03-13-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 14 of 22 estimated that building out public works for a fire station would be $3 to $4 million. There would be significant cost savings of not having to buy new equipment of about $2 to $3 million, so about $7 million would be saved. In addition, you'd avoid the supply chain delays like we heard about 36 months for new fire trucks, and then roughly two to three years to build up the fire department from scratch to the level that it is today. Also your facility costs for Station 1 would actually be lower in the leasing agreement. The benefits to the firefighters and the broader community would be that the firefighters stay together and maintain unity and trust that's been developed over many years. There's no disruption in service to the broader community of Long Lake, Orono, Medina and Minnetonka Beach and the high quality of service from our firefighters will continue with the same equipment and facilities that they've been trained on from day one. Kim Carswell, 261 Cygnet, I have two statements, one following on Mr. Dyvik. I think Long Lake did send a letter to Orono on January 27 with an offer regarding the fire department. I believe it's a tactical error not to acknowledge the receipt of this letter in a public way. I asked that the Council share with the public that you received this letter and demonstrate in a public way that you will continue to work with Long Lake to reach the best solution for all. And then secondly, as I learned more about this, I requested the Council and the City Attorney to investigate if there is any potential conflict of interest with a City Council member and Ms. Seals leading this negotiation given that her husband works for the Long Lake Fire Department and receives compensation. Kendall Nygard, 5658 Judith Road Bokeelia, Florida, and I've owned a home in Orono at 1386 Rest Point Road for 27 years. In December 2019 I was criminally charged by the City of Orono for the heinous crime of not obtaining a permit before replacing a driveway with a one and five-eighths inch lip. And I just want to show you all what one and five-eighths inch is. So this is what I was criminally charged for not getting a permit for on a driveway of an investment property. Now I'm just going to take this from the taxpayer perspective for the rest of this because it's not about me, it's about our tax dollars and where's the governance that we would subject the taxpayers in Orono, the State of Minnesota to have this ridiculous, asinine level of criminal charges on a citizen who did nothing wrong. Stephen Tallen was the attorney who was representing the City in 2020, when this actually went to trial in August of 2020. Now I just tried to look up how much per hour Mr. Tallen makes when he's working for the City of Orono. But if you looked at the bill to take me to court and have this misdemeanor level charge leveled against me, which then got dropped to a to a petty misdemeanor, which I was actually acquitted for, because there was no probable cause. Former Community Development Director Jeremy Barnhart, you had an employee taking their time to prepare for this big trial in August of 2020 instead of doing community development work, so I'd say, where are we prioritizing the precious resources, the taxpayer-funded employee salaries for them to be in a setting like we were. So what happened when we went to our trial in August of 2020 -- there was a bailiff, there would have been a jury if Mr. Tallen hadn’t dropped it to a petty misdemeanor, there was a judge, there was a court reporter and there was court administration. This took a half a day. This is our tax dollars again, at work for this failure to obtain a permit. I was dismissed right away for lack of probable cause because Mr. Barnhart lied about my involvement in this project. So what did Kendall Nygard do after I was acquitted? I have a malicious prosecution lawsuit against the City of Orono. At the federal level, it has gone all the way up to an appellate court judge. Walsh called time and asked her to take her seat.