City Council - Regular Meeting

Call the council meeting to order. Stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

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.

Thank you very much. Roll call, please.

Council Member Nordby?

Here.

Council Member Woods? Here. Council Member McKenzie?

Here.

Council Member Schwer? Here. Mayor Maggi?

Here. Thank you. Can I have a motion to adopt the agenda, please?

Make a motion.

Council Member Schwer? So moved. So moved. Council Member McKenzie?

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right, on the consent agenda, item A, September 1st, 2026, city council meeting minutes. Item B, claims and disbursements of $2,374,448.10. Item C, fire relief booyah use of payment system agreement. ITEM D, RESOLUTION APPROVING FIREFIGHTER DECLARATION ON A DUAL POSITION. ITEM E, BUILDING PERMITS FOR AUGUST OF 2026. ITEM F, RESOLUTION ACCEPTING DONATIONS FOR AUGUST OF 2026. ITEM G, SET PUBLIC HEARING DATE FOR SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS FOR UNPAID BILLS ON OCTOBER 20, 2026. ITEM H, APPLICATION FOR CHARITAL GAMBLING PERMIT TO CONDUCT EXCLUDED BINGO BY THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS COUNCIL 4967 ON NOVEMBER 21, 2026. change order for HVAC unit replacement at the City Hall for payment and performance bonds, and item J, change order for HVAC unit replacement at the City Hall for electric wiring modifications.

Thank you so much. Would anybody like to poll at this time? If not, I ask for a motion, please.

Make a motion.

Council Member Schwerer?

Second.

Second. Council Member Woods? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you all. Open to the public for our three minute per person. Thank you. Patrick. Yes, please, right to the microphone.

SO IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU GUYS.

YEAH, WELCOME.

SO I GUESS THE REASON I'M HERE TODAY IS I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS OR I GUESS I'D LIKE TO EXPRESS THAT I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO FIND RESOLUTION TO MY QUESTIONS OR ANSWERS TO MY QUESTIONS ABOUT FIBER THAT'S BEEN OPTICAL FIBER THAT'S BEEN INSTALLED IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD. I'M OVER ON LAKE BOULEVARD BY SILVER LAKE THERE. AND DOWN OUR STREET OVER THE SUMMER, YOU KNOW, FOUR TO THREE WEEKS AGO THEY WERE INSTALLING FIBER. It seems like they got to my house and then stopped work. And so for about two and a half weeks, I've had 70 feet of orange tubing all over my lawn, big gouges and holes in my lawn, and then like a plastic... MATT ON TOP OF THAT. I TRIED CALLING THE CITY AFTER A COUPLE OF WEEKS WENT BY. I DON'T KNOW IF THEY FORGOT THEY WERE WORKING ON THIS OR IF THE WORK DISCONTINUED OR IF THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FINISHED. I TRIED CALLING HERE A COUPLE OF TIMES LAST WEEK AND I WAS TOLD A COUPLE OF THINGS. I WAS GIVEN A NUMBER THAT DIDN'T WORK. I WAS TRYING TO FIND INFORMATION ABOUT WHO WAS CONTRACTED, AND ONE RECOMMENDATION WAS THAT I COME TO THE MEETING TODAY, SO MAYBE I CAN MEET MY COUNSELPERSON AND MAYBE FIND A WAY TO GET AN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, TO GET THEM TO KIND OF CLEAN UP THEIR MESS. I SHOULD POINT OUT, JUST IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD, I HAVE TALKED TO SOME OF MY NEIGHBORS, AND SOME PEOPLE WERE A LITTLE DISPLEASED ABOUT, I GUESS, THE PROFESSIONALISM WITH WHICH THE WORK WAS CARRIED OUT IN THAT THE DAMAGE THAT THEY INCURRED ON PEOPLE'S LAWNS YOU KNOW, WASN'T WELL TAKEN CARE OF AND KIND OF LEAVING GARBAGE AND DEBRIS BEHIND AS THE WORK WAS BEING DONE. NOW, I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS IN THE PORTION OF THE LAWN THAT PROBABLY, I THINK, BELONGS TO THE CITY, SO IT'S NOT NECESSARILY MAYBE TECHNICALLY MY PROPERTY, BUT THERE IS, AND I HAVE Photographs, if anyone wants to talk to me about it. I don't know what my process here is about as far as getting an answer to this, but that's my, I guess, why I'm here today.

Okay. Okay. After the meeting, I can give you my card, and then we'll talk, and we'll get you some answers. Very cool. I'll just hang out here then.

I can give it to you right now if you'd like. Oh, cool. Thanks. And then I am very curious about this process. Thank you. Thanks for having me. No problem.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

Thank you.

John Schmall.

John Schmall, 2750 Chisholm Avenue. Just a comment on the previous meeting that you had. The contract had an item, exhibit B. There was no exhibit B. I don't know if you can have a contract passed. that says there's an exhibit refers in the wording of the contract in accordance with exhibit b there was no exhibit b so have you really passed a contract or have you not no attorney here this evening so anyway and uh... just looking at the contract uh... Wouldn't you do a lot split on 2119 first as the first thing to do? When they did the other two houses on a lot split, they didn't do a lot split and they couldn't sell the house. And they had to get the lot split done before they could put the for sale sign up. So nobody learned a lesson. And 2019 is referred to on the contract. You're not building on 2019, 2119, you're building on some other number that's going to be the new lot when the lot split is put in. So can you refer to the contract as being for 2119 when it can't? I don't know. That's just what I'm looking at when I do this. And so we'll let that drop. I was talking to my neighbor the other day and he just volunteered that he was unhappy with how a certain person who was here this evening was treated previously when she appeared and I agree with him. And I'm an advocate of giving an award to Cole Furlong and Wong for coming up with the harebrained idea for a multicultural, but it turned out that you got a water tower instead. So give them an award for doing that. Thank you. Thank you.

Eileen? Good evening.

Eileen Stever, 2387 South Avenue. Late in the afternoon on June 24th, I was washing clothes in my basement As the water was being pumped out in the washer into my laundry tub, I happened to look down at my floor drain and noticed that the wash water was coming up the drain. I quickly plugged in my laundry tub and waited for the washer to finish pumping out the water of the washer into the tub, then turned off the washer. The water in my drain didn't go down. Thinking I had a clog somewhere in the sewer system, I called Roto-Rooter. This was after 5.30 p.m., and I was hoping they could still help. They did come in, and a guy with a snake roll came through my outside cellar door and began snaking my sewer. The water didn't go down. I told him before he started that it was 120 feet from my basement to the street. He thought he could clean it with 100 feet. He couldn't. He had to get another 120 feet of extension, pulled out the snake, removed the roots off the snake, and then added the extension. After feeding again, the snake and the extension and the water still didn't go down. Then he thought the pressure was coming from the outside. He went out in the street, lifted up a manhole cover, and found the city sewer was very high. He called the person on call for the city. A crew came out about a half hour later and started cleaning out the city sewer with water pressure. The trouble had to be directed During had to be during the several hour took several hours, and they were working in the sewer as they were washing Washing with water pressure out the blockage The sewer has sewer gas worked its way my up my sewer and into my basement And up into my kitchen. It was awful God Anesthetizing I opened the window and and I had to go outside. After about two hours, the city crew finally got through, and the water in my sewer finally went down. The city crew came down my basement and made sure everything was finally working. They said there was a lot of grease buildup in the blockage. I don't know who pours grease down their drain. It's just... grease, grease and water. They're just insoluble. After over four hours working to cover my... I got a horrible high bill. I just wanted to share that with you, that there's something bad going on after dark in our city, and no police are involved. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. All right.

All right, city business action items and recommendations. First item up is setting of the 2027 maximum levy for city HRA and EDA budget and property tax levies. We have our finance director, Dan Winnick, here to discuss.

Mayor, council members, thank you very much. Good evening to you. Tonight we're going to be setting the 2027 maximum levy for the city, the HRA, and the Economic Development Authority. What this means is that we can't go above this, but this isn't setting it in stone as far as the budget is concerned or the levy. We still have time, and the final approval will be sometime in December after the Truth in Taxation hearing, which will be held in the first meeting in December. Right now on schedule, the second meeting in December will be the final approval of the budgets and the levy. It was the city council's decision and the city manager to target our department heads to come up with a budget that had a total levy increase of no more than 6%. We have achieved that. It was presented to you on July 21st. There was one area of concern that was raised by City Council, and to achieve that 6% was going to be a reduction of $40,000 in the Economic Development Authority. And staff was directed by City Council to come up with some sort of other options to not have the whole $40,000 reduction from the levy for the Economic Development Authority reduction. On August 18th, presented an option of increasing $25,000 in the general fund. for investment income and then making it instead of $40,000, a $15,000 levy reduction in the Economic Development Authority budget. The City Council accepted that as a proposal and said to move forward with that. It still needed to go to the Economic Development Authority to get their approval on the budget and the levy. and that was done last Tuesday, and they approved the $15,000 reduction in the levy and the budget that corresponded to that. The budgets are all attached for the levy portion of our budget, and... I WANT TO SHOW ON THE DOWN PART HERE WHERE IT SHOWS THE CITY PORTION OF THE LEVY, THE HRA AND THE EDA. THE CITY LEVY IS COMPRISED OF FIVE DIFFERENT COMPONENTS. IT'S THE GENERAL FUND. IT'S THE STREET MAINTENANCE FUND, IT'S THE PARK FUND, IT'S THE ASSET PRESERVATION FUND, AND IT'S THE DEBT FUND. AND YOU CAN SEE HOW THEY CHANGE FROM 2026 AND WHAT'S BEING PROPOSED HERE IN THE MAXIMUM LEVY FOR 2027. And then you can see the HRA component remains the same at $11,000. And the Economic Development Authority drops $15,000. And total between the city HRA and EDA accomplishes that 6% levy increase. Doing some kind of comparison of looking at some other cities within Ramsey County, we can see that North St. Paul's at 6%, St. Anthony preliminaries at 6% levy increase, New Brighton 6.23%, St. Paul 6.8%, Moundsview 7.5%, Falcon Heights 9.5%, Roseville 9.8, Shoreview 10.71, White Bear Lake 12.07, and Little Canada at 12.5. Those were the cities that responded. I sent out an email request to all the finance directors in Ramsey County to get a response to where they're at. I'm sorry.

Booth, can they put the front here? as we're looking at ourselves. No, no, right now we're looking at ourselves on the screen. Looking for the screen. We need the budget. Thank you.

Thank you. Dan, can you zoom in on that a little bit?

Let's see here.

That's helpful, thank you.

Well, the upper part that you're seeing is how the taxing authorities look. And again, the only change that was from the 721 was really the reduction in the $25,000 on the city side and then the increase in the Economic Development Authority by that $25,000. So that was the shift between, if you go way over to the right-hand side in the box from what was shown in 721, to now if you go over again the second column uh for um 818 that's what it'll show that difference piece to it and that's the only change that was made and then below shows just some comparisons to some of the preliminary levies um around uh ramsey county SO I THINK THE CITY COUNCIL'S IDEA OF TARGETING A 6%, TRYING TO BE ON THE LOWER SIDE, I THINK WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED THAT. DOESN'T MEAN THAT THE LEVY CAN'T STILL GO LOWER. IT CERTAINLY CAN. YOU'VE GOT A FEW MONTHS TO STILL TALK ABOUT THE BUDGET. I KNOW OUR CITY MANAGER WILL BE REACHING OUT TO EACH COUNCIL MEMBER AND FINDING OUT WHAT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN THE UPCOMING MONTHS BEFORE WE HAVE THE TRUTH IN TAXATION AND THEN THE FINAL APPROVAL OF THE BUDGET. SO TONIGHT WE'RE REQUIRED TO PASS THREE RESOLUTIONS, ONE FOR THE CITY, ONE FOR the Economic Development Authority and one for the Housing Redevelopment Authority. We need to then, after you've passed that, then there's some forms that need to be filled out, and then we submit them to the county. And so there are three resolutions that are attached. Again, all of the budget information for all of this is also attached to the documents tonight.

Great job explaining that over the last month or so.

So the first resolution is a resolution adopting the city's preliminary 2027 budgets, which includes the general fund, park fund, street maintenance fund, and the asset preservation fund, and setting the preliminary 2027 general purpose and debt service levies, which includes the general fund, park fund, street maintenance fund, asset preservation fund, and the debt services funds. The total levy that is being a part of the city's portion is $8,947,702. That's what's being in this resolution being approved. And again, this is just preliminary numbers. It's not the final. Mm-hmm.

So we're going as high as 6.33%?

That's on the city portion. Then when you have the reduction of the Economic Development Authority, yes, it brings it down to the 6. Yes. Yes.

No, I'll make a motion.

Second.

Can I ask just one question? Absolutely. There's rumors that the Fed could do some stuff with the interest rate. If they do, does that have any impact that we would be concerned about for this levy?

Not for this levy, but it is a very good question because I just looked at it, and tomorrow they'll be making their decision. I think it's up over 90% right now that they'll increase a quarter of a percent. We're already seeing the 10-year Treasury bonds up over 5%. We're seeing 30-year mortgage rates are hitting 7.2%, which is the highest that they've been for a number of years. My concern, and one that we need to be very aware of, is that we're scheduled to go out for a bonding next year. And if we're looking at that, we're probably looking at rates that are going to be in that 5% range. which then translates into a higher debt payment as time moves on. It won't affect this. It'll affect the 28 and beyond.

But if they make that change, you're still comfortable with this number being our highest?

Yes, because we're covering our, there's a debt levy portion into here that covers it, and it's the debts that, we won't be paying a debt interest in principle for the new bond until the following year. Thank you. Yep.

All right, I have a second. Second.

Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye.

The second resolution that is attached is the resolution adopting the preliminary 2027 tax levy for the North St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority, and that is in the same amount as it was last year at $11,000.

I'll make a motion.

Second. Second. Council Member Norby. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye. And the third resolution is the resolution adopting the preliminary, and I got 2026, should be 2027, I'll have that changed, tax levy for the North St. Paul Economic Development Authority, and that is at $185,907. So moved? Second. What?

All right, next up is item B, the city financial software upgrade from Tyler Technologies ERP Pro 9 to the Pro 10. This is our utility billing software that Dan will expand on.

Yes, when I came to the city, we were on in code nine, not in the cloud version, we were on nine. And there was the look at moving us over to OpenGov at that time, and they were actually in the process of moving to OpenGov. They were to get us up and live on OpenGov financials by the end of that 2021. THEY BROUGHT US OVER ON GENERAL LEDGER AND ACCOUNTS PAYABLE AND THEN THEY INFORMED US THAT THEY DID NOT HAVE that we would have to do a third party on the payroll and that utilities wouldn't be done until the end of March of the following year. The contract that was in place at that point in time gave us a one-time out of, you know, if we were to notify them by the end of November of 2021, basically close to a little over a 30-day notice that we could get out of the five-year contract with them. Based upon their lack of moving forward and the risks that we would have incurred trying to bring over our utilities because they were basically building the utilities and we were going to help build it with them, um was a little bit too much for my risk taking especially the importance that it has for the city to take on so i spoke with our city manager our attorney and then the item was brought to in front of city council we elected to exercise that 30-day notice and get out of the open gov contract Subsequent to that point in time, we have moved our ENCODE Tyler Technologies 9 to the Pro 9, which is in the cloud. So we no longer have a server that is dedicated to the financial system. In addition to that, we've also moved our payroll system, coupled with HR, since we never really had an HR system before. We went out for solicitations for that, and we moved that over to Paycom, and that's what we're currently on. Two weeks ago, I sent three employees in the finance department to a training, kind of a Tyler Tech training and also kind of a way for them to start to network with other people using the software. It was held here in the Twin Cities. There were a number of cities that were from this area and then also other cities from the Midwest. And there were a total of 30 participants that showed up for the meeting. And our employees, the three, were the only three that are still on the Pro 9. Everybody else has moved over to 10. The nine does the job, definitely not saying it doesn't do the job. It is very outdated, very, very much so. Some things have changed. A lot of things have changed during that time. Part of what has really changed a lot is is our billing on the utilities in our electrical side to it, where we're having time of use. And we're currently up to, we've always had one commercial time of use. We now have four additional EV time of use. Those are all done manually, because the system can't handle that. In addition, net metering, which is for solar, is all done manually and put into the system off of our meters. We have to put them onto the system instead of the system reading the meters and being able to do that. We're now up to 32 of those. And so it's really time to move to a system that can handle those. So we did... Virtually all of the finance team, one way or another, at one different session or another, met with Tyler Tech and had gone over and seen the modules, saw the system actually do the net metering, actually saw it do for the EV, so we kicked the tires on the system. General ledgers, pretty easy, pretty simple. Accounts payable, a big thing that'll change. WITH THIS AGREEMENT IS THAT WE WOULD LIKE TO MOVE TO A, IT'S CALLED, HAVE A MODULE CALLED A CONTRACT MANAGER, WHERE WE CAN ACTUALLY PUT THE INVOICES, INSTEAD OF ON LASERFISH, WE CAN PUT THEM INTO THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM ITSELF. again you know um that's the way it should be being done what is really cool about this is it the search capability is amazing onto it you can put a i could put a word in there uh mungy and anything that was has mungy on it's going to pop up and it'll pop into what module or a folder it's in whether it's in an accounts payable or whether it's in a IT'S IN A BILL OR A UTILITY BILL. IT WILL PULL THOSE UP AND YOU CAN THEN GO LOOK AT IT. RIGHT NOW, THE REPORTING ON THE ENCODE 9 IS, I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO RUN DIFFERENT REPORTS, AND ESPECIALLY FOR OUR DEPARTMENT HEADS TO RUN REPORTS. AND A LOT OF THE LOOK AND FEEL THAT YOU SEE, WHAT IT PRINTS, IF I WERE TO PRINT IT IN PAPER, looks totally different when you're pulling it over to a CSV file. This pulls everything over into an Excel file. What you see is what you get. And there's a lot of, just like most systems, there's a lot of canned reports, but there's also the ability to pull up and develop your own reports, pulling in different fields. So it gives so much more of a different look and feel. Right now, if one of the staff members is in a record and another member tries to get into it, it's locked. and it will lock up their computer and encode until the other one, you have to get the other person to get it out. This, you can have multiple users, so it's much more of a state of, you know, getting closer to a state of the art type of a system. The biggest piece to it is, and I think we learned a lot of lessons just from, and I've been through a number of different SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATIONS, BUT IN THIS CITY ONE OF THE BIGGEST COMPONENTS THAT WE CAN'T LOSE SIGHT OF IS WHEN WE JUST CONVERTED LAST YEAR OVER TO THE PAYCOM SYSTEM. AND THE HICCUPS AND THE ISSUES THAT CAME WITH IT. In this case, you're dealing with the same company that knows exactly where your data is and exactly how to migrate it over into the new system. So there's a big comfort level with that component to it. And especially, you know, In the past organization that I was at, when you would take on an endeavor of this type of a magnitude, you would dedicate staff. And that's all they would do is work on moving it over and developing the checks and balances and making sure all this stuff comes over accurate. We don't have that luxury here. The staff's going to be involved in this and they're still going to have to do their day-to-day Duties that's just the way it is in a smaller organization So I think this to me I everything that I've seen all of the staff We looked at it. We unanimously say this is believed. This is the way for the city to go and BECAUSE OF THAT CONTRACT MANAGER, IT WILL INCREASE OUR ANNUAL COST ABOUT $6,400. IT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE FOR ANNUAL, BUT THERE IS A ONE-TIME MIGRATION FEE THAT WE HAVE TO PAY. I too do my due diligence with them. They came initially at about a $48,000. I countered with 32 and we settled at 37 for a migration fee to it and they cannot exceed that amount. And so is my recommendation and I've had great conversations and lengthy conversations with Brian on this. And I think we're both to the point where I think it's time for us to move. If the city council approves this tonight, what this means is that we get in a queue. It'll still be about six to eight months before they start on this project, which to me isn't too bad because that'll hit us in the spring after our financials are done. And then hopefully we can be done with all of it in four to six months. Again, the utility is going to be our biggest, is our biggest animal. The other components are much easier to it, but especially with electricity onto it. Now, we're also in hopes that some of the benefits that we'll end up seeing is that we'll be able to move away from SENDING OUT OUR BILLS TO BE PRINTED TO A DIFFERENT COMPANY THAT WE'LL BE ABLE TO PRINT THEM VIA THE NEW SOFTWARE PIECE TO IT. WE'RE ALSO FROM STAFF WHO WENT TO THE MEETING. IT APPEARS THAT IT CAN ACTUALLY POPULATE AND PUT IT UP ON THE RESIDENTS BILL MUCH FASTER THAN WE CAN SEE IT ON OUR CURRENT SYSTEM. AND SO IT LEADS TO US LOOKING IN THE FUTURE OF HAVING THE ABILITY TO CHANGE SOME BILLS AND WHAT'S ON THE INFORMATION ON THE BILL. You know, a resident many times talk about water and not showing the different tiers. You know, everything that we've heard so far is that this will have the capability of doing this in time. Once we get up on the system we're comfortable, we can start making some of those different changes to kind of enhance the experience that the resident has with their bills. So, tonight there is a resolution. and the resolution is to approve the upgrade of the current Tyler Technologies ERP Pro 9 financial software to ERP Pro 10. And so I'll stand for any questions.

In order to convert our data into a SQL database, what level of access are they gonna require and what kind of oversight are we gonna have into their processes?

Um, they'll pretty much handle it all themselves. Um, right now it's in the cloud. Um, they, it, it's, you know, it's in their control really right now today. Um, so they will, they, they will go through and, and work with us. They will in that six to eight months, we will meet with a project manager. We'll outline absolutely every step of the way, every detail, um, what they're going to be doing, what are they going to be accessing, what's our responsibilities, and get that all scheduled out on a project timeline, and then we'll move forward. So at that point in time, I'll have a lot more information at that than right now.

Are we involving Metro, INET, in this in any way, shape, or form, or...?

SHOULDN'T ON THE UPGRADE ITSELF. NORMALLY THE ONLY INVOLVEMENT WE REALLY HAVE ON THE METRO INET SIDE TO IT IS LIKE WHEN IT COMES TO THE CREDIT CARDS TO GET THROUGH THE FIREWALL. THERE'S A CODE AND ACCESS THAT THEY HAVE TO GRANT AND DO IT SO WE COORDINATE USUALLY WITH JASON WHEN WE HAVE TO DO ANY OF THOSE UPGRADES.

Okay. Yeah.

But when we did, we did, I mean, obviously I keep them in contact. We did have to have them involved when we moved from the server to the cloud. Yeah.

Okay. Just like any software, if we're the, you know, it's going to be, 11 is going to come out and nine is going to be sunsetted pretty soon. So I think it's better to do it before all of a sudden the software is, you need to do it right away. Do it in our timeframe, not theirs.

Yeah, and it was kind of interesting to it, you know, when we were just on the 9 and not in the cloud, to migrate to a 10, you still had to go to the cloud first, and then you have to go over to the 10. So we knew that, and so we, you know, moved over to the 10, or to the 9 in the cloud, and especially because at that point in time, we only had... METROIDNET HAD INFORMED US THAT WE ONLY HAD LIKE ABOUT 12 MONTHS, AND THEY WERE GOING TO DO AWAY WITH THE SERVER COMPONENT TO IT. AND SO, YOU KNOW, WE MADE THAT DECISION, AND THAT WAS REALLY A LOW COST. THEY WORKED WITH US VERY, VERY WELL. PROJECT MANAGER DETAILED EVERYTHING OUT. I sweated over it, but it was actually a very simple process.

Better migration without an upgrade, so that's the best way to do it.

Yeah, and it was like, whoa, okay, that was painless, but yeah.

Sounds like good planning to me.

Dan, is there any hurry on this contract?

Is there any hurry, hurry on this contract? I think it's only just that it has an expiration date onto it for the quote itself. And then, you know, the longer we wait to execute it, you know, then we follow whatever the queue is, you know, because they do have other projects. You know, this is not just Minnesota. This is, you know, their softwares around, you know, the nation.

The reason I ask is I was hoping to have a conversation with the city attorney who didn't hear... MY CONCERN IS WITH GOING TO THIS NEW SYSTEM, THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY, IS THE CITY PROTECTED TO A LEVEL THAT THE CITY IS COMFORTABLE WITH? if there's any data breaches with this data. It's great that the city has a lot more access to it, but does that mean it's more able to be compromised and subject to data breaches? And is the city covered?

very good question i can't give you a complete answer to it i know when we moved over to the cloud and this is in the cloud too um you know i i mean they're you know i think that the question at that point in time and brian you can help me out i think that question did come up from city council and our attorney um and they are to and metroinet was involved in that one that they are to the standard to where they should be as far as protecting, you know, your data that's in there. I don't know specifically more beyond that. If you certainly want to postpone this, I mean, that's totally up to you to do that and we can get more information on to that. I mean, it's a big concern. Most of these companies, they're never going to guarantee you 100%. They're going to guarantee you to a certain standard, and that's where that's at.

But we're not changing how it's coming to us. It's already cloud. We're staying in the cloud. Right. So more than likely, newer software has more security.

Yeah. And this financial software has no access to our banking information. Right.

It's just on its own.

I see this as an upgrade and I like upgrades and I like to have the newest things so I fully support this.

Thank you. I don't see any, we're not changing the way it's being delivered.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion. Council Member Schwerer?

Second.

Second. Council Member McKenzie? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

Thank you. All right. Next up is to apply for the and enter into the agreement with the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority. I mean, you take this, Dan, you got it.

I'VE GOT IT. AT LEAST I'LL DO MY PART TO IT AND YOU CERTAINLY CAN. YOU'RE GOOD. SO I BELIEVE IT WAS LAST WEEK ON THURSDAY I RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM AN INDIVIDUAL FOR THE MINNESOTA PUBLIC FACILITIES AUTHORITY. AND THIS IS THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION THAT NEEDS TO BE APPROVED BY CITY COUNCIL. AND THEN I WENT OUT AND LOOKED AT LEGISLATION AND THE VERBAGE THAT IT HAD OUT THERE. AND SO THE GRANT OF THE $4.5 MILLION THAT WAS ORIGINALLY ASSIGNED TO THE COMMUNITY CENTER IN THIS PAST LEGISLATION SESSION DUE TO THE ASSISTANCE OF THE MINNESOTA HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE LEON LILLY AND MINNESOTA SENATOR TU XIANG AND THE MAYOR AND THE CITY MANAGER WERE THERE TO SPEAK. This was reappropriated and redirected to the water tower And so in addition to that It was assigned to the Minnesota public facilities authority And so underneath that this individual has reached out to start the process of gathering information basically the application from the city and BUT THEY NEED A RESOLUTION WITH THAT. AND THEN EVENTUALLY THERE WILL BE BASED UPON GATHERING OF THAT INFORMATION THEY'LL WRITE UP THE ACTUAL GRANT AGREEMENT. AND THEN THE GRANT AGREEMENT NEEDS TO BE APPROVED BY CITY COUNCIL. SO THIS IS THEIR WHAT IS ATTACHED HERE THE RESOLUTION IS THEIR STANDARD. um resolution um and so just basically put in um you know the the name of who would be executing it um and they have the mayor and the city man i have the mayor and the city manager um being in there and so brian if you want to add anything to it

Something that was new with this, because before we had dealt with DEED as governing over the grant agreements and the contract, they looked these guys up and they're actually a conglomerate of several different commissions, and DEED is one of them. DEED is the chair on this commission, but DEED is no longer the point of contact for us for the grant. It's the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority. You said there was one other on there as well, but that had to do with the sanitary system.

Yeah, they're being assigned to this, to the Minnesota public facilities. There was one other one, I can't remember the exact dollar amount, but it was for a water treatment plant in a city. And then there was this water tower. Those were the two that were assigned to this agency.

And if you look them up online, they say that they do loans a lot of times for municipal utilities or municipal cities. So this is a new venture off of what DEED was doing for us before. So it's not like these guys are in control of the grant process now.

So it's apply for and enter into a grant agreement with the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority. If there's any questions, if not, can we have a motion?

I'll make a motion.

Council Member McKenzie?

Second.

Second. Council Member Woods? All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Thank you. Next up, reports from city manager and departments. So at our staff meeting today, electric wire is still being installed up there at Tower Park area this week and next week. They're coordinating outages as they do the cutovers to the new wires. Rams County will conduct a hazardous waste inspection tomorrow regarding the city and storing the hazardous waste and ethical permits. Electric has two apprentices down in Marshall for training this week. communications. Ava did a great job at the Autumn Arts Festival. She said it went very well. The location went well, which was the new spot this year. She's getting feedback, asking for feedback from the vendors that were down there to ask if there's anything that they could improve or do better. And so those are already coming back. She already has 17 responses. So, but it was a really good turnout. And also we got looking forward to the parade this Thursday. So that's coming up as well. Finance, the date for unpaid bills has been established. Information was published in the newspaper and letters were sent. The number of unpaid bills is down this year from last year. Police had used force training for the department has been completed. Taser training is upcoming and firearm training is scheduled for next week. They also had two new officers start yesterday, so bringing them on board, getting them up to speed. Public Works had their new employee start yesterday as well. Jason Tinney is his name, goes by JJ, but met him, nice young man. We had the asbestos abatement that was completed at the student-built house yesterday, and Public Works assisted, and Ava was very thankful for all the help that they gave him for the Autumn Arts Festival. Fire Department fire muscle training is taking place today and tomorrow in Shoreview. They have vehicle extrication training coming up. And the fire department's open house is this Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. during the car show. The event will be held rain or shine. There's activities will move inside if it does in climate weather. The access control system has been installed now at Casey Lake. They're still working out a few things, but that's complete, and now they're working down at the public works system for that door entry system. The contractor will be returning to make a few adjustments to the training room, but the AV system that they installed now is currently being used and is working overall well, so it's nice to have that. The department applied for Hoods for Heroes grant and received 35 particulate hoods yesterday through the Randy Schaefer Foundation, so big thanks to them for that. And there are five interviews that are scheduled for this Thursday for the paid on-call firefighter positions. And Community Development is expecting their penny press finally to be delivered or it's gonna be shipped next week on the 23rd, so we'll have that up here at City Hall. That's all I got for you for now.

Thank you very much. We'll go on to Commission's Committee. Council Member Schwerer, anything?

I don't have anything to share.

Okay, thank you.

Well, our EDA met last week, and we have a few more applicants coming on board for the facade, and that's all we had there.

Good update from Dan with finances, so it was a good meeting.

I missed the last Arts and Culture meeting, but I do know that a couple of things. One, the Autumn Arts Festival happened this weekend and was a huge success. Weather-wise was perfect, and the layout was really good in downtown area, and I hope that not only did it provide a good venue for the vendors themselves, but also provided foot traffic for the businesses downtown. So hopefully they were able to get some extra revenue from the extra people down there.

The next planning commission will be Thursday, October 1st. Unfortunately, due to business reasons, I am unable to attend, but Council Member McKenzie is going to attend in my place.

Thank you. And also, just for the arts, because Council Member Woods brought up a good point, can Ava reach out to the businesses to see how the traffic was for that Saturday as well, for them? Because maybe, you know, I want to see what their feelings are.

I did, at the staff meeting today, Jason Allinger brought up that he was walking the downtown, and he said there was a lot more people downtown, even for the businesses, so... That was nice, but I'll see if she has counts.

That'd be good, just to kind of get an idea and see what their feelings were, too, because I know they were excited to have it moved down there. And I did see racks out on the sidewalk, and it looked like a different feel than a normal Saturday.

Yeah.

Oh, good. Anybody have anything general business?

Hope to see people at the parade on Thursday.

I attended the Arts and Culture Festival, and I took my granddaughter... We had a good time over there, so she come home smelling like a rose, so we're good.

Nice. I was able to walk it, too. It was a great event, so very exciting.

One, I guess, yeah, I hope to see everybody down at the parade on Thursday, and two, I was not able to attend in person, but I want to thank the League of Women Voters for putting on the candidate forum that they had last week, and for... council member Norby and Mayor Mangi for attending and Everybody else that was not able to attend the other candidates that were not able to attend but did write up something Thank you for getting your voice out there and encourage everybody to get out and vote in November. I

Again, I would like to echo the fellow council members sentiments and encourage everyone to come out to the Fall Roundup Parade and also just remind everyone on Thursday, September 24th at 5.45, there is the North St. Paul POW MIA Candlelight Remembrance Walk that is going to start at the VFW and walk down to the Veterans Memorial Park to honor some of our nation's heroes. So hope to see you there as well.

Great. And our last car show is coming up this Friday. It's hard to believe that it's all done. The weather didn't look too great when I saw it for Friday. So I hope we can finish it on a bang. I think last year we were rained out or the year before the last one. I can't remember which one it was. Yeah, poor Sue Springborn looked like a white cat. All right. Our next meeting is going to be October 6th. Can I ask for adjournment if there's nothing else? So moved. So moved. Council Member Woods.

Second.

Second. Council Member McKenzie, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you all.

Thank you.