call the council session to order. If we could stand and join in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice. Uh excuse me. Uh we will start with the consent agenda. Items listed below are considered routine and non-controversial by the city. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless requested by a council member, staff, or
citizen. If removed, the item will be discussed at the end of the regular agenda. Item number A, approval of minutes. Uh approve the minutes of the following uh sessions. Uh city council work session, December 2nd, 2025. City Council regular meeting, December 2nd,
2025. City Council work session de December 16, 2025. City Council regular meeting December 16, 2025. Item B, resolution R-26-03, Seniors Active in Winstead, fiscal
agent. Adopt resolution R-26-03 authorizing the city of Winstead to serve as the fiscal agent uh for seniors active in Winstead. Item C, TDS, internet solution. quote Winston City Hall authorizes city administrator to
execute a quote from TDS to provide a 36-month 500 uh mx 500m fiber internet bundle and necessary equipment at Winston City Hall. Item D, application for exempt permit Lester Prairie Foundation for
Education. Approve an application for exempt permit submitted by the Lester Prairie Foundation for Education on March 21st, 2026 at the Blueote Ballroom, 3203rd Street South Winstead, Minnesota, contingent upon the Lester Prairie Foundation for Education
providing all necessary documentation to the state of Minnesota Gambling Control Board. Item E, appointment, Winston Economic Development Authority. Appoint Mr. Adam Burkholtz to the Winstead Economic Development Authority with a
term ending December 31st, 2031. Item F, appointment, Winston Volunteer Fire Department. Appoint Miss Isabelle Cone to the position of emergency medical responder with the Winstead Volunteer Fire Department contingent upon passing a criminal background
check, pre-employment physical, and a drug and alcohol test. Item G, uh, resignation, Winstead Volunteer Fire Department accept the voluntary resignation of Mr. Brandon Posh from the Winstead Volunteer Fire Department
effective February 2nd, 2026. Item H, Security Bank and Trust Company pledge securities. Approve the pledge securities that Security Bank and Trust Company has purchased for the city of Winstead for the month of January 2026. Item I, building permit report January
2026. Approve the building permit report for the month of January 2026. Uh item J, financial report, December 2025. Approve the financial report for the month of December 2025. And item K, claims, approve the claims
list for February 17, 2026. That's the consent agenda. We would entertain a motion. >> Mr. Mar motion to approve the consent agenda as presented and I abstain from voting on item H. >> Have a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Uh motion carries. Um we have no public hearings tonight. We have no old business. We have no new business. Uh we
have the department report. Uh, Winstead Lester Prairie Police Department. >> Thank you. >> You guys really got it, huh? >> Yep. >> Sweet. Mr. Mayor, members, council, thank you for having me. Um, the reports will be a little different than I've done in the years past. Years past, I've
sort of gone through what we do over and above our duties um since the last time I made a report. Um but essentially uh last January we became one department, the Winston West Fury Police Department. And what you have in front of you is our calls for service totals um for both
communities. Um but it is one department. Couple items of note. Um if you haven't had time to get through um what was provided to you, we had 38 arrests. That's physical arrest, people going to jail. That doesn't mean 38 people getting charged with crimes. There's um several more people that were
charged with crimes. These are people actually going to jail. We responded to 332 medicals. We handled 53 ordinance complaints. We issued 194 citations, which may seem like a lot, but we also provided uh the
community with 99 verbal warnings. So if you take that uh,00 almost,00 traffic stops, 1100 traffic stops, we we do not give a lot of citations. We responded to 105 91 hang-up calls, 94
animal and dog complaints. You'll see that there's animal complaints listed. So we do respond to, you know, raccoon calls, bat calls, other animals, but a lot of those are also dog complaints. We responded to 151 suspicious activity,
suspicious person and suspicious vehicle calls. Um that's a testament to our communities. Um they're um keeping an eye on their neighborhoods, their neighbors um calling us when things don't belong. 42 vulnerable adult investigations were
handled by our uh agency. Um, the vast majority of those are screened out fairly quickly, but the ones that do result in investigations, out of the 42, I'd say a dozen result investigations. Primarily, they're going to be your
financial expectation of a vulnerable adult. And those are lengthy month-long, many month some of them long investigations where you're getting subpoenas of bank records, search warrants, um going through records and then ultimately getting charges and court for the exploitation.
Uh officers found 95 open doors in 2025. Um that's selfinitiated police activity. So that's officers driving around middle of the night generally and they find your garage door standing open, your car door standing open, and they are um as
stewards of the community, they're checking to make sure, you know, there isn't people in your garage and at times they'll shut your garage for you. And then we leave a um basically a note. It's sort of a a flyer that says, "Hey, we were here." And then you're welcome to call us and we'll explain why we were
there. And in the two communities in 2025, we issued uh or arrested 10 people for DWI. Those are a couple that highlights from the calls of service. Before I move just onto the next part, is there any questions on the calls of service that we had for 2025?
>> I I for one uh appreciate the verbal warnings uh on the traffic stops. Thank you very much. And then um it's similar to years past, but uh we're very fortunate to have a communities that um receive us well and
we have an opportunity to take part in a lot of different events. Um we're again in the Lebury High School uh for DARE, Lesbury um schools, I should say, for DARE. Officer Vasy, Emily Vasi is teaching there. Um we have reached out to Holy Trinity as well. We're waiting
to hear back from them. Um, we are doing coffee with the cop uh the second Thursday at 11:00 in the morning in the Bulma room. Um, that attendance we got to keep we got to find more chairs. I I think I told Neil that the last time it's attended by many people, not just
Winston folks. There's people from all over that come. Great dialogue, good questions. Um, and we tend to get called away. So, it' be nice to maybe do that a different time so we can dedicate an officer to it. last time we were called away and ended up chasing somebody through Lester and they had to go to
jail. Um we are in the process the board is of changing our patch. So our patch is going to change a little bit and the board's also working hard on um coming up with a a graphic scheme. So all our squad cars look the same because you'll see there's still three squad cars that
have Lester Prairie graphics, three have Winston graphics. We're all one department. We have been two Januaries, but we want them all to look uniform. So, I anticipate that all will be coming uh to light here in May or June of this year. Halloween business trick-or- treat
is a big event we take part in. The winter festival parade. Um we also implemented a new schedule system here in the last year. Officer Wakefield behind me is our scheduling officer who's put a lot of effort into it. It streamlined our system. We were utilizing Outlook in the past, but with
the number of officers we had and different details we have each calendar day, it it wasn't um keeping up for us. But uh other than that, officers have been attending a lot of mandatory trainings and it's sort of what we do at the beginning of the year and throughout the year, but the beginning of the year
is a lot of training. So that's essentially what the police department has been up to and if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to take them. with our own department and covering the two communities. Is the cooperation with the county still good?
>> Absolutely. Um the sheriff's office is um in my whole time here has been great to work with. >> Okay. And they only do they just respond if you call ask them to? >> Yes. backup purposes or there's times where we'll be on two officers will be
on separate calls and then there's a third, fourth, fifth call that come in and the deputies will respond to them until we clear. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Right. There uh there was a rumor going around a week and a half or so ago that you assisted ICE. H
>> yeah, great question. I've heard probably a dozen rumors of us assisting ICE and I can only speak for me and my officers, but we haven't assisted ICE yet. So, we did assist the miss Minnesota BCA >> um with an investigation I can't comment into because that is their
investigation, but um no, we have not assisted ICE. >> Um are are you approaching your 20th anniversary or have has that already passed? >> Coming. >> Okay. this year >> hopefully. We'll see.
>> Uh I I spoke at the uh uh Civic and Commerce banquet on Friday and we talked I talked a little bit about you guys and uh I I think it's been a rather smooth transition to the Winstead Leester
Prairie Force and I think most of that credit goes to you. I I think uh anybody else at the helm and we probably uh don't do this near as smoothly. Um and I thank you for that. Uh thank you, mayor. >> Um on that note though, I just want to
point out that the officers um we're in a extremely extremely good position uh with great officers that um make that possible. Um, you can look around to local agencies that are struggling with uh keeping officers and we have a very
good group. I I think the the level of professionability that all of you uh uh operate on uh just speaks volumes, right? And and uh uh I I am so glad that
we have all seven of you and uh and hope to keep it that way. Thank you. >> Are you are you fully staffed? Do you feel or >> Yes, sir. >> Oh, do I feel? No. >> Okay. >> I think I'd like to also publicly thank the Lester Prairie City Council for
working with our council to making this happen and it just proves that maybe there are other things down the road that as communities we can work on together. >> Got a question for you. Um, when you're
doing your coffee with cop, do you I know it sounds like it's open forum, but do you have a topic that you speak on as well? >> Um, no. We've left it open forum and it it sort of the paparie, but it hits a lot
of topics and it's a lot of the current event type stuff. We like our last one. I I started off on sort of the ATVs. There was a question that came about ATV usage in the city, but then into the fraud because um we have had some very >> significant fraud issues in town,
whether it be identity theft or bank fraud. So, we we just sort of follow that wave, you know, as it goes. >> Yeah, that that's the one that I was hoping gets talked about a lot because there is so much going on right now when it comes to fraud. M
>> in our small communities, our our nice quiet small communities, we have folks that are losing a lot of money. >> Yeah. >> And we are talking about um possibly partnering with a bank or other financial institutions to um do a nighttime discussion, right, and have
the the community come in just to >> it it it is scary how this is happening, right? where they're taking voices of family members and calling folks and scaring them and and it's just there. >> Yeah, it really is. It's uh something
that can't be educated enough and appreciate you uh taking the time to do that. >> I wanted to attend that coffee with the cup. My mother is a regular uh attendee and I feel like I don't have to go because she always gives me the uh the
low down. That's why you get off with a warning, >> right? >> Um, anything else, guys? >> No, thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Um, we've come to the portion of the program where we have open forum. Open
forum provides uh residents with the opportunity to address an issue that is not on the agenda with the city council. The city council will not take official action on items discussed during open forum except to refer items to staff for future report or follow through. If you
wish to address the city council, please state your name, address, and topic that you wish to discuss. Speakers will be limited to 5 minutes to discuss an issue and the mayor will limit discussion on any one topic uh to 10 minutes. Is there anyone that would like to come forward
and No. Uh um okay. Uh, no one. Uh, with that, um, city administrator update and announcement. >> Uh, the only thing I have is that, uh, we're doing our annual audit right now.
So, it's a stressful time up here at uh, city hall, but Raquel and her staff are doing a great job, and I think that's echoed by our auditor so far. So, so far so good. >> Okay. Tom, do you have anything? um as a
directive of the EDA, we um started the process of developing a um city page on our website for um
employment requests. So, we've contacted um I think 13 of the major industries in town and asked them if we can put their logo and their um on our website and then on this page and then if you click
on it, it'll go to their website and people can search for um open employment positions. And of the 13 individuals I talked to at their companies, they were all very grateful that we would even do
that. And it's just another way for them to hopefully fill their positions. So uh Amanda's working on setting the page up on our website right now. And uh hopefully in the next few weeks it'll be up and running. >> Great.
Matt, I do not Jesse. Uh, I don't either. So, with that, uh, we would, uh, entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Make a motion to adjurnn. >> A motion. Is there a second? >> A second. >> All in favor? >> I. We are.