as well here is getting other people to see what North St. Paul has to offer. Um, and then these would be the parks and spaces that I found online that you
guys have provided on the website. Those would be the only places we would hide the medallions at. So, I would choose six places um out of those if that's how many the board decides that we can do, right? Um I think six is a good number for hunts.
That's what we usually do in South St. Paul. Um and I will say that I have gone out and I've seen all of the parks in North St. Paul. It was awesome. And I've picked spots. I've picked six parks. So, I am ready to go. Um I've actually wrote
clues for all of them as well. Um, other than that, the one thing I would like to do is change how the medallions are done here so that they're not exactly the same as the ones there. So, I do have an example of one that I can show you guys, but I don't want everyone to see because
then everybody would know what they look like. So, if you don't mind if I just walk across the front to show you. Um, Okay. >> Um, you could, but in the rules we asked not to use a metal detector. Um, so I guess that's kind of at someone's own
discretion. Um, or I could still do wooden ones. That's it's it's up to you guys, however you want to do it. That's a good point that you brought up. But in the rules, it does it should say that, you know, no metal detectors should be uh used.
But yeah, so that would be the idea and uh I hope it's something that you guys would like to do. >> Ask you a question. Uh, six is a lot. How how many how long did these take and um how long of a time period are you talking about?
>> Uh four clues per hunt. Um so it should only take four days with the last clue. It usually it walks you right to it, right? So you shouldn't not find it on the fourth clue. So it' run Wednesday through Saturday would be my idea to do it and then so a month and a half.
>> And you said in South St. Paul you're doing six right now. >> Yeah, we do we do six. It's not happening right this second in South St. But every year we've we've ran six six hunts. >> Yep. In a row. >> And you So there is a big community of
medallion hunters, medallion finders, I guess. >> Yep. >> In uh in Minnesota. So um I guess how I guess I have concerns with six in North St. Paul just because we have we are a smaller community. Um, so I think, you
know, pairing that number down to two or three might be better just to start and see how it takes off. Um, make sure that it does, you know, because I guess some of our concerns as we've talked about it are, um, we know that generally, um, some North St. Paul residents,
especially around the parks area, park areas can get a little squirly about, you know, people, you know, potentially intruding in their, you know, on border property lines and things like that if it's too close to their property or things like that or just even, you know,
seeing a lot of people in the more people in the park than normal, things like that. You know, people tend to be a little more uh aware of things like that. >> Oh, definitely. you know, starting off easy, starting off slowly might be a better option.
>> Yeah. No, I that's that is totally fine. Um and I'm really glad you brought that up actually because as I did go out and I talked to Sarah about it um when I was out at a few of the places like especially we'll use Silver Lake for example on um the more uh like northeast part of it. There's somebody's house
right there by the lake. And I did actually knock on a few doors for some of those residents and ask them to be like out of respect like >> if I ran something like this and it was approved by the city, what is too close for you? Right? Because we always want to be respectful to the people in the community and stuff like that. So I did
do due diligence for some of those areas to ask residents and talk to people and even just people that were in the parks. I just kind of like just pick their brain a little bit and ask them like would this be something you'd be interested in? Something like that. Um a lot of good feedback.
>> Okay. Um, so I I would be uh could we meet in the middle at 4? >> Part of this my thing is too is um we do have the the parks commission and we haven't even talked to them. I mean they volunteer. They're you know part of the
parks to me I would think this would be something that would be going through the parks to start with. When did when did you have the conversation with Sarah? Because >> I'm glad you brought that up also because um we did talk to uh Sarah did talk to the parks commission people about it and emailed me their emails and
I sent them everything so that they could see the idea and the outline of everything as well. Um feedback >> one of them emailed me today and said she couldn't make it unfortunately. Um, and they they I just want to make sure we're we're mindful because we ask people to volunteer for things and then
all of a sudden, you know, things happen and we don't even talk to them. So, that was my big concern is they work really hard with our parks that we're just not all of a sudden they come to us and we're, you know, I'd like to have their input. >> Yeah. No, definitely. Yeah. There's there's two names add some things or do something too.
>> Yeah. And I'm not sure how many people are on the parks commission. Yeah. So, there was two that she had given me like I said. Um, so >> we Yeah, >> you go through all of that. I have no problem with any of that. >> I was just curious because I just want because I was on the planning commission before I was mayor. You know, it's nice
to be respected as far as all of a sudden this is, you know, parks thing. It's like, you know, this is this is where we meet, you know. >> Definitely a sudden it's, you know, goes up and nobody even has any input. So, I just want to make sure that we we touch the appropriate to get our input.
>> Yeah. Did did I understand right that the around the fall festival you is it a bigger hunt? So is it >> so that yeah that would be the idea I guess is what I had. Um so my thought on that was is if if this did work right and it was something that people really
liked and really enjoyed then we would do one big hunt during fall roundup. So that would be like the one I do in South St. Paul for Caposia Days. That's our festival weekend there. Um it would be a bigger hunt. it would be more clues. Um,
everything would go through me and the city because the city would have to approve of it. Um, and every like the city shouldn't have to pay for anything in in either of these situations, right? Everything is on my dollar. It's my idea. It's my project. It's something I
want to do. Um, I love giving back to the community. Um, and I get pretty good deals um at my buddy shop, Carolina Creations on White Bear Avenue. Give a little shout out. um he makes everything merchandise-wise, anything you could ever think of and he's a great guy and he does a lot for
me. So, um I try to go through him for most of my stuff that I do. Um but yeah, so the idea with that one would be it'd be bigger. It would be worth more money. Um >> more clues. >> Yep. More clues. So, usually how we do the one in South St. Paul is we run two
clues a day. Um and so you can get it out a little faster. And then uh one of the nice things that we incorporated two years ago uh over there that I thought was awesome is um the finder got to ride in a vehicle in the parade. And that's I
mean if you're a medallion hunter like yes it's great to find the medallion and get that little bit of recognition but there's nothing like being kind of the center of attention being like yes I'm the one that found it and you get just that cool little ride in the parade or walk the parade however the city would
like to see it done. Um, but I think that would be a pretty cool idea to do there. And then usually we give uh a finders t-shirt as well for that one. So you you get something out of it for sure. >> So is it you work with the city of South St. Paul? Are you
>> I don't work for them personally, but >> are you associated? I mean >> I do a lot uh so I belong to the Masonic Lodge in South St. Paul as well. So I do a lot of fundraising stuff. Um like I'd mentioned uh the big taco feed that we do for fill the backpacks for education. And so that's why I was at their city
council meeting last night. Um, and then like I said, my friend, uh, Mercedes was running parks and wreck for a while. Um, and so that's how I kind of got connected more with parks and wreck and just kind of fell in love with doing a lot of things with them. And she had moved on and and moved with her husband
to a different state. And, uh, Heather and Shannon that are over there uh, in parks and wreck, um, I've I've just been doing stuff with them over the years. And then they also run uh another city event called Flannel Fest. It's like our winter festival that over there. Um we
do a medallion hunt for that one too. So we do a lot of the medallion hunts. Everything goes through parks and wreck over there. And then we try to incorporate things and I try to help out with other little projects that they might have whenever I can just in my free time. >> It was going to go through parks and wreck with ours then too. >> Yes, it would be parks and wreck. Not
the not the big hunt. That would not be through parks and wreck. That would be through if there's a fall roundup board, it would go through them and through the city, not parks and wreck for that one because the Caposia Days one in South St. Paul doesn't go through parks and
wreck. That one goes through the Caposia Days committee in the city. >> And you go around do all the collecting for the for the gifts and and you know. >> Yep. I do. I take care of everything. The only thing that anybody would have to do here at the city is Ava would just have to get the stuff online and I can
work with her with that. Um, I'm pretty good at making posters and little things like that. So, I could literally have all the clues, all the pictures, and then just email them to her and then she would just have to put them online and have them set up on the timer for when they come out each day.
And then Sarah also would be the one that they would contact um the finders would contact and then they'd be able to come to city hall and collect their prize. We get a list of I mean how does it what's the checks and balances for you collecting as far as you know from different businesses and things like
that just to make sure that you know you know the businesses are represented and you know as far as the prizes and things like that. I don't know how that would work. Um, I essentially how I do it over there and I've lived there my whole life so it's probably a little easier over there for
me to do it. I know all the business owners over there on a personal level and they're all um community event sponsors for the Masonic Lodge for all the things that we do over there. So, I've just known those guys for over a decade, more than a decade. And um I
guess like how I would do it is maybe meet up with Ava or Sarah one day and we could go together so that there's some you know they see that there's some legitimacy that it's someone from parks and wreck or someone from the city and we just ask hey you know would you guys like to be a sponsor for these little medallion hunts that we're doing here in
the city. We're trying something new. Um and we'd just like to recognize the the smaller businesses here and and get you guys some business. And um we're just looking for a donation. Whatever you'd like to do. It could be a gift card. It could be a basket, you know, shirt, mug, whatever it is that they have there. You know, for instance, village pizza,
right? Um here, here's a free pizza for the family, right? A large pizza. That that's the prize. Um and then we collect all those things, bring them back, and then on the clues, um if you can go I don't know if you can go back to the one. Uh yeah, that one right there. Uh,
so the little circular symbol with the bull on it down there, that's the Masonic Lodge symbol we used um for the hunts. So that's what got our name out there. And then usually in the first clue, I give recognition to that business as well. So it would have this
the business's logo on all of the clues and I give them recognition on that. And then usually when um they post at the end of the hunt with the finders or whatever they they put in there on like the picture on Facebook like once again sponsored by this business. So
essentially they're getting advertisement for whatever they are donating. So >> looking more towards you Jason you're you're much more familiar with things like this than I have no clue. >> So I guess I have several questions. A I'm in favor of this. I think it's going to be wonderful. But be like the mayor
said to me it would have to go through parks and wreck. >> Yep. >> And then do you have a 501c? Are you a 501c? >> I am not. I do not. >> So So then my my next question would probably be for the the city lawyer. Are there insurance in insurance implications?
Um what what does the um the other medallion hunts do? Um is there any liability the city's incurring? >> So we have like I know um not to cut you off. Sorry. Apologize. Uh we have like a big disclaimer that we use for those um and and they put that out. So it's on
the website and it it goes through everything from you shouldn't be in the park after park close. You shouldn't it'll never be on a construction site. It'll never be at a swimming pool. It can't and here in North St. Obviously, we have lakes and stuff like that, like at Casey Lake, Silver Lake, um even the
pond down at uh South. Um nothing will ever be hidden next to the shoreline because obviously we have to have stuff for safety. >> All of that is laid out in the disclaimer and stuff like that. And in South Stamp, I mean, we have the river, right? I mean, that's even worse. People
drown in the river all the time and that's terrible. We don't want anything close or near that. Um, we do have a a pond there, too, and a couple streams, but that again would have to go through the city. I did send that over. I can email that to anybody else, whoever
needs that so that you guys could go through it and fine comb what I already have kind of like drawn out. I essentially just took the one that we have over there and instead of it saying South St. Paul, it says North St. Paul >> and that should be fine. we have pretty
broad immunity for um people using the parks for recreational purposes. Um you know, as long as we're not sort of creating new and hidden hazards, uh which as long as we're hiding them in responsible places, we wouldn't be. Um, so you know, I guess maybe we'd ask for
something like um, you know, have we don't want it to be in public, so it can't be the whole parks and rec commission or the whole city council, but we we'll probably want, you know, the chair of the parks and wreck board to approve of each hiding place just so that we know we're >> Nope. Definitely.
>> You know, we're not um putting it somewhere that that we think might be a risk. >> But other than that, we should be fine. Right. >> And and with that too, um like when I went around and looked at all the parks and chose like hiding spots and stuff like that, like I take pictures of everything, right? Because I have to know what's around me to be able to use
for clues. So I can always send all of that stuff over to in picture form as well. Or I mean I have no problem meeting anybody at any park. No park is very far away. Our city's pretty little. >> Yeah. So for me, I think this is a wonderful event, you know, running it through the parks and wreck and the the
city attorney as well as those two sign off on it. I don't see any issue. Um but maybe also include um what he was saying earlier in the official rules that whatever distance away from the border, nothing would be hidden within like 4t of the border just to be mindful of the
residence or whatever number that is >> right >> chosen. So as long as you're reading the rules, you know, you never need to be within 10 feet, 4 feet, whatever is chosen of the border to alleviate any of the residents concern. >> Yep. And I would have no problem like coming down and meeting somebody down
here any time to go over all that stuff too. I'm I'm pretty open. Um I'm very flexible. >> Yep. >> Would this have to do anything with uh special event permits or anything like that? >> No. >> I don't think so. Ken,
>> I would Mr. Mayor, members of council, I I just want to make sure I get this out so I don't forget about it. Um you mentioned maybe bringing a city staff person along with for the donations. >> Um and that we are not able to do. We just we don't have um the state auditor
has taken the position that cities do not have fundraising authority except for certain very specific purposes. Uh and this wouldn't be one of those purposes. Um there's there's concerns that it's seen as sort of coercive to have the city show up and ask for donations. Um so it would have to just
be you on your own. >> Okay. Would there be something that the city could like give to me to show like that it was like approved and it is I am like working with the city just so someone's not like oh this guy's coming in for you know $25 gift cards at max
every week. >> Yes, absolutely. So we could give um could be either a city council or parks and recck >> they know me over there. Trust me, they know I eat more than most people. >> There you go. Yeah, we could give a resolution from the parks and rec commission or something like that. It
would be pretty easy to get. >> Be awesome, >> Mr. Mayor. Yes. Is this Do you have enough information to keep this moving or do you want to refer back to the parks commission for their next meeting for more formal blessing or review by
those? >> Myself, I would like that. Yeah, because I want them to be then we can figure out the Yes. Have them move. Is that something I would be able to come to? >> Absolutely 100%. We encourage you to. >> We expect you. >> I would love to. >> I mean, it's just one of those things where that way, you know, they get
excited about it because they're they're out there in the trenches, you know, with the parks doing a bunch of events. So, we want to make sure that we include them and see what their thoughts are. >> Definitely. >> Yep. >> All right. >> And the the next parks meeting is April 22nd here in council chief. >> Okay. Sweet.
>> Um at 6:30. >> Sarah. >> Yeah. Just coordinate with >> All right. Wonderful. Yeah. and >> she's the leazison. >> But yeah, I agree with Jason. I think this is a great idea. I think starting off a little bit smaller than the six I think is probably a good option and then doing something bigger around either uh
fall festival or the uh >> the >> well fire and ice might be too late in the >> fall. >> Um autumn March festival or the uh fall roundup would >> Yeah, I would I would say fall roundup would be the one to do. Um, and then, um, in the future, hypothetically
speaking, if all of this goes well, then I think the fire and ice one would be a fun one to do. Okay. Just because I mean it is snow, then you get to hide it in snow, and then people are actually digging. Um, what month is that in again? I can't remember. >> December. Yeah. >> That and then that would probably get a
lot of people ramped up and ready to go for the uh, winter carnival medallion hunt. He'll get them get them itching to get out there and find something. That's our biggest park, Casey, too. >> Yep. That's where we do the fire and everything else, too. >> I mean, I don't know if I would specifically hide it there because of
that, but >> they're all there. >> They are, but that's the best part. If you're not there, you might be in the right spot. >> I don't have enough patience for that. >> I did one one year I did it for Winter Carnival was Pierce Butler. I figured
that out. It was New Park in St. Paul and I thought I was so smart. I went down there. It was wall to-wall people. >> Oh, jeez. I not as smart as I thought I was. >> I I am an I am a dieh hard. I am out there all potential 12 days. >> Great. Okay. >> But yeah, thank you guys so much for
letting me come and present. This is awesome >> for doing this. >> Yeah, definitely. >> Have a great night. >> Appreciate it. >> All right. Next up for the presentation is uh for our invisible wounds project. We have Russ Hayes here to discuss and
talk about the car show. Welcome. Good evening. Thank you for having me. I'm Russ. I'm the executive director and the founder of Invisible Wounds Project. Uh we are a nonprofit based out of Forest Lake. We serve throughout the state of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. I don't have a lot to uh
let's say present on screen, so you're going to listen to me talk. Um I'm very familiar with uh automotive events. In fact, our uh our charity, which was founded in 2018, started as a car, truck, and motorcycle cruise uh in 2009.
So, uh we run multiple different car events every year. Our biggest one uh is at running aces and um we have done just tons of them. So, our our biggest car show had about a thousand
vehicles in it. Um, and that was in 2019 pre-COVID. And since COVID happened, it's like just events and stuff have just not been the same. Um, so we have uh a space up in Forest Lake where we do have five full-time staff, myself included, and we have hundreds of
volunteers who help make our organization run. Um, very familiar with North St. Paul and and the uh Friday night car show. Um, again, I'm a car guy. My my brother's a car guy. My dad was a car guy. Uh lots and lots of
friends, lots of club presidents, lots of people involved deeply in the car community within this area. Um so I was I I saw the uh post that um was put out on Facebook and kind of took everybody
in the car community a little bit by surprise of half the shows uh for Friday nights in uh North St. Paul. Um I was made aware that there's an opportunity to uh potentially run the other Friday
nights and we would like to do that. Um the invisible wounds project has a group of car truck and motorcycle enthusiasts mostly car and truck um but uh called the Motorhead Club and they are tasked
with running our car events um and and managing that. Um, as we've grown, I used to do all that stuff. As we've grown, I've learned how to delegate and give other people responsibilities and and expectations. Um, I had a meeting this past weekend uh with the leadership
of that group and um what I'd like to propose is that we would have uh the traditional car show season for North St. Paul. We would have we would start on on Friday, June 5th. um Friday, June
19th, which is normally shut down because of Back to the 50s. What we would like to propose is that it would be open. Um as I've seen over the years, Back to the 50s is starting to dwindle more and more, especially in the evening. Part of that is just the age of
of the crowd. Um what I would propose on that uh Friday the 19th would it it would be an open show. So, um, show cars of all years, makes, models welcomed in. Anytime we have a car show, whether it's
I don't care if it's restricted to 1975 or it's open, they still have to abide by their regular laws and and rules that would be required of any anyone on city streets and and and doing what they need
to do. Um, we would have uh two in July, the 17th and 31st. The 17th is the Street Machine Nationals show. Um, so we would also propose that that be an open night. Um, because there's a lot of people coming from out of state and this
might draw additional people in. They close down. I mean, they kick you out of the state fairgrounds at 6:00 and if not earlier. So, um, it would be potentially a way to bring more people in. um the 31st of July, uh 14th and 28th of
August, and then our last show would be Friday, September 11th. Um what we would propose is that we would have one dedicated staff who would officially be in command of the show from the Invisible Wounds Project side.
Um more than likely that is going to every week be our president of our Motorhead Club. He's very familiar with uh North St. Paul and with business owners down here um as well as with other you know clubs and stuff as well.
Uh we would assign one staff member to be our official vendor uh coordinator for this event. Um assuring that there's continuity of rules, locations, etc. Um we would have of course a lot of
volunteers that are involved with this. We've already had other car club leadership and and people involved who I've talked to um who are interested in volunteering. Volunteers are not going to be an issue whatsoever. Um we are not going to do a yellow shirt. We have
vests um because not everybody's going to be able to volunteer every single Friday night that we're there. So we have a vest. Um we have all of the equipment that would be needed ever to host a car show. Um, so they would have
a vest, uh, rules, restriction signs on every intersection that cars can come in and out of. Um, I think that's an important part. They don't just come from one direction and and cruise the whole thing. They approach in multiple ways.
So, every intersection where a car would come through, I would propose that we would have an A-frame. And not only that, for also not only for the cars, but also spectators of certain rules that we would have to have in place. Um, based on just you can't have open
containers just rolling around the street. Um, we would request that the intersection, the southwest corner lot at 7th and Helen, we would like to operate a farmers market there. Uh, farmers market/makers market during that time.
Uh it's about 6,100 square f feet according to Google Maps. Um I'm looking at 20 to 25 uh spaces in there. Um and obviously we're running the seven nights or seven
nights during summer. There's another group running the other seven nights. Um for ease of purposes, we would only do it on our seven nights. Um, and then we would not require North St. Paul PD
to have a offduty present. Um, unless that is something that the city council says yes, you need to have them. I'm open to either. Um, I would request extra patrol anyway. I mean, it's the biggest event in the city that night, so they're probably going to be somewhere
near and present. Um, most of our volunteers, a lot of the people involved in our organization are either current law enforcement, former law enforcement, former military, their first responders, or or involved in some way in that in that capacity. Um,
many of them have a lot of deescalation training and experience. Uh, one thing that we're going to do differently, uh, is we are going to have a suggested donation of $5 at at each intersection. Same with those signs.
It's a suggested donation. People do not have to donate. People might donate more. It's just it's a way for us to tie into the event. Uh we plan to work with other nonprofits both local and within our mission of serving vets, first responders, and
their families uh to provide opportunities for food uh food and supply drives. Um just giving people the opportunity to get their word out and their mission out. Um we will be obtaining a permit from the
state of Minnesota. um it's already in the works for a raffle that we do just we always do a fall raffle um and then we have it at our car show and concert for a cause. So if there's no objection, we would have that at our info booth um
where people could buy those tickets. Um it wouldn't necessarily require a special permit anywhere else other than the the state of Minnesota because that's where we have to go through the gambling control board. Um, we may also
uh request to do a like a bucket raffles or like a 5050 raffle potentially during our show. I don't know if I truly want to do that, but I'm I'm wanted to gauge if that if we wanted to do that, if that would be an option. Um, obviously within
gambling control board rules and all that stuff, we're not trying to we're not trying to jam ourselves up over a $500 uh bucket raffle. Um, all current vendors uh have been contacted and the majority have returned our calls and are
um excited about the opportunity to participate with us. Um, one thing that one thing that I think used to make North St. Paul and the show really vibrant was having a a central location
off of 7th um near Rody's near Newman's near Max Diner and having a band and a a central location there. It's it's right in the middle of the strip of the show. Um that kind of went away. Um I would like to propose that we have a spot
where there's room for us to set up room for our bands that we're looking at hiring. Um, I've already got five out of the seven nights committed to bands um with pay. And then also I'm looking at
having a sponsor of the night that would have a booth tied into that same space. So it's all in the central spot. >> People are going to go by that area. It's naturally a larger presence of people because it's right dead center. Um,
my question with that is with the command post and and all that stuff there. We would I don't know if there's power there. We have our own power that we can bring and and do generator just different stuff like that for the band. We're not talking about hairball. We're talking about a three four piece band
that's you know going to be reasonably projected and you know I know there's music at you know other places as well. So, we're not looking to like call everybody in from the cities around. Um, but to be able to make announcements and
and be able to do that piece of it. My question is if we have a sponsor of the night, if they're not selling anything, do they have to get a special permit? >> I don't think so. They would be rolled into your master permit for >> Okay. All right.
Um, so I have that. Uh, the only thing I have, so one of the other things, so we're not going to deal with dash plaques. We're not going to deal with trophies. Um, what I would be looking at is we would be doing the sponsor of the night would have the opportunity to give away a
promo item at the gate or at the gates, if you will, or at the info booth. Um, and if they didn't, we would do something. So, we also do a lot of woodworking. Uh, so there might be some just drawings um at our info booth for
people to uh come up and win an item or see some of the stuff that we have and and register to win uh via that. Um, my only other side of it, I've provided a proof of insurance uh with the million-doll coverage that was
requested. Um, Brian and I spoke. My my question and my question for my insurance guy was, okay, the liability side of this, and this is probably where the attorney comes in. Um, you know, we're on city streets. It's a public event.
Um, we're hosting it, but, you know, people are coming from all over the place. How does that play out? Is there a, you know, a way that we're also indemnified in some way by the city? Um, or is there a declaration that is made
or h how does that work? Obviously, there's disclaimers of, you know, if you get drunk and fall on the sidewalk, you know, something totally different, but just pulling up the code here so I can actually uh
quote the specifics at you. Russ, while he's looking, do you have a maximum number of vehicles that you're envisioning? >> Well, I mean, I don't know if there's a way to even count the vehicles that, you know, come in really because they
they park on the street and then once they're off the street, then they go elsewhere and there's almost no real way to control that. um you know I think we would just be reasonable and you know
if it's if we had to start somehow restricting you know what's happening then we would um we're not looking to make major changes at all. Um we have a I mean ultimately this is a we
have seven individual events that this is but it's it's one event. Our organization you know is is year round 365day operation. I don't want to do anything that's going to jeopardize
our our true mission and why we exist. So we're we're not looking to you know have drag racing up and down the street. We're not we're, you know, we're looking to have this be a win-win. Um I think
for us, this is a good opportunity for us to connect with a lot of people in one space. Um that will align with our mission of of serving vets and first responders and and their families and um doing it in a way that um also is
something that's kind of how we started and is a passion of ours. Uh so as far as the liability uh items, so the city does require um public liability and property damage insurance as part of obtaining that um special event permit. Uh I forget what our exact
limits are. I think it's a million and a half. Uh something like that. Um but it's we've worked with other people before on this one. It's it tends not to be that expensive um to just get that insurance. Uh and so that would cover your organization for anything sort of
event specific. So that's things like sort of you know crowd movement or those sorts of claims. And then there wouldn't you wouldn't necessarily be indemnifying the city for anything for the sort of pre-existing conditions. So things like you know uneven sidewalks or um you know
general traffic conditions. Um that's not something that changes and so that doesn't fall on you that way. That's kind of how how everything shakes out. >> Got it. >> Yeah. And I mean, we we have insurance. My wood shop is far more probably
expensive than >> So, Russ, uh, thank you for coming, giving this presentation. Um, I I truly hope you are incredibly proud of what you built. If if you're not, you should be. Um, for those of you that aren't familiar with his your organization, could you just give a little background of of
>> Yeah. who what Invisible Wounds is. >> Yep. Absolutely. And I'm going to hand these out to um >> Thank you. >> Thank you. So, the Invisible Wounds Project is a we're a nonprofit out of Forest Lake. We
run uh a support center, but we serve throughout Minnesota, Western Wisconsin. Our focus is on uh current former military, police, fire, EMS, frontline medical staff, corrections, 911 dispatch, and then their families related to wellness, mental health,
PTSD, suicide issues. Um, I was a police officer, corrections officer, 911 dispatcher for 17 years. I left with PTSD in 2016 uh from public safety. at that time. Um,
it didn't exist as far as first responders with PTSD or or mental health and wellness stuff the way it does now. Um, when I looked around for help, I was I was suicidal. I was looking for help. I couldn't find any organizations that
served uh first responders. It was all veteran related. Um and so eventually obviously I you know survived through that but uh the invisible wounds project was born from that car truck and motorcycle cruise that we started in
2009 with you know 12 cars and 25 people. It had grown over time into what is now the invisible wounds project. Um our organization last year to give you an idea we served over 2,000 individuals. Uh 70% of those individuals
came from within a 40 mile radius of Forest Lake. Uh we did over 125 suicide and crisis interventions. Uh which averages I think 3.5 a week or something like that. Um
I'm not I'm not the math wiz here. And um we uh provided over 8,000 hours of wood shop and uh creative arts uh instruction.
Um and then we had over 1,500 hours of mental health uh therapy uh services provided. Um, we are run 90% of what we
do is from fundraising and donations and sponsorship. Uh, I have $130,000 in grants from I have 100,000 from Washington County and 30,000 from Chicago County. Outside of that, it's all fundraising. It's all boots on the
ground. Heavily involved with volunteers. Um, that's how we make it work. and um we do a lot of events. We're good at events. My uh second in command uh who's the
support center director comes from an event background as well. Um so we do I mean if you look at the back of our at the back of that flyer, you'll see weekly activities. We do more in a week than a lot of organizations probably do in a month or
in in a year. Um, we've constantly got uh fundraisers. Our support center is built in a way to uh we have an event center in there with almost 6,000 square feet that is rentable. So, we do weddings in there.
We do other uh nonprofits, gallas, including our own. Um, we do retirement parties. We've done uh celebrations of life. So we understand scale of events and that you know
how it works but um those that we serve um also get a lot out of being a part of something bigger. uh when you are a whether you're military, you're a first responder, um you know, you lead a life
of service. And um whether you are still serving or whether you leave, um a lot of times when when you're not in that service role, things start to go a little bit sideways. And what we do by providing people a lot of different outlets in a lot of different ways
related to their hobbies and their interests, it gives people a renewed mission and a renewed purpose. And this is just, you know, I look at this car show as another event that will get people out and help spread spread the word and the mission
and bring, you know, some eyes to it. Um, I don't know how long you all have been involved here. Um, I can tell you, uh, the day that Richard Kitten was killed, I was working. Um, I heard that
call, um, on the radio. Um, I listened to it. I had friends that that are people that were at that call. Um, we have an IWP member who was one of the medics at that call.
um he took his life uh in the last year and a half. Prior to that, his partner who was a part of that call also took his life. And so this isn't just a you know, to me
this is is something more. There's there's a tiein for it for that in this community for me um and for our organization as well. Thank you so much for what you do by the way. Uh but thank you for you've given a
very short period of time to kind of pull all this together and um it's very important event to the city and just really appreciate how you pulled together so fast and um we're here to work with you anyway we can. Okay. Any anyone have any questions?
Thank you for everything you do. >> Thank you. >> That was impressive. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> That was my birthday. Rick was killed. And the mayor next door to me calls over. He says, "You know what happened?" I said, "No." He said, "Rick was killed."
Okay. That's about blew my day that day. >> Yeah. I remember that day. Well, great. I'll be in touch. >> Okay. >> And uh work our way through it. >> All right. >> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Forward to it. >> Thank you. >> All right. Move on to the consent agenda. Um item A, March 17th, 2026, city council workshop and regular meeting minutes. Item B, general claims of $747,99657.
Item C, H claims of $14,112. Item D, special event permit, wilderness inquiry canoe mobile event. Item E, fee schedule updates. Item F, electric department land and gear purchase request. Item G, approve fiber use
agreement. And item H, approve the 2026 invisible wounds project agreement. >> Thank you very much. Anybody like to pull anything at this time? If not, can I get a motion, please? >> So moved.
>> So move. Council member Norby. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Thank you very much. >> All right. Moving on to open to the public. John Schmall. John Schmall, 2750 Chisum Avenue. Um, a
few items. Number one is is that the uh uh watershed district had a meeting. They didn't invite anybody from the uh uh north side of the lake. I don't know. It was put on by somebody uh Jim Mycow
who was uh who lives in the area of Diane Street. They're complaining about the way um Casey looks during the summertime. They wanted to do something. Uh and basically they said we can't do
anything about it. And the negative thing about the meeting was that they came up and said Casey is not a lake. Now there is a resident of North St. Paul who is a retired DNR uh employee
and uh gave me the uh DNR site that specifically says that Casey is a lake. Is this important? I think it is. Uh but uh I he's given me ideas on where where
to go to get this straightened out, but I'd certainly not like to have Casey not listed as a lake. Uh second item uh is the uh uh aftermath of snow plowing on
Chisum Avenue. Been there 40 years. There's never been anything that uh occurred that would c catch your attention as something went wrong. But this winter uh started out with a wipe
out of a a mailbox and you could see the way the plow was going and went right like he was looking for it. I doubt he was. But then we ended it with the last snowfall and they got the south side of
Chisum at the uh lower end of it. And I don't know what the city does when they wipe out the two feet of the boulevard. Whose responsibility is that? I'd like you to look into that because the
neighbor to the um east of me ended up with having the plow come in and uh deposit all the sod in his driveway before he had a chance to run the snowb blower. And I noticed him last week. He
was he picked up all the stuff in uh or the facade and he was like uh making a jigsaw puzzle putting it back on the uh boulevard. I doubt if that is a good thing to do. I
think it should be replanted, but that's up to the city to do. Last item is I'm ended my time. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. City business action items and recommendations. Uh, first up, item
A, mobile food vendor ordinance update. I'm going to turn this over to Ken Roberts. >> Thank you, city manager, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. We're proposing and bringing to you tonight some updates to our mobile food vendor ordinance.
We uh run through these. So, the council may recall that you just reviewed this back on February 17th and you're thinking, why are we talking about it again? Well, unfortunately or fortunately, we found a couple of things in it that were still not working and
that's we're going to touch on those. Uh, first one, item L in the ordinance. Now, the ordinance says that it prohibits food vendors from operating mobile food vending businesses less than 200 feet
from any other existing food service premises unless approval of that owner of the food service or retail center is given. That has not been a force for the car show all in all these years. and with the
moving of the autumn arts festival, that would be a problem when they set up in that parking lot. So, that's one item that we're proposing to change. Uh we it was originally, as we understand it, and the current staff, my department
wasn't here, was put in place, was to protect existing businesses. So, we didn't have three trucks set up outside of an existing business or a trailer. Apparently, that hasn't been a problem because we've never had a complaint as far as anyone knows. So,
we're proposing to drop that 200 foot rule and so we're more accommodating uh for the events. Uh we we're clarifying that they c they
uh mobile food vendors cannot be in the city right away unless they are part of a permitted event again like the car show automars festival that kind of thing. Uh, one thing we're also adding or proposing to add is some language that
a mobile food vendor is a a food vendor that's in one location for fewer than seven consecutive days. If a vendor is parked longer than that, then they don't qualify as mobile food because now they're set up shop for however long
more than seven days and that's not the intent. Lastly, we're proposing to change the hours to 8:00 a.m. to 900 pm instead of 8 to 8, and that's more consistent with our city park hours that we just
uh we'll be talking about those in a minute. So, there's some ordinance words that we're changing or phrases. Again, these are just on the screen to show you strike out and strike through. Whoops. We're changing proposing and change
those and item L at the bottom there that we're proposing the strength the 200 foot rule. That's a quick overview of these changes. I'll take questions. Otherwise,
we're recommending you adopt the ordinance that's included in the packet that approves the proposed amendments to the mobile food vendor ordinance. >> So, is this kind of covering for the lions? They leave their trailer there all summer. Is that kind of what that helps them so they don't so they fall
within what we have? >> No. >> Okay. >> So they would not be considered a Google food vendor then. >> Okay. >> So the and I guess that kind of answers my question but the mobile food vendor would it be
with the intent to distribute or sell food or to sell or distribute food or beverages? Um so If they do it once in that period, is that kind of It doesn't have to be every
seven, you know, every day necessarily. >> Correct. >> I noticed outside of Loves there's a truck there every day. Now >> there's a food vendor. >> Is that what that is that? >> Yes. >> He's he's got license to be there.
>> Yes. >> That's I notic that's more of a permanent thought and and I don't know why uh does what they do outside the city have any effect on these ordinances
>> for clarification beyond the borders. So, so if I have a mobile mobile if I have a truck and I park it at the state fair for the entirety of the 14 days, does that disclude me from being a mobile food vendor? No, >> it only means what happens in city property, right? Correct.
>> Perfect. Then I have no question. >> Anybody else have anything? >> Bless you. >> No. >> So, go up for the vote now, right? >> Yes. >> Ready? We're >> all right. recommending approval of the
ordinance and >> motion, please. >> All right, I got a motion on this, please. >> So moved. >> So moved. Council member Norby. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> All right. Thank you. >> Next item up, item B, ordinance update
to chapter 92 for parks and lakes. Back to you, Ken. >> I'll take this one also. Mayor, >> you're on a roll. Might as well continue. >> Get your money's worth. get their worth out of that new haircut. >> That's right. Uh we are we as a staff are proposing some updates and changes
to the parks and lake ordinance which is chapter 92 of the city code. Uh this was initiated by Sarah on my team after reviewing the ordinance and realizing that most of it had not been updated since 1989.
And u there were some things that were we felt were missing or incomplete or just times have changed. So, we're proposing a series of things. This draft ordinance was reviewed by the parks and rec commission back on March 25th and they recommended approval of what you'll
see this evening. So, some highle highlights. We are proposing to add several provisions to the ordinance about the preservation of vegetation. So, that's very clear that we want people to protect the trees and not chop them down and do damage to vegetation.
And there's many words in the ordinance that outline that. I'm not going to go through those, but it strengthens and clarifies those provisions. We're proposing additions about uh to the littering section, which is 9202
garbage and recycling. Again, to help clarify our city standards on those, we uh are proposing updates to the prohibited activity section to sure ensure consistently that if there
are things some people are proposing that they get city manager written permission to do those things, otherwise they are prohibited. And if need be, I can get you some examples of those. And lastly, we're proposing in in this part
to add language about the restrict the various types of vehicles in the parks, ebikes, bicycles, skateboards, motorized foot scooters. Clearly, some of those weren't around in 1989. So, we want to bring it up to date
uh or for those type of vehicles that may want to use the park. And essentially, we're saying they can stay on the trails, stay out of the grass, don't tear up the grass, those kind of things. We're also proposing updates to the animals in the park
9206 to restrict feeding of wild animals and birds and it further defines the responsibility of pet owners to clean up after their pets, keep them on a leash, etc. Uh adding a provision that prohibits persons from having glass
beverage containers in the parks broken glass anywhere. And we're proposing the remove the aircraft regulations because it doesn't seem to be a need to have regulations about uh the starting or landing of aircraft in a park or potentially on
Silver Lake. I guess may have been >> what happened to the pontoon >> planes. I'll cancel the mayor's jet then order anymore. >> Can't land it in the park. Forget it. >> Again, some real high level summary of what we're proposing. Um with that, I'll
take questions. Otherwise, our uh recommendation is to have you review the ordinance. If you're proposed or supportive of it, there's a motion there to approve ordinance 2026
XXX amending various sections of chapter 92, parks and lakes or uh regulations. >> One question I do have um kind of back on the animals in the parks. >> Yes. Um, I know at one point for was it
for autumn arts festival or something like that we one of the proposals was looking at like a petting zoo. Where would that fall into? Would that be because it's part of an event? Would that be outside of the scope of this? >> Yes. >> Okay.
>> And I'm sure they would be leashed and caged and >> Yeah. Yes. >> Not running a muck. >> Correct. >> We're also trying to prevent >> Sounds like some good housekeeping taken care of. So we have again full credit to Sarah because she started reading this and said
>> this doesn't look so good. >> Here we are. >> Um two questions. First um I'll take item I guess on both questions. Have these rule changes been um reviewed by uh Ry? I mean I'm assuming Ray is going
to and his staff is going to be the one that's going to have to enforce these >> police chief. Sorry. But we did not run those by police. But yes, they would be the enforcement agency. >> Um, and then I guess for the city attorney, um, specifically item H, is
item H enforceable? And are there first amendment concerns? >> Pulling up the specific language here. He said to use twice today. I think there be some extra charges commercial. >> Yeah.
>> Photographs of recording. >> Yeah. The restriction on um sort of photography for commercial purposes. Um I'm not going to say it's entirely clear um one way or the other. I will say it is very common to have this kind of a
provision for commercial photography. Um you know that that's usually seen as distinct from um you know something like uh either personal speech or like journalism photography is generally not covered under something like this.
>> So So you don't see any issue with the uh the way it's written? >> I don't. No. like a guy who's using the park at his own business. >> Yeah. Uh promo footage for a business or um you know a professional photo shoot down by the lake or something like that.
Um >> all right. Can I get a motion, please? >> So moved. >> So moved. Council member Woods. >> Second. Second, council member Norby. All those in favor say I. >> I. Thank you very much.
>> All right. Last item is the item C. Ballfield agreement between North St. Paul and Independent School District 622. Ken has a trifecta. >> Darn darn darn. I don't have PowerPoint for this, but that's okay. So the city has had historically had a ballfield
agreement with the school district for the use of the Mcnike fields and conungle and again through time and changing uses uh it was determined that the agreement needed to be updated. Uh
this was first established in 2011. Uh so the proposed major changes uh which are outlined in the staff report. So, we want to make sure that the school district notify via email the designated city staff person about scheduling
fields and rescheduling fields or games or practices uh because of rain notes and just schedule changes. Make that clear that that's their responsibility to send us an email so we have a track record or written track if you will documentation.
Second proposal is we are proposing a $300 fee to be charged to the district if city staff must tear down and store any school district temporary fences that are left behind. That has happened on Mcnite Fields. If the crew so if
there's games in the evening, we expect the school district staff to take those fences down. So if we want to or we the city staff wants to mow or fertilize or something the next day, they don't have to take the time to take the fences down or work around them. That's on the
school district. Uh and thirdly, the other major major thing is we are uh having the agreement that every capital improvement to a city field that they want to propose must go through the donation review process and
approval process with the city. We just don't want some random improvement showing up and not know about it. Uh I don't know that that would happen, but it would include submitting plans, financial information,
maintenance repair information of whatever it might be and it would come to the city council for approval of a donation. So again, it's documented who's going to do what, how it's getting put in, where it's going in, that kind of thing.
The school district has reviewed this and has approved the agreement as written. In fact, your copy in the packet is their signed version of it. So, they uh they have blessed it and appear to be on board. So, it's our recommendation that the uh city council
adopt the attached resolution which adopts the updated field use agreement between the city and independent school district 622. >> Perfect. I have a move. Any questions? I should ask that first. If not, can I get I'll make a motion.
>> All right. Council member McKenzie. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Thank you very much. >> All right. Moving on to reports u from the Andrew and the department. So today we had a staff meeting. Department's
working on getting locates called in for their work they're going to be doing near the Northwood Park area for the next couple weeks. Um they're completing communication wiring running between buildings for the new door systems which are getting close. They've only got three doors that they're waiting on
material for that's in the fire department. Um so that will be wrapping up here hopefully soon. Then they'll probably be moving on to the public works building after that. Um electric got 33 applicants for the open position that they have for their lineman. So
that was nice to see. Um, communications is finalizing the 2026 road construction letter for distribution to let the residents know about the upcoming project. Uh, developing a small business promotional
video, which is really going to be nice for the downtown businesses. Uh, and finalizing Autumn Arts Festival bookings, HR. Jenny's been very busy with uh, updating the personnel policy. Uh her and I have been working together on that
and Jack's been double checking our work. So that's good. Been a while. Finance has had 40 applicants for their open position. So it's nice to see the numbers come up a little bit for the open positions for a while there. That was pretty small. Um and Dan is excited
to move on already to the CIP and budgets session. So, uh, police has got their, um, body camera audit certification complete. So, that was a nice thing to see from them. They did a good job. Um, they had 37
applicants, um, for their open position. Uh, they narrowed it down to eight interviews and that'll be starting uh, next Tuesday. Didn't get any laterals, but uh, they had some people with some experience, so that's good. Uh chief will be attending the uh chief's conference in St. Cloud
next week. Um the TZD campaign is underway. They've been working uh joint programs with other cities and we'll be having one come to our city uh in the not too distant future. TZD, by the way, is towards zero deaths
for um uh drunk driving. Public works is doing their hydrant flushing. They're in over a week now. They're hoping to have that done in about another two weeks. So, that's when we will go on and try to get off chlorine again and then uh kind of go from there.
Um, of course, ongoing pothole patching around the street. Winters are tough on our streets. Um, and they had 20 full-time applicants for their uh position down there for their public works position. Uh, fire has a badge
pinning um ceremony next Tuesday at 6 PM. Um, just released that today. So, that's why you haven't heard about it before that, but if you can make it, wonderful. Um, they have the safe haven program ongoing with the CO alarms
installs and promotional video posted pretty soon on that as well. Um, access control system roll out is underway. It's getting really close to actually implementation and community development uh amongst all the other things they're working on. Uh
the cow elementary edition project pending final agreements is getting close. So that's great. Uh you know putting the finishing touches on all of the uh cleanup day organizing
and uh that's about it. >> Thank you. I've got nothing. >> Okay. I'm looking here. I asked uh Sarah, she's so good. I asked her to give me uh this Cassie is not here
tonight. So, I asked her for an update after their meeting on the 26th of March. They sent an update. So, what they talked about tonight going for the approval for the updated with the parks going in front of the council tonight, April 7th. They did
talk about the medallion hunt. So they so there is they are knowing a little they know a little bit about it. So they said Nick was there and they talked about us him attending the meeting with that after working with and talking with Ava. So it sounds like maybe it wasn't officially but it was discussed at the
at the parks. So that's good. I think they'll be able to go back and kind of tweak on some days and things like that. Citywide cleanup May 16th 10 to noon. Um they have uh urban um logical center. Is
that right? Parks cleanup. No, I said yeah. >> Did I say parks or did I say cleanup? Oh, I'm sorry. Parks cleanup. My apologies. See this is why the mayor doesn't read. >> April 16th 10 to noon. So they got the urban a ecological is that how you say that? Center. You got the by the post
office pond they'll be doing over there. Postal credit union pond which is ideal now. Mcnite Fields. Silver Lake. and they're still working with the Rotary for the Rotary Park and things like that. So, that was an update from the parks and wreck. Anything from Arts and
Culture? >> Um, arts and culture met uh on April 1st. Um, but no real updates, nothing major. >> Okay. uh planning commission met a couple of days ago here in chambers and they passed two items that'll be coming
before us I believe at the next city council a variance and a um pud or cud cu >> cu >> thank you >> be their first accessory dwelling unit >> okay really
awesome all right anything else as far as new business or anything anybody wants to share >> mayor if I just give a shout out if I may. The cleanup day again is for the junk removal is May 9th. There are some changes this year. The council's well aware, but we're trying to make sure
people know that you can't bring your box truck. You can't bring your semi. There are load limits, size limits, one single axle trailer. Uh electronics and mattresses are not being accepted this year. There will be charging uh for vehicles coming
in. And on the fee schedule tonight, there was updated fees including those vehicle charges and AA will be has been getting the word out and just continue to remind folks it will be different this year. Uh we hope it'll be more
manageable and run smoother. >> Okay. >> And uh yes, and we you can volunteer. If you haven't notified Ava, please let her know. >> Okay. >> Great. Just a quick addition to that. the uh we're not taking the mattresses or the electronics, but they are taken
for free through Ramsey County um at the recycling center over in Roseville. >> And I will say that I personally took a mattress in Box Springs and some electronics over there and it was super simple, super easy. So >> awesome. >> If you have any, take it. It's easy to do. >> Awesome.
>> So, >> and as always, please keep up with the newsletter. Ava does an excellent job. I mean, that's our town paper. So, that's where we have to We can't talk and knock on everybody's door. So, we have it out there. Please take advantage and uh get
the I get it text on Wednesday. I always know. Boom. There she is. And I get the I get the newsletter text to me, too. So, please, if you don't have it, sign up for it because that's where we give our information. So, please stay on top of that. If nothing else, I'll ask for a German and we'll see everybody April
21st for our next meeting. >> German. So moved. >> So moved. Council member Woods. Second. Council member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you.