City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Thank you.

I call this meeting to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance

Welcome to the Tuesday June 9th meeting of the Brookings City Council will the city clerk please take attendance There are six council members present deputy mayor Wendell mayor Nehmeyer is absent this evening. I

Thank you, Bonnie. I will once again be filling in for Mayor Niemeyer. You're all in luck. We have a very brief agenda this evening. Item number three is action to approve the agenda, but I'd like to make a motion to amend this evening's agenda to include at the end of the meeting an executive session. Pursuant to South Dakota codified law 125 dash 2 for the purpose of discussing the qualifications competence performance character or fitness of any public officer or employee or perspective public officer or employee The term employee does not include any independent contractor. That's the first amendment the second amendment is to remove items 10A, the Brookings Transportation Plan, and item 10B, adopting the Brookings Area Safety Plan and the 2050 Brookings Vision Zero from the agenda. These items will be brought back at a later date. The plans are available on the city's website for viewing. So the agenda is to add an executive session at the end and to remove items 10A and 10B.

I would second that.

Okay, there's a motion and a second. Will the city clerk please call the roll?

Avery?

Aye.

Doran? Aye. Hager? Aye. Specker? Aye. Tiltonburn? Aye. Wendell?

Aye. Motion passes. I'd now like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

So moved. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Are there any comments on the agenda from the public? Are there any comments on the agenda from the council? I just wanted to note that transportation plan was on last week's, our last regular meeting agenda. We had a nice discussion and overview on that plan. It's now been posted on the public website, but we wanted to give members of the public adequate time to read that plan before we take action on adopting the recommendations that are in the plan. So that'll come back at a future meeting. The reason we removed it is because it's a comprehensive plan, as promised, and we wanted to make sure you all had adequate time to review it. Okay, if there's no additional comments from the council, will the city clerk please call the roll to approve the agenda as amended?

Doran? Aye. Hager? Aye. Specker? Aye. Tildenburn? Aye. Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Okay, motion passes.

Item number four is the open forum. In order to provide equal access to all during the open forum and public comment portions of the meeting, each individual offering comments shall not exceed the allotted three minute period. The podium light turns green to yellow when there is one minute remaining. Your time for comment has expired when the podium light turns red. Is there any member of the public who wishes to address the council on an item that's not listed on tonight's agenda? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next item of business, which is item five, consideration of the consent agenda. Are there any items to be removed from the consent agenda? Seeing none, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any public comment on this evening's consent agenda? Does the council have any questions or comments on any consent agenda items? Will the city clerk please call the roll?

Hager? Aye. Specker? Aye. Tilton-Byrne? Aye. Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Doran? Aye.

Motion passes. Item 6A is a proclamation celebrating Juneteenth. I'd invite Mark Aberle, a member of the Human Rights Commission, to come forward to receive the proclamation. I'll meet you at the podium. Whereas the Declaration of Independence written in 1776 states, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And whereas in 1863, the contradiction between slavery and the Declaration of Independence was addressed when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which set in motion the end of slavery. And whereas slavery ended when the Confederate States surrendered on April 9, 1865, and whereas enslavers in Texas were able to hide their Civil War defeat until June 19, 1865, when the United States military arrived to announce that the more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were free. and whereas Brookings will be celebrating Juneteenth at Pioneer Park. Now, therefore, be it resolved that on behalf of Ope Niemeyer, Mayor of the City of Brookings, we do hereby proclaim Friday, June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth. I'll pass the mic now to Mark Abley of the Human Rights Commission to share some thoughts. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, council members, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Mark Aberle, Vice Chair of the Brookings Human Rights Commission, and on behalf of that commission, I'd like to cordially invite you to attend the seventh annual Juneteenth celebration on Friday, June 19th, from 5.30 to 8 p.m. at Pioneer Park. There will be speakers, music, and food, the trifecta. It promises to be a great event, and I hope to see you there, and thank you very much, and have a nice night.

Thanks, Mark. Okay, item 6B are reports from our city council ex officios. Let's start with our ex officio from the Brookings Health System Board of Trustees, Council Member Hager or Council Member Doran.

There was no May meeting for the Board of Trustees.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Hager. Let's move on to the Brookings Municipal Utility Board. Is that Council Member Avery?

And I do have a report.

Fantastic. Take it away.

Quite a lengthy one, I think. All right. Well, yesterday I did go to the BMU meeting, and I hadn't been there for a couple months because Constable Specker had gone, and we alternate, so I hadn't gone since they had all the new security systems put in place. And I found that it was a very secure facility. When you go to the outside front doors, you can go in that door, and then that's as far as you go, and then there's a window here that says Billings, window here or customer service. It might be the other way around. But anyway, you don't get through that next door unless you're buzzed in and then someone sees who you are and then they could let you in. If it wasn't a billing or a customer service question, if you had some other question. Now they did tell me that now they're going to put Bonnie's picture and my picture in the system so it'll know who we are. So, yeah, it'll let us in, I guess. But I still think they have to do that manually from, you know, just the system will recognize us, but we still would have to be let in. So it's a very secure facility. No one just walks in the door to meet with anybody. So that was that. And then we did have something real nice yesterday. We recognized Tim Harvey for his 20 years of service on the BMU Board of Directors. Steve Meyer spoke to Tim's dedication and the challenges encountered over his many years of service and his significant achievements and improvements made by BMU. Tim was given a standing ovation by the board members and staff. So I just congratulate Tim on all his service. He was one that went above and beyond. I mean, he took trips to Washington, DC. He was recognized by the MRES organization for his service there. So we really appreciate what Tim has done for BMU and for the city. I know he was there to accept his award. His actual plaque wasn't quite ready yet, but that too will be coming. Then today, I was able to attend the public open house at the Brookings Municipal Water Treatment Plant, and that was a very impressive facility. It's a $115 million project just the most up-to-date methods of treating water. We will have an adequate water supply for our city for years to come, safe drinking water. The guides took us through and showed us the whole process, how the water comes into this plant and then it's treated with different variations. Right under the facility is a 2 million gallon storage facility. They can produce approximately 6 million gallons a day. We have eight wells, I believe it is. You know, they were talking about that. We've got four more, I think, four new ones. So our capacity has greatly increased for pumping. But the thing that they did say is that doesn't necessarily give us any more water than we had because the steel has to come from the aquifer. We can just pump it out faster. But we're in good shape for water for the foreseeable future anyway. So very interesting if you ever get a chance to go through it and do that. They have their own on-site lab where they daily check the quality of the water. And so we can be rest assured that we have the best water that can be had, I guess. So that concludes my report.

Thank you, Counselor. Members of the Council have an opportunity to serve as ex officios or representatives on a variety of community boards and committees, and we reserve time in our meeting to come back to you all with ex officio reports, and so that was an example of one. Thanks again, Counselor Avery. There are no contracts and change orders this evening. There are no first readings and no second readings this evening. So we actually can advance all the way to item 11, city council member introductions of topics for future discussion. I will start that item just by noting a couple of items that will be on our next regular meeting agenda on Tuesday, June 23rd. We have another proclamation that evening. WE HAVE A FIRST READING TO AMEND SECTIONS OF OUR SUBDIVISION REGULATIONS. AND WE HAVE AN AWARD TO PRESENT FOR A SCULPTURE AT THE DAKOTA NATURE PARK. AND WE'LL HAVE A CITY PROGRESS REPORT. ARE THERE ANY OTHER ITEMS THAT A MEMBER MIGHT WANT TO INTRODUCE FOR FUTURE DISCUSSION?

JUST A QUESTION OF CLARIFICATION. THE TWO ITEMS THAT WE REMOVED FROM TONIGHT'S AGENDA, WILL THOSE BE ON THE NEXT AGENDA?

I'M SEEING FROM THE CITY MANAGER THE INDICATION THAT YES, THAT TRANSPORTATION PLAN AND THE SAFETY PLAN WILL BE ON THE JUNE 23rd MEETING AGENDA. WONDERFUL.

THANK YOU. WE'LL ALSO MAKE SURE TO HAVE LINKS INSIDE YOUR PACKET AS WELL FOR IT.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS OR ITEMS TO ADD FOR A FUTURE AGENDA? Okay, the next item on our agenda is to go into executive session. I noted the reasoning earlier. I should note that we'll take no action when we come back out of executive session. So I would entertain a motion to go into executive session.

So moved. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor of entering executive session?

Aye.

Say aye.

Aye.

Motion passes. We're in executive session.