City Council - Special Meeting

All right, we'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. This is a special council meeting for Monday, June 15, 2026. And can we all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge 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.

All right. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Mayor Robertson here. Deputy mayor Gilbert here. Council member Paul here. Council member urban here. Council member Fletcher here.

All right. First up, we have discussion item discussion and possible action regarding the approval of the candidates that will be on the ballot of the, on the August 18th, 2026 primary in the November 3rd, 2026 general election.

Yes, sir. City attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So we, Under the process, the city council needs to approve the individual candidates that are going to be on the ballot for the upcoming election. Essentially, this has to do mostly with the city's special requirement regarding residency, so that's why this item is before you. So each one of the four of the candidates that are listed in the resolution have all met the initial qualifying requirements by state law and by city code, and then the only one left is for the city council to verify these are the names that will be on the ballot. so we just need a motion to approve.

All right. Do we need a motion to approve? Do we name the candidates, or how do we do this?

The clerk can just read them. That would be great.

All right. Council Member Seat 4, Ken Gilbert. Council Member Seat 5, Jim Moore. Alex Rodriguez. Kirk Zilke.

All right. And can we get a motion on those names? Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Council Member Urban. Second. Second. Council Member Fletcher. Second. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Paul? Aye. Council Member Urban?

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert?

Abstain. You don't have to abstain. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I vote for yes then. You know your name's on there. I didn't know that.

Council Member Fletcher? Yes. Mayor Robertson?

Aye.

Motion carries 5-0.

All right, city manager.

Thank you. I'd like to ask before we adjourn if we could continue the conversation that we started at the last council meeting regarding the tagline on the city logo. At the time, we needed to do a little bit of research to find out how it had previously been approved. So we do need, I think, a vote.

We need some consensus and direction from the council to remove that portion of the timeline that we discussed at the last meeting because it was part of formal action taken by the city council back in January of 2021.

And further, I also said that I was going to research about the wayfinding signs that we had already ordered. So they have the city logo with CRA under it, not with the tagline. And actually it was great timing because we realized that the ones that were not paid for by the CRA, the logo needed to be updated to remove CRA on those. So it was great timing that that came up and they have the the signs have not been manufactured yet So we have the ability to make that correction on the one So you're talking about like down at the lakefront or other locations with it around the city that aren't in a CRA? Correct.

Are we able to put Soldier City on there instead of CRA? I

We still have time, I believe, to make the, they did not have the tagline, so I'm not quite sure if it would modify, we didn't have a tagline, it's just multiple departments and the CRA have a version of the city logo without the tagline. But we can try to fit in Soldier City if it'll fit. It just may be hard to read, I think, at a distance when you're driving at fast speeds.

If we were taking off CRA off of those, but we weren't. They just didn't have it at all in the other ones. I thought you said it was...

They accidentally said CRA on the ones outside. Correct. Because all the action had been taken by the CRA, we did not have it distinguished that there was a different sign outside of the CRA. So the CRA logo, I think, I don't have a copy of it with me. Do you have a copy of it?

I think I understand what you're saying. It had the CRA logo instead of the regular logo. Right.

It's a modified version of the city logo, yes. Okay. And so we'll move forward with just that correction taking off CRA outside of... And we can see what the manufacturer thinks about adding Soldier City if there's enough room. Because if it's too small, you won't be able to read it when you're driving past. And then I also need a little bit of clarification. We have multiple... opinions on the direction that was given at the meeting. I believe the direction was to stop using the tagline on anything we purchase moving forward, but not that we need to replace all of our business cards and shirts and other signs throughout the city that may have them, just as they would naturally get replaced in the future. When an employee now needs new business cards, we would get the new one. The free items now is what I understood.

Yeah, yeah. We're trying to not have a lot of costs with this. With a smooth transition, it may take another six months to go through people's shirts or cards and whatever else and then kind of just get into the new one.

It'll probably take longer than six months because we're not going to be – you'll see in the next workshop we're talking about removing all uniform.

Right. I mean, I only buy shirts every year and a half, so, you know, I think it's –

And then I do want to point out that the water tower does have the current tagline on it. So that gets painted, I believe, every five years.

Yeah, and our deputy mayor here has already volunteered to scale the water tower. Take care of that at no charge. Perfect. So when was that?

22, I believe.

Okay. Okay. So we're close. Well, let's put it on the, let's look into that, the costs of replacing that.

We've asked staff to go to all of their facilities and see every location that it is, when we purchased last, what that approximate cost was. So we'll have more. It was just too fast of a turnaround.

Okay. All right.

So we need to vote. Yes, to replace the current tagline with Soldier City. Okay. And just to clarify, so the way this was originally adopted then was based on the collateral, the signs, the shirts, and all that. When the tagline was suitable, it was used. When it wasn't suitable, it wasn't used, because some instances it couldn't be. So we would continue with that piece, that process. The tagline would just be different, and we would just need a motion from the city council to change the current tagline to Soldier City.

Okay. Deputy Mayor.

I agree with the mayor on this. Phase in, phase out.

Yeah, I know some, like my shirt doesn't have it on there, but there's other... Yeah.

It's not in the council chambers.

I wouldn't mind it being on there, though. That wouldn't look bad on the bottom. There's a little bit of space there. But I know on the water tower it does have it on there, and I know there's They've changed it up depending on the department. Like it'll say you're center place for parks or you're center place for this. We want to cease that marketing campaign altogether. Everything just Soldier City if we're going to have anything. That's my view on that.

So for additional clarification... Parks has a version of the city logo where the three boxes, you know, each department that has your center place for IT, your center place for parks, they often have three squares that are different that reflect their department more. Can they still use those?

I'm not opposed. We can continue that on not really going into the woods on those yet. But I just think whenever it's used, something at the bottom, it'd be Soldier City.

Got it.

So the only tagline the city would use would be Soldier City. Yes, sir. Yeah, center place is now a bad word in the city of St.

Cloud. So if we could just have a motion that would confirm that.

All right. I'll go ahead and put up the motion. I have a motion to discontinue use of the center place tagline effective the last day, July 3rd. and the new tagline, Soldier City, effective July 4th. Second. We have a motion from the mayor, second from Council Member Urban. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Urban?

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert? Aye. Council Member Fletcher?

Aye.

Council Member Paul?

Aye.

Mayor Robertson?

Aye.

Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. Anything else we need to discuss during the meeting portion of today? All right. Council members, anything during this portion?

I just wanted to congratulate all of the candidates who qualified. I know it's a very thankless job at times, and it's one of the most... honorable things that you can do for your community is to run for office. And no matter who wins, I just want to let you know I have the utmost respect for everyone who put their name out there to do that. And to my friend and Deputy Mayor Gilbert, it's an honor to be able to continue serving with you.

Well, thank you, thank you. And it's an honor to serve with this council. It's been a pleasure, and I look forward to it. There's so many projects we have to move forward with, and the three candidates, I support every one of those candidates for their efforts and opportunities to be a part of this council. Thank you, Mayor.

All right, Council Member Paul.

And I agree. Congratulations to all the candidates. It is a thankless job, and just push forward. Thank you.

Yep, congratulations, and congratulations. All right, with that, we'll go ahead and close this out, and this meeting is adjourned.