city administrator and our city administrator are present. >> At this time, I'll ask you all to join us in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge alce 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. Thank you. Our first item of business this evening is the open forum. This is the portion where residents can come to the podium, state your name and address, and limit comments to 3 minutes or less. Would anyone like to speak at this time?
>> Thank you, Madame Mayor, Council, fellow residents. I'm David Swab, 16135, 71st Lane Northeast, just south of the VFW soccer fields. I'm going to give a I'm going to give a
couple of pictures to pass around to the council and then we'll pass them through of the fire in our town home complex in July of 2023. just to show our hands behind me. Who has resided in in us since then?
Okay, great. That night was uh July 17. Call came in. It took I can't remember the exact time of dispatch from Elk River to here, but uh the fire cost us
1 million. It's a 4 mile response distance from Elk River to our town home location. It's 2 miles straight down the hill from the new fire station. Um,
we have grown 257% 2000. I moved up here in 2001. Uh, at that time there were still stop lightss uh where the trailer park is on 71st Lane. Um, we had a a gas station.
No, nothing else really. Um, Dayton Dayton's population is all of these are of 2023. Dayton's population is 10,157 people.
Uh, Rogers 13.5,000 at Seagull 23,000. Albertville 8,000. St. Michael 21,000. Al Gver is the only one that's larger than we are in the in the immediate area 27,000. Zimmerman
6,400 and uh Princeton 5,300. Every one of towns has got a fire department except for us. I'm not saying and I'll pass these pictures around when you're done. I'll pass them to the audience.
um you know perhaps 10 minutes or five minutes would have saved a couple of these units. Uh who knows? Looking at the tax levy, um there's been a lot of stuff going on Facebook uh upon a lot of
bad information, a lot of good information. um the median household, it looks like our taxes are going to go up $142 per year. Well, all of 2025,
we had to for my association, we had to assess $64.75 a month extra to pay for the insurance because no one would touch us because of the fire. Um, for me, we're I'm looking at about a
$5.80 per month increase for the budget of 2026. 580 for and $70 for the whole year, that would have been one of my supplemental insurance payments because we had to go on a risk insurance. though. Um,
not only that, if we're going to have EMTs on our fire trucks, I'm 68. I'm retired. I CAC over. Takes 12 or 15 minutes to get an ambulance from Elk River. Maybe a neighbor's doing CPR on me, but my brain's going to because I
don't have oxygen. Um, so for people who are dead set against this fire department, look at the pictures. Look at the risks. Fires do happen. These buildings were new in 20201.
The code yet the fire was so so savage it ripped through the the fire barriers in there. So, um hopefully these pictures will change some minds tonight. Uh, that's about all I have to say
again, except that we've grown 257%. How can we not have a fire department? And Dayton has got a Dayton has got a police department. Elk River, St. Michael, Albertville, Rogers. We don't
have a police department. We contract with Wright County. That should be next. We should be looking at the future, not looking at the past. And on an average home of going up uh 12 bucks a month, that's not two cups of coffee. One of the four places we can
get coffee right here by Target, Coleorns, Duncan, uh everyone else on these corners. So, thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Nathan Anderson,
1678065th Street Northeast. Um, I've got a hand out for So, I'm here partly for the fire department, mainly for my own reasons, but on May 19th of 2020,
uh, our house had a house fire right there. and Rogers, Ellip River, Dayton, everybody else showed up to it. We didn't have one. Our house was total loss. It was what it was. We moved back to our house
in July 25 only to find RNL Trucking has built their building there and we were notified of it. It looks like a notice went out in 2021 that there was going to be a building built there, but it only
went out to people that were within 300 feet of it. I live across the cornfield from them at about 1,200 feet from it. So, we never got a letter in the mail. It says in the newspaper that we're on your guys' website that we're supposed to look at up on the website or on
newspapers and get it ourselves and somehow everything about everything. Neither here nor there. Um, as you can see, those pictures are of what is existing now. All their lights and everything that are glaring through my windows. Literally, I can sit in my living room while I'm watching a movie
with my kid, put my hand on the wall, and make puppet animals on the side of my glass. That's at 1300 ft. So, I reached out to Mr. here and the November of 24th or November 24th
followed up December 1st. Nothing has been done with it. And the only thing that actually happened is on November 28th after he reached out to uh RNL Trucking is that at about 112 in the morning, they sat there with their backup beepers on their trucks blaring
all night long. I then got to call the wonderful Wright County him go deal with it because 1:00 a.m. when I'm listening backup beepers in my house at 1300 ft is insane. I shouldn't be able to hear the backup beepers in my house in the first place according to the noise ordinance.
I shouldn't be able to hear them at 50 feet. So I'm asking that happen with these lights. It's not code. It's against every law that I can read. It's against the building diagrams for the building. Um, as far as the noise, Mr.
Lick says there's nothing that he can do because it's not a part of the MS MPA nighttime noise limits. However, in your guys's noise ordinance 5-1-8, it says, "It shall be unlawful for any
person to willfully make or continue or cause to be made or continued any loud, unnecessary, or unusual which unreasonably annoys, disturbs, endangers the comfort, res repose, health, peace,
safety, or welfare of others, precludes the quiet enjoyment of their property, or affects their property's value. I'm going to say if I'm listening to a backup beeper at 12 dB, that's the same as a concert. Now, they do make a backup
beeper that transfers to white noise. And when you guys were approving this, the commissioner Kohl's addressed it and it just kind of got wiped off the thing. And several other people raised noise concerns and nobody
seemed to actually care. But according to the nuisant noises um section B, it also says the sounding of any horn or signaling device on any automobile. That's considered a nuisent noise. So then I shouldn't be able to
hear this at 50 ft. I shouldn't be listening to it at 1:00 a.m. I they you guys approved them for 24-hour service. If they're 24-hour service, somebody needs to build a wall. There should have never been that there. It was when I moved here in 201 18 or 19 that was
zoned to be houses and then you guys went by and changed the city plan without a vote. Well, a public vote I should say and now I got warehouses. Now there's pictures in there of other warehouses that are in the area. Blue
Dot uh room and board and now it's I don't know. >> Yeah, Circle K. All of those have nice appealing downward aesthetic lights. And if you go by any warehouse in the area, that's those lights look like. These
look like a stadium. Like if you go down River Road, you can tell where that warehouse is because it illuminates the sky. And then their fueling station has non-conforming lights. I own a gas station. The lights that are inside the canopies have to be inside the canopy.
They cannot push light outwards. It has to go straight down. It can't exceed past the canopies. I can see those plain as day for my living room. So, I asked that you guys do something with this. I've been waiting since well, I finally
filed the complaint in Nove. I like that if nothing happens, you guys ask them to turn the lights off because Thanksgiving dinner, it's really fun looking at a football stadium in my backyard. I also say that if you guys are looking
for money or whatnot to this wall, maybe look into the $1.2 million tax abandonment that you gave them to build it. Or you could roll that money into the new fire department. >> But that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you.
Kathy Kohl's 15613 90th Street Northeast Month report new picture. Nothing's done yet ex have snow and we have a bobcat outside too. So it's a parking lot. >> I live next >> not for you.
I live I live next to coorts and feel your pain on a smaller scale. Garbage cans are supposed to contain. I'm not supposed to see their garbage. I've been looking at it for 5 years working on it. >> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you. >> Hello. Hello. >> Hi. Mary Bartholomew 7589 Odell Lane northeast.go. Um I have no pictures for you,
but I couple things um that I would like to address to the council tonight. Um I was here last week um with truth and taxation. I wanted to say I did appreciate the time that the council spent after the meeting to discuss some
of my comments. Um, always go home and reflect on what I heard from the community and what information I received from the council. Um, I have three specific points I'd like to discuss tonight. We talked about COLA, the cost of living
adjustment. Didn't realize during the last meeting that the the COLA, the cost of living adjustment is on top of city employee annual raises. In essence, we are taking tax dollars from all these residents. I
have not gotten a cost of living. Anybody working? Anyone? So, in essence, we're taking tax dollars from residents like me that have not gotten a cost of living adjustment in years from our employees working in the
private sector and giving city employees 4% cost of living. Plus, I don't know what they're getting for their annual increase. So, you're talking last year and this year they could be getting six to 7% increase a year. Um,
and I always feel for employees. I don't want shorted, but in years that we're having budget deficits, it makes me think about that because the official federal social security percentage increase is 2.8 eight for
cost of living adjustment with many federal employees getting 2%. I don't understand where the 4% is coming from on top of the annual increase. So they could be getting 6 to 7% increase in
both years and I'm asking the council to reook at this and reconsider the level in funding this at instead of the federal guidelines. Why is it higher? Being in the private sector, I have to deal with this all the time with
employees. Of course, every employee wants to get paid more, but I'm held to my employer that have to find other ways to make employees happy. It always can't just be constant increases. So, we always have to find effective ways to do
that. and I just don't feel it's fair when we aren't we're taking it from people that aren't getting these cost of living adjustment. Um so I just ask that you reconsider that the fire station uh during that
discussion last week you noted that you've had public meetings which I do agree that you have had on the fire station and the information is on the city for anyone to view. Um, we also talked about that the economic
development administration, so how the fire station got funded. Um, that that the council doesn't technically have to get votes from the residents on city pro. Most of the buildings were built through an EDA. Uh, I'm going to tack on
to what this gentleman said. I've been on the website. It's cumbersome to find information in a manner that makes sense to most of us trying to search laser fish documents. Um, when we asked at the last meeting based on our input, how do we get
specific feedback, there wasn't still clear direction or answers since this meeting isn't meant for you to actually respond to us. I I am asking council to reconsider how you communicate to
residents what is happening now is not effective to bring people in and help them understand and you are the leaders of the community responsible for our funds. Um, and then lastly, the agenda tonight
included future projects for 2026 to 2035 projects with extremely large price tags in the drinking water utilities category, which are as follows. 2020 15.6 million. And Adam, you did note
last week that most of that would not be coming from the resident. I think you said it'd be coming from grants or other funding. Um but what my question to the council is how much of that is coming from residents of that 50 million and
then in 2027 so we're all sticker shocked at 18.23% increase in city taxes. So the following year in 2027 it's at 39 million. Where is coming from?
And in 2028 it's 33 million. Where is that money coming from? So there's huge price tags and I don't again I don't know and I see the numbers but I where does it
come from? Is that going to be another tax increase for us? And you know, I looked at a couple of the categories. In 2027 and 2028, we're going to spend 3.7 million in 2027 and 3.7 million in
2028 to renovate Prairie Park. I'm thinking that's 7.4 million to renovate a park. So um I will close by stating we need
more pre-spending or pre and transparency and input around the spending in OGO. Residents cannot have doubledigit city tax increases every year without input. My ask from this council is to find ways to reduce
spending and provide different methods of communication. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other comments? >> 6689 Packard Avenue Northeast. Um,
I notice on your agenda tonight that you're going to be approving a whole heck of a lot of spending under the consent agreement way before you ever hear from the fire chief giving his presentation, his
findings, his information towards the very end of the meeting. Now, wouldn't you think do you want to listen to him and see what ideas he's got? Whether you can have cost savings or additional costs from his presentation before you come up with a levy in a budget. I think
so. I'd like to know how much what did he find out which savings has he come up with? What additional spendings has he found out about? That should all be part of the budget. are also scheduled tonight to approve
another $1,18,591.35 to pay for the fire station. Seems to me like every month you guys are spending over a million dollars on the fire station. When is this ever going to Next year it's going to be more expensive because you're going to be bringing on board firemen equipment and
all the other outlays. The uh other question I've got is on your budget. You guys have a thing about raising all kinds of fees. When Jacob Olsen was running as mayor,
he came up with the idea of increasing the fe fees to the developers to bring them more in line with the surrounding communities. And his idea was by doing that we could raise millions of dollars and reduce the tax burdens on the
citizens of AIGO. Have you guys done that or even looked at that? Why or why not? It seems like it's pretty easy if we've got the lowest fees. Why don't we raise them equal footing
with the rest of the other communities and cut the taxes on our citizens? And then the other thing I' I've got is are the contracts with the other cities, we haven't heard crap about them,
going to continue? Are they going to be discontinued? What's going on? I know there's been meetings between the fire chief and Adam with the various fire chiefs of the surrounding communities. What was discussed? I haven't seen anything. Now, tomorrow night there's
supposed to be a meeting for publicity commission. At their last meeting, they were talking about having a tour of the current fire station. Is that still on? Has that been changed? Anybody know? >> That has been changed. It will be here.
>> Okay. So, it's not going to happen tomorrow night. Okay. >> The >> meeting is, but the tour of the facilities is on. Correct. Okay. And uh the last the other thing I've got is several citizens over the past few
months have asked for a public forum between the city council and the citizens to discuss the fire station where the city council would respond to them. They could ask questions. Um mayor said that she doesn't want to
do that until we hear from our fire chief. Well, tonight we're going to hear from him. Can we get a date time set to have such a forum or is are you going to totally not do that? That's my question. >> Okay. Thanks.
>> Thank you. Thank you. You >> My name is Mark Rosine, live at 8863 KOA Northeast. That's over uh Riverwood National Golf Course Area. Um, I'm here just to speak on behalf again of our concerns of uh the response time. We've talked about it before, the West Enders
and the West Enders kind of not the furthest westers, but uh current response time uh is probably going to be doubled for FE against the future response time of of the new fire department. So, uh, our concerns there and of course you got whatever the number is, 30 million that most of you
have decided to spend on the uh going forward, but there's many citizens in this city that their response time is likely doubling at, uh, based on the location of where the current building is versus serving the West Enders. So, I uh, just want to consider that and have
you consider that. Obviously, um, as mentioned, it could lead to another station and it's more and more money going down that road. So, um, again, I guess we're at a point where, uh, you're really going to need to consider that tonight. Also, are we looking at paying,
uh, 1.4 million in 2027 as possibly a wasted contract, uh, if we have the fire department up and running by 2027? U, we have to make the agreement. I think we have to make the agreement tonight is my understanding. Um, so, are we going to have $1.4 million spent on contracts
that technically will be not active or we won't be using? So, thank you. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Mike Riley. Um I live on Jandelle Drive in the northeast section. I just have a couple of comments and uh I've been in public
safety for oh 50 years now almost and have lived in a number and states and worked in a number of states in public safety and I been here for uh going on five years in Atgo which is great uh it's kind of a happy sad thing it it's
great we moved in and um the sad part of course is that is becoming a bigger city and that's very sad to me um rural the more rural the better. And well, that goes with the woes of more taxes and growing houses. You get more tax money
from more people, but it costs just as money, but you want five. You want a house that seats five. Well, it comes with sewers and roads and electric and uh all the things that go with it, including including law enforcement coverage, fire coverage, etc. And on the
fire coverage, I know that I've watched this go back and forth and I and in reading some of the back and forth on Facebook, which is probably sometimes more entertaining than the federal government. Um, and that's very difficult. Uh, it is I don't think a lot
of people understand, but you this is the first place I've ever lived in the I've ever lived in that didn't have a fire department. It's the only city I've ever lived in that doesn't have a police department. Um uh there are you know
obviously there there are solutions to that and the the the sheriff's department provides an excellent service at a cost and of course uh the fire departments have been coming from you know you're paying fire departments from all over the place to cover you now have
the fire department I support that 150% having your own fire department um having been a paramedic for almost 40 years uh e even though they're not paramedics on board. They're not equipped as paramedics, but they are first responders. They're first responder trained. Uh it's not just the
fire and of course you my house can burn down as long as somebody takes care of everybody that was in it. Uh and that's that's really the idea. And having our own I support that. Um the other thing I want just mention is that all this confusion and all this talk back and
forth about mutual aid and are we buying mutual aid this and are we buying that mutual aid? Well, this is also the first state I've ever lived in where people charge for mutual aid. Um, mutual aid is just most cities and states is exactly what it is. Um, we'll mutually go to
your assistance when you mutually come to ours and we don't pay for that. That is just that is an agreement between one city and the next, right? Um there's a national emergency management agreement that does the for states. uh one state
goes to another, the state picks up the tab for it when it costs money. But so what what I'm going to say is that I there is no doubt in my mind and I know the chief hopefully will give us some greater insight tonight, but there's no
doubt in my mind that if somebody picks up the phone and the there is a somebody is calling in a working fire with potentially endangered people on the northeast side of town or the southeast side of town. um and there is a closer
fire department or that call is such uh that it sounds like it is going to be a significant call that the dispatch can dispatch both entities at the same time. Um, and that is just a protocol issue and and that's whether or not it ain't
and as far as I'm concerned, even if contract with a Elk River and somebody calls them for mutual aid, I'm not sure they're going to say no in coming. I I think that would be unprecedented. It
would be unprecedented for a fire department, police department to refuse mutual aid for other than the fact that they're busy at that moment and cannot come because they're already engaged. And coming from the public safety side,
um you can't no one can predict when you're going to have multiple calls in a city can predict that whether there's going to be 10 calls in Elk River all at once or 10 calls here in Otgo all at once. And so mutual aid is an absolute requirement. There's no fans or buts
about it, but I don't think we should be getting too caught up in the uh in the piece about it coming or not and are we going to pay for it or not. Um there are negotiations to be had obviously and perhaps we should look at contracts that
pay in the after of their use as opposed to paying them upfront for being on call because they're already on call. And that that's all I have. I'd like to thank the uh the people who are putting the fire station together and putting out it's a done deal and uh I think it's
going to be great and I think we should move forward as opposed to backwards looking at how we got here. We need to look forward how we're going to use it and I think um and look how we're going to uh inter integrate that with the other communities and by God we should
be doing mutual aid with the other towns. um you have a resource that is a very expensive resource. You've got specialized trucks, specialized people and uh fires require fires to work a
fire is a very very difficult thing and it requires backup. It requires uh rehab, which means people have to be rotated through. It requires mutual aid in most cases if you have an absolute big fire. And so I I I spoke my I didn't
have anything pre prepared so I'm a little back and forth here but thank you for listening and that's all I have to say. >> Thank you. any other >> Isabelle I just wanna remind I didn't prepare either but versus uh the
information that this guy told us and the other one I just want to remind the community that before the fire department we over a um city hall that you guys wants to build and we told you uh mayor the there was a lot of money
that you have to spend. So after that the mayor uh refuse or stop the population uh to in inform us of to vote for that fire department.
So after that uh the mayor and all of you guys well the um give us the information about the w the are not going to be raised as high. Also, the mayor um did not
did a study about the fire department and we did not follow what the study said. So, it's a lot of it's not only that we need a department or we're going to be more safe is if you confir if you concern about safe I tell you the study
did not say that we're supposed to have a fire department. So if we confirm if worry about safety is that's not how it is. So we going to have no fire department instead seven. So that's why I just want to update a little bit
because it looks like uh people are information but they don't know the whole history about it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments? Vincent Peterson 1406467th circle. Yeah. Well, my mind hasn't changed about
the fire department, so I guess uh I'll at that because I'm not that great of a public speaker. uh if you don't understand by now, you know, the benefits or the pros and cons, I mean, you you never
understand. Um, and I did want to bring up though is is that uh one of the things you're going to be voting on tonight is the fee increase. I noticed that you're going to be increasing the fee from $5 to $25 to
run for office. I'm wondering, you know, is the, you know, receipt book getting more absorbent or what's going on with the that you need to raise the fees on people trying to seek public office? Um,
that's all I can think of right now. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments? Okay, we will close the open forum and we will move on to consider our agenda for approval. Does anyone have anything like to add or delete at this time?
>> Madam Mayor, >> that's right. >> Like to bring down item 3.4. We can make that 6.1. >> Okay. >> I'd also like to bring down item 3.7. I believe we can make that 5.1E.
Finally, I would like to reorder things a bit. I would like to hear from the fire chief before we go through the budgets and property tax levy. So what I propose is that we make the update from our interim fire chief as number five and for the subsequent
>> with that I would move to approve the agenda as amended. >> Is there a second? Second >> motion by Ryan, seconded by Michelle. Does everyone have the changes? >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. All those in favor
signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Next is our consent agenda. A motion would be in order. >> Madame Mayor. >> Miss Ryan. >> I move to approve the consent agenda as amended. >> Second. >> Second.
>> Motion by Ryan, seconded by Corey. Is there any discussion? Those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Moving on to our public hearing, which is the fee schedule. We'll have a
presentation for the proposed 2026 fee schedule by our city administrator. >> Mayor, council, you. Uh the action here tonight uh recommended by staff is to adopt an ordinance establishing the 2026 fee schedule. Uh there is a public
hearing component to this. This was posted on the city website in 10 days in advance and also in the star news as by state law. Uh the background and justification is that staff annually evaluate the fee schedule to make
changes for yeartoyear. uh on the screen there is a summary uh version of some of the changes. So I'll uh briefly mention each of these uh license uh there is a renewal to be established
>> machine 15% instead to be a little bit very thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Uh so we have a a license fee change related to liquor licenses. So there is um
a change for that. On plan review fees, we are proposing to increase the plan review uh fee for deck permits from 10% to 25% of the total permit fee. uh for water meters uh each year when the city fees uh from our vendors those
prices go up. So the changes in the fee schedule is reflecting the increased cost uh that the city uh pays for the purchase of those and also clarifying that they are subject to sales tax at the time of purchase. Uh park shed reservations uh there's
clarification added uh of the three park locations that do have re uh reservable shelters. also clarifying that these are subject to sales tax and the duration of the reservation fee. Uh candidate filing fee uh their proposed increase of $5 to
$25. Uh this was mentioned in open forum. I would say this is more of a consistency adjustment to some of our neighboring communities and also the workload that goes into preparing uh materials and following up with certain
are due from candidates uh through the city clerk's office. Uh the city equipment there are proposed adjustments to hourly rates of city equipment and vehicles. Uh this is largely in the case of a natural disaster uh where the city may be uh
seeking from FEMA or in the event that we are charging out a private entity for cleaning up a mess on a roadway uh or doing some sort of uh non-rine work. So this is uh not necessarily to the general public for being able to use uh
this type of equipment. uh utility fees uh most of these are uh related to development. So uh development fees include uh utility availability and connection charges uh for the water and sewer funds also for
storm water. Uh these are based specifically on the master plan and the needs of the atiggo community. Uh there was a comment made during open form about adjusting to compete with neighbors. uh statute is very clear is
allowing a maximum amount that is justable within each system. So while a neighboring community may have a fee that is less or a fee that is more that's because that fee is designed based on the infrastructure needs of that community. So on 2023 the city
commissioned a study uh to verify that our uh were justifiable in accordance with statute uh and the increases proposed in the fee schedule reflect the results of that study park dedication. Uh there are actually
no proposed changes based on information from the right county assessor's office. there's no support to change uh increase or decrease uh that fee due to no change in land values. Uh storm water impact fees much like the water and sewer development fees. Uh the
city has done studies of multiple wershed districts throughout the community and determine infrastructure need and the uh areas that go into those wersheds and what the cost of uh maintenance and future development of those systems would be. uh that is a
3.41% increase uh based on inflation. Lastly, storm water utility fees. Uh this is a uh utility bill charge uh for those lots platted after November 15th,
1990 and pays for the operation and maintenance of the stormwater utility system. uh documents included in your packet, red line of the fee schedule to show those changes, a clean version, and a summary of ordinance 2025-12 uh that would be used for publication
and summary form. Uh as a reminder, there is a public hearing component to this item. >> Mayor, >> yes. >> Uh just one additional comment to administrator Flity's presentation in response to the comments during the public hearing. The city can only also
impose fees on new development that are authorized by statute. Uh so that's where the basis comes for the storm water, the park dedication and the utilities used to charge a fee uh for developers that led to construction of major roads
like Odin, Page 75th, etc. Uh that was struck down by a lawsuit against the city of Woodbury. It hasn't been reauthorized through statute to allow the city require that. So, we're unable to use that as a revenue source to have
those streets constructed. Likewise, we can't just impose fees to offset taxes generally on new development. It's basically a users pay type system in its truest form. Thank you. All right. This is a public
hearing, so I will open the public hearing. If you have any comments regarding our 2026 fee schedule, please come to the podium, state your name and address. Vincent Peterson 1406 467th circle. I would urge the city council to not
change the fees for running for public office. I think $5 is just fine. Uh something was said about, you know, updating it to surrounding communities. You know, I don't think that's legitimate. You know, I mean, this is
ego. You say what it is. We don't want it increased. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments? I'll ask again for any other comments. >> All right. At this time, we will close
the public hearing and bring it back up to council for consideration and adoption. Does anyone have any comments? >> Madame Mayor. >> Yes, Ryan. >> Just a quick comment. I I kind of want to clarify something that was said. My memory serves. I don't have the
information in front of me, but our WAC fee is about half of what we could justify based on our current infrastructure needs. So, we're in a sense under on our WAC
fee by about 50%. Mayor Council, the study did outline that the justifiable fee for water uh is much in excess of what is currently proposed in the fee schedule. Part of that analysis was to compare to neighbor
communities and found that if we had adjusted to that maximum justifiable amount, uh we would have been far in excess of some of our neighboring communities and possibly pricing uh new development out of the equation. So that is true.
>> Met council charge about that amount of money. >> Any other comments? A motion would be in order then if there are no other comments. >> Thank you. Motion to adopt ordinance 202512 amending the city code establish
establishing the 2026 fee schedule and approve publication in summary form. >> 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. Okay, moving on to item five. We changed the order a bit. Correct. I could come up this time. We'll invite
Mike Scott or the interim fire chief to give an update, a progress report. >> Thanks, Ryan. The roads are getting pressure. >> Mayor and council, thank you for allowing me to come and update you. It's been not quite three months, but almost
three months since I started as the interim fire chief back in September. Um, I asked at your first meeting that you keep an open mind to suggestions that I would formulate as I work to understand where Otgo's been uh with the development of the fire department and
just some patience as I work through um meeting with different folks and and learning everything I could about what has happened up to this point. Um, in the past three months, in addition to working on the new fire station that was already under construction and evaluating some of the equipment that's
been ordered, I really been focus um establishing relationships again with some of our partners. This includes um not only the contract fire departments, neighboring fire departments, EMS ambulance providers, sheriff's office, county um staff, state officials, and
even some national agencies. I want to comment on some of those meetings including one with a national firm. Um several city staff met with u the insurance service office also known as ISO. They set the insurance ratings for every city across the nation. Uh
they were not aware that we were establishing our own fire department. They were not aware started a fire station uh construction project. We did some GIS mapping with them and u while the station isn't perfect location, it's in a very good location.
It's covering the majority of our city. ISO looks at a lot of things. They look at water flow. They look at your dispatch center. Um they look at your staffing. You get more points if you have sta staff at your station versus um waiting for staff to have a pager go off and come from home. Um, they also look
at where your station's located and they want you to cover the majority of your city within five road miles of your station. So, our and somewhat of a central location is a good thing because covers a great majority of our community doesn't cover everything, but our
current fire districts don't cover everything with that five road miles right now. Um, but it's it's in a good location according to ISO. Uh if you're beyond that five road miles, you automatically go to a 10. So um 10 is the worst fire rating. So if I
look up I'm looking at the map behind you. When I look up in that northwest corner right now, currently with our fire districts, nobody covers that area within five road miles, nor would it be covered with our new state road miles. Nothing changes there. Um if we go any further east, obviously
we're starting to cover some other cities. If we go further west, we'd be missing the 101 corridor pretty soon. So, with only one station, it's in as good of a site as you can potentially get get according to ISO. I've worked with a lot of fire
departments in my 40 years of public safety um from very large departments, very small departments. And I want to reiterate this. I've said it many times to all of you, but I want to say it publicly. Elk River Fire Department, Rogers Fire, Albertville Fire Department are all very impressive fire departments
that are professionally led by fire chiefs. We have no issues with their service. They're good departments. Yet, none of them are immune from the staffing challenges facing paid on call fire departments across the state and the nation. The state fire marsh just closed a request for proposals um from
consultants. They're going to do a a fire service assessment in Minnesota. They're going to look at all the things all fire departments 780 fire departments in Minnesota and one of the common themes is the growing crisis of losing paid on call staff or it's it's
happening at a record pace. Minnesota I believe is this um relies the second most on volunteer fire departments than any state in the nation. So it's really affecting Minnesota. The key to a uh effective fire department is you have to have a reliable, predictable and sustain
staffing model to be successful. This becomes a challenge if you're relying 100% on community volunteers to come to the station when their pager goes off. It becomes very unpredictable because you don't know how many people are going to be available at any given time and you never know how quickly they're going
to be able to get to them. You never know how quickly they're going to get enough staff to roll a truck to get to the call. And more and more commu communities are finding out that they can't rely 100% on community volunteers anymore. It's just not a sustainable model.
This is why more and more cities are changing to commoning models, fire departments. So there's paid on call departments. Um there's combination departments where you have some part-time, some full-time, and there's career departments. Career is 100% career staff. No volunteers, no
part-time staff. Rogers, for example, is looking to start duty crews. some of their paid on call firefighters start staffing their station, paying them an hourly rate to be at their stations because they're worried about getting enough staff when they sound an alarm for calls in their city. They're doing
that to cover calls in their city. Um, both Rogers and Elbertville, when I've talked to them about contract, their firefighters are somewhat excited about the idea of us not relying on them in 2027 because they're getting burnt out with call volume. Elbertville's call
volume is about 600 calls last year. 300 of them were not seagull. Chief Bolan has reiterated to me several times that if say the contract staying in place as it sits today in 2027, some of his firefighters would probably resign from the department because of the increased
call volume. Um, Chief Barren said about the same thing in Rogers that his staff is looking forward to the reduction in call volume. another city when they signed up to be firefighters in Elbertville and Rogers. They didn't sign up to be at Seagull firefighters. They signed up to
be firefighters in their communities. And again, their community volunteers are paid on call firefighters. They're not career firefighters. Rogers is also full-time staff over the last several years. They got six full-time staff now to cover weekday
calls and they have 45 paid on call staff positions. Elk River is adding another full-time position in 2026 to help with the growing call volume and to help ensure they have a reliable staffing model that five full-time staff with Chief including Chief Dickinson and
Elk River and they have 60 paid on call staff positions. They're also looking at they know down the road they're going to have to do something different with staffing whether it's duty crews which is usually the next natural step of having your pen and call firefighter shifts or try to hire some more
full-time staff. Chief Bolan has said that he's very fortunate because he has three city employees that are also paid on call firefighters that are able to cover weekday calls when they're available to leave from their city job. He's also got several St. Cloud firefighters that are
off shift. They work 11 days a month on average. So, they're off. They can respond to calls sometimes. I'm going to share some national statistics and then I'm going to give you a real odd seagull um example that unfortunately just happened yesterday.
So these again are national statist statistics. It's not anything I made up. I like facts. It's it's known that a fire doubles in size every minute. So every minute that we're delayed getting to a call, the fire is doubling in size. A small fire can spread to engulf an
entire in six to eight minutes. So if we had a kitchen fire, if this was a a townhouse and this is a kitchen, in 6 to 8 minutes, this whole room would be engulfed with fire. In general, every passing minute, an emergency worsens. So we've talked a lot
about fires, but what about our five MS calls that we go to a year? In a medical non non-breing call, brain death begins to occur within six to eight minutes of the heart stopping. the NFPA, which is the national standard for fire departments, um,
excuse me, uh, we they rate OIGO as a suburban zone. So that means we have five to 1,000 people per square mile. So they have different zones, urban, suburban, rural. We're considered suburban because of our population and our square miles. The national standard for the NFPA is
that we should have 10 firefighters within 10 minutes from the time the dis dispatch center receives a 911 call. Not from the time that we're we're paid, but from the time that you call 911 till the first fire engine or ladder truck gets on the scene, not a fire chief's vehicle because I've been there many times in a
fire chief's vehicle. There's not a whole lot I can do except give to the fire truck that's coming. So again, 10 firefighters in 10 minutes national standard. This is called the speed and the weight of our response. The quicker we can get to a call, the better the outcome. Unfortunately, we have had a real life
example yesterday on Canon Drive and not Seagull. 4:20 a.m. on Sunday morning, Ray County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call of a mobile home on fire on Canon Drive. 4:20 in the morning on a Sunday.
At 4:23, 3 minutes into the call, Wright County uh page, Wright County calls the Sherburn County and lets them know that there's a fire and that it's primary uh uh Elk River's primary area so that they notified Sherburn County so they could let Elk River know. And at the same time, they
also paged Elbertville Fire Department. So 3 minutes into the call, they paged Elbertville, notified Sherburn County. At 4:25, five minutes after the 911 call, Elk River Fire is paged for the fire call.
Eight minutes into the call, at 428, Henipin County pages Rogers for the fire. So, to the point of, you know, we have six, it's actually six fire departments, if you count how many fire departments are in the the cities that cover us right now. Um, each, you know, we're in Wright County and we have
Henipin County, we have Sherburn County. So, our dispatch center has to physically pass those calls on to the other the other counties. And on a structure fire, all three of those departments are summoned. At 4:30, so 10 minutes into the call, the Wright County deputy arrives
at 4:30 is when the NFPA says we should have 10 firefighters on scene. Within 10 minutes, we have one deputy on scene. At 4:41, 21 minutes into the 911 call, so 21 minutes after the 911 call, the
first fire engine arrives from Elk River. 21 minutes, fire doubles in size every minute, 6 to 8 minutes to engulf Rome. At 4, 22 minutes into the call, Albertville and Rogers fire engines arrive.
21 to 21 to 22 minute response time to house fire. I you know I'd ask people that are opposed to starting your own fire department. Is that acceptable? Because that's what right now with the contract services. This isn't a reflection on the departments. They're excellent departments, but we're dealing
with three different counties right now. That's that's always a challenge even in 2025. You wouldn't think it would be, but it is. So that's a delay. And then we're having people woken up at 4:30 in the firefighters driving to the station. It was kind of cold out that morning.
waiting for enough staff to get there to drive a truck a long distance. And they're not like driving my Dodge Challenger here, which I could probably get here a little bit quicker, but it's driving a really big truck here, which you got to be careful driving those trucks. The weather that we're having.
And again, this isn't a reflection on the sheriff's office. This isn't a reflection on our dispatch center. This isn't a reflection on the fire departments. They're all good services, but that's what you're getting right now with your contract services. So, if that's okay with you, then absolutely station and and don't don't start a fire
department. Um, now let's talk about a little bit more about EMS calls. Um, just to kind of clarify a couple things. There's different levels of training for first responders. So, the basic usually is a first responder. So, a lot of officers, um, some
firefighters, especially volunteer departments, they'll be first responders. The next step up is EMTs, emergency medical technicians. And then there's medics. Some fire departments do have some medics on. Bloomington starting to run medics, but it's pretty rare. Most fire departments, they're going to have their full-time staff be EMTs.
EMTs. And we work with our medical director, which in this case would be the Alina doctor. We can get variances and we can do a lot of things that first responders can't do. The firefighters that I worked with at Egan were EMTs. and getting EMTs on the scene um
minutes ahead of an ambulance because again just as a reminder we have three different ambulances that provide coverage to our community. None of them house an ambulance in our community because we're at the end of their service areas. None of them plan to house an ambulance in our community. We don't control that. There are their
licenses. We have no control over that. What we do control is having firefighters that are highly trained EMTs getting on scene 6, 8, 10 minutes ahead of an ambulance. And again, according to our medical director, Dr. Nick Maska,
having highly trained EMT firefighters 10 to 15 minutes ahead of an ambulance will save lives because again, brain death starts six to eight minutes when you're not breathing. So having firefighters doing effective CPR, we can do some meds with the doctor's approval.
We can do a lot of things to prepare that patient for the ambulances. So that's severe medical calls, right? So you might say, well, how many of those out of the 500? Because there's a lot of sick person calls. There's a lot of low-level medical calls. So those low-level medical calls, our deputies
are responding to right now and they're waiting a long time for an ambulance. why that deputy's on scene long time for the ambulance and especially on a low-level medical call because that ambulance might be coming a little bit slower because it's a routine call. That deputy's tied up for 10, 20, maybe 30
minutes waiting for an ambulance. We're paying that deputy to be a deputy, not to wait for an ambulance. So now we're tying up one of our resources, law enforcement resources, waiting for an ambulance to arrive. We can take that role as as firefighters. Our firefighter EMTs can can take that role. They can
provide good patient care while we're waiting for the ambulance. They can do u blood sugar. They can do a lot of things while they're waiting forance. Um you know building a fire station in isn't a new idea. As a matter of fact you know I've talked to uh you know Chief West Bruce West I've talked to
Chief Cunningham both past chiefs of Elk River. Elk River suggested building that should build a fire station many years ago. So this isn't a new idea. You guys have had this pres presented many times, multiple studies. Um I think one of the things that's missed is so even one of
your contract cities, you know, 20 years ago was saying, "You guys need to build a fire station." They weren't going to build it for you. Elk River residents weren't going to fire station and not see go and pay for it. Can you imagine how upset their their residents would be? They were suggesting that you should build a fire station and they would help
you manage it. 20 years ago. You're the 40th largest city in Minnesota, one of the 10th fastest growing cities in Minnesota and within 30 plus square miles that you have. And in my opinion, not having a fire station at this point in your planning is is really quite
honestly pretty pretty poor. When I started at Egan in 1983 as a paid on call firefighter, Egan was 34 square miles and mid 20 almost the same size city that you are today. We had three volunteer stations and two years later
we built two more volunteer stations. So it's really mind-boggling to me and many of my counterparts in public safety that there's not a fire station in at Seagull. Who manages it? How is it paid for? I'm sorry, but those things um aren't as important to me as serving
your community. And in my opinion, fail failure to continue to develop your fire department um would be a major failure. And if you don't something, if you don't continue with the process um of staffing your fire station properly,
um you're going to have a major failure. It's just it's not will you are going to have a major failure. What I mean by that, the gentleman that passed around the pictures of the townhouse, what if there's a family in there? The trailer house we had yesterday, what if there's a family in there? You can replace a trailer. You can
replace a townhouse. It costs a lot of money. You can replace belongings. But human life you can't replace. And I'm sorry, but I'm going to stand here tonight and I'm not trying to scare anybody, but you will have a major failure if you don't do something soon. Back to our current contract partners.
Um, all have expressed an understanding about Seagull making an investment in our community for fire and EMS services. None of them are opposed to us making an investment. They had some issues with past leadership at the fire department, lack of communication, lack of knowing
what was going on. Um, I can't look backwards. We have to move forward. So, I'm looking forward. Um, all of them continue to express their willingness to help us any way they can. and they all understand that we're re-evaluing plan right now and that
we're going to make some recommendations and that we'll have a firm update for all of them after the first of the year. It's been mentioned that I've been meeting with the chiefs. I've been meeting with all of the contract chiefs and again some of the other neighboring chiefs since I started. I meet with them on a regular basis. That's my job. I'm supposed to be doing that. Has
accompanied me and met with his counterparts with all of our contract cities. There's no secrets. They know where we're at. They know what we're doing. Um I when I first started here, my first meeting when I said, you know, I hope you're open to my ideas. Um one of one
of the things I expressed, I strongly believe there are too many fire departments, independent fire departments in Minnesota. So I still think fire district shared services are a good thing. I still think that's something that we should be looking at strongly. That doesn't mean that we don't need a fire station in our
community. That doesn't mean that we should um just abandon everything that we're doing. It doesn't mean it's going to be cheaper. Fire districts aren't done to be cheaper. Fire districts are done to be more efficient. >> Let's see. Um,
>> none are none are concerned about our 2027 contracts yet. A few have expressed that the staff are relieved to know that they soon won't be responding. I already said that. Um, no, none of the fire chiefs have expressed to me that they're concerned about us renewing 2027 contracts. We're still talking about
where we're going. Um, they've all expressed that if we have a reduction in um a request for 2027, they're all willing to listen to that. I don't see any need to have contracts as they are today in 2027. That'd be absolutely crazy to have 2027 the same as 2026. The
difference is, and the gentleman that spoke a little bit ago really hit home on it, is the previous chief wasn't talking about mutual aid. Mutual aid has to be mutual. We will be mutual aid partners. So that trailer house fire that happened
yesterday morning, if that happens in January of 2027 after operating a fire department, we're still going to be on a house fire like that. We're still going to be getting help from our neighbors. We're still going to have Rogers coming. We're still going to have Dayton coming. We're whoever's closest should be
coming. That's the way works. That's what we did in Dakota County. That's what we did in Scott County. Didn't matter who was closest. That's who you called. The difference is we will also do the same thing for them in exchange. Um, and I mentioned this a little bit
already. you know, every one of our contract cities, Rogers is dispatched by Henipin County, which has caused significant delays in them being uh quickly dispatched for our calls. Um they're also Rogers is also in talks with communities in Henipin County about
shared services. Chief Sirens has expressed cons potential um disconnect with calls coming from Wright County to Henipin County. And you know, just as an example of the three departments that respond into our our community now, they all respond to different levels of EMS
calls. Rogers responds to any type of EMS call. Um Elk River Fire Department respond to EMS calls unless requested by the ambulance or the sheriff's office. And Elbertville responds to just very serious EMS calls. We're already having different levels of service to our to our residents right now with our
contracts. Um, in my the best partners for long-term are those that are within the same county that are dispatched by our dispatch center. We have an excellent Ray County is an excellent dispatch center. I've been working with them um and not only dispatched by the same
dispatch center but monitored by the same dispatch center. So when I was trying to get call information from this and I called our dispatch supervisor, she can't tell me what time Elk River got there. She can't tell me what time Rogers got there because she doesn't we don't dispatch them. We can't hear them.
That's not safe. What um I would like to ask tonight. I'm just going to things real quick. Sorry. Uh oh, and one gentleman talked about, you know, especially that northwest corner. I don't disagree with that. That's not covered well right now by
Albertville and it's not um as far as the five road miles from our new station. The one thing to bear in mind is having fighters at the station and not waiting for people to be paged. And again, I grew up as a paid on call firefighter. I loved it. I think that it's a it's a great opportunity. But
when you're at the station ready to go, you're cutting about 10 minutes off the response time because we're not waking people up at home. They're not driving to the station and getting on the truck. They're at the station. I was amazed when we started staffing stations at Egan how it changed our response time.
So, while it's not a perfect solution, I still think we're going to be able to cover the community um very well. As far as contract um and mutual aid, we'll always So, if I if there is a fire in that Elbertville area, I'm just
always a visual person, so I'm looking at the map behind the mayor because it's a nice visual aid for me. Um we still will call Elbertville whether we're partners with them or not. We will still call Elbertville if it's depending on the type of call. But where we don't want to bother Elbertville or Rogers or Elk River is the low-level calls. So the
CO alarm, the fire alarm, um smell of smoke, calls that are pretty low level that we should be able to handle ourselves and we're not burdening burdening our neighbors. And same with M. We should be able to handle those medical calls. If we're tied up at a call and we can't go to a second call, of course, we're going to call mutual
aid. That's what all the fire departments in Minnesota do. um you know, instead of looking at it as we're going to go from seven stations, which isn't accurate, down to one station, we're actually adding a station. Again, on that trailer house fire, we're still going to have the same resources that are already coming to our
city, but now we're going to have our own station that's going to get there quite a bit quicker than than our current current response. Um, what I'd really like to ask for tonight is that mayor and council consider two elected officials from
mayor and council group to work with Adam and I to continue to meet with some of our neighbors and your counterparts. So, two elected officials from other cities because we we want to further discuss shared services um with other communities and what that would look like. And then I go that sometime after
the first of the year we come back to this group and give an update. So, the two elected officials, Adam and I, would give a more concrete update of direction we're going. We are are in discussions with all three cities openly um talking to them about shared services. I one uh
that might be a little bit better than the other, but and I've kind of already laid my cards on the table as trying to stay in the same county if you can. I think that's the best the best option for us. Um, yeah, I think I could go on with a lot
more information. Um, that's my update. Mayor, council, I'd answer any of your questions. >> Thank you. >> Can you can ask answer a couple questions? >> Uh, we're at the council level right now. I'm sorry. Unfortunately, um, council, any questions for Mike this
evening? >> That was a lot of information. and it was wonderful. I apologize. Um, but I appreciate the detail, the information that you provided, the level of information that you provided tonight was
um, a lot to take in and I'm glad you're all over it. >> Thank you. >> Glad you're on your team on our team. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions? I I have Oh, sorry, Tina. Sorry. >> Yeah, Mike. Um, as I've said before to you, you've done such a great job coming
in here and this ship around and really honing in what's important to the city, to the residents, and to this fire station. So, um, I can't thank you enough for doing what you've done thus far and taking it this to this level. I
I do feel like we're going in the right now. Um, I feel more confident than I have before, so I appreciate that. And to your point about the other fire chiefs, they are totally on board for helping us move forward. I've talked to
all of them myself and I've gotten the same back from all of them. So, >> thank you. Thank you. >> Any other comments, Corey, >> Madam Mayor? Uh, thanks, Chief, for all
that information. Um, um, one of the comments I heard from Rep. was Um, you know, there was an initial study back in 2018 and that one takes precedence over the
second one. It's my understanding that the need for the second study was because of a population boom that exceeded what was, you know, the study was designed for the initial one.
Is that that's correct? >> You know, I I wasn't part of those studies, so I would have to take your word for it that I've heard the same thing from >> Okay. >> Council member Tanner, but I I I wasn't here, so I I don't know for sure. >> One of the one of the things uh I found
fascinating was when we got the chance, a couple of us, to meet with you at the fire station and like everybody else, I asked you why is it big and um was wondering if you can just speak to that. >> Yeah. and and thank you for bringing up the fire station. I was going to try to
answer what Gabe had had um asked about the public safety doing a tour of the station right now. They just started sheetrocking this week and it's it's there's a lot of stuff going on there. So, just ability standpoint. They didn't want a big big group going through the uh the fire station. So, that's why we postpone, but we will do a tour down the
road for that that group. Um yeah, this the station is being built for the future. I mean, you you build a public building like that for the next 40 years. 40 years. is you don't build the immediate um time frame. So, you're building it for the future. Um it's a
very functional station. It's um you know, again, it's built with expansion in mind as far as um expanding your your your force. You know, if you're fortunate enough to ever or the state ever changes their rules, which we all wish they would, uh you have room for an
ambulance to be housed there. Um the sheriff's field offices are there. Um you know, I was talking to Jason tonight. I told him everybody but him could pull in their cars and warm them up. But um so there's lots of opportunities. Public safety partners, we even talked at at one of our last
public safety committee meetings about possibly even housing a boat there, you know, for uh rescues on the on the on the river. So um you know, in fire stations, we're just like any group now. We're regulated to have certain things. We have con for our fire equipment. Um
cancer is the number one killer of firefighters. So we have to have um separate rooms for where we put our turnout gear. We have to have washers for our turnout gear. I mean we have all these things that are required in fire stations that you're building in in today's world that take up so you know
it's it's built for the future. That's and that's a good point that you know right now like the the Wright County Sheriff has a little office here and over there where it's going to be the center for all you guys.
I mean it's it's you know it's almost like a public safety building where it's you know it is a fire station but yes we do have the sheriff's office there and we're going to welcome um our EMS hoping that EMS providers if they're in the area they'll stop and take a break there. The more that they're at our station the better response time they have.
>> Sure. Um, final question I had, it's uh kind of about that ISO rating. Um, to the average resident, how does that impact them? You know, you hear about insurance rates and >> Yeah, thank you. That's a good question. So, if I recall right, I believe it's a
rating. So, it the best rating you one, there's no ones in Minnesota. The worst rating is a 10. um you know and again if you're in a non-hydranted fire area um your your rating is gonna be a little worse than being in a hydranted area. So a lot of lot has to do with water
supply. It has a bigger impact on commercial buildings than it does private residents. After a rating of about a six or seven I can't remember where the cutoff is. Once you're at a six or a seven in a community, your individual resident isn't going to see a lot of savings, but commercial and and
multifamily buildings are going to see a substantial savings. >> Okay. Council, we're back up here for a question. Council be respectful. Yes. Thank you. There's back up here at the council level.
>> I I will comment to the resident that is speaking. There were there were full studies. There were discussions that were had and has referred to Bruce West that was the chief of Elk River. Bruce is the one who worked with the city that said that they should secure the first site that they have over by the round
barn. So, those are in minutes that are public. Those were discussed at the time. And as um Mr. Scott said, there was never uh it was never on the table that they those other communities were going to pay for us to have a fire department.
Yes. Would we love for those other residents to pay for a building or to bring fire trucks over? Sure. Great. But we knew that that was not the case. So, um, >> but I think Mayor, if I'm correct, um, when I was talking to Fire Chief West,
he said it was 2008 and I believe the land is still owned by the city. >> The land is still owned by the city. That is correct. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Thank. >> Sorry, Ryan. Sorry. >> Um, just a couple things. I think uh I
mean you said you're not in the business of looking back and and I can appreciate that. I think um there's a lot of people who probably just like to move forward and ignore what has gotten us to this point.
I can't do that because I'm an elected official and my responsibility is to ensure that taxpayer money is being spent appropriately. In order to do that, I have to be aware of where that money has been spent, the
decisions that we made that went into it so that we can avoid some of those mistakes in the future. Um, you from everything I have heard, um, have done a fantastic job and I think our city is much better for
having you in the position that you are in. um not just you with the experience, but also as a contractor. That allows us to be more open about what's going on.
For a lot of residents, they probably don't know, but as employers, the city council is required to protect the rights of city employees. We are not allowed to criticize our employees in a public setting. We
have to rights of due process. And so if there's an issue going on with an employee, we can't just call them a liar or ask them to come up to the lecture and correct things. It just doesn't work
that way. I point that out contractor and so the citizens should have confidence that everything that we say to you is not going through a filter. With that said, I think
there's some things that I feel I have the responsibility to point out because the citizens have spent a lot of money up to this point and they're going to continue to spend a lot of money. So after spending over $400,000 in
salary and benefits for your pressure, we got a staffing plan that makes no sense and significantly underestimates the total operating cost. We got equipment that was never ordered despite long lead times. We got a community risk reduction team that added risk to our
community. We got a ladder truck that previous told us we don't need. We got a poor reputation with other cities, not just our neighbors, but others in the firefighting community. Our EMS providers, state fire marshal, state fire chiefs association, and others are all disappointed in our lack of
communication. Our trucks and station were laid out according to designs. A liability waiver was signed without the council's knowledge that removed the manufacturer speed governors on the fire trucks. Our trucks were designed to be strangely unique, which makes them
incompatible with surrounding cities and mutual aid partners. By my estimates, the relationships that improved were those with vendors who winded and dined our former chief and are now demanding we order from them. No standard operating procedures, no department
policies, no training plan. We couldn't even provide the spec sheets for materials or equipment that the construction and design firms need because we didn't have them in the first place. We didn't have the variances from EMS providers needed to expand care. We had
damaged the relationships with our fire service providers to the point that they didn't even want us to be on scene with them for fear that we would try to direct their operations. The concerns from our neighbors were so significant that Albertville even had to write it into their contract that we
aren't allowed to steal their staff, otherwise the contract would be terminated. I bring up those issues and I'm sure there's more because I think it's important for residents to understand the mess into
I think there's a lot of work to do. I think there's still a lot of confusion. Um but I want to thank you for the work that you've done so far, especially when it comes to um repairing the relationships with our surrounding
cities. I think that is a huge step. I think it was very sorely needed. Um, and so on the behalf on behalf of the residents, I thank you for that. I do have one question. It's the one that's been plaguing me for the past couple
months. Today, in theory, is the deadline for us to cancel the fire service with Elk River. If the plan is for us to continue to provide a standalone fire service in January of 2027,
what should we do? Council member Dunlap, thank thank you for the comments first of all, and I hope that you express interest in being one of the two members that um we consider to be on this fire fire district research team because I think you've got a passion for the
fire service and it's nice to have different opinions on that board. So, I hope you that um so as far as the contract with Elk River, my understanding of the contract and how I've read the contract is we have to give a 365day notice if we're not going to continue the contract. um
you know, two fire chiefs talking about contracts probably scares the city attorney a lot, but um but but our my mine and Chief Dickinson's understanding is if I gave Chief Dickinson a notice in January,
let's just say February 1st of of 2026, that the contract would then be good through the current contract would be good through February 1st of Jan or 2027. I'm getting my dates. Is is that kind of what you're under? >> Yep. So, we're comfortable with that. It's not like it's going to res
automatically resign for a full year. Does that make sense? So, we're comfortable saying that, you know, right now we go into early six not knowing what the answer is. I know the answer is, in my opinion, is none of the contracts would look like they do today.
Do we have to have some form of contract? And again, I'm looking at the map that that little area in Albertville to the west on the freeway. It always makes sense to me that I shouldn't be driving past Chief Poland's honking a horn while I'm going out to the freeway to a call. So, um I think there's some common sense that has to prevail in the
next um year. At least I look at 2027 as a step towards being a fully dependent fire department and a lot of that depends on where our talks go in the next 30 to 45 days with every fire departments about shared services. Uh but my understanding and again fire
chiefs and attorneys you know are a little dangerous given legal opinions but our opinion is that we're not being rushed right now to do it that we're comfortable waiting until January or February 1 to throw that date out back to Elk River with a decision. Um we've
talked to the fire chief and the city administrator about it and they both seem to be on the same page that they're comfortable with us getting back to them early next year. Thank you for answering that. Um, one question too. So, Mike, you did talk
about um having us put together two elected officials. Would you like us to do that this evening? Um, in the past, I'm the one who makes the motions for who would be the liaison for this type of situation. Is this something we need to do this
evening or would this be a early 2026 request when I >> No, I'd really like you if you could. I don't know how it all works, but if you could do that tonight, I I would appreciate that. I think we got to keep moving on this. Um, you know, it's obviously a very timely subject. So, if
you could do that tonight, that would be awesome. I would council I will um give you my motion that I would support u having council member Dun Dunlap and myself as those two contacts for the city that would work with Chief Scott
and Adam Flair along with the other fire departments. Is everyone okay with that? Ryan, do you accept that? >> Yeah, I would I would be happy to do that. >> Yeah. Right. So that's my official motion. Is there a second to that? Okay. Motion by
Jessica, seconded by Corey. Discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you for your update. >> Thank you. >> And now another question. Um because it
was asked by uh a resident. you do plan to when this is when you have more information as you said once we've met um to be able to come back then to the residents as a giving them all the information that they need to correct. >> Yeah. I'm hoping that early in 2026 we'd
come back to this form and give a an update of direction that we're proposing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Very good. Madam >> just one more thing. >> So it's important for me this is more
It it's great that that Mr. Scott and Mr. Flity have been around uh updating the other cities, but my biggest concern, this is what I brought up before, is that you, no offense, have no decision-making
authority that rests with the council. And so my concern is that the others may or may not have confidence that what you're telling them will eventually come to fruition when it comes time for this council to make a decision. Right.
That's my concern. I would like to be able to back you up >> with the conversations that you're having. >> But I assume that that's why he's asking for council members to >> I think that will certainly help. Um, but for tonight, as I alluded to with
the Elk River contracts, Madame Mayor, I have a resolution I would like to offer. I will pass out copies and then I will read it. Uh, this is a resolution titled uh continuing fire service agreements. It
reads as follows. Whereas the city of Oiggo has contracted for fire service of the surrounding cities for decades. Whereas each of these contract partners has delivered high-quality services marked by professionalism and distinction. And whereas our contract
providers rely on clear and timely communication from the city to accurately plan and budget their expendited expected revenues. And whereas the city go previously communicated to its contract partners its intent to terminate fire service agreements for the 2027 calendar year.
And whereas the fire service contract with the city of Elk River requires one full calendar year prior to notice of cancellation. And whereas the fire service contract with the city of Rogers is for a one calendar year at a time. And whereas the fire service contract with the city of Albertville has a determined end date of
December of 2026. Now therefore, be it resolved by the city council of the city of Oiggo, Minnesota, number one, the city will require contracted fire service from all partners during part or all of the 2027 calendar year. And number two, the city
administrator and interim fire chief are hereby authorized and directed to inform the fire service providers of this change and seek new contract terms with the city of Albertville for fire service. Madame, mayor, I move for the adoption of this resolution.
Madam Mayor, um Michelle, have you seen this yet? >> No. >> Okay. None of us have seen this. >> Have you distribute Has Council member Dunlop distributed this to our legal
council so they can review and comment tonight? >> Point. Point of order. Madame Mayor, I made a motion. >> A motion. He made a motion. So, we are waiting for a second. There's >> if there's discussion that would like you just second the motion discussion.
>> Is there a second? Motion fails due to a second. Um Dave, there was a question just presented by council member point of order. Madam mayor, the motion failed. There's no discussion. That's the way it works. If you wanted
to discuss it, you second it. Dave. >> Well, Mayor, I don't have to answer that specific question about whether I've seen it before, but I can just tell you I agree with Chief Scott's interpretation of the contract. There's
no particular deadline for now on that contract. It goes for a period of one year. It requires one year no termination notice, which doesn't have to happen right now. If it happened February of 26, it would continue
through February of 27. So, it requires the one-year notice provision, which doesn't mean it has to happen tonight. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Brian. I appreciate you writing this. I
I'm just a little by but I I don't appreciate that. I I just we're all getting this this evening and it seems out of line to just all of a sudden pass it out to us without talking about it. I know you've broughten it up, but we
haven't directed staff or or anyone to formulate this. And so, um I again appreciate that you wrote it um and took the time. Just seeing it tonight, I think it seems out of line for all of us to make a decision. >> It's a fairly straightforward
resolution. We just last week or last meeting we just signed a memorandum of understanding with the with the county of with Wright County for the use of or potential use of equipment. This is the same thing. This is us sending a message to the other cities. Hey, we still need
your help. That's all it is. My concern my concern again is that this council has been inconsistent in the past. There's clearly some contention on the council over the specific direction we're going to take. Something like this would help send the message. We still
need your help at least in the beginning of 2020. >> And and as we've been told by Chief Scott and Adam Clarity, they have made that very clear in their talks with both the chief and the city administrators.
>> Madame Mayor, that is great. I think that is the right thing to do. The council should not be undermining that effort by refusing to clarify our position. That's what it comes down to. We had an opportunity just now to back up what Mr.
Scott was doing. >> Have you seen this, Mike? >> I have not. Mayor >> Mayor, I I would agree. I think this is out of line. Um, if anybody's undermining it, Council Member Dunlap, I think you're undermining the person we
hired and are paying to do this job for us. Madame Mayor, just point of clarification, it's been stated that I am out of line on a couple of times. Can you cite the specific rule that says that I am not allowed to offer
resolutions for this council to vote on? >> My comment was just you reached out to anyone. If staff and if anyone had seen this before, >> I've provided it prior to the council prior to this council meeting to ensure that staff had a copy for the record. I
I it's a fairly simple resolution. It doesn't require a legal review. >> David, did you guys get a copy of this? >> Mayor, councel, we received it from council member Dunlap early uh between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. this evening. I forwarded to city attorney Kendall.
Is there any other questions for Chief Scott? >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Chief. >> Thank you. >> Right. Moving on to item 5.1 is our 26 budget and property tax levy. Adam
All right, mayor council. Uh, thank you. Uh, the recommendation from staff is to adopt resolutions uh related to operating budgets, the final property tax levy, and the capital improvement plan. Uh there was a public hearing component held at the truth and taxation
meeting on Dece 2nd, 2025. Uh the memo outlines uh a number of things. I'm going to uh just briefly outline this. Uh so there's the the general fund budget. Uh there are public utility budgets, debt service fund
budgets, uh special revenue, economic development authority, and then I get into outlining the property tax levy and the capital improvement plan. We're going to uh move to the resolution uh that is being presented for adopting the
operating budget. So, uh, section one, uh, the general fund revenues and expenditures, uh, for 2026. And moving down to page two, uh, there are public utility funds for 2026. This includes, uh, the water utility, uh, the
sanitary sewer storm water utility. Uh as a point of clarification from a question at the truth and taxation meeting, uh there are no property tax sources that help pay for the operating uh of the public utility funds.
Uh section three outlines debt uh funds for 2026. There are property tax and special assessment uh sources of revenue and debt service principle and interest is the expenditures. Uh section four outlines uh three special revenue form uh funds in the
form of tax increment district. Uh the sole revenue source are those tax increments and the expenditures are economic development in nature. Uh section five is the economic development authority for 2026. Uh the
revenue source being lease payments uh from the city for uhation facility. the city is sourcing that from the property tax levy, remitting that to the EDA, which then in turn uh pays the debt service and the expenditures for the uh
EDA in 2026 include interest and fiscal agent fees on that debt service. So uh the first is entirely related to the budget. Uh there were supporting summary documents uh included within the packet. Uh I do like to handle each of these
resolutions with individual requests uh or motions and can answer any questions related to the budget resolution. >> Well, and Adam, um you did refer to the budget hearing um last week, but also there was a question this evening um by
the resident Mary um that had asked just about upcoming water projects in 2026, 2027, 20. Yeah, Mayor Council, I can uh review those briefly uh within the capital improvement plan that's included in the
budget uh actions tonight as well. >> Perfect. Thank you. I just wanted to address that. >> All right. Questions questions otherwise we'll Madame Mayor, I'd like to um make a motion to adopt resolution 2565 adopting
the 2026 annual operating budgets. >> Second motion by Corey, seconded by Tina. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Although same sign >> I
>> motion passes 4 to one. Corey. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution 202566 setting a final property tax levy for taxes payable in 206.
>> Second motion by Corey, seconded by Michelle. Is there any discussion? >> Madame Mayor, >> yes. >> Dja Vu, few years ago, we sat in this very spot while dozens of residents warned us that a nearly 20% tech was outrageous.
The council nodded solemnly, said, "We hear you." and promised to rethink it. And remarkably, we actually lowered property taxes for the first time in Otgo City history. I'd like to be able to tell residents to go back and watch that meeting, but it was conveniently deleted during the last election.
Instead of learning that bloated tax hikes for vanity projects are unwanted and unsustainable, this council learned a different lesson. When the public is an obstacle, sidestep them. even if it costs more money and adds more risk. My colleagues decided that the easiest what
they want is to silence the people footing the bill. So they use the EDA as a loophole to avoid asking voters for permission before plunging the city into massive debt. And here we are again. Same issue, only this time there's no pretense of
listening. You've already been deal with it. They want their logo plastered on the side of a firetruck and they're prepared to ram it through no matter what residents think. Citizens deserve leaders who can own their mistakes and operate in the open. Without that,
there's no reason to trust the next big decision won't be handled the exact behind closed doors with public cut out until the bill comes due. At some point, this pattern has to stop. A city government that hides its missteps, erases its own record, and shuts the
public out is a government that has forgotten its oath and who it serves. Isn't about a fire truck or a logo or a single bond. And it's not about me. This is about whether or not the people paying for this get a say. If we allow this kind of maneuvering to become
normal, we're signing off on a future where transparency is optional and accountability is non-existent. I won't do that. And I won't pretend that this is acceptable. Someone up here has to say no. >> Is there any more discussion?
Is >> there any more? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> All those oppos same sign. >> I. >> Motion passes four to one. Mayor I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution 20256
adopting the 2026 to 2035 capital improvement plan. >> Second motion by Corey, seconded by Tina. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those same sign
>> I. Motion passes for and Adam can you comment for the resident? >> Yeah, mayor to address uh a comment during open forum. Uh the capital improvement plan is all inclusive of many different funds of the city. So uh
on this uh and in the packet this evening uh the uh verbiage in blue there. So fund 2011 this the city has numerous funds in excess of 20 somewhere short of 30 individual business entities under the city's umbrella. So uh the
2011 pavement man fund is its own designated fund that accounts for revenues and expenditures solely for the purpose of paying for pavement management. Uh trail management park development uh park development fees is something that was discussed during the
fee schedule. So this is um park in lie of land dedication to the city. So any of these projects coming out of uh fund 203 are generally supported by development fees. Uh parks capital equipment, this is a property tax uh
supported fund. Uh fund 206 is supported taxes and accounts for uh replacement and additions to the city's vehicle and equipment fleet. Uh fund 214 is a a mix of federal aid
dollars, state aid dollars, and local resource dollars uh through prior property uh over the past decade or more. Uh capital improvement revolving fund is uh the city's reserve fund. It does not have an ongoing revenue source per se.
It's kind of a catch-all. Uh so there are certain projects uh that are funded here as well uh primarily county and state aid highway improvements uh to the road system uh as there are local shares with those projects. Uh building and
property maintenance is funded through property tax dollars. Uh these are repair maintenance additions improvements to existing facil uh that the city owns. uh fire capital revolving is for future
uh uh accumulation of resources to pay for future replacement uh in additions to uh operating the fire department and then we get into utility funding uh projects. So uh the resident uh spoke specifically to the drinking water
utility. As you can see, over the next couple of years, there are significant investments being made by the city council uh into uh not only drinking water treatment improvements, but capacity improvements. Uh these projects are very expensive. They span multiple years. Uh there was an agreement uh on
the consent agenda tonight awarding a Seymour contract to a vendor who will be assisting the city with one of these projects. Financing sources include issuance of debt, uh, grant dollars, whether that's through federal sources, uh, which the city has secured, uh, $4.9
million for two of the projects identified, uh, within this drinking water fund, and also uh, in excess of $4 million of state uh, grants through the PFA uh, SRF programs. sanitary sewer, again funded through a
combination of debt issuance, uh user charges, new development fees, uh and then storm water, much less significant uh compared to its uh utility peers. Uh so these grant totals on the bottom are all of those different projects, all of those different funding sources
combined. uh not all of these um as you can see in the specific case of drinking water utility uh a significant number of these projects are not funded through property tax dollars but some of them certainly so I hope that answers the question from open forum and thank you
mayor so >> and also if it's on the capital improvement plan it does not it it's laying out what our plan is but it doesn't mean that they are just automatically going to happen all of these items come back through council to make decision on them.
>> Okay. All right. Moving on to 5.1E. Ryan, you can pull that down. >> Yes, Madam Mayor. Um, this to me is something >> which is 3.7. Everyone, just for
>> the original 3.7. >> Yeah. Um um as the resident said during the open forum, I I want to ensure that our staff are paid competitively with the market. That's why we do market studies on a
regular basis to ensure our pay plan is competitive. The cost of living adjustment is not supposed to be a merit increase. There's a fundamental misunderstanding on this council of what COLA is. It's right in
an offset to the cost of living to compensate for the effects of inflation. Staff already get a raise every year automatically of 4%. As part of their step increase is there to ensure that the automatic
raise is not eat by inflation. That's it. Federal cola is at 2.8% this year, not 4%. We shouldn't be pulling numbers out of a hat randomly to make ourselves feel better. this decision should be based on the data alone.
>> Um I'll make a comment on that. We talk in budget time about um the step plan. We we're all shown that we also have a lot of employees that are at the top of their steps and you were given that information too.
Correct Ryan? >> Madame Mayor that is correct. >> Okay. >> And that alls in the private market, >> right? Nope. I'm just making sure that we're all on the same page with that. So, any other comments in regards to item
item 5.1? Cy. Madame Mayor, I think if my memory serves me right, um at a budget meeting recently, we discussed and and compared to other cities and about uh you know
what their COLA costs were and um I'm a person who values our employees and I think uh to suggest 2.8 is a slap in the face. So, >> so >> any >> Thank you.
>> any other comments, >> Madame Mayor? I I would just reiterate that that was my point. Cola is not there as a raise. We should not be doing that to make ourselves feel better. >> All right. There any other comments?
>> We have this item. Corey, >> Madame Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the proposed 2026 pay plans to be effective beginning January 1st, 2020. >> Second.
>> Motion by Corey, seconded by Michelle. Is there any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. >> I >> motion passes four to one.
Okay, we have a new 6.1. Ryan, hold that item. That's your original 3.4. >> Correct. >> I don't know. I've got a stack of paper. Sorry. >> You want it? >> No, I got it. >> Okay. >> Uh, yes, Madame Mayor. I wanted to bring
this down so there could be a separate vote. I oppose this action because our city is able to receive excellent service from our existing contract providers at a price point that is costefficient for the taxpayer. If a pay application will bring the total cost of owning our own fire department to a
whopping 11,536,95123, which is almost 8 and a half times the cost of the fire service contracts with our neighbors. Any other comments? >> Corey. >> Madame Mayor, I'd like to make a motion
to approve the application number 12 in the amount of 1 million $18,591.35 for the work on the fire station project. >> 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. >> I. >> Motion 4 to one. We are under city council reports and updates. Does anyone have anything?
We'll just make a reminder that this upcoming weekend is Santa Day. So, um, if you would like to sign up your family, you can go on our park page and get signed up for that event. And also just uh thank you to all of our staff and plow drivers that have been out
there making sure that everything is safe and looks like we have some upcoming weather. So um if we have any issues out there in your neighborhoods, please reach out to staff and address that. >> Does anyone else have anything? >> Madam Mayor, >> yes. >> I was just going to mention that um the
OPC meeting is canceled for this month. Um but we'll be back on track in January. Okay, >> that's it. >> All right, >> thank you. >> Thank you. Um, moving on to staff reports and updates. We will move down
to 7.2 to start out with because we've already done 7.1 um which got moved up to item five is consider cancellation of our regular city council meeting. >> Mayor, council, uh, completely up to the city council discretion. If you wish to
cancel it, it does by code need to be done one regular meeting in advance. So, >> okay, >> Cy, >> Madame Mayor, uh based uh the update we received from the chief, I'll make a motion to consider cancellation of a
regular city council meeting on December 22nd, 2025. >> 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. We are still under staff reports and updates. Sabrina. >> Thank you, Mayor. No updates. >> Adam. >> Uh, mayor, councel, uh, myself and Mayor Stockamp have been participating in the ISD 728 facility task force. uh they
released a survey to uh district residents earlier today and I would encourage all members of the public that live in that district to uh check out that survey. Uh the feedback will go back to course committee and then ultimately uh as a uh recommendation to
the school board. So I have no further updates. >> Okay. Thank you Audra. Thank you mayor. I have no updates. Right Dave? >> Uh no updates mayor. Happy holidays. Happy holidays, Dan. >> Mayor, no update other than to wish everyone a happy holiday.
>> Okay, >> Ron, >> no updates. Mayor, >> not wishing us a happy holiday. >> All right, we'll move it to Sergeant Alman's. recognize the roads aren't going to get any better in the next 24 hours. So, I
will be respectful of everybody's time. Um, uh, first thing, parking situation across the county, obviously with across the city mainly, um, with the amount of snow that we've had here at the beginning of the winter season. Um,
not great as far as the parking situation. Just we've had way more cars than we would typically do. Um, to the point I assigned a specific deputy to kind of go out and start uh, um, trouble vehicles or areas to try to notify residents to uh get the cars off the road. Again, we I really dislike doing
any sort of citations or anything more beyond that. Um the city staff t uh the agreement that I've had with them is the same thing that we don't want to have to sight anybody. Um obviously the last thing we want to tow somebody's car. Um so we go through literally when I tell the deputies like every possible avenue
that we can do before we have to tow a vehicle. Um it would have to be a pretty severe obstruction if we have to deal with that. Obviously tow bills are ridiculous. So I don't want to do that to uh to do that to anybody. Um we've had deputies using phone numbers that we have in house or public records uh to
get a hold of somebody. We got to go knock on a door if the snowplow can't get through and it's 2 o'clock in the morning. We're going to pound on the door and usually the resident is happy that the car isn't in an inbound lot versus um just having to get woken up. So working on that. Um, like I said, we've had some deputies that are really
good about if I send them addresses, whether it's from the city or various uh um other calls that they go out and handle those things. So, uh, the other piece, uh, again, just real quick, is u the holiday season, I guess, for the deputies is a completely different thing. I know I've had discussion with and I've had discussion with, uh,
council members about it. Uh, the the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to January 1st is very busy time of year for us. A lot of calls, a lot of emotionally charged calls. So, um is busy for us. Typically, January second hits and it just Paul volume will drop for the kind
of winter depression months where it's just cold and everything gets nice and calm. But, uh for the next couple weeks here, it's uh very busy. A lot of intense calls, a lot of emotionally charged calls. So, uh we will be out doing that. So, all good be quick and I'll be done unless you have any
question. >> Anyone have anything? >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. If no one else has anything, then a motion to adjurnn. So move >> second. >> Motion by Tina, seconded by Corey. Is there any discussion?
>> In favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. The meeting is ended. Thank you all for attending and happy holidays.