City Council - Regular Meeting

So, are we are we on TV tonight? Okay. So, everything I say will be [laughter] [clears throat]

I'm used to it. session. How many words? All right. It is 7 o'clock. I'll call this meeting to order. Please join me in the pledge of

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] All right. Uh, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Motion by council member Pchman. Second. Second by council member sir. Any further discussion? Uh, yes. [laughter] Yeah. Yep.

Uh, okay. Uh we had a motion by council member Pchman and a second by council member Pasco. Uh my apologies. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. All right. We don't have anybody here for community comment this evening. I do want to flip this a little bit because I think it would make sense to approve the consent agenda that has our legislative priorities in it before we start talking about [laughter] our legislative priorities. So, with that, can we skip ahead to item number seven? And can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda, please? I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Now, we have council member Sar. [laughter] I'll second.

Second uh by council member Conrad. All those in favor. Uh any further discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. All right. Um Senator Grunhagen, welcome. Come on up. Um, so as I mentioned, we kind of wanted to do this just a little bit differently this year. Um, we miss you. Speaking of that, what's that? Am I supposed to speak into this or Yes, please. Is the green light on? Yeah, it's on. Okay. Um, we miss you when we don't see you. So, just thought it [laughter] would be as good of an opportunity as any to have you out here and do a little bit more of a face to face kind of handoff on our legislative part.

When I run for election, I'll remember that the city council misses me. [laughter] Yes, you I fully expect to see that on a website. [laughter] [gasps] You that as you see fit council misses me. All right. Um so I don't know that really many of these have changed, but I will just go over a high level. Uh Senator, I hate it when somebody reads me a PowerPoint or a presentation. So I'm not going to read you this word for word because I know that you are literally I will look it over closer. Okay, when we're done here, but hit the highlights.

Yeah, highlights. You know, we're going to start with the certified levy project funding. We are still facing about a $3 million gap. I know that this uh is a bonding year, so we are hopeful to get some bonding money to hopefully close that gap. I think I've told you before we will have shovels in the ground um this summer, I think, because we do have some money already and we are going to phase the project to make it work. But you know all the reasons why this is important to our community, protecting the downtown, not only from a life safety perspective, but also from a um from a historic preservation perspective. You can't replace these buildings.

Well, and you you gave uh Representative Harter and myself a really good touring of the situation, you know, and I you know, I'm a needs, wants, and desires. I've always done that even when I was on the school board. Yep. So when I look at a request, I think need, want, or desire. Flooding is a need. Okay. So I'm going to advocate. Well, you know that I've advocated in the past for it and uh so I will do what I can. Should I make an additional comment though? If you want.

Yeah, because I I have talked to the bonding chair who I sit next to on the labor committee [snorts] and I have a good relationship with her. She's a DFL and S Senator Papis and uh you know we got six million uh one time so now we're ask for another three million. She's uh you know here's what happens with a bonding you know usually every other year. You usually have about six to seven billion maybe more request and the bonding is usually somewhere just under a billion or maybe a billion and a half. Okay.

Depending on our bond rating because we don't want to lose our AAA bond rating. Um so in talking with her and I just talked with her briefly. Um she uh you know the response back was well we just gave them $6 million and we got all these other requests too. So I'm going to see what I can squeeze out. I'll be advocating and I'll be working with uh Representative Harter on that. She I'm gonna see if Representative Harter would be be able to get it in on the House side if I can't get too much on the uh Senate side. Okay.

I just, you know, I I've known Sandy for quite a while and I just her response was not that enthusiastic. But hey, yeah. Uh I will do whatever I can and I'll certainly work with Representative uh Harter on this. I consider it to be a need. Uh I don't want you know we looked at the levy and everything else and the 100redyear flood seems to come about every 10 years [laughter] or every three but yeah every three.

So I will definitely do what I can. Okay. And you know me we've worked before and I will say that your mayor has uh she hasn't irritated me but she has kept my she has kept my attention. [laughter] No, she's I believe that to be a compliment. That is a compliment. You go with the word persistent.

Well, and the wheel that gets squeak gets oiled. Okay. But you were one of my primary pri priorities. Uh, of course, there's others in the district, too, but uh we haven't met them all, but we have met quite a few. And uh uh I could really see the need here for Carver County. So again, I will be doing whatever I can both with Representative Harter and also in the Senate, but I am being honest about the initial response I got. Okay, that's what I appreciate. You've always been honest when we've had these conversations. I get it that it's a little bit of an uphill bottle uh battle for what I will call like straight bonding.

Also know that we kind of have our foot in the door for the flood mitigation grant program, but I think that that's a bonding measure to fun the DNR's program, too. So, it's my understanding, and I'm kind of saying this at a high level of how I understand it, but kind of once we get our foot in the door with those bond grant funds that they like to see projects fully funded and not Yeah. And that might be an additional wedge we could use. And that was my other comment is, have you looked at alternatives? And I know you have in the past, and I'm sure you're doing it this time, too. Yeah. say anywhere you can scrape this stuff together. Yep. Uh do whatever you can and I will do what I could possibly do. Appreciate

that. Appreciate that. Um other priorities, supportive local decision-making. We've talked about this before. Respectfully, we think we know our community the best and like building codes, you know, one-sizefitit all legislation doesn't work super well here. There's two proposals that we're looking at on uh property taxes. Should I comment on that at all? Yeah. Okay. You don't have to ask [laughter] me into my conversation. You're in charge, aren't you? Maybe it's maybe it's 50 years of marriage, so I asked permission [laughter] to talk.

Your wife my wife runs a different household than I run. Anyway, um uh one is to cap property taxes and county commissioners here too. Uh you know, just to cap it at 3%. Straight off the board. I I've checked with a couple other county commissioners and uh superintendent. They're lukewarm about it. Now, the other thing that might come out of this, and I don't know if it'll pass or not, this is primarily a Republican initiative. So, they put a 3% cap across the board, okay? And you'd have to live within that. The problem is, uh, I said, how about if we do a cap, which isn't real popular with some people, okay? uh that we also include a mandate that uh the state has to fund all of its mandates onto a a city or a school district or whatever. In other words, if you're going to mandate onto local government, then you better fund it or otherwise it should be optional.

It's up to you whether or not you want to initiate it or not. So, those are kind of two that uh the Republican caucus are looking at right now. I don't like a straight 3% cap just because it's like putting a a lid on a boiling pot of water and we [clears throat] got to turn the burner down. And the way to turn the burner down for you is to uh have the state fund its mandates, right? Yeah. I mean, they're good at mandates and I was on the school board for a long time. They're not real good at providing the funding or just temporarily providing it. Then all of a sudden, you're stuck with it. I've got to tell you like if you're taking our temperature, if you're taking my temperature on that one, I will go back to that legislative priority of support of local decisionm. Amen.

That is something that would tie our hands. So, because of that legislative priority, that and a building permit regulation and you know, that would be something that we would not be in favor of. What about state funding its mandates? Well, that's such a great segue [laughter] to our next legislative priority. Um, the next one that we have is a Minnesota paid leave law exemption for cities. It, this is my long way of telling you, yes, I think that that would be fantastic if the state would fund their

requirements. Um, their unfunded now unfunded mandates. You know, as far as what is affecting us from a state level, it's the Minnesota paid leave law. It's about 3% of the increase that we had in our 2026 budget over 2025 and it's like 22 2% of our overall budget. So it's not a huge chunk but we are taxing everything adds up to pay for this unfunded mandate. Yeah. Which just is a little weird, right? It comes from the state. We're doing it. We're part, you know, everybody has to participate in it. But then we are charging our taxpayers to pay for it. Yeah.

So, you know, I having been on the school board, you know, for 16 years, uh, and I was chief negotiator the last six with certified staff, you know, these one-sizefits-all mandates are very damaging. You know, it's like throwing a big boulder in a in a in a a a swamp or a lake and then the ripple effect.

Well, you just don't understand the ripple effect. And I've been getting emails uh I'd say at least a dozen from small business owners who just say, "What? What are we supposed to be doing?" I mean, half of them don't even know what's going on. And this even applies to farmers and everything else

and uh seasonal whatever you have. and it's just so burdensome and it's another uh 400 FTEEs at the state level and uh I did not vote for it and in fact we had numerous amendments to try to modify it uh that Republicans offered. I will say this, I'm hoping that they're getting uh the ones who are strong advocates for this uh that they're getting some negative feedback on this and that we'll see some modifications. you know, session starts February 17th. I will say when it passed last session, there were some on the other side of the aisle that weren't real strong advocates for it, okay?

Thinking, you know, I think you care about your employees probably more than I do, okay? [laughter] And more than they do down there. And the thing is, you'll work with somebody. I own a small business. If I, you know, I've got one older lady, she'd been with me probably 25, 30 years. She does have some health problems now and she has to go in for uh to the doctor pretty well. I pay her for that time. I you know, and if you don't like where you're working, guess what? You can change positions. So, we're inserting the state with a mandate where it should be decided between the employer and the employee. The other thing that I really had a concern about is that um you know there's a civil lawsuit at $10,000 if you question the employee uh on is this really accurate and uh uh so I call it a trial lawyer full employment bill. No offense if there's any lawyers in the office, [laughter] but uh it just there was Anyway, now I think if I remember right, I just listened to the news before I came and they said they had the uh assistant uh deed commissioner on there and I think they got 16,000 applications already because it is retroactive and that's going to cost uh what 12,000 was going to cost us 85 million. So, I'm sure we're up over 100 million if they approve all these,

but so far they've been approved about 70% of it. So, and again, I just think that an employer employee can work things out 95% of the time. And if you're not happy with your employer, then switch jobs. Okay? That's what I've done in the past and uh when I was an employee. And uh I I just think the state is uh going over you know even my superintendent I mean totally you can take about 20 weeks now if you put put them both together 20 weeks okay in school I talked to superintendent you know that's uh uh five months okay four weeks times five is 20 weeks he said I got a hard time getting subs for my classroom. Now, what am I going to do when these people just take and you know, I can go on and on on this. I'll try to cut off, but we can get to the next subject. But no, I will be

very strongly supporting uh offering amendments and supporting amendments and trying to work with the other side to try to make modifications because I agree 100% local control is the best control. you know your people better than we do down there. And one size all one sizefits-all mandates 99% of the time has some negative repercussions. And we want to help people who need time off. You know what I mean? I'm not against that, but I don't think this is the way to go. All right. Um, ready to move on? Yep. Okay. Um, up next we have the public notice requirements in newspapers. I'm sure you're familiar with this one as well. You don't have a newspaper anymore.

That's the point. [laughter] We can move to the next one. I think you just made my case for me. So, you're asking illegally. No, no, [laughter] no. We are our our newspaper of record is the Wakonia paper now. Okay. Do you know how many people in Carver are probably reading the Wakonia Patriots?

Beyond me and hopefully all of us up here. Like I bet it's it would be interesting to hear what their circulation numbers are because they don't cover Carver regularly and the loss of the Chaza Herald. We're still talking about it of like how can we connect with our residents? How can we make sure that folks know? How can we help folks engage? Um, but this [clears throat] is one where we're having to check that box and we are. We're putting the notices in the Waconia paper, but it's not accomplishing what the letter of the law intended to do. There have been bills in the past to allow cities and school boards just to put it onto the internet. You know what I mean? They just haven't gone anywhere.

And of course, there's a lot of advocacy by the the paper group, newspaper group against that. Y, but that seems to be dying down. Yeah. So, I'm sure I haven't been on the committee that deals with this, but it does usually come up once a year to allow local governments and school districts and county commissioners, even if they fall under that, to put it on a different venue, especially if you don't have, you know, like a newspaper anymore. You know, Hutcherson lost their newspaper, too. And I mean, it just is a tough business. I got a friend who owns a newspaper. He said for over 20 years he said I just would never do it again. Yeah. He said there's just no future in it. And uh

because people are getting their information from alternative sources. I do think in some of these uh communities where you have a lot of seniors who don't access the internet as well, but you're in a community with a lot of more young people in newer houses, but still they do seem like they are being excluded a little bit because they they're not as uh savvy in terms of social media. Yeah. So,

well, and even just a preference, right? We have seniors who just like have that newspaper. It was I have a journalism background, but it was one of my small favorite things about moving to a smaller town was that local community newspaper and I look forward to every Thursday when the Herald came out. What about posting something so people could read it or do you do that already? We do post it. It's Oh, it's in the breezeway. There's a bulletin board when you walk into the building. So, everything's posted there. Okay. But,

yeah, it'll probably come up again. And uh I initially have been against it because I have a newspapers in my district, but I'm beginning to lean more and more uh as an alternative way for you to do that. I mean, you lose your main newspaper here. What are you supposed to do, right? So, well, if you look I mean, if you ask 99.9% of Carver residents where our stuff is published, they would have zero idea that it's in the Wakonia Patriot. So, it's just money down the drain for us. And I get it. We I mean I fully understand that the older generation I love the paper Herald, right? But that's not where we're at right now. We don't have anything that is worthwhile. So again, the world is changing

and even you know the older generation isn't reading our postings, isn't reading our minutes and our Yeah. bids and our budgets and all the things that we have to legally get into print. Everything costs money nowadays. Yep. Um, last but not least is um this last one we put on here for our friends at Southwest Transit. Support for Surban suburban transit providers. Can I put you on the spot and have you t this one through or No, do you want me to? Well, say what you were going to say and I'll add to it.

I was going to say take it away, Eric. [laughter] So yeah, you know, I think we have a concern that our local uh transit company, Southwest Transit, is potentially losing its autonomy. I think there's been discussion that somehow uh operating independently is less efficient that the you know there was some recent articles about uh leadership pay and that may be true of some transit agencies, but that doesn't apply to everyone. Southwest Transit actually runs uh by all accounts more efficiently than most of them in the area. They are also set up to service us. We get a great benefit uh from special events to our proximity to Chaza uh and Chanhassen and those transit hubs. And county is it primarily uh buses? uh microtransit is kind of what uh is servicing the community now. But it isn't just Southwest Transit. We also have uh Carver's transit system uh that we're looking to to tie into fixed route services. Um, so the the the worry is this uh what seems to be an initiative to to pull that all under uh metro transit that that would seem to service a community like ours, like Victoria, like Laconia and everybody on the west side of the metro area out of that. So

So you'd lose it completely or you'd lose control of it? we would lose the autonomy to uh have those transit entities really uh provide the services for those communities. We look closely. So I sit on the southwest transit board. Uh we look closely at what those what the communities need like city of Carver. We have steamboat days. We have a had an arrangement with transit southwest transit to provide a shuttle service to get people to and from that to the state fair to the renaissance festival. those kind of things when Metransit looks at it, they say, "Well, we really shouldn't be doing that. That's not the charter of Met Transit." So, that has been their position that these special events are not really uh the their charter. Southwest sees that differently. I can't speak with the same clarity for for the county uh bus service, but I do believe that we would lose those kind of um communitydriven um services. Uh the latest thing now for Southwest is having a fixed route to the airport, an hourly service. So we had a challenge at the city level uh with microtransit this the city being able to support that. We've got to pay a portion of every microtransit route every prime route. Now a community member for Carver can park at Chaza $5 can get to Eden Prairie, leave their car there for $5 a night, get to the airport on an fixed hourly schedule. It's a heck of a deal for people going to the airport. That's an example of a specific

communitydriven need that um again you'd lose in the MET transit uh view of public transportation is not really part of that mix and that was driven by and that's on here at the bottom. Right. Right. Support suburban transit providers. So your concern is you might lose control. Right. or influence the entities that support local communities like uh uh and I the name of the Carver uh bus

Metrobility sorry Metroility and Southwest Transit their ability to tailor routes to tailor um the services based on the needs of the community. Yeah, I think that would evaporate. I think we would see uh just to focus on the large fixed route service to and from uh Minneapolis which there's a need for and you know maybe a growing need in the future but right now the need has been um focused on microtransit special events as things that actually get people to use public transportation. So, I'm not sure if that's the sentiment of the uh council, but that's if anyone has anything else.

No, I So, Eric is our all things transit guy, which is why I volied it over, which is nice. It's nice you have somebody willing to take the lead on that. Yes. Yeah. It's team sport up here. Yeah. If you you know, I uh How many of you get my email updates?

Okay, two of you. I'm signing up all city council and uh county commissioners and schoolboard members in my district for my email updates. It's an excellent way that if you become, you know, I'm only on so many committees and there's, you know, I think we had three we 4,000 bills introduced last year. So, if you see something or hear from your uh, you know, League of Minnesota cities or whatever, hey, here's a red flag. boy, send me that because I still answer all my emails and when it's somebody from my district, well, you know that, Courtney, when it's from my district, I pay attention, okay? Because uh that's important to me

and to get people a response. I try to be as truthful as I can on everything uh on what the request is. But if you see something that's going to infringe on this area, you know what I mean? Boy, send me a red flag. I'm not right. Now, I'm not on the transportation committee, so I need a red flag so I can uh talk with other senators to see what we could uh block it or Yeah, I thank you. Um and even if you have something where you'd like to see some modification so you have a little bit more control down here because again, I'm I'm a local control person. That's what I like to see. Great. Love to hear that.

Love to hear that. Um I don't know. Do you guys have anything else on the legislative priorities that are missing? So, not that is missing. I just want to go back to uh the first priority and that is our levy funding. Uh the mayor and I have been to your office a couple of times and I really appreciate and I appreciate you coming in in securing this. Something you said though worries me and this is not coming from you. This is coming from a conversation you had is why are these people in Carver asking for another $3 million? Why can't they just get it done with what authority [cough] gave them?

And I worry that that is a sentiment when we aren't asking for more than what it takes to to do the project. We just didn't get the full funding right the first time around. And the most expensive aspect of this isn't the three million we're asking for. is if that continues, that can gets kicked down the road because I have never heard anyone from the city say it's going to be cheaper to do a project next year. No. So, never is. So, uh thank you for your persistence and uh again, this isn't this isn't the city saying, "Hey, well, we we'd like to build a theater or something like that."

It's it is what it takes to get this done. And you know, too, in 2024, we got close. We were plugging holes. Yeah, I know. And it's uh it's fortunate that we had a pretty responsive um city works crew that was out there. Yeah.

Able to respond. I know you know this. I know you're fighting for us. It just I don't want people to think that these these folks in Carver just can't get it done. We just never got the funding we need this time around. And again, I will do my best on that. And I'll work with Representative Harder also, uh, who might I lean pretty hard on on the bonding chair on a couple issues. And, uh, I, you know, again, I told you her response seemed to be less enthusiastic. people can change. But, uh, I do think, uh, I'm going to try to lean on Representative Harter a little hard little harder to get it, uh, in over there if I can't. And I'll try to get you at least a committee hearing, you know what I mean? So, you can

uh, make a presentation on it. Again, it'll be up to uh, Sandy Papis if that happens or not. And uh and again the reality is it's usually just under a billion or a billion and a half and there's seven eight billion dollars worth of requests. Now half of those requests are wants and desires. I don't like them but you know depending on the senator u if they can get in or not. I try to concentrate on the needs. So, okay.

I want to just piggyback on you, Eric, on that comment that you made because [clears throat] part of the reason too, I mean, as everyone knows here, we're also following the mandates that are set forth by engineering standards by our [clears throat] waterways by who controls those. So, it's not, you know, we're not adding diamonds and gold to this, right? So, and we can't complete the whole project unless we get all of it. I know you understand this. I just need to say it out loud that, you know, we're doing what we have to do

um because there's requirements that we have to follow and that costs money and we can't change those either. I know. No, I well know that too. Uh uh having been uh I have real I have customers actually and good friends who are county commissioners at uh and city council people in Mloud County and Sibly. So I hear regularly from them. Uh and you're in the seven county metro area. So I think you probably uh deal with it more than they even do on you know outside the seven county metro area in some cases with the med council and whatever else.

I have one thing I'd like to add to with just um one of the priority of the levy being certified is we went into it knowing it would be multi- years to get funding. So, I just I don't know like I don't want it to be a surprise that oh, they're here like guest Carver is gonna like this was planned like we would know we'd have to you know get more funding but then once we finally when we do get that fully funded there'll just be the momentum and the you know the the capital there the you're a growing community too. I mean, you're start it.

You're adding uh facilities and uh housing and you got to put the infrastructure, everything else in there, you know, the sewer, sewer and water and everything else. And uh so whatever I can do to help you, I certainly will. Okay. Thank you. Um did you Okay, I have one more. I just wanted to reiterate to about [clears throat] the Minnesota paid leave law. I This couldn't irk me any more than it does. Um, and the fact that they're being able to retroact leave to the previous year is astounding. Um, I just wanted to get one fact that you said straight. I know enough about this, but um, not all of it by numbers, but you said there's a $10,000 fine if you were to

if you question the employee too much. Yeah. Okay. And that that's why I called it a trial or full employment bill. I I was we had amendments to take it out in the committee and I think on the floor it just failed. Again, there are some less than strong supporters of this bill on the DFL side, but last year they got I wouldn't say pushed, but they got prodded into supporting and voting all our amendments down. I think based on the emails I'm getting, you know what I mean, and the negative feedback I'm getting, I think they might be open to some modifications.

Okay. Because this can easily tank small businesses. Oh, yeah. If you have a handful of employees and two of them, three of them decide to go take leave. Now you have the cost of trying to temporarily fill that that vacancy. So now you're paying again. Yeah. And I have an independent insurance agency and I just think I got three part-time secretaries and they've been with me some of them like I said 30 years and uh if they're all gone at once, right?

You know, I got three agents too, but that work with me, but um I got to have them there, you know, follow up with customer, follow up, everything. And how am I going to teach somebody to replace them for five months in a year? uh you know how to respond to a client or follow up to endorsements or anything like I just can't do that right and this so this favors really it favors large businesses big box stores things people or excuse me companies that have hundreds and hundreds maybe thousands of employees and the little guy just gets wiped out

I know the the small business owner gets that's why we tried to have exclusions for the small business owner I think we started 25 then we went down to 20 to 15 to and to even part-time. Okay, how about part-time people? No. Uh they just uh sent it all through and we'll see if they're open to some modifications, which I think they will be because if they get any of the input that I've had, uh they're, you know, they're up for election two this coming fall and I think they will uh be open to making some changes. So the way this is set now, if they were to make modifications to it, would that be able to take effect in 2027? Yeah. Okay. Or maybe even July 1, you know what I mean?

So we'll see what happens. The other thing that African that or that um what do they call that bill? A judge struck down most of that. Now, you know, that's going to hit in 2027. That's I don't follow which you're talking about. It might be on the here number four. the county. They made references. Which one? County level. Yeah, that's it. Okay. Which I've heard a lot of negative push back on

from uh counties and and uh cities and I think and maybe John can speak to this too. I followed it somewhat is a judge has struck down most of that law now. Now, it'll probably be appealed, but it is something to follow just and it I think it takes effect uh January 127. And that is going to drive up your property taxes. Okay. Um if if it would be completely implemented, but again, I think most of it, maybe all of it have been uh put on pause or struck down. That's the information I've received. But keep alert to that.

Thank you. I know you feel strongly about paid leave. I just want to just to be clear, our legislative priority is exemption for cities from paying those premiums. We had already had a decent long and shortterm benefit plan. So that you've negotiated. Yeah. So, and that we did we have unions, but we also did it the exact same thing for non-unions that we did out of school districts too. They've got their uh negotiated. That's where it belongs in my opinion. So, we'll see if we can't get some modifications on that.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for everything you do for the city of Carver. In just while we've got you here, what is your crystal ball looking like for the 2026 legislative session? It's a bonding year. We um we need to address fraud. Believe that one. [laughter] I weird. We hadn't heard of that one.

I There's been a lot reported. Okay, I do a video uh once a week. I've done about four of them since July on it. And it does seem to get worse and worse and worse. So, and one of the main things I'd say is that, you know, it's not just the loss of the money. Now, some people say it's between one and two billion that's been verified, but there's been nine billion stated, you know, and and even more possibly. But it's not only the loss of whatever money, right? Let's just say it was a billion and a half. Okay, that was verified. Um, it sounds like it's a lot more than that. But what could we have done with that money? In other words, we could have secured our public and non-public schools. How many people, regardless of their political persuasion, don't want our children to be safe in the school in the uh schools? I can't find anybody, right? And we could have used that money to secure our schools and instead it's buying uh properties and expensive cars and everything else according to published reports. So, it definitely will be be addressed. I'm hopeful it'll be on a bipartisan basis and uh we really need to get control of this and uh anyway, uh [clears throat] it's going to be one of the priorities uh of the session. It's going to be a short shorter session February 17th to the end of May. It's going to be a sprint. That's a couple weeks shorter, isn't it?

Yeah, it is quite a bit shorter. And uh so, but it will be. The other thing I would just bring up on a positive note, you know, politics tend to be negative a lot of times, at least the people involved in it are, [laughter] but we are getting 212 done, okay, to four lanes all the way out to Gleno. And uh I worked on that with Senator Scott Newman, who's retired now, whose place I took for nine years to get the funding on that. And uh I've met people in Gleno who were on committees in the 60s,7s and 80s to get 212 to four lanes. And uh I even ran across a young person who said his grandpa was on a committee in the late 40s to get 212. [laughter] So I'm all about taking turns. Okay. But it was our turn. Okay. And uh it was one of my number one priorities was to get that uh finished because uh for our our businesses, our farms, and even for just general expansion, 212 needs to be four lanes. So, I'm very thankful for that. And it was bipartisan. By the way,

I have to give credit to uh Senator or Representative Hornstein, Democrat. He was chair of the uh of the transportation committee that time and when he negotiated with Senator Newman, I put a lot of pressure on Newman. Get the funding for 212. So after the session, Representative Hornstein comes up to me says, "Glenn, you're going to have to vote for this bill." I said, "Is there any I'm not a light rail advocate, okay? [clears throat]

wasted money in my opinion. But South, that's another story. But um he said, "You have to uh vote for this bill." I said, "Is there any money for Lake Allen there?" He said, "No." "And there's money for 212?" "Yep." He said, "I'll vote for the bill." [laughter]

So, I did vote for it. And uh but I worked, you know, people say uh you know, you should have term limits. Well, I agree to that to a certain degree. But on the other hand, it took me nine years of constant advocacy to finally get the funding to finish 212. And I know uh the meetings that were held down here, which I attended on a regular basis uh in Chaza and everybody wanted 212 done. So, but anyway, so that's a positive. Great. Getting done. Awesome. Okay. Right.

Thanks for the invite. Thanks for what you do. And definitely uh I'll try to sign you up for my email updates and let me know if you see a red flag issue that you want me to address or if you like something positive too. I like this bill. It would help us. I want to know about that. Awesome. Because it's too hard. It's hard to be on all the committees and know, you know, know what's going on everyone. That's why I do rely on constituents at times like yourselves to uh give me the heads up. Yeah. Okay. Hey, now that you're speaking of emails, do you get our newsletter? The city of Carver's. I don't know if I do. Well, tomorrow you will. [laughter] You got my email. You do.

Do I have your email? Call me irritating. [laughter] Hey, God bless. Happy to be really appreciate you taking the time. Yeah. Thank you. All right, Commissioner. Good job, guys. [laughter] Commissioner Fehey, you're up. And we're not going to go line by line through the legislative priorities with you because Okay, I've heard it.

It looked like you were an active listener. The only thing you know that we're that I think bears repeating is just the support of local decision- making. I know that we've had a little bit of heartburn at the county level with some ideas that seem to cross scope thresholds. So, um, again, humbly, we think that we know the folks of the city of Carver best and we feel like we're in a pretty good position. All of that said, like we truly appreciate your partnership, everything that you're doing for the community. So, um, that I see that you brought your legislative priorities. Yes. Is that okay? Yeah, you have the floor. Go ahead. Okay.

You guys are so respectful. We're very [laughter] we're very casual here at the city of Carver. So maybe not straight uh Robert's rules of order as you might be used to. So go ahead.

No, that's fine. Mayor, um we put together our 2026 legislative priorities and we had a breakfast in December where we invited um all of the senators and the representatives for Carver County and it was very well attended and we shared with them a packet and what I brought with me tonight is just kind of a one page page of that that packet contained I think 14 total priorities and I know that um Glenn touched on one and then Eric touched on one that isn't part of this one page and so I can talk about that or we can share some of that information with you later but basically uh with the recent the state and the federal legislative decisions that created just these unprecedented costs to uh various counties. Uh Carver County did approve a 2% property tax levy search charge in December for the next three budget cycles. So we added that to our 6% and so our total budget increase was 8% at the county. Um but 2% was for those various mandates which Senator Grunhagen had talked about and you had asked about the mandates also. Um, one of the the big ones is the DNMC uh that does not meet criteria for patients. Uh, Carver County is currently paying almost $2500 a day for one patient to get the proper care, which is about 910,000. That's over 1% of our total budget for that one patient to get the various care that

that that person needs. and that was shifted from the state down to the counties to take care of those individuals. So that's one example. The other is the to protect the counties from the SNAP cost shifts. Uh the federal policy change which increased the county SNAP responsibilities which began in October of 2020 or will begin in October of 2026. Um, Carver County uh must assume nearly almost a million dollars in SNAP benefit costs tied to payment air rates. With those work requirements becoming effective in July of 2025, uh we've increased our administrative workload to roughly about 68,000 annually. So, we're asking for legislation to be passed to modernize systems and direct the state to assume that cost share. The other one, and uh Senator Grunhagen touched on it briefly, was that roll out of the Minnesota AfricanAmerican Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act. And as Glenn had stated, um the judge andor judges and courts now are starting to push back. And so we'll see if that all comes together in January of 2027. on the back side of the handout, the transportation funding, um the transportation advancement account, the TAA, and then the regional transportation sales and use tax, the RUS. Um they're funded by sales tax on auto repair parts and the new 50 cents delivery charge. And then the RSUT is funded by three quarters of 1% sales tax on federal SA retail sales and uses in the various metropolitan areas. So the

counties must use these funds and I list the percentage there on on what has to go where. Uh and Carver County is expected to receive about 6.5 million in 2026. And this new revenue is critical to keep up with inflation and enhance multi mo mobile transportation infrastructure. So going down to the bottom, uh what we really want to is figure out that cost share is the percentages and then the legislature should protect or increase the share of the RSUT going to all metropolitan counties accordingly. So, that's kind of a summary of where we are with our legislative priorities. Um, and this was a complete packet that we handed out at the breakfast and I could get you a copy of all that if you wanted it. Um, but the one that uh Eric was talking about uh was the opt out for the transportation model and Carver County supports maintaining the current opt out trans transit model which allows suburban communities to operate their own transit services independently of Metro Transit. This would enable Southwest Transit which serves Chan EP Chaza Victoria and Carver to deliver efficient, innovative and community responsive services. Uh because the concerns have been raised about the proposals that would consolidate all transit operations under Metro Transit. And so the county is asking to preserve that opt out transit model, oppose any proposals that would eliminate suburban transit, and then support legislation that ensures a fair

and equitable distribution of the regional sales tax revenues for all transit providers. If there's an emailable version of that, I would love it. There will be. Okay. I'll have it's on their website, too. Okay. Awesome. Yeah, I'll have it sent out, too. Okay, great. And then the other piece that I handed out or just gave you was the most exciting thing to talk about in the winter is mosquitoes because there aren't any. [laughter] And that's just for your information only. And I do serve on the mosquito control board also.

We got this from our city staff today as well. We actually had them out probably about a year ago because it was a ridiculously cold night and they had the most interactive, interesting, like we were passing larva. [laughter] Like it was a fascinating presentation. They did a really great job and that was probably Alex Carlson. That sounds right. That sounds right. And I'll I'll see him on Wednesday and I can tell him we were wowed and impressed by his presentation. Yeah. John, that 6.5 million. Can I Sorry for our tens and tens of viewers at home. Can I have you come up a little closer to the microphone? Sure.

That 6.5 million you talked about, is that state or federal money or a combination? I think it's a combination, Glenn, of that transportation investment account. And this is where we talk about it. Okay. Because I want to make sure that you get whatever the state should be right part of that. I'll I'll be advocating. I'm not on the transportation committee right now, but I'll make sure for the 6.5 or whatever portion is for the state. Great. Okay. We appreciate it.

Yeah. And I'd like one of those little booklets, too. I miss that. [laughter] I had an insurance. This one has some of my scratches in it. Can I [laughter]

All you have to do is read the notes and clip. Awesome. Um, Commissioner Fahhe, I have to tell you, uh, Whitney Shrader, she's a traffic engineer, was incredibly helpful. We had our fire chief came in, um, to our October meeting, and talked about uh, the intersection of County Road 11 and 44, Big Woods Boulevard. And he was like, "Yeah, it's just the weirdest thing. in the last I think he said like two weeks they had had two accidents that resulted in a total vehicle loss because of people crashing into each other up there. Um I think I saw another one today.

We reached out to Lyndon's team. He connected us with Whitney and she you know that intersection isn't scheduled for a roundabout until 2028. you know, if you have two accidents in a row, it could be a coincidence. Three times it's a pattern, right? And she was really proactive at taking a look at that. And those stop signs on 44 now have blinking, flashing red lights so that hopefully it's a little bit more clear that there's a really active county road there that you're about to cross. So, um, just a kudos to her and to share that with you to let you know what a rockstar she was and how great she was at helping us affect change.

And that was County Road 11 and what was it? 44. So, it's Big Woods Boulevard. All right. I will pass it on. Thank you. All right. Anything for Commissioner P? Thank you for the update. Yeah, thank you for the update. Thank you for coming. We appreciate everything that you do for the city of Harvard. Well, I definitely enjoy it and reach out to me. I know we've had many conversations, Courtney, and I I do appreciate those and definitely can help as much as I can. Awesome. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. You, too. Thank you.

All right. Let's see. We have no public hearings tonight. We already took care of the consent agenda. We have no business items. Communications? No. All right. Uh Eric, Lori, no updates. Bestie, the HPC meeting for next week is canceled. Kayla, happy new year. [laughter] Oh, you guys always go through this. I do have a few.

Of course. Of course. Um, let's see. Brent uh forwarded you guys the clips today, but right before Christmas on December 22nd, I was interviewed by KSTP. They were doing a story about the need for affordable housing and how it's not just a city thing. It's also a need in the suburbs, which think of Carver as a suburb. Um but Allison from the CDA reached out. Um they focused on interviewing the Met Council and kind of talking about their housing plans, but they set the story in Carver at Carver Oaks, which I jumped at the to help out with that interview mostly because I wanted to see what the inside of Cargo Oaks looks like [laughter] and it's it's coming together. It's still very much under construction, but it's going to be neat. So, I posted some pictures on my Facebook page, but those stories um aired on December 22nd and went forwarded the clips to you guys today. Um on the consent agenda today, we had a generous donation from Scott Saja, I think I'm saying his last name right. Um, so thank you to him for his very generous donation to the HBC. Um, it's that time of year. If you are interested in sitting up here and being part of helping make Carver an even better place to live, work, and play, we are looking for applicants for our commission. Um, the HPC and the planning commission. Those are due January 16th. That's a Friday evening. Um, let's see. I already shared the win. Um, That win at County Road 11 and County Road 44 feels like a huge win. It took a little bit, but every time I drive past and see those flashing lights, I think we will have a safer intersection until we can have almost a bulletproof intersection there with that roundabout, but that's going to be a couple more years. Um, it also looks like we're headed for another win with the Great River Energy stuff. If you guys read your email, it looks

like um everybody is leaning a little bit towards uh what is it called? Uh preferred route B, which I hate jinxing myself, so I won't talk too much about it, but um things promising for that. So um with that, um I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Motion with council member Pman. I'll second. Second by council member s. All those in favor say I. I. Same sign. Motion passes. Good evening.