Good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome you to the ATGO city council meeting. Tonight is Monday, June 8th. Audrey, can you have the record show that our city attorney, city planner, city engineer, along with all council members are present, our assistant city administrator, and our city administrator.
So present. At this time, I'll ask you all to join us in the pledge of allegiance. allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Our first item of business this evening is our open forum. This is the portion of the meeting where you can come to the podium, state your name and address, and limit comments to five minutes or less. Would anyone like to speak at this time? of the hours here.
>> I can see on my screen >> in council. Uh I am here today uh and I invited uh Representative Natine to come. Um we as you know Paul's retiring and I wanted to to let all of you know
how much we've appreciated him in Ray County. Um, we have some great legislators that have just little snippets of, uh, Ray County, uh, Representative Natne, Representative
Nadau, and Senator Hoffman that have really, really brought Rake County together like they come to everything that we asked of them. And we had I don't know if you saw that uh uh we had the community corrections
um uh debacle this year where the state had said that we could take over our state employees for for probation and they let counties do it and then all of a sudden they decided for Wright County that they wanted those employees to uh
take on the PTO banks and their um all their uh retirement accounts, everything and and include that in our what what we needed to pay them instead of the state
payment. And because of that, we threw down uh we threw down a lawsuit. And with uh Representative Natney's help, we changed the state statute. We worked with the Department of Corrections and
uh we are now um we are now free from having to do that. It would and I said it was it is very much like if somebody left Target and went to Cargill, there's no way Cargill would ever pay the the balance of what's needed just to
transfer that employee. And that's what they were asking of us. And behind the scenes, Paul did amazing work for us. We're so grateful for all the hard work and every time uh I would go down to the capitol which was very many very many
times uh he was always so gracious to me and to the other commissioners andor uh administrators and we're going to really miss him down at the cap. Um he is uh he was the chair of public safety and he
did his career as in law enforcement so I know what it's like because my husband is a retired deputy and there are times where you just want to be done and he is now to this point so he can enjoy life like my husband but I did bring him a
gift. I brought him a hundred grand and I would like him to speak so you guys can do the same because he's done great things for Seigo as well. But thanks so much. There you go. >> Uh for those of you that know me know
that I don't like attention or anything like that. So um I just want to say thank you. It's been an honor to represent Adigo and and uh it's been a good city. It's been interesting for me to watch as someone who grew up in the area just to watch how Atiggo has
changed from um you know dairy farms to what it is now and it's thriving and the leadership of the city council and and the staff has has done amazing things here and it seemed to be a very smart way that they
are growing. So like I said it's been an honor to be here but uh it's been enough but I I I uh seven years was enough and uh I've got a grandkid that'll be here in
first week of July and I've already got my my daughter still travels a lot for work. So I'm already booked for um trips since starting in September. So I plan to do that and you guys need anything in the meantime, let me know. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Paul, I was going
to say thank you for all you've done for our community, but also congratulations on this next step of becoming a grandpa. >> I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Paul. >> All right. Is there anyone else here for open forum?
>> All right, we will close open forum and move on to consider our agenda for approval. Does anyone have anything that they would like to add or delete at this time? >> Madam Mayor, >> yes, Ryan. I move to approve the agenda as written. >> Is there a second? >> Second.
>> Motion by Ryan, seconded by Corey. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> Motion passes. Next item is our consent agenda. A motion would be in order. >> Madam Mayor. >> Yes, Ryan.
>> I move to approve the consent agenda as written. Second. >> Motion by Ryan, seconded by Corey. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes.
Moving on to item 4.1, absentee early voting periods. We'll turn this over to Audra. >> Thank you, mayor. Um, the 26 Minnesota legislative session concluded in May, passing HF 4240, allowing cities to
administer voting starting 46 days before the election or 18 days before the election. If the city of Atgo adopts the 18-day early voting period, the primary operational change will eliminate the first 28 days of in-person
absentee voting at city hall using a series of envelopes. The city will continue to offer the 18-day early voting process as in the past where voters voters will be able to vote and place their ballots in the DS200 tabulator just like election day.
The voters will still have the option to vote absentee absentee during the 46 day absentee voting period by requesting a ballot online or by mail through the Secretary of State's office or in person at Wright County. During the 26 general
election, less than 3% of the 13,727 voters voted at city hall in the first 28 days using the envelope process. Wright County has requested notification of the city's decision by June 12th and
city staff is recommending the city council adopt the 18-day early voting process. Any questions? Council questions. Your memo was good. Thank you for kind of laying it out just hard enough to get election judges, but
then to ask them to come on all of that extra time. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Thank you. M right. >> Um Madame Mayor, I'll make a motion to select the option to conduct 18 days of in-person early voting at the city of
Oiggo for the 2026 primary and general elections. >> Second motion by Corey, seconded by Tina. Is there any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion
passes. Moving on to public safety fire marshall contract. I will turn this over to Chief McCoy. >> Good evening, mayor, members of council. Um before you is a contract with U. Carrie Smith uh become a part-time fire
marshal for the city of Oiggo. Um, we need some help in the writing of a uh ordinance for adoption of the um what's going to be the 2026 fire code coming up. Um, Carrie can help us build a fire inspection program uh from the ground up
as well as building a fire education program from the ground up. Um, fire prevention week's right around the corner. I know it's only the the first meeting in June, but um October is going to sneak up on as fast and if we're going to be educating our our students
in the schools, uh we need to get on that as soon as possible. Um we have a key box program we need to get up and running so it's um ready for our use on um January 1st. um he can assist with um the inspection
program, the u permitting program um as as we move forward in the in the city. Um Carrie comes with a lot of experience and he's familiar with our records management system that we're looking at. So he can assist us with that and
entering data in in there so we can get good data out of there. Um, as we move on and we hire our captains, um, they're going to start doing pre-plans as soon as possible and Carrie can assist with that as well. Um, so we're going to have plenty of work for him, um, as soon as
we can get him, uh, in the doors and working. questions. Council >> Hey Chief, I had one question I was thinking about and I don't I don't know if you can answer it or not, but >> like ballpark amount of hours do you
think you work >> 20 hours a week? >> Okay. >> So half time. >> He'll probably be a busy guy though, the way it sounds, huh? So, is that going around to schools and and educating, you know, um National Night Out, that
type of stuff? >> Yeah, we'll we'll also have our two staff members come on um here towards beginning of July um so we can assist with the the education in the schools. Um but we'll really need um his expertise on building that that training
program in the school or the education program in the schools. >> Okay. Yeah, that sounds great. Other questions, >> Madam? >> Yes, >> Chief. I My standard practice is to try to send questions ahead of time. I apologize I
didn't do that. My weekend kind of got away from me. So, I'm not trying to embarrass you or anything, but there are a couple things I'd like to go over there in the in the proposal here. Um, item number four, compensation. I think
there's an issue here where it says that uh we need to remmit the payment to the contractor within 15 and then in quotation it says 35. I think we have to fix the language of that crossing out 35 and making it >> Yeah, that was brought to our attention >> the number 15. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> Um my other question is on the back under exhibit A. Um, we're talking about um it's a third bullet point down, third sub bullet
where it talks about ordering equipment, tools, and other items necessary for all department apparatus. That to me kind of seemed out of place. It seemed like that's not what a fire marshall does. No, but we'll if there's any fire prevention equipment um so like smoke
alarms or CO detectors, we'll look for his expertise on which ones we should um equip our apparatus with um when when we're out and about. And this is some there's more to come on that through the state fire marshall's office as well. But if there's any fire prevention
equipment that we need to be carrying on the apparat calls, batteries, that kind of thing, we'll look to the fire marshall's expertise for that. But will he have purchasing power? How does that work? >> No, he'll make recommendations. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
>> Um I guess the other question I have, I'm not sure if if you can answer this for me, but we've talked a little bit about this Knoxbox idea that we kind of have to go around to a lot of the different businesses and and change out their their boxes and their keys and >> there's going to be some expense
associated with that. Do we know where those expenses are going? How we're going to pay for that? >> Um, this program's the change outs happened in other um areas and the businesses have uh paid for it. >> Okay.
>> Um I guess the only other thing is not really a question. It's just more of a comment that we don't with this contract we don't have any sort of no maximum amount known not to exceed. So, I know that this is going to be offset by some of the building um fees, but my question
would be, you know, what happens if the build building permit revenue goes down? How are we going to offset offset this cost in the future? So, something we just haven't discussed. Yeah, Mayor, I did put together a brief
slide that can contextualize some of the finance information mentioned here. We uh so as Chief McCoy mentioned, we're anticipating about 20 hours per week starting in July through the end of December. Um, so a calculated cost of
about $45,000. Um, the 2026 budget for the building safety department is 611. So adding those two together uh is 657,000. I looked at year-to- date building
permit revenues. Uh, total 857,000 uh, which is approaching 56% uh, of the total annual budget. uh which does leave room uh as of year to date for 200,000 um in terms of excess permits over the
top of what that building safety department has budgeted for. So in that budget, the most volatile or variable piece to that is our contracted service for building inspection, um plan review, building official services. Uh
so looking down below year to date, we've spent $98,000 on that, which is 32% of our budget. Uh looking at the average month uh at 24,000 if I annualize that amount uh we'd have about $9200
uh under budget. Uh if I take the max month so far this year at $27,000, uh we would be over that contracted service budget by 28,000. Still within that 200,000 of year-to- date permit over revenue. So um obviously this
doesn't forecast the rest of this year in terms of revenue. Um, but right now we're sitting at just under 56%. In terms of 2027, this would be something that staff would include in the draft budget for council review and consideration of adoption. Uh, so that
we're not having to use this excess revenues and hopefully avoiding in a future year where permit revenue maybe isn't as high as it is this year. So, Madam Mayor, >> just to clarify then in in the future,
this would not be paid for with with those building permit revenues that would come out of the tax levy. >> Mayor, council, that would be a blend of different revenue sources that that fund the general fund budget as a whole. uh we don't fund each specific department
necessarily by specific revenue source but the combination of property tax levy uh building permit revenue are two most significant revenue sources so between those two there would be a a coverage of that item if included in the budget >> and mayor I guess I would just point out
that taking that revenue now and putting it towards this means we are offsetting what could go towards lowering the tax the property tax levy for next year if
we had excess revenue in the building permit that would be a surplus that would we could apply to next year so mayor council to that point um our audit just finished up as I mentioned in our weekly update last week
um I've done the preliminary calculation of what that surplus would be heading into the 27 budget process and ballpark about $700,000 is a number that I would present to you. Uh is onetime money that would either be shifted into capital or could be used for one time um budget
differences uh such as this example. So >> any other questions or comments? So, um, out of curiosity, typically fire marshals and other cities when they have them on staff, um, how do you know how they typically handle
that from a paying for that in the staffing, >> budgeting for a staff position? >> Uh, mayor, council, that would be included typically within of the fire department budget. Um unless the city would have some other department fire
prevention education um inspections um here specifically, we would propose that to be included in the fire department budget for 2027. >> Okay. >> But again, they they do have a fair amount of crossover with our building safety in terms of plan review um for
both new construction and post construction. So, >> and if anyone has talked to Chief Scott, he's talked a lot about this um for months just about >> him relying on other people to be doing plan review for us that weren't really
nobody's getting paid to do that at this point that he was connecting with. Any other questions or comments? Otherwise, a motion would be in order. Madame Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve contract fire marshall agreement between the city of Adiggo and Carrie
Smith DBA FCA LLC subject to final agreement review by the city attorney. >> Second. >> Motion by Tina, seconded by Corey. Is there any discussion? >> Madame Mayor. >> Yes. >> Uh, Madam Mayor, as you as you pointed out, the the need for this position is
not a surprise. In fact, two years ago, I stated publicly that this position was not included in the budget. At the time, I warned that excluding positions and other expected expenses from the budget hides the true cost of operating a fire department. Today, we are seeing the
consequences of that approach. We are already 50% over budget due to other unplanned expenses, and now we're being asked to approve another cost that was foreseeable but never honestly accounted for. The larger issue here is transparency.
This fire marshall position is not the only cost that has been left outside of the budget. When expected positions and expenses are omitted, residents are prevented from seeing the true cost of the services they are going to have to pay for. At some point, we have to ask
how much is too much. When do we stop approving un unplanned expenditures without first having an honest discussion about the total cost and whether it remains sustainable? What is the point of a budget anymore? This situation is the direct result of a
council that has repeatedly been unwilling to clearly state on the record the justifications for its decision and the long-term financial impacts that follow. Our residents expect transparency. We took an oath to ensure our budgets reflect reality, not to
conceal costs until after commitments have already been made. For these reasons, I cannot support this motion. >> Is there any other discussion? Well, those Yeah. I I don't understand the 50% of our budget. What are you talking about?
You're talking about the fire station, the building cost of it or managing the fire station moving forward. What What What budget are you talking about, >> Madam Mayor? So, we approved a budget back in December.
Two months later, we're already 50% over budget. We had this council a majority approved going 50% over budget >> comments >> mayor council it it in February staff
interim chief Scott presented a revised staffing plan compared to what was in the 2026 adopted budget and yes that amount is more than what we budgeted for in terms of that revised staffing plan uh council bid consider that in February uh and did move forward. Uh therefore,
staff did initiate those recruitments. So, >> so we voted on that in February. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I.
>> All those opposed, same sign. >> I. >> Motion passes 4 to one. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, J. >> All right. We under we are under city council reports and updates. Does anyone have anything?
>> Uh madame mayor. >> Yes. Right. >> The planning commission did not meet. However, their next meeting is scheduled for the 15th. There are two items um on the um that will have a public hearing. Uh the cell center water treatment plant and uh Zachman Meadows second edition
which is a development that is east of uh DSG off of Cadler. My update will be tomorrow will be the first uh public safety meeting and that will be held at the fire station. If you are free, please attend.
>> Right. >> Madam Mayor, I was just going to give kudos to um our utility department. Um, I had a resident reach out about a water question and uh, our fearless leader was in Canada fishing and uh, somehow, you
know, got the word to his staff to meet up with this uh, resident and make arrangements. So, by the time I called, everything was set up. I was pretty impressed how the process worked. So, thanks to those guys. >> Cool. They were dealing with a water
issue last week also on Tuesday. Yeah, we kept seeing trucks hauling dirt and I'm like, where are they going at 7:30? So, I reached out to Adams, found out. All right. Um, anyone else have
anything. Next is staff reports and updates. Item 7.1, consider scheduling a special meeting at 5:30. >> Yes, mayor. Uh, staff would request that special meeting at 5:30 on June 22nd. Uh two items would be a presentation from the city's audit firm uh going over the
results of that audit and uh adopting of the financial statements and then also second item would be uh a touch point on Prairie Park phase one uh planning uh with some community survey results and uh just keeping the council uh updated
on that process. So >> that closes today, correct? >> Uh yes, mayor. That's correct. >> Okay. Does that work for everyone? I'll be out of time. >> Oh, just meeting before the city council at 600. >> Uh 5:30, please.
>> Okay, perfect. All right, then. I will make a motion to call for a special meeting starting at 5:30 on June 22nd. >> Second. >> I was going to say, is there a second? Thank you, Ryan. Uh motion by Jessica, seconded by Ryan. Is there any
discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. >> Um we are still under staff reports and updates. Sabrina. >> Uh thank you, mayor. Uh no updates at
this time. >> Okay. Adam, >> mayor, council, uh nothing to add this evening. >> Okay. Audra. >> Uh thank you, mayor. I was just going to remind everyone the photo contest did start so please submit your photos. >> Dave,
>> nothing to report. Thanks, Mayor. >> Okay, Dan. >> Mayor, nothing to report this evening. >> Okay, Ron, >> no updates. Mayor, >> what? >> Well, >> all right. I can count on Jason Alman's and you can go along because they all
passed their time. >> Let's see what we got going on here. Um, okay. I will start with uh the last seven or eight years, it hasn't been super popular to constantly support law enforcement with everything that's been going on. So, I do echo uh council
statements about um Paul Noatne and representing law enforcement very well. Um, we really do appreciate that because he's uh definitely faced criticism for his support in that and he's never wavered in that. So, I appreciate that. To age him, he was a explorer of or
explore adviser of mine back in two when he was with the Sherman County Sheriff's Office. So, um back when I was 14 years old, he had to be an adviser for me for well, >> he was only like county. >> So, um just wanted to age him real quick
there. So, um as far as uh everything going on in the city here, um this is kind of the uh I always consider this kind of the crunch point for when the statistics start kind of going all over the board. It's been interesting. I looked at the numbers for the past couple years for number of calls for service from the beginning of the year
up until June and it's within like 20 calls for service every single year and then once June hits it's just an absolute um kind of a smorggishborg of different uh calls for service and where we're going to be at statistically for the year again statistically so far Northstar Treatment Center and Target
are number one and two um locations for calls for service. They actually have the exact same amount right now. So, um, again, I know we we bring it up every time I stand up here, the the ebike situation and
moto scooters and whatever other uh ways you want to describe those still continues to uh pop up. Um, we are out there literally every single day trying to educate, enforce in whatever capacity that we can. Um, like it sounds like a joke, but it literally we were running
into uh our deputies trying to pull kids over that are out there acting egregiously on these things and they are fleeing from us, which is a felony. So, um, you know, if you get caught fleeing from an officer on one of your ebikes
that doesn't have pedals or whatever the case is, it's technically a felony. We don't want to be, you know, hammering 13 or 14 or 15 year olds for that sort of thing. But you might face a uh your bike being towed then I guess maybe we can get the point across in that capacity. So we're working within the law on that
and we're um doing what we can because I get complaints on it every single day. I know council members you get complaints on it. I know city's been taking complaints on it. So uh working with the confines that we are given and uh see what we can do. Um otherwise like I said
it's just going to be really busy for us with different events. Um friendly city days is it this weekend? >> Y >> okay not a directly at sego thing but it always trickles over.
So other than that, I don't think I have anything real pertinent to you guys that I don't want to touch on all this tomorrow at public state. >> Perfect. >> Does that question?
>> Right. >> Um, Madame Mayor, I do we still have our um safety camp as a city because I was wondering if something like this would be something that we could >> I don't think they host the safety camp anymore. I know they used to do,
right? Like it hasn't been on the I haven't seen it for a few years. >> Years. Okay. Just wondered. >> Yeah. Know we get involved in like bike rodeos and stuff like that. So >> I know some of those things were like grandfunded. And I think some of So like a perfect example is the uh you got caught thing, the Dairy Queen. So if an
officer, you know, driving around and sees a, you know, little kid with his bike, we could give them a little you got caught ticket sort of joke and they get like a free Blizzard or cone or whatever at Dairy Queen. the funding for that uh went away and so like we don't have those anymore. So those things I
got to put on the budget to ask for ice cream cone vouchers or something to get that up and running again because the kids loved it. But so yeah, like we haven't been able to uh issue those things for a while. >> I'm just going to mad mayor I just want to make a comment to um dispatch. Uh I
had to call because of parking issues in my neighborhood. She was so pleasant. She was great. She took care of it. I said, "It's not an emergency, so when a deputy can get here just to have conversation, so be it." So, she was great. And then Deputy Olsen came by,
talked to him, met him. >> Perfect. >> So, awesome. So, thank you. >> To your point, you could only imagine all the, you know, the times that they're taking phone calls that it's difficult to maybe sometimes take a phone call from you. It was very pleasant and uh very pleasant um and, you know, pleasant and uh disrespectful
and say, "Hey, you know, went five minutes before. They could have been dealing with absolute chaos and they got switched that gear. Right. Right. >> So, I mean that's that's been happening today. So, >> she was great. She was >> phenomenal. >> Right. Good. >> Yes. Oh, excellent. >> I'll grab the name from all or look it up and make sure they some
acknowledgement. >> Yeah, please. Because I don't recall. >> Sometimes they're they're forgotten about if I'm being honest with you. Dispatch gets forgotten about all the time. >> Yeah. That's why I wanted to make sure that I >> the deputies that usually get crazy or the down but >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. No, she's great. Great. Does anyone else have anything?
All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Jason. Thank you. >> All right. If no one else has anything, then a motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Oh. >> Oh. Oh, >> that's right. I can't see him.
>> Well, we could change it up. Do you have anything that you would like to comment on? >> Nobody seconded. I didn't call for the I called for it, but I >> I appreciate the uh what we call that accommodation. >> There you go. >> Um No, I just I I heard you were tooting
Paul's horn tonight. >> Got 100 grand bar. >> I thought I'd show up to to support him. But >> he said he doesn't like attention. >> Yeah. >> But if you have any questions regarding anything that happened in the legislature, I'd be happy to answer him. Otherwise, just just here for Paul. So,
>> I had already reached out to you. Okay. >> On a personal matter like >> Okay. >> But um yeah. Well, thank you for all your service to our community also. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right.
Is there anyone else? All right, >> Chief McCoy. >> Oh, yes. Oh, see, we're out of order. Sorry. Well, see, good thing I said it. >> Sorry, Chief McCoy. Get on up here. You should have went before
>> Sergeant Alman. Sorry. >> What order would you like to go? Would you like to go before him or after him? >> He's carrying a gun. >> So, uh, we continue to schedule meetings with our partners around. Um, last week, Mike and I met with Alina. We discussed,
um, initial education for our new firefighters coming on. Um, ongoing education that we're going to need in the future. uh medical direction, which we work under a doctor's license. Uh so we met with him as well. And then equipment needs, we're going to look to
try to um match our equipment to what they're using. So we have out on the street, we're we're seamless. Um today, um they're working on punch list items. They're working on some lockers for in our decon area. They fixed the uh
heating ventilation on the roof finally. Um hopefully it it continues. This week's supposed to be hot. Um Mason, you heard a lot about him. He's a wonderful individual. Um he was there fixing and working on some punch list items today.
So um can't say enough good about him. Um Jim the mechanic. Um Greg and Larry, we went out to Pierce last week um to finalize the the engine and the tower, the ladder. Um that visit
went very well. Um Adam, we had 40ome and 30ome um small little items and Adam asked if that was a lot and it's not. Um some of them are just very minor minor little issues that we have. So the visit
went extremely well. Um happy um couple weeks here we should see the trucks show up in um Apple Valley and then we'll work with them to get them to the fire station. So really happy with with everything that went on there last week. So and happy to be back in the office.
So So >> well, you hope the air stays on so you can like stay in the office, right? >> Yeah, >> it's working. It was actually cool in there today. So >> Okay, that's good. >> Not complaining. All right,
>> chief. When will um our fire marshall start that? >> Um hopefully in a couple weeks. >> Okay. >> So, yeah, get him get him working. So, we'll make contact with him if
tonight or tomorrow. Um see what he's up to. So, >> yeah, that'll be great. >> Yeah, >> I've heard good things about him. So, >> yeah. No, he's very very good. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else have anything? >> No. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Everyone has spoke now. >> All right. Now we can call for a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All right. Moted by Corey, seconded by Tina. Is there any discussion? All those
in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. meeting has ended. Thank you all for attending and again thank you for your service to both of us. >> Thank you. >> Sure. Yeah. Everybody want to go down and take a quick picture?