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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-27-2023 City Council Minutes MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. ROLL CALL The Orono City Council met on the above-mentioned date with the following members present: Mayor Dennis Walsh, City Council Members Matt Johnson,Alisa Benson,Richard Crosby III(left the meeting at 7:16 p.m.), and Victoria Seals. Representing Staff were City Attorney Soren Mattick, City Administrator/Engineer Adam Edwards, Community Development Director Laura Oakden and City Clerk Anna Carlson. Mayor Walsh called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m., followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF AGENDA CONSENT AGENDA 1. CLAIMS/BILLS 2. AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT WITH SPRING PARK FOR THE PROVISION OF PUBLIC WORKS SERVICE 3. APPROVAL TO DISPOSE OF PARKS EQUIPMENT 4. NO FAULT SEWER INSURANCE—RESOLUTION NO. 7343 5. LA22-000065—TIM& LESLIE OARE,2967 CASCO POINT RD,VARIANCES— RESOLUTION NO. 7344 6. APPROVAL OF PARK COMMISSION REAPPOINTMENTS—RESOLUTION NO.7345 Johnson noted Item 6 is the approval of the Park Commissioners. I'd just like to say a special thanks to Brian Roath, Kjersti Duval and Gordon Stofer who all renewed, and thanks to Taylor Stevens for service on the Parks Commission.That's been a hot seat for some people and we really need their volunteerism and we appreciate it. Crosby moved,Johnson seconded,to approve the Agenda and the Consent Agenda as submitted. VOTE: Ayes 5,Nays 0. PRESENTATION 7. LONG LAKE FIRE DEPARTMENT ANNUAL REPORT Shane Gardner, Interim Chief at Long Lake Fire Department for the past two months, presented the fire depaittnent annual report.He began with the department's mission,vision and value statements. Gardner presented a slideshow of his complete report. Slides included the fire department's Organizational Chart,training levels, a listing of staff and equipment at both fire stations, call statistics and response times. Gardner said the department leadership consists of Fire Officers, including Chief, Assistant Chief,Battalion Chief,Deputy Chief of Administration,Deputy Chief of Training,and Fire Captains and Lieutenants. We have 42 active members today.All members are current and recently Page 1 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. passed hazardous materials operations. We're firefighter I or II state certified, first responder or EMT, and then hazardous materials as well. The 2022 emergency call activity by City: Long Lake represents 14.15 percent of all our calls; Medina, 5.34; Orono, 72.16; Minnetonka Beach, 6.5 percent; and Mutual Aid is 1.86, for a total of 100 percent. There have been some questions about what a"good intent"call is and that's any alarm that gets sounded and gets canceled before we go in service. The first unit average on-scene time by City and said the total average is 9 minutes and 1 second. In 2022 we had an average of 13.5 members respond per call which is a pretty good average. A total of 44.3% of our calls happened weekdays between six and 1800 hours. Call hours per City in 2022: Long Lake with 893; Medina with 307; and Minnetonka Beach was 417 (a big bulk of that number was due to that Minnetonka Beach fire), Orono was 4,932, and mutual aid was 240 hours for a total of 6,789 firefighter hours. Firefighter Kelly Shaughnessy retired with 46 years of service.. Sam Paulison, Lance Swearingen and Veronica Vasina are our newest additions to the fire department. Gardner outlined training goals for 2023 and named the top five responders at each of the two Stations. We added a couple of milestones that are noteworthy this year. Chris Adams, Pat cotton, and myself all started pretty much the same day, 15 years ago. Chris Rhea and Ben Veach are five years.Upcoming events include the pancake breakfast April 23; The long Lake Fire Department Memorial 5K in July;the open house in October, and then the SBB toy and food drive in December. Seals said Gardner had given statistics on the average number of firefighters responding per call,but asked if he knows how many or the percentage of Station 2 firefighters respond during daytime hours. How broad are we looking for support of Station 2 during the day because we know people are working? Her second question was, for each of the cities,what are the statistics on the difference in response time when it's daytime versus evening. She apologized for not bringing up those questions earlier when Gardner had asked and said she understood if he had to come back with those answers. Gardner said it's just a matter of pulling the data so we can certainly do that. I don't want to give you misinformation so I can get that for you. CLERK REPORT 8. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES a. City Council Meeting Minutes of January 9, 2023 b. City Council Meeting Minutes of January 23,2023 c. City Council Meeting Minutes of February 13, 2023 d. City Council Work Session Minutes of February 13, 2023 City Clerk Carlson presented two options for approval of the City Council minutes and the work session minutes for the meetings that have been held in 2023, adding that staff is also looking for formal guidance as to how the Council would like the minutes prepared for future meetings. She said at the January 23 Council meeting, draft minutes for January 9 were removed and tabled because Councilmember Benson had found inaccuracies concerning discussions had at the meeting. The minutes were brought back to the Page 2 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Council at the next meeting and by clerical error,the original draft minutes had been resubmitted into the packet. They were requested to be removed once again to make changes as requested. Council removed and tabled the draft minutes for the January 23 meetings as well. Those minutes have been prepared for you tonight as options that are exhibits in the packet. Councilmember Benson reviewed and provided corrections as well as some content additions to the minutes for those meetings. Corrections were incorporated in the Clerk-edited minutes in Exhibit A. However, some of the additions provided went beyond our normal practices and minute requirements. Therefore, a version with those additions is also provided as Exhibit B, for Council consideration. Council minutes are the official record of the Council proceedings. They should be thorough but are not intended to be verbatim. Recent feedback from individual Council members indicates a potential change in the level of detail. Therefore,we request feedback and guidance for how you'd like the minutes to be prepared for future meetings. Walsh said historically minutes are supposed to be a summary of everything but not verbatim. He said if the Council or someone else has to start going through and listening to the video to make sure everything was exactly verbatim,now every Council member has to go through all the videos and read and look at all those, which seems like a lot of extra work when the minutes are supposed to be a summary document. He noted the City also makes video and audio available and asked the City Administrator if he had any input on past practices. City Administrator Edwards said as the Clerk outlined, Council meeting minutes are supposed to be a summary, but an official record of what happened within the meeting. There are certain minimum requirements that must be met according to State Statute. We did give a listing of those as part of Exhibit C in your packet. And then there are also a number of items that are recommended by the state auditor that should be included. As a normal matter of practice, I believe that the that the minutes that we provide do include both the required as well as the recommended. And then you have the spectrum that is subjective between meeting the bare minimum and all the way on the other end to giving actual verbatim minutes like you might have in a court recording or something like that, where it's word for word, everything that was said. We as a City over the years seem to have chosen to have a little bit more detail in our minutes than a lot of our neighboring cities. But we really have never gotten all the way to verbatim. At least in my time with the City, I don't think we've ever gone to a complete summary version with just the minimums either. So within there,there's some wiggle room,that the statute leaves up to the judgment of the City Clerk. However, staff would want to meet your intent as a body as to how much you'd like to have included in there. The other thing to understand is we use a contractor or a service to provide to do the initial creation of the minutes. If we decided we were going to have more detailed minutes, we pay by the page, so there's also a cost involved with that. That's another thing to take into consideration. Seals clarified, so you're saying what we currently do is comparable to other neighboring cities? Edwards said I think we provide more. We provide more detail than a lot of other cities, including cities that use the exact same service provider that we do. He suggested the City Attorney,who represents other cities as well, may be able to give some context as to the level of detail he sees in other places. City Attorney Mattick said the Clerk and the Administrator had explained that there are bare Page 3 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. minimum requirements. Summary versus almost transcript is, of course,up to the Council. But they are intended to be a summary-type document. Benson said everything you said makes sense. I'm not interested in creating a make-work program.As the person who did watch many,many hours of the videotape and check that against the written record in the minutes, this is why this has come before us a few times. In addition to the inaccuracies, I didn't feel that the flavor at times on the interactions during these meeting notes was being captured accurately in the minutes. The reason I'm bringing this up, again, is that it's fair to say that for other cities, perhaps a summative expression in the minutes is going to be sufficient. I would put forth that other cities perhaps are not struggling with some of the issues that this City is. This is why I'm interested in capturing an accurate reflection of not just the information,but also flavor of certain exchanges, especially as it relates to public hearing,public comment,or debate amongst Council in these meeting minutes. We do have video, but as Mr. Mayor just indicated, it is tedious to watch video, and I know because I've done it. We don't have closed captioning. And I know having talked to a number of people in the community, not everybody sits down and watches video.What is possible is for anybody to access minutes from the City of Orono, download those, do keyword searches and get information a lot more easily than they would through video capture. So the video is okay. However, it's really not as useful as having accurate minutes. As it relates to the minutes that are before us today, I'm prepared to approve some of those but not all of them. So I also want to introduce the idea that with regard to the transcriptionist service that we are currently utilizing,without an accurate or almost verbatim capture,we are essentially requiring that a transcriptionist who may or may not know the issues of our City is tasked with the responsibility of summarizing information that maybe they're not even familiar with. What I'm really trying to work towards here is an agreement between us about how we feel about accurate capture, reflecting for our citizens and ease with which they can search through the minutes find the information they need. Also if they weren't at a meeting, or they weren't able to watch the video,they're able to understand the flavor of the interactions that are happening in these meetings. I do think that other cities do a great job of some of their meeting minutes. I think we've used this vendor for quite a few years. Perhaps there's room for finding a vendor that's either more cost effective if we have to pay for extra pages, or is going to have less errors because it is tedious. And I'm not looking for more to do any more than staff is with this, but I feel deeply committed to having accurate records for the benefit of the public. Seals asked what Benson means by flavor. Are you saying you want the emotion of the room? Benson said without verbatim you lose a lot. So for example, in the public comment in the February 13 meeting there was a citizen who gave quite a bit of public comment,but it was summarized in about four sentences.And given the length of that interaction,I didn't feel that the flavor of that interaction of those comments was accurately reflected in the minutes. Johnson said he was comfortable with the current arrangement. I think we should always be open if there's a more cost-effective way or a different vendor. I have no problems looking into different vendors. But we do have our meetings live,we do put a record of those videos. From a Council person's perspective trying to approve what another Council member's interpretation of a meeting was,that doesn't seem like a very effective way to go. I think it's very important to have a third party do it because they're just recording the infoiiiiation;they are not putting a spin on it. So the first question is, as a Council, are Page 4 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. we giving staff direction to put more information into these?I'm saying no,I think we already exceed it so that's my vote on that and maybe now's a good time for a motion? Edwards explained staff was asking for a motion on which set of minutes to approve, and then direction on what the expectation is on minutes --two separate but related items. Johnson said I think we should do it in reverse order,because then we'll answer our question on this other one.So my motion is to keep our method that we're currently using for maintaining the minutes, status quo. Crosby said he would second it. Benson asked to have a little more discussion. I would just like to understand what it is about verbatim capturing because I would agree with Councilmember Johnson.I think it's tricky to leave flavor up to anybody, whether it's a Council member or a transcriptionist. That's why for where we are right now,with some of the issues that we're grappling with, having a verbatim capture,I don't see the downside to that. Maybe we pay a little bit more in the interim for 100 percent accurate notes. There's a distinction between what's appropriate best practices for other cities, and then there may be what's appropriate for us,as a City. And I think those two things right now are different. I'm trying to understand from other Council members,what is the downside to a verbatim capture at this time? Walsh said I think everybody appreciates your opinion of the matter.But I think you're making the opinion that you want verbatim minutes for a particular agenda of what's going on that you're projecting on the Council through what's happening in the public. And that's your opinion. Benson said she was elected by the public so she is here to represent the public. Walsh pointed out the other four Council members were also elected by the public. Benson responded she meant no disrespect and she does respect the order of meetings. I know how much this Council has supported the idea of transparency. So I'm trying to understand what it is about this ask that doesn't support that. Walsh said you have your opinion of what you want, and your opinion is valid. We have different opinions, of course, and the three opinions that rule the roost are the three opinions that vote yes or no on every item. That's how the Council works. Crosby said the videotaping of the meetings is full transparency and it doesn't leave opinions. Somebody can sit there and watch it and get the tenor of the meeting and so forth in the conduct of everybody that's present. It doesn't leave it up to opinions, or somebody deciphering it. I think the way the minutes have been is fine and nonpartisan. Benson pointed out the videos have no closed captioning.Folks who don't have the ability to watch or listen to the videos are unable to understand exactly what's happening in those meetings with some of Page 5 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. these exchanges. It also leaves me wondering where we're going to head from here in terms of corrections to the minutes because it is very important to me,this is being voted into permanent record. And I don't take that lightly. And I don't think anyone else up here does either. Carlson said the very first minutes,the January 9 minutes were done by a new recorder who did not know voices and there was no video, only audio.Just like any new recorder,the first few meetings they do need a little bit extra help on those. It was our error for maybe not catching every single one of those things that you caught but we did fix them. And they are in the minutes now. Benson asked about how the transcriptionist makes decisions on what to include. Seals asked what direction is provided to the contractor. Carlson said she could provide the information that was given to the contractor on her understanding of what should be included in the minutes. Seals said it would be good for everyone to have a common understanding of the rules and for the City to look into other features like closed captioning on the videos.Because on the flip side,I hear all the time that people don't read. Frankly,they just want to listen to things. So I don't think you're ever going to make everyone happy. Benson brought up changes to the January 9 minutes. Johnson said that discussion would pertain more to the second motion. Carlson noted she is working on an agenda management program that will affect the videos and include closed captioning. She hopes to have it in place by May. Walsh restated the motion on the floor to keep the same method for summary minutes as is being done currently. Johnson moved,Crosby seconded,to continue the current practice for maintaining minutes. VOTE: Ayes 5,Nays 0. Johnson said his second motion would be to adopt the minutes from Exhibit A because they meet the standard of what we just agreed upon in that motion. Crosby said he would second it. Benson said she would need to have more discussion because she would feel comfortable with some of the minutes but not with one in particular. We have them all together lumped into this motion;they're not separate. Page 6 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Walsh said the problem we're going to have is nobody else here has gone through the video verbatim. And so you're saying trust me,this is the transcription.I think what Matt is saying is, we've approved the standard service summary that we already have. And that's what we have as the exhibits in Exhibit A from our City Clerk. That's the motion that's been raised and seconded. Do you have any more discussion about that particular motion? Benson said if these are all going to be essentially together then I'll just vote that way. Johnson moved,Crosby seconded,to approve the City Council Minutes in Exhibit A for the dates listed.VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 1 (Benson). FIRE CHIEF REPORT 9. ALL-HAZARDS INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM(AHIMT)PARTICIPATION Fire Chief Van Eyll said what I have in front of you is an opportunity that I've done in the past with the hazard incident management team. In order for me to be a member of that team,the City of Orono needs to be part of the organization. It really comes down to that the City of Orono agrees to hold the workers comp and some of the BR stuff for me if and when I would ever be deployed, and then also take in a reimbursements for my salary or any expenses or anything like that. We get reimbursed back to the City at that point in time. Van Eyll said as a member of this group in the past, he'd been deployed to a wildfire, helped with the Superbowl and also helped with some of the civil unrest by the University stadium. He said he has not deployed outside the state and is not really interested in doing so, although that can happen. Staff recommends the authorization to become a participant in this organization. Crosby moved,Johnson seconded,to approve the authorization for the City of Orono to become a participant in the Minnesota State All hazardous Incident Management Organization.VOTE: Ayes 5,Nays 0. 10. AUTHORIZATION TO PURCHASE MOBILE &PORTABLE RADIOS FOR LADDER TRUCK Van Eyll reported the Council had voted on January 9 to purchase portable radios for the ladder truck. In my research,the mobile radio that is in the truck is no longer available to use on Hennepin County's system. In talking to Mark Parker at the County,that radio is no longer used on their system. So we needed to purchase a new mobile radio and that costs about$6,500. When I went back to the vendor to obtain that quote for the mobile radio,he talked to me about the APX 4000 radios that we had quoted in the past, and also use at Long Lake Fire. Those portable radios are going to be sunsetted soon by Motorola. That doesn't necessarily mean they're going to come off Hennepin County's system just yet. But it makes no sense to purchase radios that are going to be sunsetted by the manufacturer. So I had them quote up four new APX 6000 XE portable radios. The cost has risen significantly to $27,622 for those four portable radios, chargers, and spare batteries. It nets out to an extra$20,000 that I'm asking for radios for that particular truck. The new APX 6000 radios are the same ones that the PD uses also. APX 6000 radios are the ones that the officers use right now for Long Lake fire, but we don't use them on all of our portable radios for our crews. Staff would recommend the approval of the purchase of the mobile and portable radios for$34,100. Page 7 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Walsh said it makes sense with the planned equipment being sunsetted. We want to make sure we get the right equipment for you guys. Benson asked what the turnaround time would be to get the radios and why the quote said Orono Police Department. Van Eyll said turnaround would be anywhere from eight to 12 weeks for the radios and the vendor did not have Orono Fire Department in his system so he used Orono Police Department but stated Fire Depai tiiient in the quote. Benson asked if the radios are for the ladder truck currently housed at Public Works and are able to be used on that truck. Van Eyll said that was correct. It's a mobile with a remote head for the ladder truck and that stays mounted directly onto the vehicle.And then there's four portable radios for the officer and the crew members to utilize on scene. They can be programmed and used as soon as they are received. Benson also asked where the equipment is currently being used and how the firefighters are currently communicating. Van Eyll said the mobile radio that's mounted in the truck right now is not used on Hennepin County system anymore. It's been discontinued, so they won't allow it on their system. There are no portable radios in that truck. Coon Rapids kept their portable radios. So that's why we had quoted portable radios in the original equipment listing. The firefighters do currently communicate with portable radios. Johnson said he agrees that getting the same equipment and same chargers for the police and fire makes a lot of sense to me going forward. Benson said she just wanted to state that the City currently has a needs assessment that's due in June, which is going to determine a lot more about the direction that we're heading in with regard to Orono Fire in the negotiations with Long Lake.And then there's also members of the public who have certainly asked many times to have a better understanding about this--the funds being spent and also the direction that Orono,the City, is taking with regard to its plan to establish an independent fire district. And this ladder truck that this equipment can be used on is currently parked.And again,we're not certain given the contract currently with Long Lake Fire to the end of 2025 where that's going to go and I am not comfortable. Given that the public doesn't feel they have the right answers right now about why we're doing this as a City,and this is funding that is coming from the citizens of Orono,I don't feel comfortable going forward with an expense, especially given that the turnaround time on these radios is not significantly long. Therefore, after a needs assessment, if we are really sure that we want to go in a certain direction I'd feel a lot more comfortable making a significant purchase like this. Seals said that's fair but regardless of where we land,whether we're with Long Lake or not with Long Lake,the truck will be usable.And for it to be usable,you have to have radios, so it's not really an option. I get where you can say we can take time,but my concern is every time we wait on this equipment, Page 8 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. almost every quarter,the cost goes up. I respect your opinion on that but at the end of the day if we want to even loan this to Long Lake it's got to be fully stocked,just for them to train on it. The best way we can make that happen is to make sure all this is done.A ladder truck can be very useful.A lot of our engines are old. We have numerous engines that are in the late 90s, early 2000s. A lot of these departments are on a ten-year replacement. We blew through the 10-years a long time ago. She pointed out the ladder truck can also provide back-up for our neighbors. Maple Plain and Wayzata have older trucks. Wayzata has ordered a new one but the turnaround is three years. If anything happens,there's not a backup. So I get what you're saying but I don't see these getting cheaper and regardless of where we land,I think you're going to need the radios. Crosby moved,Johnson seconded,to approve the purchase of mobile and portable radios for the ladder truck.VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 1 (Benson). CITY ATTORNEY REPORT City Attorney Mattick reported it is his understanding that last week the LMCD (Lake Minnetonka Conservation District)was prepared to pass a motion to deny the dock permit that staff had been working on communicating with them and that we talked about briefly. It's my understanding that that item may be pulled from Consent. I was not able to put a response in writing, but I do plan on responding to some of the correspondence that has been submitted on behalf of the applicant and some of the neighboring property owners. I don't know what will happen at the next LMCD meeting. But I do plan on putting together a response to some of the letters that have been written. Mattick said he would plan to attend the next LMCD meeting. Walsh noted it would be the last time to have our word, basically put in that the LMCD should not be in the judge role of trying to adjudicate legal opinions. CITY ADMINISTRATOR/ENGINEER REPORT 11. 2022 CITY OF ORONO ANNUAL REPORT Edwards said this 2022 City of Orono Annual Report is the second annual report that we've attempted to prepare. The intent is to encapsulate what the various departments achieved over the previous year, provide maybe some numbers and some metrics to what was done over the last year. It's modeled on what the police department has been doing for decades, and what some of our sister cities do. So in your packet,you should have a copy of it. What we normally do is once adopted by the Council, then we'll also hang it on our website. I do have a quick slideshow if the Council is interested. Seals asked about the graph that talks about the different licenses permits. She asked if there was an update on Lurton Dog Park passes because the Parks Commission talked about some of the rowdiness at the Lurton Dog Park and how certain individuals aren't getting their licenses.. Have we made any progress on solving any of those things? Edwards said the City hasn't done any focused enforcement at the park yet but is looking at some possible ordinance change recommendations and then the police department and the parks department are kind of gearing up for the spring once we start seeing the larger increases of traffic out there. Page 9 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Switching back to highlights of the annual report,Edwards noted the Council has made no change to the City mission,vision and goals over the last year. He gave an overview by department. The biggest organization change we had in 2022 is the creation of our fire chief position and the hiring for that. Operationally, it was our first full year for the Public Works Department to provide public works services to the City of Spring Park and that went fairly well.Also, operationally in 2022,we transitioned the responsibility for facilities maintenance from the Public Works Department to the Parks Department. There was not nearly as much turnover in personnel as we had in 2021,but we did bring on nine new full- time staff members. Senior staff updated the personnel handbook which the Council approved last summer. The City renegotiated all four three-year union contracts in 2022. The administrative department headed by City Clerk Anna Carlson had no changes in personnel. The number of data request didn't increase but the extensiveness of some of those data requests may have gone up.He showed the numbers of various permits and licenses issued which increased over 2021. Seals complimented the City Clerk on work done with communications including emails and social media,noting the high"open rate"for emails sent by the City. Edwards said the administration department is also responsible for elections and did an excellent job in the 2022 election period,recruiting and training election judges and running the primary season, early voting and then the November election. That depaitnnent also created an organics program for the City and 147 residents have signed up for that program. The Finance Department also stayed steady in personnel and maintained a Triple A credit rating. Edwards said Orono is one of the few municipalities of its size to have that rating. The workload stayed fairly consistent and workman's comp went down a little. The City brought payroll back in-house which has improved efficiency and also our internal customer service to our own employees.Billing was an area of focus because the City has had some issues in the past with utility billing errors. That has been cleaned up a lot and they've done a great job. In the Community Development Department the biggest change was the hiring of Laura Oakden as the new director.Edwards said it was a smooth transition,noting that in 2021 the department has some major personnel changes bringing a building official and inspector back in-house.He said the City did a relatively large code amendment regarding ADUs(Auxiliary Dwelling Units)and started the process of recodification including the zoning code which has been forwarded to the City Attorney. The Police Department submitted a detailed report,Edwards said. The biggest challenge that we had in 2022 with our police force was recruiting,however,we were able to overcome those hurdles and recruit, and we're currently at full strength within the police department. He said with negative comments about policing at the national and state levels,cities are seeing a drastic reduction in the number of young people coming up through development programs to become police officers,which raises the competition among departments to recruit quality individuals. Walsh interjected it was just in the news recently that the City of Golden Valley went through a very big change in their City Council and went to,I guess we'll call it more of an anti-police defund woke. They've Page 10 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. gone from 30 officers a couple years ago to 12 and they can barely field one or two officers a night even for 911 calls. So that's why you support your first responders, support your police as we have from day one, and that's why we're fully funded. We make sure our citizens are taken care of first. Edwards said another highlight is that the police created the cadet program using CSO Cadet positions to bring students that are in law enforcement education into the department part time an intern setting to be able to set them up for future employment. He also cited the embedded social worker program,which is largely funded by Hennepin County. In just this year,we have been able to have 72 different cases referred to the embedded social worker and we tried to get that integration between our law enforcement and social services. The social worker has been shared among six departments however as time goes on the number of cities sharing one person will probably decrease as the workload increases. The Parks Department grew this past year, adding another full-time parks maintenance worker, and as I mentioned earlier,they took on the role of facilities. Some key accomplishments for Parks in 2022 were a playground refresh at Crystal Bay Park and marking a number of our lake access points. Parks did a number of studies including the Summit Beach master plan,the golf course, fees,and permanence feasibility. The crowning event of every year is our Holiday Tree Lighting event,which was brutally cold, but well attended this year. The Public Works Department continues to do good work. The City has been using an asset management workflow tracking system for public works and parks for a number of years. There has been a large increase in the number of tasks from 5800 to 8100 year to year.A big piece of that is the fact that the City is now maintaining that fleet with an in-house mechanic, which allows for preventative maintenance and quicker reaction to a problem. Edwards said, for example, during the snowstorm the past week, one of the City's larger plow trucks went down and the crew was able to get that truck back on the road pretty quickly. Recent Council actions have also improved public works equipment and facilities,he said. And then finally, Engineering. It was pretty much a normal year for Engineering with the same level of support to the Planning and Zoning Department or the Community Development Department. The road project and the watermain replacement project along County Road 19 south of 15 are substantially complete. A ravine stabilization project on North Shore Drive is 90 percent complete waiting to do some vegetation restoration in the spring. The Public Works facility was awarded last year and construction is underway and will continue in earnest in April,when additional groundbreaking and foundation work begins. Seals moved,Benson seconded,to adopt the 2022 City of Orono Annual Report.VOTE: Ayes 5, Nays 0. 12. 2023 STREETS—TOWNLINE ROAD AGREEMENT AND FEASIBILITY STUDY Edwards explained Townline Road is on the City's northwestern boundary and shared with the City of Independence and the City of Medina. If you're looking at the road as it runs north south, we own most of the eastern side of the pavements. Independence owns most of the western side of the pavement. And then the road continues and transitions in the north into Medina and serves one of their developments in the far north,just south of Highway 12. We've had this road on our capital improvement plan to be maintained for a number of years, but since it's owned by three different government entities,we've been waiting for Page 11 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. the coordination and all three cities to be in a place where they would be willing to do the project. We think we're there. The City of Medina has agreed and wants to take the lead in managing the project. Their Public Works Director put together a feasibility study. They have already done bids; they do bids a little differently than we do for roadwork with an annual materials bid. So we have some costing for what we think the project will cost.You have before you today the copy their feasibility study, but we're looking for approval of the Joint Powers agreement, which is the agreement between the three cities. We are the first City to have this on our agenda, so there is still a chance that I may have to come back for an amendment,but at the staff level we feel confident that we're at a decent place with that. The JPA has also just been reviewed by our City attorney. Johnson moved, Crosby seconded,to approve the Joint Powers Agreement(JPA)Exhibit B. VOTE: Ayes 5,Nays 0. RECESS AND RECONVENE Mayor Walsh recessed the meeting at 7:16 p.m. The meeting was reconvened at 7:21 p.m. PUBLIC COMMENTS Mayor Walsh opened public comments noting that Councilmember Crosby was no longer present and that public comments are limited to three minutes. If things do get out of control, he said he would end public comments and move on. Dave Pierson, 2160 Webber Hills Road, said he just wanted clarification on a couple of things. You know that I'm concerned about the direction of Orono going to their own fire department,whether it's right or wrong,that will be determined. But I do have two questions. One on the fire truck?Can it,by contract with Long Lake, can that fire truck be put into service? So you could put that fire truck in the fire in the firehouse and it could go into service, even though it hasn't the Long Lake part,people have not approved or disapproved or whether that can happen, and use of that truck because it's your truck. So I'm just asking that question. Is it?Can it be put into service by Orono into the Long Lake Fire Department before the end of the contract? It was pointed out by the Council that Public Comments is not a question and answer session. Pierson said I'm not asking you for the answer. I'm just saying that's my question. I'd like to know that answer.How you choose to answer it, that's up to you guys. But that's my question. I would like to see from your Chief, who was the Chief of the Long Lake Fire Department, does he have any complaints or thoughts about the failure of the Long Lake Fire Department over the last number of years?Is there a document as to why people are maybe unhappy with the Long Lake Fire Department,why you may be unhappy with the Long Lake Fire Depai Intent,the Orono people are unhappy or if the Long Lake people aren't happy?I think we deserve to see why you're going the direction that you're going. Nancy Brantingham, 3185 County Road 6, and that's Orono even though I accidentally said Long Lake last time, but that's my mailing address. This is my third time standing up to request a public hearing on issues related to the fire department. Others have also requested that. I want to thank Councilmember Seals, in particular, for approaching me the last time after the meeting and inviting me to be in Page 12 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. communication with a list of things I'd like to hear about. I did send an email to Mayor Walsh and to all members of the Council.But I'm just here tonight to quickly say that again,I request that the City of Orono hold a public hearing to provide citizens with detailed information as to how and why the decision to withdraw from the current fire services contract with Long Lake was made, as well as detailed information regarding all the options currently under consideration for providing fire service to Orono residents.I request that detailed information as to expenses already accrued by Orono be provided, as well as estimates of expenses likely to accrue related to all the fire service options currently under consideration by Council.And I just wanted to deliver this in a hard copy so that you all know what I've asked for and are clear about what I hope that we will get in a public hearing for the citizens of Orono. Kevin Reilly, 3405 High Lane, Orono, said I have lived here for over 33 years. I speak to address my concern about the behavior I have observed at every Council meeting that I've attended over the past few months.I believe this behavior adversely affects the ability of the Council to function in the best interest of the citizens of Orono.At every meeting that I have attended,Mr.Erickson stands up during the three- minute public address period to express his complaints directed at certain Council members while sometimes using inappropriate language. The response that I have witnessed from those Council members has been to raise up an open newspaper blocking the view of Mr.Erickson or to tell Mr.Erickson that he is making a fool of himself.And on several occasions, as again tonight, one Council member has walked out of the Council meeting before adjournment,presumably to avoid Mr. Erickson's remarks. I believe this repeated and continuing conflict is disrespectful to the citizens of Orono and that it interferes with the proper functioning of the Orono City Council meeting. The time has come where the issue that is creating this conflict needs to be addressed and hopefully resolved outside the regular business of the Orono City Council. Please find a way to resolve this conflict as soon as possible and avoid the public displays of rancor and hostility. Jahn Dyvik 1780 Martha Lane, Long Lake and also a Long Lake Council member. It's been exactly one month since our counteroffer for the fire department and with no formal response,I wanted to give a refresher for everybody. Our counteroffer consisted of two options. Option A was to return to the negotiating table where we were last summer to work towards the fire department being owned and operated under an independent fire board. Councilmember Seals supported that at that time. Councilmember Johnson was a little bit more hesitant,but said at that time with Council support, he would support that. So that's our first option is to continue those discussions with the partnership of the fire department being operated under an independent fire board. If that's not an option for Orono,then we had Option B as a counteroffer to your offer. Your offer was roughly$1.6 million,taking Long Lake's half of Station 1 and owning that and then also paying for the $1.5 million of deferred maintenance. Our counter to that was $2 million, and Long Lake taking Orono's half of Station 1 and then Long Lake paying for the$1.5 million dollars of deferred maintenance.And then we would lease that back to Orono at about three and a half dollars per square foot which would match then the fire service costs to Long Lake and would give Orono full ownership of the fire chief,the firefighters,the rolling stock,the capital equipment,all the donated equipment, oversight of the relief fund which includes the pension for the firefighters and full control of the budgets and operations and capital improvement planning. Then Long Lake would maintain ownership of Station 1 which would give us an asset that perhaps we could use in a future fire district if that ever materialized. The benefits to Orono would be having a fully-functioning and highly-trained fire department from day one with no transition and would save significant cost. It's Page 13 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. 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. Page 14 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Jay Nygard, 1386 Rest Point Road, I'm not you, thankfully.I'm completely embarrassed of this Council. You know how much time you wasted of all these people today talking over minutes as if this should be an issue, and you're arguing that it should be the same. People don't understand minutes are counted on for lawsuits, for accuracy and for other things. And when you were sitting here saying we're gonna go with minutes that might be kind of along the way--I remember when you specifically Mr.Mayor lied about me. And I read the minutes.And it wasn't even close to what you had said. Judges and courts don't watch videos,they look at minutes.And if you guys are going to do a disservice to this community by doing a disservice to the minutes of these meetings,then you guys are wrong.And what's really disappointing is that guy right there,Mr. Mattick, who's supposed to be in charge of explaining this stuff to you,how important it is. Because he don't care about the people of this community. He cares about defending and making money and doing other BS crap. The minutes are important to this community. Every single word everybody says, especially at a time like I am right now speaking in this community are the most important and for anybody to summarize anything is BS, period. These minutes need to be accounted for word for word, specifically because of when you lied before, Mr. Walsh, specifically because of people like you.And people like you, Mr. Mattick who don't care about the community and don't care to protect us and allow people to be defamed, and don't speak up and say, you know what,we need an accurate accounting of what goes on here. That's what's wrong. Do we get accurate accounting of what goes on in this community? Change will never come and things will never get better. Todd Newcomer, 1070 Old Long Lake Road, said he wanted to speak quietly for a moment. I think I've spoken with most of you before. Thank you very much for having me here this evening, opening up this opportunity. I know we don't go back and forth, but I wanted to ask a couple questions.Victoria(Seals), on January 9 you made a statement and you can clarify if you'd like. The statement was that there weren't any reserve fire apparatus available in the area. Having done a little research and talked to a number of firefighters, and then we have two chiefs here with us this evening. They seem to contradict what you had said that there weren't adequate fire apparatus. The other part of that was that you had mentioned that the fire truck that was recently purchased by Orono would be able to supplement and act as an attack fire apparatus. One of the things I think a lot of people in the public don't understand is there's a huge difference between a fire engine and a fire truck. A fire truck is not designed to fight fires, it doesn't have a pump capable of fighting fires or hose capable of fighting fires. It does not do any of that. So it could in no way, shape or form,take the place of a fire engine, and all of ours are well over 20 years old or close to. So that being said,just for public clarity, and since this is recorded, fire trucks under our NFPA code are not allowed to fight fire. I don't think either of the chiefs that are in the room would ever put their line staff in a building that was on fire behind a fire truck. So that truck can't be used as a backup fire engine, we're still in need of fire engines in the community. Seals said I know we're not supposed to respond, but you have a long background in firefighting. So you've got my cell,you know, as we're doing all the things. Newcomer said I think everybody here, no matter what, wants the best for the community,wants the best for everybody,the safety of our kids,the public,the people who pass through who don't even live here. So that being said, once again, and I know you've heard it, and everybody's heard it, I think the direction Page 15 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. of a fire district combining all the local communities that is already being discussed into a fire district oversight. Seals said there will be a meeting May 22 and staff is putting together all the options with all the data. And that will be one of them that they will look at. We'll look at what doors does this open for us?What doors are really tough?Every model that we look at is going to have pros and cons. Newcomer said he thinks there's so many concerns of where our money being spent.I'm just looking at , hiring a fire chief,purchasing a million-dollar ladder truck,making an offer for$1.5 million,the original offer was$3 million,which correlates to about$335 per every man,woman and child in Orono to get what we have right now. Seals responded you have my commitment that you're going to have all that out.And the great thing about that May 22 date is there's three weeks between the next date,June 12. She said anyone with additional questions should send them in. James Elder, 195 South Brown Road, Orono, said I will also keep my voice calm. Every organization on which I ever served and which had minutes required of the members of that committee to review the minutes.And when the minutes were asked to be approved at the following time,there was a commitment that the Board of Trustees,the Council members,whomever,had reviewed them and agreed with them. You had a long debate tonight about verbatim versus general and I would remind you that is fiduciary. You are supposed to read your own minutes, correct them and then when they are submitted for approval at the following meeting or whatever,you all agree that they're accurate. So I would observe that might be your solution. Take responsibility,review your minutes and correct them. Brad Erickson, 2485 Independence Road, said I also have a business that I've owned for 10 years in Orono. I also want to say,because I know you've had some issues with me living in Independence and speaking here,that I feel if Mr. Crosby,who is again not here for the fifth time in a row for these public comments, can travel to the governor's mansion to redress his government, and out to Washington DC on January 6 of 2021 to redress dress the government,I certainly can drive five minutes down the road to redress mine.Well, it's official,Mr. Walsh.You've cemented your legacy. Orono Mayor Minimizes Holocaust; Council Member Fundraises for Proud Boys. That's from a leading Jewish media outlet in the Twin Cities here, TC Jewfolk.Remember those people from St. Louis Park,where you grew up?Four days after that article came out some posts were discovered that you put on nextdoor.com. To Orono residents on Next Door Mayor Dennis Walsh doubles down on the video he sent.Finally,you admit publicly online to sending out the Holocaust video on Valentine's Day,no less.But then you attempt to minimize the message and its implications by stating, quote,The three and a half minute video that talks about government overreach regarding COVID mentions the Holocaust for five to 10 seconds as a reference point,unquote. That's you even after being confronted by members of the Jewish community. You double down by posting.I stand by my statement.Well,Mr.Mayor,the extermination of 6 million Jewish people is not a reference point for you to be used as a political football, footnote, or anything else. You sir, are a disgrace to your hometown, and to this town,your legacy is forever stained.You have had ample opportunity to apologize or step down,yet still you refuse to do either. So I turn to this Council and asked for appropriate action to be taken.We're better than that. Page 16 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Richie Anderson, 3205 Crystal Bay Road, said everybody can have a beef with the City. I've had plenty. I have lived here in the City of Orono for 44 years and had a business in this community and multiple marinas since 1976. I've obviously had issues with the City of Orono for this,that and the other thing,but the Mayor when he got elected, said something that I bought into and that's public/private partnerships and doing good for the City of Orono. Over the years I've sponsored numerous sports teams and coached numerous sports teams when my kids were in it. The Orono hockey rink got built. Me and another gentleman put the new locker room together. We built a little league field at Bederwood Park, I was there with Gronberg scoping out and we built that fencing, the whole shootin' match. We put an Ice Arena behind the elementary school here for the kids to play in. So my concept is,we can all bitch and moan about this,that or the other thing, but the fact of the matter is, at the end of the day,you have to do something positive for the City of Orono.You know we located the generator at our property now in Smith's Bay because you didn't have an automatic generator. We did that. I sponsored through public/private relationships the therapy dog for$10,000. I've hauled equipment for public works at the Big Island on my barge. I store the Big Island docks, I helped the funding of the fire department and relief fund. I've given life vests to every patrol car that you have for the cop shop because they hook up with the Hennepin County Water patrol and that way they can just get on the boat. I gave life jackets to public works so they can go out to Big Island safely. So people can bitch and moan but you're doing a good job. As your LMCD rep I've saved the City over the last two budget periods, plus or minus $30,000. We are currently looking at starting a LID in Crystal Bay through your help. The City of Minnetonka Beach had that fundraiser so to speak the other night.And one thing looking forward in a public/private relationships, I talked to the park guy. I want to put a sport court similar to Shorewood's by the post office. Chelsea Wetrick, Independence,Minnesota. Walsh stated the address as 2485 Independence Road. Chelsea Wetrick said unless you're gonna answer some questions or maybe apologize, it's my three minutes. So anyway, I understand that there's an ethics meeting coming up here soon. I'm thinking you might want to have a part in it. I'm wondering why Crosby keeps running out?Why you guys can't answer some simple questions?You've been accused of stuff. And you just sit here and call people fools and clowns and interrupt and make a fool of yourself. So everybody wants this resolved, everybody in the community,the Council members, everybody. I'm talking to you,Mr. Walsh, can you look at me at least? Too much of a wussy to make eye contact? Thank you. So no, by the way,I'm not afraid of you either. There's a very, very simple way to solve all this.You could have apologized in the beginning. But no, you're stuck on stupid and want to keep going. And he can't even stay in for a meeting. MAYOR/COUNCIL REPORT Walsh closed public comments and opened Mayor/Council reports. Benson said I want to share with everyone that I had the opportunity to attend the foundational program for the League of Minnesota Cities on Friday and Saturday this week. Ifs a great opportunity for newly- elected officials to learn about things like ethics, like good governance, share resources and network with Page 17 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. other professionals and newly-elected individuals in our community.It was a really great way to spend a day and a half. I appreciate that the City of Orono is a member of this organization because they are actually very helpful with trainings, ongoing education and just a fantastic resource.And it's very important for me as an elected official to connect closely with other elected officials, leaders and to have positive relationships with them in and around our community.And on that note,I do want to spend just a couple minutes addressing or I should say discussing the organization called Northwest Hennepin League of Municipalities or NWHLM. This organization is a collective of municipalities within the north and western part of Hennepin County.It's been in existence for about over 55 years.It meets about 10 times per year.And the purpose of this organization is to promote cooperation, collaboration, and education in different areas.We didn't get to Mayor/Council at the last meeting,but some issues and questions were brought up in our work session on February 13. So I did want to clarify a few things about that because the last thing I want to do is create more confusion. I want to be a clear communicator. I want to share that I was invited by this organization to attend their monthly meetings by representatives in their group. And I did feel that that would be a great opportunity to connect with other elected officials and grow relationships that will benefit the City of Orono. I learned that the City of Orono has not been represented in this group since 2017. So I did think it would be a good opportunity for me to revitalize outreach with other cities and grow connections with our neighbors. There was discussion at the February 13 work session about my participation.And I just want to clarify that my intention in attending this meeting was never to create discord, or confusion.And I do apologize if my attending this meeting did that. Going forward,I do plan to continue to attend this monthly meeting. On a financial note is that with membership in this organization, one meal associated with monthly meetings is covered by annual dues. It is now my understanding based on our discussion at the February 13 work session that Mr.Mayor would like the opportunity as well to attend the meeting. So it is my intention when I attend,to pay for my own meal out of respect for the Mayor and to ensure that he has his covered.And finally,the Executive Committee of the NWHLM has written a statement addressing the remarks that were made about Orono's membership at the February 13 work session. So hopefully,their statement about the discussion that was had at our work session will clear up any misunderstandings about the purpose of their group, Orono's history with the group and their invitation to me to attend and join the group because, again,I don't want to cause confusion. So that organization has put out or has a statement available with regard to my participation in the group.And on that note,I just want to say that I do look forward to continuing to build strong relationships between the City of Orono and the communities around us. Johnson thanked people for introducing a calm tone in Public Comments. Congratulations to the Orono girls hockey team,the high school team,who got second in the State. The boys are still making their march. So had a really great opportunity to talk to many, many Orono residents at the hockey rink about the performance of this Council and some of the current topics, fire being a major one, of course, and so I was really pleased.It's often that we hear a lot of negative feedback here,but I received an overwhelming amount of support for what this Council is doing and trusting us to do what's best for the City and working with Long Lake. So that was nice to get that direct feedback from those citizens. I'll just address a couple of the public comments.Mr. Pierson was asking about if we can put into use the firetruck. We've had similar arrangements with Long Lake that are in existence already. I wasn't sure if he was asking if Long Lake won't allow us,would we use it?But I would think we offered it. They would accept it. And then Ms. Brantingham,I received your email. And we're definitely going to have some very public conversations about the fire department when we get our assessment done.Ms. Carswell had asked why Page 18 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. we hadn't publicly acknowledged the offer from Long Lake.I felt like we did. If we didn't,we did get their offer. And we're going to do our assessment that James(Van Eyll)is completing and give very public and extensive,thorough information to the public.He commented on the City Administrator's annual report.I'm really proud of this staff and their commitment to making Orono better.And they are doing it for all the right reasons, so it's nice to bring attention to that.Adam(Edwards)also has his review this evening.He's been a very important component in making the City better. Seals also congratulated the high school girls hockey team. Big kudos to make it to the finals the first time ever. Several of the girls I've known since they were four and five and played soccer. So it's pretty unique to see the young ladies they become and see how impressive they are on the ice. Good luck to the guys when they come up. We do have a Parks Commission meeting next week, a work session,March 6 at 6 pm. They are going to be talking about pickleball,where do we go next? If that's a topic you're interested in, definitely join them.And then,as I mentioned earlier,May 22, is going to be the presentation of the fire department draft proposal.Please do reach out if there's things that you really want to make sure that we address.It's really helpful to know from your perspective,what's missing. I think Kim,you mentioned we may need to go back further in the history and update people. So those nods are good for me,because sometimes when you're in it,you assume everybody else knows all the things. So please do email me and let me know your thoughts. She offered to meet with anyone interested. It is not us talking about it. We don't have the information.We're waiting for staff to put through a very thorough response. Long Lake's offer will be feathered in there and very much looked at.My hope is that gives not only the rest of the Council and the mayor,but also the community, some good optics on what all the options are. Walsh said he wanted to talk a little bit about the Northwest Hennepin League of Municipalities that Councilmember Benson had been attending. There was probably just more of a shock to know that she was going and never told anybody, so I appreciate her letting us know what was going on there. I do have a mayor friend that was there in the January meeting.In my opinion,there was some inappropriate stuff going on in that meeting from Councilmember Benson in terms of how she talked about me in the meeting,how she talked about the Council. This is a meeting of mayors having dinner. They also had a guest from Hennepin County Commissioners and I guess from the Metropolitan Council come and speak. And my friend who was a mayor who was there said he found it very inappropriate to talk negatively about people on your Council while there's guests and other mayors, and to also not only do that but also suggest to the Hennepin County Commissioner not to approve a grant that she doesn't like that was applied for, so basically undermining our staff for the work that they do, applying for grants with elected officials that we have to work with all the time. I found it inappropriate and so did the mayor that was there who was telling me about it. So that's all I have to say about that. We'll have more discussion at the meeting when I'm there next week to find out why these meetings are being run like that,because it's very inappropriate as well.I also want to say congratulations to the girls hockey,that was the first time ever. Also in the last couple of weeks,we've had the girls jazz dance team take first place. They're State championships. For jazz, it's the first time they've ever won that. The girls kick team,which my daughter is on the varsity team, also took third place.It's the first kick dance team for Orono that has ever medaled. I will also say congratulations to Mound Westonka,who actually were the State championships on the kick side. So between Orono and Mound,we have won all the dance competitions in the State of Minnesota for Double A.I want to say a shout out to Richie for the Crystal Bay meeting that he put Page 19 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. together. The information he put together was amazing. I also had an opportunity to meet with lots and lots of Orono residents who actually came up to me to say that we are doing a great job and to keep doing what we're doing and that we're doing it right. I mentioned earlier about the police department. You get a City who doesn't support their police department like the City of Golden Valley and they've seen their ranks go from 30 officers to 12. They've got to start leaning on Hennepin County and everybody else to come and help even address 911 calls because they've got some serious problems in addition to Minneapolis who has their own problems. In Minneapolis it's not only the police that have problems. They're down 20 and 30 percent of Public Works Administration,the water and sewer workers, so they're not getting anything done. So just remember to support like we do. We fly the Blue Line flag,the Red Line flag,we've got public works out there. We support all of our first responders.And I think I've told all my friends who are mayors and council members: the first thing you do is take care of public service in terms of your citizens being safe with all your first responders because if you don't have a City to manage, you don't have really anything else going on. Walsh said he attended the fire department retirement party for Kelly Shaughnessy and enjoyed the roasting and old stories. Since it's been awhile since we had Mayor/Council report, I hope everybody had a great Valentine's Day. It was a great Super Bowl to watch. I don't know if you guys watched the game when the Orono hockey played Hermantown in the semi- finals, and it went into overtime. It was an unbelievable kick pass to the young lady who scored the final goal. It was just unbelievable to watch. Those girls will remember those moments for the rest of their lives. CLOSED SESSION 13. The meeting will be closed as permitted by §13D.05, Subd. 3(a), to evaluate the performance of the City Administrator Walsh moved,Johnson seconded,to enter into closed session at 8:08 p.m.,as permitted by Section 13D.05, Subd.3(a) to evaluate the performance of the City Administrator.VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 0. (The City Council was in closed session from 8:08 p.m.to 8:37 p.m.) Walsh moved, Seals seconded,to reopen the Orono City Council meeting at 8:37 p.m. VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 0. Walsh said he had one more thing he wanted to talk about. We had a work session recently where we didn't have a lot to talk about so I wanted to move it to 5:30 p.m. Councilmember Benson had it moved back to 5 p.m. because that's what it says in the calendar. We've been operating for years, if we don't have anything, or if we don't have much we adjust it. I say we have a discussion of changing what's on the calendar to give us more flexibility. Johnson said what I would suggest then is that we cancel all our work sessions and we have that a function of our Council meeting to approve the next work session, and then staff at those meetings can give us recommendations or a Council member can put something on. Walsh said we could do it at the Council meeting,because then we can say, if we need one, let's just set one at the time and what the agenda is. And that way,we have flexibility on a time. Johnson suggested making that part of City Administrator Edward's report. Page 20 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. Edwards said it could be a standing Council agenda item,which would be setting the draft agenda, so to speak for the upcoming work session or confirming it. He said for the next work session right now he has nothing on that agenda. So you would say okay, we're going to cancel it. I think the only people that can cancel it are the Council. Benson said just to be clear it's not that I directed Adam,because we already had that discussion. We all were in agreement that no one person directs Adam or staff to change anything. So when the work session was changed from 5 p.m.to 5:30 p.m. and I asked you,why is that and you said Mayor Walsh said it to be so and I'm thinking well,that's something that the Council should discuss. It should not come from either me, Councilmember Johnson. Walsh said I like Matt's idea that we just cancel all work sessions.And we put it either on the Council itself, if we don't want to have it at the work session, or we have to approve any work session,the time and the agenda at the Council to begin with. Seals said for example, are we saying there'll be a standing item that would say next meetings work session, and then if there was anything and then maybe we'd look at it and be like, okay,that's 30 minutes, that's an hour,whatever that might be. The benefit of that, I guess, is this community gets a heads up what's coming two weeks out. And control that we cancel all work sessions and we have to approve any work session and the agenda at the previous meeting. Benson said I'm not in favor of this. And I'll tell you why. It's because there's been accusations from people showing up at these meetings, saying when are you deliberating when you make a decision? So I do think that this discussion would be a great one to have in the next work session about work sessions. Let's figure it out at a work session, because that's what work sessions are for is doing the business of the City. I'm not in favor of this.And I don't think we should be taking a vote on this, if that's where this is headed. I am not in any way approving of this. This was not on the agenda. This is done after our closed session. And while we've reopened the meeting, I am not in favor of this. Mattick said if I could just weigh in on it a little bit,this is a regularly-scheduled meeting. So you can add items to be discussed. The way it traditionally works is you, at the beginning of the year,you post your regularly-scheduled meetings like tonight's meeting, and you have the flexibility then at a regular meeting to either add to the agenda,take off the agenda, do those sorts of things. If you cancel all of your work sessions,those are still a meeting subject to the Open Meeting Law.And so if I understand what's being proposed is like,tonight, we'd have an agenda item, next work session,that then becomes a special meeting because you have no scheduled work sessions. So at that point,the one drawback is that you are limited to whatever that agenda is posted as --you cannot add other items. And maybe that's not a drawback, but that is something I'd like you to be aware of. Seals asked could you leave the work sessions on the calendar?And then at the meeting prior to the next one,you discuss the work session topic, so they're all scheduled. So instead of adding the canceled one back in,you would have a discussion two weeks prior saying we have this work session scheduled. Adam,what are the topics?And if Adam says there's nothing and we say there's nothing then you could cancel. Page 21 of 22 MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 27,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. The Council reviewed the past formats and schedules for work sessions over the last few years and ideas for how it would work to confirm the next work session on each Council agenda. City Attorney Mattick said I'm not trying to weigh in on the pros and cons but like your March 13 meeting,the gold standard would be for the Council to cancel that meeting,not put that on staff.Now. I'm not saying staff hasn't ever canceled a meeting because there's no agenda. We've done that.And I think as long as we put up notices,there's an argument to do it that way. But the gold standard certainly would be if you guys don't want to meet on March 13,that would come from the Council. Benson said her concern is that Council is going to just decide to cancel work session after work session. I'm just saying it again,this is staff's opportunity every two weeks to have Council together to work out issues,to provide education,whatever it is. We're reducing that ability for staff to be in communication with a quorum of the Council.And that's where my issue comes in is that I don't appreciate feeling rushed.And I don't know anyone does. So I just want to ensure that if we're having a work session,that it's not like, well, we could probably do that in 10 minutes,when that is an opportunity to engage and ask questions, because again,that's the only time we're able to be together. I'm just not interested in whittling away at the ability of the Council in a forum with staff to be able to talk about issues and not feel rushed. That's important to me. Seals asked is it fair to say this would be a running agenda item?Adam can say this is an important topic, we need this amount of time. I'm comfortable with it. It helps me to know what is coming. Johnson moved,Walsh seconded,to cancel the March 13 City Council Work Session.VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 0. ADJOURNMENT Walsh moved,Johnson seconded,to adjourn the meeting at 8:57 p.m.VOTE: Ayes 4,Nays 0. A TEST: LE Anna Carlson, City Clerk Dennis Walsh,Mayor Page 22 of 22