City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, hey, hey. All right, good evening. Welcome. We'll call this meeting to order for the February 26th, 2026 Apple Valley City Council meeting. Uh welcome everyone. Uh for any members who have signed up to speak, when your name is called, uh please approach the podium to address the council. The first item on our agenda is the pledge of allegiance. And I would ask all who are able to rise and join us in the pledge. I

pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is to approve the agenda. And Tom, were there any changes this evening? Good evening, Mr. Mayor. No changes to tonight's agenda. Very wonderful. Uh do we have a motion to approve the agenda? Moved. Second. Motion from council member Bergman, second from council member Heert. All those in favor? Indicate by saying I. I.

Opposed. The agenda carries. The next item on our agenda is our audience participation portion of the meeting. This is for items not on the agenda. Excuse me. We have a total of 10 minutes for this it for this um section and yet typically during this section we are here to listen but not necessarily try to resolve and respond comments that come forward. I'm going to start with those who signed up. If you have not signed up I know we'll still give you a chance but we'll get through those who signed up first. First on my list is Maggie Breen Brookman. I got it right last week and now I I I didn't this week. So, apologize, Maggie. No worries.

Start. Go ahead. Yeah, when I'm sorry. Whenever. Yeah, go ahead. Whenever you're ready. [snorts]

Good evening, Mayor Hoopa and members of the council. Thank you for your time this evening. I'm back today to express some disappointment. First, I have not heard back about um the requests I made two weeks ago. I find that to be a real missed opportunity um to show care, concern, and respect for your fellow citizens. What's more concerning, however, is your continued silence, lack of action, and your absence from the cities for safe and stable communities coalition. Instead, we're encouraged to come to you to speak at your council meetings. I invite you to explore the privilege required to do what you are asking. To show up at 700 p.m. on a week night requires child care, transportation, and a level of trust in public government that many of your constituents simply do not have because they're fearing for their safety. Requiring the community to come to you rather than you go to them is not engagement. It's a barrier. I read some of the resolutions other cities are implementing from leaders who are showing up with bold moral integrity, signaling to our immigrant population that cities that the city cares and is willing to stand up. I would like to read one example shortened of such resolution that clearly names the harm happening and what this city is doing to stand with its immigrant neighbors. Whereas reports of harassment, intimidation, discrimination directed at immigrant residents undermines trust in government and public safety institutions and threatens the dignity and security of our neighbors. And whereas any infringement on civil liberties, including unlawful stops, detentions or questioning, retaliation for speaking out, or policies and practices that chill the exercise of constitutional rights harms not only the

individuals directly impacted, but everyone in the community. Now therefore, let it be resolved that the city council of the city of Brooklyn Park one denounces any infringement on civil liberties by any public official, agency, or individual based on actual or perceived immigration status, race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Number two condemns harassment, intimidation, and discrimination against immigrant community members in all forms, including verbal abuse, threats, economic coercion, and targeting in housing, employment, transportation, and public accommodations. And this is my favorite part. Number three affirms that all residents, regardless of their immigration status, are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect and to enjoy fundamental rights, including freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and freedom from unreasonable searches and Caesars consistent with the Constitution of the United States of America and Minnesota. My question is clear and simple tonight. Why won't Apple Valley pass a resolution? You have a real opportunity to go co-draft something powerful with the community. A community that is hungry to have your support and engagement. But considering your propensity to not respond to community requests, here's a simple one. Do better. And not for us, but with us. We are not asking for you to sit in a back room and draft a policy for us. We are asking for a seat at the table to co-create a city where everyone feels safe, not just the people that look like you and me. Thanks for your time. [applause] Deborah Meni, I believe, if I got that correct.

Hi, my name is My name is Deborah Mankey. I'm a 25-y year resident of Burnsville. I am stepping in here because uh communities don't just have boundaries anymore. Communities with ICE have much are much more open and uh our city passed an ordinance that keeps federal agents ICE out of city spaces. I don't know why Apple Valley doesn't do that. I'm very disappointed in that. Um, you guys have a mission statement to it promotes uh promote enhance health and safety and general well-being of its citizens. All of your citizens, all of your visitors, your residents do not feel safe. Other residents do not feel safe. Is that okay? No, it's not. And I read here the um it's really interesting. We uh the state bird is a loon. It's called the sentinel of the north. We as motans have established that we are the loons. We are the loons that are helping to keep our communities safe. We have signaled our [clears throat] identities of the comp community and defending our vulnerable neighbors and communities. That's what our Burnsville resident is doing. We have an effective 25 to 50% absenteeism from school children. Why is our children not being protected? Why is this not happening with your city and with multiple other cities around? We can do more. We can ask our police officers if they see ICE breaking the law, they can step in. I read that they

can definitely step in and they are not impeding on federal agents. they are following the law and um it's very very important for that because to follow the law you people want us to follow the law and all we have are whistles and phones and we're asking our cities to start protecting the people that um are asking for that and open forum can bring people together not just your community of Apple Valley, community of Egan, community of Savage, community of Burnsville. And um I just I just hope that you are listening to your people because it's not about drawing the line of your agenda. You guys are elected officials and people have elected you as a duty to protect and put in things that represent the people. So the loons we are saying they also sound out as voices travel. We are saying we are here. We are watching. We are asking that all cities AO Valley come together here and act upon people's respect request to respond back and to have an open forum council meeting. Thank you all for allowing me to speak. I um it's one of our freedoms that we have and thank you very much. I hope you take this and follow suit with it because people deserve that.

Thank you, [applause]

Liliana. Hello. Good evening. Good to see you all again. Um, for weeks now, myself and other residents have shown up to these meetings to share what has been happening in our neighborhoods. We have described federal operations occurring on our streets, the fear families are living with, and with the economic harm to local businesses. And yet, we continue to be told that there's no interest in creating a meaningful public space for dialogue. Ignoring residents and dismissing concerns is not a path towards healing. It's a path towards deeper division. So I'm asking plainly, if you will not allow residents to openly share their lived experiences in a structured forum, how are you ensuring you are fully informed about what is happening in our city? Being fully informed means more means more than just making phone calls. It means more than just requesting briefings or asking for introductions. It means being present in the community. It means showing up and listening directly to the people impacted. Walking into the businesses that have been affected and hearing unfiltered experiences and not summaries. The lack of public discussion does not mean a lack of impact. Silence does not equal stability, nor is it neutral. Whether intended or not, silence is communicating indifference, and no one gets to control the impact of that silence regardless of the intent. This may feel like a way to avoid conflict, but conflict is already here. Families are living it. Business owners are living it. Children are living it. Avoiding the conversations don't make these realities disappear. We have many immigrant-owned businesses here in our city that have experienced devastating drops in foot traffic. Some have had a close and are just now starting to reopen. These businesses these business owners are taxpayers, employers, neighbors. This isn't abstract policy

issues. These are famil family's livelihoods. What concrete steps will you take to actively support and uplift them? What visible actions will you take to restore confidence in shopping local? Beyond economics, something deeper is happening. Trust is eroding. The wound of feeling unheard is real. The continued absence of clear statements condemning harmful actions have not gone unnoticed. Now you have mothers missing bedtime to stand here and ask you why you won't take the time to listen. We are not here because this is convenient. I'd rather be home putting my little one to bed, but we are here because it is necessary for me. This has been personal. You've seen me get emotional up here. This is affecting how we feel raising our families. I am privileged to be able to stand here and to use my voice and I will I will continue to do so because we must serve and protect all the people in this city. You are elected to lead especially during unprecedented times. Leadership requires moral clarity and courage and not avoidance. So again, I'm asking, what concrete actions are you willing to take to truly listen to be fully present in this community to help us rebuild trust? Thank you for your time.

Thank you. [applause]

And Nicole, I believe it's Farley Fairley. Which of those was correct, Nicole? Fairly.

Thank you. Evening everyone. Thank you for your time tonight. My name is Nicole Fairley. Um I'm just here to discuss what they are also discussing. As a mom, all my spare time right now when I'm not working and coaching is spent grocery shopping for the high school grocery shopping to deliver to a local church trying to get help to our neighbors. At this point, public safety is compromised. It is scary out on the streets. I drove by one of our local playgrounds today that is one one of the neighborhoods that is constantly being bombarded. There's zero footprints in the snow around that playground. Kids are not leaving the house. Families are afraid to leave. Our businesses are going to be affected. Our housing is going to be affected. People right now cannot pay their bills. We're doing all we can to support them. We need to have something where we can come together as a community to figure out what we can do to help our neighbors get through this. This is going to affect our city for a very long time to come. It's been talked about how already that we're losing faith in our community and our government and our policing. If I call the police because I have someone outside my sitting outside my house or at the playground in a mask with what's has recently happened with the Hortman's and the Hoffman's and annunciation, I should feel confident that someone is going to take that and see what is going on. Not disregarded as well as the federal government doing what they're here to do. It's unsafe for our children. There's been days where I don't feel good about them taking the bus to school. There's been days where I pick them up because I don't know what's going on. When we find out that they are on campus at the high school, we're able to get SRO's are able to move them off property, but then they just go sit out in the street. They're terrorizing our

communities. They drive recklessly. It's just unsafe overall for all of our communities. And we do need some sort of session to come together as a community to figure out how we're going to help our neighbors, how we're going to move forward as a community after this. I just I'm I'm worried that we as a city are going to be on the wrong side. Um I have a quote from the mayor of Edina of all people, the cake eataters says, "In time when this chapter in Minnesota history is read, not in headlines, but in history. I hope it may be said that when the nation faltered between fear and fairness regarding who deserves to live in our country, that Minnesota chose the harder path. not merely to what was wrong, but to help build what is right. I'm here asking to help us rebuild our community. Show them that they're safe. Show them that they're loved. Our kids are watching. Our kids are very aware what is going on. And it's scary for them. But as a community, as moms, which are pretty much carrying most of this load, there are some fabulous dads and grandpas and grandmas out there, but moms, we're already stretched thin. We're doing our best. We're here to protect every child, every human. That is our job. We are the givers of life and we will be the ones that maintain it and help them keep their stability. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you all for the comments. [applause] I would encourage folks to go look at the wording of that Burnsville ordinance that was that was mentioned and just kind of understand what's in there um as well. And that clarifies a little of some of the challenges we have on some of this. Mhm. I do show.

Yep. So, thank you all. We will get some response back. We do have some information out there. We can pull a little more together and uh get some response back to folks as well. So, thank you this evening. The next item uh is the approval of our consent agenda. These are items are considered routine and will be enacted with a single motion unless a council member or a citizen request to pull an item. We'll start with council members. Any items from consent you would like to discuss separately? Anyone from the audience? Any items to pull from consent? All right, seeing none, I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second. Motion from council member Mander, second from council member Heert. All those in favor indicate by saying I.

I. Opposed. That consent items all carry. The next item is uh the start of our regular agenda which is 5A and that's the introduction and oath of office and uh Chief Francis is going to kick us off on this one. As the chief makes his way up. Uh family members who would like to get pictures, please feel free to to find a good spot to get those pictures uh this evening. Don't uh don't worry about moving around a little bit if you need to. Vic, take it away.

Good evening, Mayor and uh members of the council. We have uh an exciting and and proud night tonight to introduce you um to one new member of our team and reintroduce you to a couple other members who were recently promoted. Um and so first I'll start with Officer Matt Samagi if you want to come up. Officer Samji is new to us. So this will be a familiar face. You can stand right up here by me. facing this way here so they [laughter] so they know um they'd probably rather see you anyway.

Uh he grew up in Illinois, moved um to Minnesota to be closer with his wife Molly's family. He has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Maryland and a master's degree in investigations from the University of New Haven, Connecticut. Um after college, he spent 23 years active duty to the United States Army. Uh he had deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Um he also spent six years in Germany and one year in South Korea living abroad serving. Um after his military service he went to work for the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department. Um he spent seven years there as a deputy in Ramsey County. His experience there includes court security, community engagement, SWAT and was a field training officer. So a lot of great experience walking in the door here for us. Uh outside of work, he enjoys hunting, fishing, anything outdoors. Um he especially enjoys training and teaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu. uh he's a black belt uh and so that that runs uh right into our uh our Brazilian jiu-jitsu program here. So um he's much more advanced than many of us who are just kind of getting our feet wet. So uh I know his wife and uh son are out of town right now at a conference. I don't know if there's anybody else in the crowd here. I heard a couple woohoos. Maybe people from uh county. [laughter]

He's on our side, right? Um so welcome uh Matt. We're happy to have you. Um, and next we will uh welcome up Sergeant Sarah Toliffson. [applause]

So Sarah not long ago was here before you getting sworn in as a police officer. Uh, as you recall, she grew up in the area. She attended Rosemount High School. She has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and public policy from Cordi Concordia University in Wisconsin, uh, where she played hockey and golf. We still are working on our hockey roster here trying to get that [laughter] competitive and uh Sarah really helps out with that. She started her law enforcement career with the Fairbull Police Department 2017. Uh she served as a police explore adviser, use of force instructor and field training officer. Uh she came to us in Apple Valley in 2022, has served on patrol and uh the community impact unit. Um she was also instrumental in upgrading our fleet of uh bike patrol bikes from uh pedal bikes. We still have those, but she uh worked with a vendor and got a grant and got us uh ebikes that were able to use um that we rolled out last summer.

Um and so you'll see those out a lot more here as we get them up and running. Um outside of law enforcement, she stays active uh playing golf, traveling. Um she also has uh started a a wellness retreat nonprofit that's uh there to take care of other uh other officers and family members, which is very very admirable. That's just getting off the ground. Uh, and I'll let you um introduce any of the gaggle of people that you have. [laughter] Honestly, pretty much everyone over on this side of the room came here for me today. So, [applause] I would I would not have been here in this spot unless it was for all their support. So, thank you. [applause]

Uh, and finally, Lieutenant Adam Cheetah, if you want to come on up here. It's a Yeah, there's groom side. Yeah. [applause]

Um you've uh I'm sure all met and known Adam for a number of years. Uh just a little history, he grew up in Piers, Minnesota. Uh he has a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota Duth, master's degree in public safety administration from St. Mary's University. He started with the Apple Valley Police Department in 2005. Uh as an officer, he worked patrol, taught firearms, was assigned to the South Metro SWAT team. He was promoted a sergeant in 2014. Uh as a sergeant, he worked patrol and oversaw our community impact unit most recently. Um I think his largest and most um kind of wide reaching body of work is through the SWAT world. Um he started as a SWAT team operator in 2010. Um he was promoted to team leader in 2013, promoted to assistant commander in 2016, and in 2020 was promoted to commander. Uh and so that's a huge deal. That's um that's a whole department of 60 to 70 um operators, negotiators, tactical medics, um crisis response workers. Um he was able to take the team from a Dakota County, primarily Dakota County team to a regional team with Rice County and and multiple other departments. Um they serve a population of half a million close to

about a half a million uh people. So, um, he's overseen and and kind of organized hundreds of probably the most, uh, challenging and difficult incidents around the region. Um, we it's great experience for us to have here. I know there are plenty of chiefs that are, um, a little sore that Adam's going to be maybe moving out of the the, um, SWAT role. um maybe not sore, just uh a little happy for him, but also uh within that team um you know, losing a lot of really good experience on really high high-risk um incidents and and um operations that have just kind of gone on through unprecedented times. So, um we really appreciate your experience in that and your dedication. U and I know your team is um is again sorry to lose you um as the commander. Uh but the team is in good hands and and Adam will continue having um a lot of interaction with the dozens or 50 or hundred um other operators that have moved in and out of that team since 2010. Um and anyone you want to introduce that's with you tonight?

Uh I have my wife Angela and then our daughter and son Wyatt and then bunch of familiar faces from that. [laughter] Thank you for welcome. Um, all right. Well, we will do our oath of office. We'll get out of the way. Here, here. Please raise your right hand and state your name. Matthew Adam. And repeat after me. Do solemnly swear. do solemnly swear

that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Minnesota and of the State of Minnesota and faithfully discharge the duties and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of police officer, sergeant, lieutenant of the office of police officer of the office of police sergeant of the office of police lieutenant of the city of Apple Valley of the city of Apple Valley in the county of Dakota in the county of Dakota and state of Minnesota and state of Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability. to the best of my judgment and ability. So help me God.

So help me God. Congratulations. [applause] Uh we will invite whoever is going to pin your badge on to come on up. And if again anybody wants to come up here and and get close and take pictures. Um you want to start um one time start over.

Wow. Oh, they got experience in that. Yeah. Yeah. Usually takes longer, doesn't it? Nice, nice, nice, nice.

Congratulations. [clears throat]

So, thank you again for giving us a few minutes here to to introduce one of our new uh team members and reintroduce a couple of folks. We are uh very lucky and blessed to have such a talented department, such a uh committed group of folks as you can see. Um even a lot of our their partners are back there to here to um support them which just shows that we do have a good good culture and a good um level of support from not only within our department but also the council and the community as well. And it's it's a great community to work for. and uh we're all proud to to uh to go out on the streets every day with each other and I'm happy that they are uh they're all with us and in the positions that they're they're growing into.

Thank you. Yeah, we're uh we're super proud of of everyone too. Matt Matt, welcome. Um Sarah, you and I have had a little more chance to work together than we might like through some of the community impact unit stuff, but also you've done a fantastic job in what are just kind of some of the harder things you probably have to do, right? When there's a lot of personalities involved. And Adam, I know I see you everywhere. So, uh go see more of you, I guess. So, uh, [laughter] um, but thanks everybody else for showing up, right? This is, uh, the support behind the scene matters an awful lot. So, it's great to see a full room, and we know that support goes an awful lot deeper than just those who are here tonight. So, uh, thanks everybody for all you do. Um, congrats to you guys, and look forward to seeing you around. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll get our [applause]

We'll maybe take a quick minute and get our Absolutely. We'll get everybody We'll give everybody a couple minutes to uh settle out. So,

Nice to see all the people. Mhm. It's always good to see the support. Thank you guys. Thank you all.

She's done a really good job with the neighbors around the group homes and some things. She's really Well, just the right the it's it's not easy, right? When when you're kind of stuck mediating and things that are hard to do things about. So

flowers nice. Hey, Eric. When they're all gone, do you mind grabbing the door? We'll slowly get back to uh the meeting agenda here in 5B, which is our advisory committee appointments. And Christina is going to uh tell us what we're going to do next here.

Good evening, mayor and council. As you will recall, at your February 12th meeting, the council reappointed advisory committee members whose terms were expiring as of March 1st and were interested in serving another three-year term. We had two committees that each had one member who chose not to renew their term, and those were the parks and recreation advisory committee and the telecommunications advisory committee. And so we um advertised for those two committee openings um from January 20th to February 10th. We received five applications for the parks and recreation committee and three applications for the telecommunications advisory committee. One applicant is overlap. They indicated park and wreck as their first choice and telecommunications as their second choice. So this evening um we will start with appointments for the park and rec park parks and recreation committee. Um the way this process works is we will have a council member who will nominate the applicants. Um the mayor then closes the nominations and then I will hand out the first round of ballots. Because we have five applicants, um council members will each vote for up to four um nominees and then I will collect those ballots, tally the selections, and then return with a second round of ballots. Nominees who receive three or more votes will move forward in the balloting process. The council will complete the next round of balloting. again voting for one fewer than number of nominees that we have and this process will continue until one nominee remains. I know you're all old hat at this by this point but um the council will then adopt a resolution appointing that nominee and then we will move on and do the same for the telecommunications committee.

Perfect. Uh I just before we get started I just want to express some thanks for both Jess and Laura for for their time on the committee for Jess on Parks uh Parks and Laura on the telecommunications committee. Um, we're glad they joined us. We're glad they uh filled their roles and now we look forward to bringing somebody new in, I guess. So, we're start with telecommunications. Is that your um parks and recreation advisory, please? 50/50 shot. I was going to get that right. [laughter] So, we need a motion to move the slate forward. Is that what we should do? We just need a council member to name the nominees and then you would close the nomination. Gotcha. So, do we have any other Do we have nominations?

Yeah, I I will move that. And it's Linda and sorry if I say the names wrong. Linda and Engelken, Don Plamer, Aaron Rob, John Shoot, and Alex Stain. Perfect. Sorry if I butchered your names. With that, we will uh we will close nominations and move on to the balloting. Yes. Yep. Looks that way. Please remember to put your name at the bottom.

It's like you've seen my name once or twice. Yeah, that's this many, John. Yeah, I know. M Tom, do you have a few updates uh for us while we while we tally?

Mr. Mayor, just a couple as we go through the process. And uh I I would like to just call attention to a couple of projects that we have underway going on right now. And some of you are certainly aware of the work being done at Alamagnet Park. Uh not long ago, the city council adopted the natural resource management plan for that park. Uh something that was long overdue and needed to be done and that uh that plan is going to guide our uh kind of resurgence of Alamagnet Park over the next couple of months here. Uh if you've been out there uh there was a lot of invasive species that had overgrown parts of Alamagnet Park, particularly the buckthornne and other types of vegetation. And so uh we have entered into a contract with a company that is currently underway implementing the sections of our natural resource management plan. And if you go out there today uh they have removed a lot of material and in order to properly dispose of the material they actually have a number of bonfires that are going on within the park. Once they get the bonfire created, uh it's more efficient for them to keep that process going. So they're actually manning the bonfires overnight and they will do that until they're done with the material. Uh thus far, no complaints from from neighbors. I think uh once the smoke started going straight up and not into neighborhoods, I think that has actually done very well. Uh it will look worse before it looks better like most construction projects when we get underway with these types of projects. Uh it's certainly a lot of material is being removed, but there is a long-term restoration plan that will establish vegetation in that park that is more native to that type of u forest and will end up being a much nicer uh and long-term sustainable uh type project once this is done. So, uh, if you'd like to go out and take a look at Alam Magna Park, please do, but do look at the master plan as to how we're going to eventually, um, finish up that work and, uh, will be a definite improvement to that particular park. I will offer to, uh, to Eric or Matt if I

missed any comments relative to, uh, to the project. Sounds like we got it covered.

Perfect timing. Good evening, mayor and council. We have um three continuing nominees. So, I will hand out the ballots for those three continuing nominees. And because we have three, you can vote for um two on this ballot, please. Tom, are they still using goats for buckthornne control?

I've heard they have an appetite for buckthorn. U Mr. Mayor, council member Lander, some cities have used goats uh to help with their buckthornne control. Apple Valley has not to this point. The size of goat it would have taken to consume some of those [laughter] 8 in trees would have been a little intimidating. I think once we finish the project and maybe some more buckthornne tries to come back, maybe that would be the time to employ the goats. But at this point, the material was quite overgrown and needed a more aggressive approach than the goat could provide. Big goats, right, Mr. Mayor? Uh, our parks director also has another item for the council tonight.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, we would invite the community to come to an open house on Monday, March 9th from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. We're going to be at the Johnny Cake Activity Center, and we're looking for feedback on three different things that might be happening at Johnny Cake over the course of the next little while. One of those is we're proposing to install a challenge course um at in in replacement of the existing playground equipment that's just north of the activity center. So, we're looking for some public feedback about that project. We plan on applying for a Minnesota DNR outdoor recreation grant at the end of March and this feedback will be helpful as a part of that grant process. The second thing we're looking at possibly doing and wanting to get feedback from the public about is there's a we refer to it as a stadium soccer field. It's in the Johnny Cake East Park. Um, it was constructed a little over 20 years ago, mostly for high school soccer. Now that high school soccer isn't using it, we're looking at taking down the fence fencing, the st uh the press box, the scoreboard, and repurposing some of the um bleachers. And so we'd like to get some feedback from folks to make sure that what we're proposing to do is acceptable to the community. We've reached out to two both athletic directors and both uh youth athletic associations to get their feedback and obviously invited them to participate if they would like to. And then the third thing is the parks park and recreation committee is interested in entertaining the idea of possibly changing the name of Johnny Cake East and or Johnny Cake West. Um and so looking for some feedback about whether we should or shouldn't and if we do what should it be named after. So those three things, Monday night, March 9th, 5:30 to 7:00, Johnny Cake Activity Center. [snorts]

Mayor and Council, we have two continuing nominees, so I will hand out the third round of balloting. Please vote for one nominee. Yep. I will be extra shortly. [clears throat]

All right. Uh we didn't rehearse the uh what do we fill the time with very well, did we? We knew have these gaps and uh it would be a good time to also then advertise the teen police academy that is done and I think our police chief is ready to talk about that and maybe citizens academy as well.

Yes. So, anybody that's uh you know the hundreds of people or thousands of people that are watching this right now online and happen to be on their computer as well, the teen academy, we're still taking applications for that. That closes. We're taking applications through today. Usually we give it a day or two after that, especially if we have room um to take additional applications. Uh but the details on the teen academy, it's Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 8:30, starts March 5th and runs through April 2nd. Uh so I'm sure if there is a if it happens to be here on a night, there's a council meeting here. Um I'm sure you've seen them um come and go. We are uh co-organizing this with the Rose Mount Police Department again. So some of the events will be here, some will be in Rosemount. Uh and that also is just um like a a preview to our citizens academy that's open. I know several [clears throat] of you have either attended or or uh recommended that um that registrations for that will be coming up here in the next couple of weeks. And that's a really great opportunity just to learn um I always say it's it's to learn not just what we do but it's to learn who we are. So you learn a lot of things that the police department does but you get to know all sorts of our staff members, our leadership team. Uh and so it's a really good opportunity to really uh deeply engage with your community and your police department. So keep an eye on our website and our social media and sign up when that opens up.

I bet you it was what 2008 or nine when I probably did Citizens Academy. A really good experience, right? It's really well put together. So Yep. Thank you. Yep. Thank you.

We have to be down to one, right? [laughter] Yes. With four, I worry about a tie. So, right. I I was worried too. Uh but nominee Aaron Rob had majority of the votes. Um so, it would be in order now for the um council to approve adopt the resolution appointing Aaron Rob to the Parks and Recreation Committee. I'd like to adopt the resolution to appoint Aaron Rob to the parks and rec advisory committee. We have a motion from Council Member Heert. Do we have a second? Second. Council member Bergman. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Opposed. That carries. Thank you everyone for applying and coming out this evening. Um we should move on to our telecommunications.

Yes, please. So we have a list of uh nominees in the packet. Um, would anybody like to to uh nominate them formally? I guess have to get to the right page here. Mayor, I'm happy to If you have the right page, please go ahead. I do. I do. follow me. And again, I I apologize for uh saying names wrong, but uh the slate of uh committee applicants for the telecom telecommunications advisory committee is Marcus Hosley, uh John Shoot, and Daniel Sullivan. Perfect. So, we have the slate. Um would you like to start the balloting? Yes, Mayor. If you could close the nominations. We'll go ahead and close the nominations, then we can start the balloting.

Thank you. So, um, we have three nominees and I will have you vote for two candidates, please.

Oh, we didn't have to sign this one. Oh, yeah.

I got my name on the bottom. Tom, anything else? Mr. Mayor, a couple of other quick things. I will bet we most of the public did not know that February 22nd through 28th is Engineers Week

to be celebrated throughout the country for the work that the engineering team does to uh to keep uh keep us all safe in what they do. And of course, we've got a very talented engineering team here at the city. They do a wonderful job both with the design for streets and lighting and storm water and sewage and water system. uh we just rely on them an awful lot to do a good job as Apple Valley is known for quality development throughout the course of its 50 plus years now. Uh that team continues to do very good work and as we get into the construction season uh coming up here very soon in the spring uh we will have a a lot of work to do and uh it's because of their good preparations. So we want to thank Brandon and his team for the work that they do as our engineering folks. Uh the last thing I would just mention is just a couple of ribbon cutting things that are coming up in the community. Maybe we don't talk enough about this, but Apple Valley does continue to grow and we have a lot of very vital business district uh that uh does a lot of uh provides the services that we need and uh s very much developing the tax base of the community. So uh we do have a brand new Less Schwab Tire Center that will be opening to the public uh with their grand opening on Friday, March the 13th. Uh that's at noon at the Les Schwab Tire Center. That's out in um kind of the far southeast corner of the city uh by um a ball field complex down there. And then also uh something new at the Minnesota Zoo. They actually have a brand new bus shelter themed for the Minnesota Zoo. Uh this is part of the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority service that they provide to the uh to the zoo and uh they've done a nice job in developing out that system. So that ribbon cutting ceremony will be Wednesday, March the 4th at 10 o'clock up at the zoo.

Maybe I'll just retrospectively mention one a few of us attended a few weeks ago, which was Valley Suites, which is Tony and his wife, who have owned Valley Diner for 17 years, uh, opened a candy shop across the way. I know John, you said you have been back. I think we've been back. Um, so kind of fun to see all variety of things, uh, opening up and building off each other. So, thank you, Christina. Thank you, Mayor and Council. We have two continuing candidates. I will hand out the next round of ballots. Please vote for one. All right, Tom. What else?

Are we Are we out of there? Eric's got my list, but Eric will come up with one more for us.

Not stretching too deep here. So, it's that time of the year where the city is looking for a lot of seasonal employees. And so, in parks and recreation, we hire uh somewhere between three and 400 people in the summertime to do things like being lifeguards, working at our concession stands, working at the golf course, cutting grass, um uh fetching range balls, uh helping maintain our parks, dragging ball fields, um cutting grass there, and all kinds of other projects. I know that the public works department and the streets street streets division hires some seasonal employees to help with maintaining roadways. I know that the utilities staff hire some some seasonals to help with uh some of our utility work as well. And so if anyone's out there looking for a job, go to our website and see what's out there and see what might interest you because we are interested in hiring folks.

Great reminder that season's going to sneak up on us before we know it. Thanks, Eric. Christina, mayor and council, after counting the round two ballots, Marcus Holy has received a majority of um the votes. So, it would be an order to approve a res adopt a resolution appointing Marcus Holy to the telecommunications advisory committee. Would someone like to make that motion? Sure. I would love to uh appoint recommend Marcus Hosley to the tele telecommunications advisory committee. Do I have a second? Second.

We have a motion from council member Heert and a second from council member Melander. All those in favor? I opposed. Christina, thanks for the work on this. To all of our applicants, thank you. And uh we look forward to getting everybody into the new committees. Thank you. We'll move on to 5C, which is the recombination and waiver of plat of unpl unplatted land. And Carter has this one. I gave him just enough time to get up here, so perfect. It's situated here.

All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. So, tonight we have two land use requests relating to an unplatted parcel uh located near 12894 Forest Court. Uh the requests in general aim to divide and convey parts of the parcel uh to their abodding neighbors. So the council has asked to adopt two resolutions tonight uh regarding the unplatted parcel. First is approval of the recombination of the unplatted land and second is granting a waiver of plat to facilitate the conveyance of that land. All right. So this site is located near the northeast corner of Forest Court and 129th Street West. Uh it is a narrow unplatted strip of land that has remained mostly woody mostly wood mostly wooded and grass. Uh it's situated between two recorded plats. Uh Broner Woods to the west and Nordic Woods to ETH edition to the east. Uh so it's just remained unplatted between those two subdivisions. Uh the strip contains no permanent structures and does not have any recorded easements too far. As for the zoning, uh the surrounding properties consist entirely of platted residential lots within those ex existing subdivisions. Uh the proposed recombination is consistent with all applicable city zoning code and subdivision regulations. The there is no reszoning request as part of these two. Uh so recombination applicants propose dividing the unplatted parcel into three separate parcels. You can see there A, B and C. uh through recombination. Uh what recombination is, it's a process under our city subdivision code which in this context uh is the providing a mechanism to divide the single unplatted parcel into those three separate parcels. Um they will eventually become under common ownership with the adjacent lots. Uh the parcels will remain legally independent. Uh the owners will have the option to combine the parcels to become unified tax parcels in the future.

And also tonight, the applicants are requesting a waiver of plat under the city's subdivision code. Um, this is due to city code section 15302, which generally prohibits conveying land uh via meets and bounds description. Uh, which would typically require a formal plat instead. Uh, so due to the limited scope of the request, a waiver of plat is being pursued. Uh, as for the proposed ownership, each new parcel will be conveyed to the owner of the abuing platted lot. So parcel A will be retained by the mirees. Parcel B will be conveyed to Marina Reliva at 12896 Forest Court and parcel C will be con conveyed to Ronald Gotchling and the Wendles at 6857 129th Street West. So as for the action tonight, uh staff recommends approval of the draft resolutions approving the recombination and granting the waiver of Platt. Uh with those recommended motions on screen, uh I can stand for any questions from the council. Uh the applicants are here in attendance as well if there's any questions for them directly.

Perfect. Thanks, Carter. Uh questions from council on any of this. Um thanks everybody for the time and work. This looks relatively simple. I know you've been working on it, including the applicants for a long time. So sometimes the easy things or what seems easy uh take longer than it seems like they should. So thanks for your work on this one. If there are no questions, we'll just move on to the recommended actions. So, do we have a motion to adopt a resolution? So, that's the first one. A resolution approving the recombination of the unplanned. I just want to make sure we get them straight here. This is, uh, caused us problems before when we're not clear. So, uh, so we have a motion from Council Member Mander, a second from Council Member Bergman to adopt a resolution approving the recombination of an unplanted parcel in section 15, Township 115, Range 20, Dakota County. All in favor indicate by saying I.

And opposed. That one carries. And we're looking for a motion to adopt the resolution granting a waiver of plat in connection with the conveyance of an unplatted parcel in section 15, township 115, range 20 in Dakota County. Motion from council member Lander. Do we have a second? Second from council member Bergman. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Opposed. Thank you. And thank you all. [snorts] Thank you guys. And the last item on our regular agenda is 5D, which are some text amendments to the zoning code. And Sydney's going to walk us through this one.

Thank you, mayor. Members, tonight I'll be presenting to you uh text amendments related to on sale alcohol. specifically are asked to consider amendments uh regulating on sale liquor, wine, and 3.2% liquor in the retail business sewing district. The amendments as shown on the slide would remove on sale wine and 3.2% liquor uh in conjunction with the restaurant facility from the permitted uses and then remove on sale liquor from the conditional uses in the retail business zoning district. To give some uh perspective, the retail business zoning district is highlighted in red on the map. So, it's primarily located in our downtown as well as along other hightraic areas in the city. The primary reason for staff proposing this amendment is because uh alcohol is currently regulated in two section in two chapters of the city code. In chapter 111 and then in chapter 155 which is the zoning code. in chapter 111 which regulates alcoholic be alcoholic beverages um that includes licensing process. So a general overview of that process isn't is on the slide here. Um the licensing process is far more comprehensive than anything that the zoning code does regulating alcohol and then it also includes compliance checks as well as enforcement that again is far more thorough than anything that the zoning code can do. So because of that staff proposed to um remove um regulating on sell liquor and alcohol in the RB district. So for considerations for the amendments, [clears throat] one would be to remove outdated uses [laughter and cough] in the zoning code. So in general, staff would like to remove um outdated uses in our zoning code. There are quite a few um for [clears throat] alcohol. Uh most cities do not regulate um the sale of alcohol in their zoning code. Uh, with that, we'd also like to reduce fees and

processes for applicants. So, currently an applicant would have to apply for the liquor license as well as the conditional use permit, which both require fees for a relatively similar process. Um, and then we'd like to eliminate those redundancies between the two chapters um because they are fairly duplicative. And then lastly, uh, most on sale liquor cups are for businesses within the retail business district. Um so for now we are just proposing to amend the retail business district and in the future we would like to uh make amendments to other commercial zoning districts and plan development that includes similar uses. The public hearing for this item was held at the February 4th planning commission meeting. There were no public comments or questions and the commission unanimously recommended approval of the amendments. So for tonight, the recommended action is to pass the ordinance uh as well with the additional recommendation of waving the second reading. And I can stand for any questions.

Any questions for Sydney? I just just for me, thank you for taking the time to do some clean up and rather than continuing to work around outdated stuff. So I think our business community appreciates it. I hope it takes a little work off your plate, too, to have one less step to go through. Uh with that, we'll look for an ordinance to pass an ordinance or look for an ordinance. We'll look for a motion. How about that? instead to pass an ordinance amending the retail business zoning district to remove on sale wine and 3.2% liquor as permitted as a permitted use in section 155.156 and remove the on sale liquor as a conditional use in section 155.157 and that includes waving the second reading. Do we have a motion to that effect? So moved

from council member Heert and from second from council member Bergman. All those in favor indicate by saying I opposed and thank you. That one is passed as well. Appreciate the work on that. And we'll move on to staff and council communications. Tom, anything left in the uh in the staff [laughter] communication list. Mr. Mayor, we're officially out of staff updates.

All right. Well, I will just uh once again since we met last time, I think we had yet another large dumping of snow. So, just once again, I will say thank you to uh whoever gave up their evenings and rolled out at 3 in the morning to clear our streets and do those kind of things. I know that was another he wet heavy um probably a slog of a push to get the snow taken care of. So for our streets and our parks folks who did that, thank you. And with that council, any other items? Lisa.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I just wanted to take the opportunity uh with the Olympics just wrapping up to recognize and um congratulate uh Apple Valley native Margie Frerieded. Um she participated in the batlon uh which is the ski cross country skiing and shooting. Don't know how you can do those two things at the same time. It's pretty amazing. Um and in her I I don't I can't remember what event it was. It was like 15 kilometers that she cross country skied and she got 19 out of 20 shots and it was her personal best and she finished 21st. So congratulations to our Apple Valley uh Olympian.

Thanks for mentioning that. Yes. Always fun to watch uh local folks, right? Minnesota had a really good turnout in the Olympics this year. So, it was fun to watch. Uh with that, if there's no other council comments, our next item is our calendar of events and our next city council informal meeting is Thursday, March 12th at 5:30. And our next regular city council meeting is Thursday, March 12th at 7. Uh do we have a motion to approve the calendar of upcoming events? So moved. Motion from council member Mander. Do we have a second? Second from council member Heert. All those in favor indicate by saying I. opposed. And then finally, we will look for a motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion to adjurnn from council member Bergman and a second from council member Heert. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I.

Opposed. And we're adjourned. Thanks everyone.