Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It
is 5:30
and I will call this regular meeting of
the Burnsville City Council to order.
It is our tradition to stand for a
moment of silence followed by the pledge
of allegiance and we invite you to join
us.
» 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.
» Welcome everyone.
It's good to see our residents
in the in chambers.
We welcome everyone and also um
members of our community can watch us on
burnsvillemn.gov/meetings
or Comcast channel 16 or 859. The public
can also participate through Zoom
by joining us at zoom.us/join.
More information is available
on our meetings webpage and in the
council agenda packet.
The first item on the agenda is
announcements and a proclamation.
Our announcements have to do with all of
our upcoming meetings.
Regular council meetings are scheduled
for Tuesday, September 8th at 5:30 p.m.
and Tuesday, September 22nd at 5:30 p.m.
We have a work session that's scheduled
for Tuesday, September 15th at 5:30 p.m.
and we have a budget work session that's
scheduled for Tuesday, September 8th at
6:00 p.m.
» [snorts]
>> and Tuesday, September 15th at 6:30 p.m.
And we all
And we have one uh proclamation, but all
meetings of the city council are held
here in the chambers unless I
uh would announce a different location
for a particular meeting.
So, we have one proclamation this
evening.
Council members and members of the
public and our staff, um today we have
an overdose awareness week proclamation,
August 25th through the 31st, 2026.
Whereas, communities across the United
States, including Burnsville, continue
to suffer the devastating impact of
overdose
and fentanyl poisoning resulting in the
tragic loss of life,
trauma for families, and long-term
community harm.
And whereas, fentanyl, a powerful
synthetic opioid, is involved in the
majority of opioid overdose deaths and
is often found in counterfeit pills and
other substance without a person's
knowledge.
And whereas, Burnsville is committed to
raising awareness, promoting prevention
efforts,
and supporting affected families and
individuals with compassion and action.
And whereas education, harm reduction,
and accessible treatment are key to
ending the opioid epidemic and saving
lives in our communities.
And whereas
we resolve to play our part in reducing
the toll of overdose in the community.
Which claims the lives of more than 39
Dakota County, Minnesota residents
last year.
Whereas we affirm that the people
affected by overdose are our sons
and daughters, our mothers and fathers,
our brothers and sisters.
And deserving of our love,
compassion, and support.
Now therefore, I Elizabeth Kautz, along
with the City Council, do hereby
proclaim August 25th through the 31st,
2026 as Overdose Awareness Week in
Burnsville. And do hereby encourage all
residents to learn, engage, and advocate
for prevention, education, and support
in honor of those we've lost
and those still struggling.
Proclaimed this 18th day of August,
2026.
And um I understand that Mr. James
Johnson Jr., the Opioid Prevention
Coordinator for Dakota County Public
Health uh
is here to accept the uh proclamation.
Mr. Johnson.
Thank you for coming.
>> Thank you, Mayor.
>> Yeah.
>> Turn around.
» Okay.
We'll take one with the council.
» Absolutely.
Quick change.
>> How are you?
>> Good to see you.
>> Yeah. You've been working on this for a
long time.
>> We have. We have.
>> Yeah. You had so many Thank you for all
of the work that you put in today.
>> Thank you for the support.
>> Yeah.
» [applause]
[clears throat]
» I just noticed that.
» The city of Burnsville has been
advocating
and
engaging and practicing
civility, dignity,
and respect.
And so, we continue
from now on
to ensure that we remember
that the Burnsville City Council is
committed to respect in how we treat one
another,
treating people with compassion,
kindness, and consideration, honoring
human dignity in how we interact,
recognize an inherent value of every
person.
Working together to serve the community,
partnering to strengthen our community
and advance the common good.
And so,
at the beginning of every citizen's
comments,
uh I will be reading this so that we can
continue to focus on what is important
to all of us here in our community.
And so, the next item on the agenda is
citizen's comments, and this is the
opportunity for anyone
um in the audience who wishes to address
the council on an item that is not on
the printed agenda and not an
application form that's coming before us
at a future date.
And I have three people who have signed
up to speak during citizen's comments,
and uh the first one is Mr. Bruce Henry.
Mr. Henry, the floor is yours.
» Thank you, Mayor. Good to see you again
and the council.
Uh as you know, I was here in uh May to
speak on a separate subject of city
special assessment at Burnsville, the
Real Life Cooperative. Well, in the in
the process of doing that, I I walked the streets around where I
live periodically, three, four times a
week.
As a I also walk around uh the property I live on, and I noticed
one thing in May, or actually in
February or March, it was on East
Travelers Trail, by the apartment
complex there, and I would like to pass
this picture out to all the members of
the city council to look at.
» You could do that.
» [snorts]
» My foot traffic every might not be the
best, but I think uh
>> It's pretty good.
>> quite fair what we have there.
And the reason I addressed this, it
looks like
a problem waiting for
something to happen with somebody. And I
would not want the city and all its
people here to have to pay for an
accident or something. It just looks
really bad.
And I know when I was here and I talked
about the special assessment that has to
do with the maintenance of the streets
and everything around there. Well, this
is an example to me that's something
that needs attention. And I I decided to
think about this for a while and I came
up with a solution. I don't know if it
would
be something you guys could implement or
whatever is periodically maybe the
council or the mayor or anyone else walk
the streets. Cuz I just wonder when
looking at this whether or not there's
other conditions in the street that fall
under this thing.
problem. And I'm sure that is not the
only isolated ones. I've lived in large
cities. I lived in Southern California
for a long time and I would walk the
streets and look for things like that.
Because uh
especially in the wintertime and it's
been there since February.
And this is almost September.
And I'm just kind of curious
whether or not you have a group of people that go out and look
for things like this and and try to
repair them on the spot. Yeah, I know
it's probably included in your
yearly budget. So, and uh
I'm really glad to see some of my fellow
co-op members here. And the ladies that
follow is going to speak to another
thing, but I just would really like to
see our streets maintained a little bit
better so we don't have problems like
this.
Cuz I'm not When I walk, I'm not the
steadiest person in the world. And it
could have been me, it could have been
anybody. And uh so, that's that's really
all I want to say but I do want to give
you guys kudos
for finally mowing the lawn on the path
that's in our property. We were
wondering for a while whether
who is going to mow the lawn first, us
or you guys. And finally I saw Well,
yeah, one day I woke up and there the
lawn there I heard it cuz it's right
outside where my unit is. And so, I
heard it and I was glad to see that. So,
that's all I got to say. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Our
public works director is in the room and
he
Okay, thank you.
Uh the next one is Rose Sullivan
uh from Real Life as well.
This is Sullivan, welcome.
» Oh, good afternoon.
>> Good afternoon and we did receive your letter.
>> Right, okay. So, you all have You all
have a copy of this. So, I'm going to
read this letter but hopefully with my
inflections and and some of that. And if
you have any questions at the end, I'll
be happy to answer them if you if you
have any.
Um I've read this so many times. We'll
see how many words I trip on this time.
Anyway, um
my name is Rose Sullivan.
I represent the Real Life Cooperative of
Burnsville as well as the the
Cooperative of Burnsville,
and perhaps many other multi-family
buildings in Burnsville
where electricity and or natural gas is
provided by group meters rather than
individually.
I am currently a member of the Real Life
Cooperative of Burnsville and a past
president of its Board of Directors.
As we believe we are paying more than an
equitable share in franchise fees,
we would appreciate it if you would take
another look at the current structure of
the franchise fees and consider adding a
residential multi-family category to the
franchise fee structure
to make them more consistent. [laughter]
I'll use the Real Life Cooperative and
Parkway Cooperative as a basis of my
information, but there are other
buildings that are probably set up the
same way we are that would have the same
kind of issues.
There are two other cooperatives and
many other multi- uh multi-unit
buildings in Burnsville housing a large
number of Burnsville residents and
voters.
So, just to give you a little
background, I don't know if you're
familiar with with uh cooperatives, but
I'm going to I'm going to talk about
cooperatives a little bit.
>> [clears throat]
>> The Real Life Cooperative of Burnsville
opened in early 1996. It's built in '95,
opened in '96
as a not-for-profit cooperative
corporation.
It consists of 165,736
sq ft and has 119 units. Big building.
The Parkway Cooperative is also a
not-for-profit cooperative corporation
and it consists of 150,337
sq ft and has 102 units.
in both buildings are open to
seniors 62 and older. And on the bottom
of those letters it says 55, but that's
old news. I happen to notice that those
are That's an outdated at the bottom.
HUD made us change.
So, under the cooperative model, each
member owner buys a share of the
corporation
and then signs an occupancy agreement
for the specific unit in which they
actually live.
In addition, each member pays a monthly
homeowners association fee, which
includes their share of the co-op
financial burden, such as the mortgage,
taxes, insurance, common area
electricity, natural gas, maintenance
reserves, and so forth.
>> [cough]
[snorts]
>> Each co-op member has their own
electricity account with Dakota Electric
at Real Life and with Xcel at Parkway
and pays their own electric bill, which
includes the $8 monthly franchise fee.
In addition, each member contributes
their share of the common area electric
bill franchise fee,
which [clears throat] comes out to an
average of 67 cents each month for the
people at Real Life. It's a little bit
more than that. It's 78 cents a month
for the people at um
at Parkway
cuz you're dividing by a smaller number,
but it's the same initial charge. So,
that's that's why there's a difference.
» [clears throat]
» Now, natural gas is different story.
So, natural gas for the two buildings is
provided by CenterPoint Energy,
but co-op members do not have their own
individual meters.
Natural gas is provided under four
commercial industrial
sub accounts for each building and
tracked through four meters, which
service each entire complex.
Both buildings are charged a franchise
fee on all four of the sub accounts.
$468
a month on each of the first three sub
accounts, and $80 a month on the fourth.
So, in total for gas, each building pays
a franchise fee per month of $1,484,
or an average of $12.47
per Real Life member, and $14.55
for the the Parkway folks.
These costs are rolled into the HOA
charge, where each member pays each
month to cover the cost of running the
cooperative.
So, in summary, each Real Life co-op
member pays $21.14
per month
in franchise fees, 867 for electricity,
1247 for gas. Parkway, little different.
2333
per month in franchise fee, 878 for
electricity, and 1455
for the gas.
These amounts are 32% and 45% more than
what a Burnsville single-family home
resident pays at $16 a month.
And each co-op member would typically
use less of the utility resources than a
single family would.
And of course, we all know these are
scheduled to go up a couple more times,
so
I've been on your franchise fee page a
lot.
>> [clears throat]
>> I suspect that you haven't received much
feedback on the gas franchise fees from
buildings such as ours, because the
average person in this type of building
would have no reason to see a gas bill.
In most cases, only the person who pays
the bill, and perhaps a reviewer, would
see it. I just happened to have a
conversation with my property manager
one day and tripped on it.
So, that's why I'm here.
As stated on the city website, when the
city instituted franchise fees back in
2016,
one of the pluses to going this route
was to spread out costs to each property
as equally as possible,
to include churches and nonprofits.
As I've just demonstrated, this is not
how it worked out.
Under the current franchise fee
structure, many senior cooperative
owners and other multi-family complexes
are being charged considerably more than
our neighbors who own or rent a regular
home.
This is an inequitable sharing of costs,
and financially penalizes those who live
in multi-family buildings, and it ought
to be the other way around.
The current franchise fee structure is
shown in the attachment to this letter.
There at the bottom of the page, you'll
see the actual categories. Uh I got that
from Alyssa when I came to see her a
month or so ago.
» [clears throat]
>> In the natural gas category, please note
that the franchise fee jumps from $80 a
month to $468
a month with no graduated amounts in
between.
Also note there is no category that
addresses residential multi-family
buildings at all.
Perhaps a residential multi-family
category could be added and be
structured to make franchise fees more
equitable.
Thank you for your consideration of this
request.
And again, if you have any questions,
I'll be happy to try to answer them.
>> Thank you, Mrs. Sullivan.
>> Mayor Madam Mayor,
>> Yes.
>> I just felt this was really well thought
out. Thank you for taking the time to do
this, and it It
>> You're welcome.
>> It gives you food for thought. It really
does.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> doing that.
>> Yep.
And the next uh
speaker is um
Mr. Gary Schuler.
And it's on franchise fees as well.
» Thank you, Mayor and city. Um
Yeah, we do have an issue with the
franchise fees as well. Uh it is
[snorts] just it's a little out of hand,
I believe.
>> [clears throat]
>> We have 76
individuals living in uh our building
um at $8
for gas and then another $8 for
electric. We each have our own meters.
We're getting charged that. Comes to
$1,216.
Our main building gas is $468.
Um times two
and then another $80 bill.
Our main electric, we have two
meters also at $80 apiece just for
franchise fees.
This doesn't include the electric or the
gas.
We are paying
in total of
every month $2,392.
Now, it's not a company or anything that
is buying this or paying for it. It's 76
people
that live there. We
are a cooperative also and we have an
issue with each of us paying $31.47
a month
for franchise fees.
I think this is a little out of hand.
And this is every month, not not once a
year.
>> Okay.
>> It's It's just out of hand. It should be
not per account number.
It should be per address.
So, in other words, why are we getting
just because we have more meters? Do we
combine our meters to one?
You know, it's just
I think we're paying more than our fair
share for individuals.
Compared to anybody else. I mean,
everybody else pays $8
for gas, $8 for ga- electric, and then
probably eight for cable.
We pay $31
and 47 cents.
>> [snorts]
>> And it's and it's a big concern to us
with the price of fuel and everything
going on. I mean, this is just
nickel and diming us.
It's it's we got to look into it.
There's got to be something done
differently.
You know,
I I I know it sounds like Burnsville has
um
cheap taxes or whatever,
but they're getting it from somewhere
else, and that's that's the individuals
again.
I think I think we this is not right.
You could say it should be an address,
not an account number.
That's my thoughts.
>> Thank you so much for coming in.
>> into it, and we got to come up with
something. This is just crazy.
>> think um
Mrs. Mrs. Ryan is [clears throat] in the
back, and she's
will be happy to to talk further with
you, and I know that Mrs. Sullivan
you've talked with Mrs. Ryan, and so but
thank you so much for coming in and
sharing your concerns.
>> Thank you for listening.
>> Yeah, thank you.
Okay.
With that,
um
is
City Clerk um Collins is there anyone
online?
>> Mayor, no one online has asked to speak.
>> Okay, thank you. So, that's all I have
uh of who signed up to speak. Thank you
so much for coming in and sharing your
thoughts.
Um
working together,
um
we have a community that cares for one another and um
will work together to how we solve
problems.
Thank you so much for coming in.
Okay.
The next item on the agenda is additions
to the final agenda and this is for
emergency items only.
City City Manager Lindburg, are there
any emergency items to come before the
body?
>> Nothing from staff, ma'am.
>> Okay, thank you. Members of the council?
Okay, we'll move on. The next item is
the consent agenda. The consent agenda
is a group of items that's considered to
be routine and will be enacted by one
motion. However, an item on the consent
agenda can be removed for a separate
discussion and vote. Is there anyone who
wishes an item on the consent agenda to
be removed for a separate discussion and
vote?
City Clerk Holladay, are there any one
online who wishes an item to be removed?
>> Here, no one has requested an item to
[clears throat] be removed.
>> City Manager Lindburg, does staff want
an item to be removed for a separate
discussion and vote?
>> Not from staff, ma'am.
>> Members of the council?
>> No.
>> If not, I would um
like a motion to adopt the consent
agenda, please.
>> So moved.
>> There's a motion.
And a second? Okay.
Uh uh
All in favor, please say I.
>> I.
Opposed, say nay and the motion
carries. There are no items on the
regular agenda and a motion to adjourn
is in order.
>> Moved.
>> Second.
>> There's a motion and a second. All in
favor, please say I.
>> I.
Opposed, say nay and the motion
carries. Good night and thank you for
being with us.