[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:06] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, seven o'clock. We're going to begin the city council meeting. And I ask those who are present to please stand and join us in this pledge of allegiance to our flight.
[0:23] And through the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
[0:43] The clerk will call the roll.
[1:00] Thank you.
[1:04] The first item on our agenda is the Plymouth Form.
[1:08] Individuals may address the council about any item not contained on the regular agenda.
[1:14] The maximum of 15 minutes is allotted for the form.
[1:18] If the full 15 minutes are not needed for the form, the City Council will continue on with its agenda.
[1:26] The City Council will take no official action on items discussed at the form with the exception of a referral tool to staff or a commission or a committee for future report.
[1:37] With that, we have several, we have five cards for folks who would like to speak at the Plymouth Form.
[1:49] Is it Eric that Milton, Milton, Milton, 56, 21, Elliot Avenue?
[1:58] Yes sir, welcome.
[2:00] Thank you, City Council, thank you, staff.
[2:02] Jeff, my given name's Eric, and family name's Vemeklum, I've done in Minneapolis, which I share hand in be counting with you obviously.
[2:11] And in interest of time, I'll save my background. I want to talk to you about three numbers tonight. The first number is the number zero.
[2:18] Zero out of 23 precincts were included from Plymouth in the 2020 post-election review for hand in be counting. Zero out of 23.
[2:30] The same thing happened in 2022, 0 out of 23 of your precincts were included in that post election review hand count.
[2:39] The second number I have for you is 75%. That's roughly in 2020. The number of absentee or mail-in ballots that came from this city, 38,000 out of 51,000 total.
[2:53] The third number I have for you is 700,000, 700,000 out of 1.9 million absentee male
[3:04] embellutes at the state level.
[3:06] According to the Secretary of State's data in 2020, we're missing 25 days after the
[3:16] election and five days after the Minnesota State Chemistry Board certified our election.
[3:22] What do I mean by missing?
[3:23] There were more absentee votes in the certified official totals than were synced up with the state wide voter registration system at that time.
[3:38] Not required by state statute, amazingly to me.
[3:43] So according to the Secretary of State's office, I was cleaned up, cleared up after that point.
[3:47] Right,
[3:52] I'm someone who believes that electronics and mail-in ballots, a number of countries
[3:59] have banned both of those, have nothing to do with our elections, however, we currently
[4:05] have mandates for electronic voting machines, the 93rd Legislature established that, and
[4:11] the ballot image portion of the Caspar Record has also been made non-public in the 93rd legislature.
[4:18] hand counting immediately after the polls close has also now been banned by the 94th legislature here in 2024.
[4:27] That's where the post election review becomes very interesting by statute only 3% as a minimum of precincts within each county are chosen by random law for that post election review hand count.
[4:39] As I said, zero out of 23 in Plymouth in about 2020 and 2023, but that's the minimum standard so
[4:48] The opportunity that's available for you as a council and this deserves a greater longer discussion a workshop possibly a presentation if you're interested in this topic
[5:00] What is, to say, we want more of our precincts to be included, more than zero, going forward. What would that look like? I have an informational packet to share with you, which gives you a bit of how you could go through that. There are two cities, one in Oak Grove, the city of Ramsey and Inoka County that already decided to do this, in one case, four out of four precincts, in another case, six out of nine of their precincts, and they want to not only through the top three races, but go down the ballot.
[5:29] But to look at those races that otherwise would not be audited.
[5:33] So I want to leave you with that.
[5:34] I've studied this for about 3,000 hours over the last three years.
[5:39] Tabling considerable income to study this.
[5:42] And ran for Secretary of State on this issue.
[5:44] 110,000 votes, no political donations, 36.9% of the vote shows a lot of people care about this.
[5:50] And I think a lot of people implement it as well.
[5:52] Tom, my friend one of the speakers will give you a bit more information as well on this topic.
[5:57] I really appreciate your time.
[5:58] Thank you so much.
[5:58] Thank you, sir.
[6:00] May I hand these out at this moment?
[6:02] Would you just hand up to the city clerk here, Sheriff's?
[6:07] And Tom, you're next.
[6:09] Apparently you have the same issue.
[6:10] You wish to talk about post-election.
[6:14] Yeah, that's correct.
[6:15] Tom Cleveland in support of an expanded post-election review.
[6:19] As you may know, we already have a post-election review
[6:23] conducted by the county, but it only checks a few precincts.
[6:26] A city expanded post election review conducted by the city allows you to check more precincts
[6:35] and see for yourself, depending on your budget, it would be nice to see President, Senator,
[6:41] and State Rep.
[6:43] I'm going out on a limb here, but this is your chance to prove that we're crazy.
[6:51] So, one concern I have, however, is chain of custody.
[6:56] I know that the ballots go into that white cardboard box, and that's sealed and signed
[7:01] by the election judges.
[7:03] But it would be good to have assurances, bipartisan observer assurances that, you know, the ballots
[7:12] are secured until the time that they're counted.
[7:17] And, yeah, it's an honor to have Ben Mechelin here from Midwest Seeds, and, yeah, as he mentioned,
[7:25] yeah, he's got a lot of information, and we're reachable by email.
[7:29] Thank you, Carl Greger, and Catherine Cessnick for getting back to us already.
[7:34] And, yeah, and he's got a wealth of information.
[7:38] And what a great cause, and I think your constituents are going to love it.
[7:43] Thanks.
[7:44] Thanks. Thank you sir. Good evening. Next is Jason Kennedy 17205 24th Avenue.
[7:54] Mr. Kennedy.
[7:56] Hello everyone. Um, homo sapiens, fellow humans. Um, so I own a property and, um,
[8:05] let me tell you a little bit about myself. Um, I went to the University of Minnesota for landscape architecture.
[8:12] I started in 83, lasted 2 years, dabbled around for a couple more years, ended up coming
[8:19] out with math.
[8:20] But I've always loved, I worked at Medtronic and did Electronics, but I always loved the
[8:25] earth and loved gardening and landscaping.
[8:30] So I also CCX, welcome to the people, you know, who I know who are taping this, and I work
[8:39] over there on a regular basis and trying to produce something over there. I did a show called
[8:45] Earth Day every day and I did it right in my Plymouth lawn there and it was great. And so
[8:51] what I'm regarding today is I got a notice because I decided not to cut my lawn because I like the
[8:56] way it looks. So it kind of grows up and it grows seeds and I pulled all the dandy lines and I pulled all
[9:03] the cockaburs and all this stuff that would be bad for us, but it just kind of falls down
[9:10] and now it's just going to kind of recede, but it looks like swirls and it's kind of a cool
[9:14] thing. And along with this comes habitat called honeybees and little turtles, a turtle high five
[9:21] me at my front door the other day, which was nice. Anyways, so I back up to a wetland and my original
[9:28] idea when I came 20 years ago was I was going to just grass it in because I kind of like the grass
[9:33] thing. But now I'm questioning, because 80% of our food is honey bees, and they're
[9:41] very important to us. And the more that we build houses, the less habitat we
[9:47] have for these. And when we cut down the lawns, the bees don't want to be there.
[9:52] That's a sign that that's not a safe place. So another thing is butterflies. We like
[9:57] them. I have a lot of milk playing.
[10:19] All these three trees, they know my steps, they know my routes. So I'm asking an exception to be made by the law and policy.
[10:30] maybe we study that it's okay to have long grass if it looks good and maybe we
[10:36] could just kind of make an exception for now and I could give you a 15 minute
[10:41] kind of presentation about why this might be a good idea might be in our best
[10:46] interest as humans and be progressive as a city have this kind of idea that we
[10:55] We are part of other subsystems that create our food and we all like to eat.
[11:02] So that's what I'd like is just kind of an exception and I'd like to meet back and
[11:08] that's what I'm asking for.
[11:10] Thank you, sir.
[11:21] The souls are 14, 15, Maranac, Elaine, Plymouth,
[11:35] good evening.
[11:36] Good evening.
[11:37] and I'm D. Solarz, I live at 415 Merrimack
[11:40] in Old Neighborhood in Plymouth off of 101 and 12th.
[11:44] I hope you all are having a great summer
[11:47] and I would like to invite you to my backyard
[11:49] to have a great summer,
[11:51] but you'll have to bring your own lawn chair,
[11:54] your own umbrella, and your own helmet.
[11:57] We have aggressive hawks.
[12:00] July 10th, I was attacked on the back of my head,
[12:03] broke skin, blood. I have a spine problem. He came from behind enough to push me forward.
[12:11] This, I find out, is not a new problem. Of course, more in my neighbors through the internet
[12:18] or the email, and they did reply that this has been some of the older neighbors say that has been going on for 12 to 15 years.
[12:25] some neighbor right next to me she was attacked last year. Two neighbors down
[12:31] gentlemen his wife a senior citizen was attacked in which she needed health
[12:36] care and it took him a month of research to find out what is the proper people
[12:44] and departments to get something done and have the hawk removed. And then I went
[12:50] down that path. I've been told I'm a senior citizen and I would like to protect myself and that
[12:57] shouldn't matter. As far as I know, no children yet have been attacked to carry this forward to
[13:03] be traumatized with for the rest of their life. It is just stunning. Especially when you have two
[13:09] inch gashes on the back of your head and you're bleeding. And Lord knows what organism I've been exposed
[13:16] because they have dead animals in those class.
[13:21] So going forward, I thought I'd do the prudent thing and research and take care of it like you should, right?
[13:28] Well, four hours of one morning, I called every number that I was referred to dead end.
[13:35] From state DNR to federal, back to state, and their different departments that have departments with end departments,
[13:45] then the federal. So let's go to the local level. I call the city. You're
[13:50] supposed to protect the citizens. The lady did call me back and what happened? I
[13:55] got referred to the DNR, starting all over again. This was so frustrating and I've
[14:03] spent another three hours. So I spent my day to lie 10th. Oh and my husband has not a
[14:10] pitchfork, but he has a rake to help protect me. The next day after I was attacked, it
[14:15] came frontal view to my face. It looked like a torpedo with wings. And there I thought
[14:21] there goes my eyes. It was horrible. And it's a protected animal. So you can't do anything
[14:29] to solve the problem permanently, say no more. They've been protected since 1972. I do believe
[14:37] these broad-wing eagles, or hawks, excuse me, so might it be reassessed as to maybe they
[14:44] shouldn't be protected anymore? And I also want to say that the city's progress of
[14:51] development is contributing to the problem because of all the countryside and the full-grown
[14:58] trees that are being
[15:02] All that, that's where Hawkes live. So, what happens? The new developments have these small trees, the old neighborhoods, have the bigger trees. And now it seems like we're getting more of them because this does not solve the problem for me when someone says they need a place to live too. That does not solve the problem. And yes, I do agree. But it's got to be with imbalance of everyone else.
[15:30] So to get my permits after maybe seven hours of calling, I finally did a shot in the dark
[15:35] and called the field officer of Minnetonka Brent.
[15:40] He came out, he looked at the situation, he was also at a dead end what he can and cannot
[15:46] do.
[15:47] So he called somebody else.
[15:49] I can't remember all the names and the departments and such.
[15:52] That individual gave some real attention to it, moved me on to someone else and I got
[15:58] a call. I didn't have to call. I got a call about the problem and what I could do. So what I could do
[16:05] is fill out a form, another form, okay? So then we move it on. So then I called another department
[16:12] and a Mr. Schumacher with a wildlife, I can't remember the birds and wildlife department or something.
[16:21] He was able to walk me through the complexity. I knew there was bureaucracy, but this is nuts. This
[16:28] This is absolutely nuts.
[16:30] And so going back to the local level, here I am today at the local level, trying to pull
[16:38] in you to take an active role on managing this aggressive, hawk situation and any aggressive
[16:45] animals that we have to live amongst us.
[16:48] And what I'm kind of hearing you maybe thinking that it's a state problem, it's a federal problem.
[16:53] It's got to be in the past that when you have a local issue, you create relationships
[17:00] that you can cross boundaries.
[17:03] And so I want my city to protect its citizens from animals that are aggressive by creating
[17:10] a relationship that they have a protocol or a policy or a plan in place that when someone
[17:19] calls that they've been actually attacked or at least swooped upon and they were able
[17:24] to avoid it, that that person will call me or the citizen and they will activate whatever
[17:32] needs to be done.
[17:34] This has been going on since July 10th.
[17:36] If you want to come to my backyard for a barbecue like I said, you're welcome.
[17:41] I got a backyard pool.
[17:43] It's really hard to swim like this, but you can try.
[17:46] Go ahead.
[17:47] and it's hard to pull weeds and keep your yard up.
[17:50] You can walk your dog, but bring your equipment.
[17:53] All right, thank you.
[17:54] Thank you, thank you very much.
[17:57] Lastly, we have Mr. Sachs, 612, no, 16, 935, 45th.
[18:06] Yeah, thanks.
[18:07] Good evening, everybody.
[18:07] I live on two houses from Holly Lane,
[18:11] and I'm 45th right near the,
[18:14] What was the former Hollydale golf course?
[18:17] Here, my neighbors and I would have some traffic concerns
[18:21] that I'd like to share with you.
[18:23] A year ago, I sent an email to the mayor
[18:26] and several council members, and I never heard anything back.
[18:29] So I thought I'd come here in person.
[18:31] And what I'm looking for is somebody later on
[18:34] who can work with me on addressing some of these issues.
[18:38] Again, I kind of am representing my neighbors
[18:40] rather than have us all come out here.
[18:42] So I have three traffic-related things.
[18:45] The first one is the speed on Holly Lane from Old Rock
[18:51] for it on North.
[18:52] It's posted at 30 miles an hour.
[18:55] There's a lot of speeding on that stretch of the road.
[18:58] My wife and I take walks on there.
[19:00] A lot of people are going 40 plus.
[19:03] We have a lot of construction trucks that just
[19:05] went down that road.
[19:07] I've lived in that house for 30 years.
[19:09] I've never seen anybody.
[19:10] I've never seen speed control being done by the police.
[19:15] It probably has, but I've never seen it.
[19:17] And so I'm just wondering, you know, so my first issue is just what can be done about that.
[19:21] Can it maybe be posted for 25? Can there be some enforcement?
[19:24] So that's the first one.
[19:25] The second one is there's a lot of cut-through traffic from people that are coming through the gulf you neighborhood
[19:31] and going north on Holly, either to their residences or a lot of them are construction workers.
[19:38] And we've had semis come through our neighborhood and make the right turn onto Holly.
[19:45] This is not related to the current utility project on Old Rockford.
[19:49] It's been an ongoing thing.
[19:52] We have eight children on like a block for me that are kindergarten age or less.
[19:57] we shouldn't have
[20:00] People whipping through the neighborhood, rolling through the stop sign to go north on Holly. The road wasn't designed for that. So my second question is, if somebody can help me try to figure out what can be done to mitigate that, I'd appreciate it. And the last issue I have is Jake breaking. It's been a problem. You can hear it from Highway 55 when the wind is blowing right. But recently, with the construction on the former Hollydale Golf Course, a lot of the construction trucks are Jake
[20:29] breaking right in our neighborhood, right at Holly and Old Rockford. Just the other day at 5.30am,
[20:35] I heard some guy coming in Jake breaking. Just woke us up. A few years ago, I was in touch with Mike
[20:45] Goldstein, the former police chief, and he said, yeah, it is a problem. We do need to probably get
[20:52] some more signs up in Plymouth. We're working with Mindot to do that, especially on Highway 55.
[20:57] five. That was about seven eight years ago. I haven't seen any new signs. And I was just
[21:03] wondering if somebody could please take a look into that and see what could be done to
[21:07] mitigate the Jake breaking. If somebody could get back to me on it, I'm not going to send
[21:12] another email, but my email is on the blue card, my phone number is on the blue card. If
[21:17] somebody wants to work with me, I can kind of represent my side of the neighborhood on that
[21:21] and I'd appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Thank you, everybody.
[21:23] Okay, thank you Ms. Sex.
[21:26] Is anyone else who was here for the Plymouth Farm and did not fill out a card?
[21:32] Okay, they will move forward with our council agenda.
[21:37] Presentations and public information announcements.
[21:40] We want us to accept the donation from the YZ Youth Hockey Association
[21:44] or Plymouth Ice Center AED purchases.
[21:49] Thank you, Director.
[21:50] Director.
[21:51] Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the, actually, you guys talked about what's called you earlier today, and I forgot what your preference was.
[21:57] We'll just call you, Mr. Mayor.
[22:00] Council member is fine.
[22:01] Okay. Council member, we have Greg from the Wise Edit Youth Hockey Association who's going to be doing a presentation on a recent donation that they made for the purchase of a new AED device over at the Plymouth Ice Center.
[22:13] So with that, Eric, I'll have you and Greg come up.
[22:16] Good
[22:25] evening, Council. My name is Eric Calverson. I'm a manager of the Plymouth Eye Center.
[22:29] Today we've got Greg Gibson from the Oizetta Youth Hockey Association, a former past president.
[22:35] The Plymouth Eye Center has two AEDs in our facility that have expired this year, so we're looking to purchase two new AEDs.
[22:44] And we partnered with NHL Alumni Association many years ago and they are no longer around.
[22:52] So we reached out to Waisette Uthaki and they happily would like to donate funds for us to purchase those two new AEDs.
[23:05] Thank you, Aaron Council.
[23:07] Mr. Mayor's not here.
[23:09] Mr. Willis.
[23:11] Waisette Uthaki, Eric reached out to us.
[23:13] First of all, I want to tell you what a pleasure it is to work with Eric as the Plymouth Ice Center Manager.
[23:19] We are very fortunate to have Eric in that position.
[23:22] and he does a wonderful job.
[23:24] And our Park and Rec Director, Jennifer,
[23:26] have both reached out quite a bit.
[23:28] So, why is that a youth hockey is always happy
[23:31] to contribute things to the ice center
[23:32] that makes it a better place.
[23:34] And, you know, when you're on that side
[23:36] that might need the AED by age,
[23:38] it's really nice to have them there.
[23:41] And I think we'll work on some training programs
[23:44] for why is that a youth hockey membership?
[23:46] That's there a lot, so that people besides staff
[23:49] know how to use the equipment.
[23:50] Eric mentioned to me when we got here that there were three cardiac events in Minnesota,
[23:57] Icerina's last year, where, due to the AEDs being there, or at least assisting all three survived
[24:03] the incident. Fortunately, none of those were at our Plymouth facility, but it could happen.
[24:09] So, we're very happy to contribute this money and look forward to the further development of
[24:15] I'm going to have to go to the
[24:16] City Center at City Center 2.0 and
[24:18] I certainly would like to come
[24:20] back with bigger checks and bigger
[24:22] amounts and maybe some stinky hockey
[24:25] players that want to play hockey but
[24:28] it's falls right around the corner
[24:30] hockey season we hear and we do
[24:33] have some big events this year that
[24:35] why is that a youth hockey besides
[24:36] the five invitational tournaments one
[24:39] is which is junior gold aid that I do. I have six teams from out of state, two from California,
[24:44] three from Illinois, one from South Dakota. I can make it a much larger tournament if I had more
[24:50] ice and more arenas to do it with. I have a long waiting list about state teams that would love to come
[24:56] to Plymouth in play, and Wazeta Haki received
[25:00] The bid to host the Bantam B and state, the PWE state tournaments this year in March at the Plymouth Ice Center. So there will be 16 teams participating in two state tournaments at the Plymouth Ice Center. So once again, thank you for everything you do for, why is that a youth hockey slash district 284 Youth Hockey? And thank you to Eric for bringing things like this forward that we can be part of the success of the Plymouth Ice Center.
[25:26] Well, thanks to you and the hockey association for the generous donation.
[25:31] Well, it's a good cause.
[25:33] Hopefully we won't need to use them, but they're there.
[25:36] So, I'll take it.
[25:38] I know you.
[25:39] I didn't want you to walk out the door.
[25:44] I know, but thank you so much, we appreciate the generosity.
[26:06] There is attached to this particular presentation, a resolution, and I'm going to take liberties
[26:13] as mayor to move that to item 612 in the consent agenda, which is up next.
[26:23] Okay.
[26:23] Next we are going to approve the City Council's agenda.
[26:27] These items are considered to be routine, and I'll excuse me, we're going to approve
[26:32] the agenda.
[26:32] The council members may add items to the agenda, including items contained in the council
[26:37] information memorandum for discussion purposes or staff direction only.
[26:42] The council will not normally take official action on items added to the agenda.
[26:48] As I remember, the council has something to add to the current city council agenda.
[26:54] Seeing none, we'll proceed to accept the motion to approve the agenda.
[26:58] It has to be by roll call vote.
[27:00] Motion to approve.
[27:02] And second.
[27:07] Gregor.
[27:08] Aye.
[27:09] Peterson.
[27:14] Julie.
[27:14] Aye.
[27:16] President.
[27:17] Aye.
[27:18] Nelson.
[27:19] Aye.
[27:20] Pointner.
[27:21] Aye.
[27:22] Willis.
[27:23] Aye.
[27:25] The motion is adopted.
[27:27] Just again announcing to the audience here is that we have to have this roll call pursuant
[27:33] to stay law because two of our council members are absent from being present in these facilities
[27:38] that are, as you can see, electronically connected to us.
[27:45] The next item is the considered to be a routine, these are the consent items, and will be enacted
[27:50] in one motion.
[27:52] There will be no separate discussion of these items, unless a council member or a citizen
[27:55] so requests.
[27:57] In the event, the item will be removed from the consent, and placed elsewhere on the agenda.
[28:02] As I've noted earlier, item that was discussed under item 4.1, the donation from the WISE Youth
[28:09] Hockey Association, the resolution accepting that donation will be moved to item 6.12
[28:15] of the consent agenda.
[28:17] Does any member of the council have anything to add or to remove from the consent agenda?
[28:25] Remotely, nothing?
[28:27] Okay.
[28:28] Okay, anyone in the audience has something they would like to have removed from the consent agenda.
[28:35] Seeing no objections, I'll accept the motion to approve the consent agenda.
[28:39] Make a motion to approve the consent agenda.
[28:41] Second.
[28:42] Motion's moved and segoted, the acrylic will call the roll.
[28:47] Gregor?
[28:47] Aye.
[28:48] Peterson?
[28:51] Chesnik?
[28:52] Aye.
[28:52] Nelson?
[28:53] Aye.
[28:54] Pointner?
[28:56] Aye.
[28:57] Willis?
[28:58] Aye.
[28:59] Moving forward, public hearings, we have tonight the 23, 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
[29:12] And we have with us tonight, Errol Nielsen from our City Auditors as well as we have
[29:16] our City Finance Director here to answer questions, subsequently to his presentation.
[29:24] And do you want to make an introduction?
[29:26] The words Council member Willis and Council today is a great day.
[29:30] Our auditor is here, but what that means for us is, I mean, the auditor's have put in a lot of time.
[29:36] Everybody here at the city, the finance department and other departments to conclude this audit.
[29:41] But it's a great day because it's the end of 2023.
[29:45] So I'm really happy that Erin is here tonight with us.
[29:49] Very good.
[29:50] Well, thank you very much.
[29:51] I appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening.
[29:53] So to help keep the line light off me and we've got a PowerPoint presentation that we'll focus.
[30:00] I understand you have been presented the results of the financial activities in the past. So I just have a short presentation to go through pretty quickly just to make it official that we have completed our work as well. So you have received three documents, the acronym Act for Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the Special Purpose Reports and our Management Report. So with that, we're pleased to go through the results of our audit for the year ended December 31, 2023.
[30:30] We start with our role as independent auditors of the city.
[30:35] We have our role to issue an opinion on the financial statements for the city's audit,
[30:41] as well as for the schedule of expenditures of federal awards that you're required here at the city of Plymouth.
[30:46] We've also issued our reports on internal controls and compliance with regard to the financial statement on it,
[30:52] as well as that separate federal single audit and then the Office of the State Auditors Minnesota Legal Compliance Audit.
[31:00] So with that, I'll get right to our results.
[31:03] So this past year for the city's financial audit, we have issued what is known as an unmodified or a clean opinion on your basic financial statements.
[31:11] So meaning that they're fairly presented as of December 31st, 2023.
[31:16] And for the year then and at the results of the financial activities for this past year.
[31:21] The city has implemented the required standards, there was a new gas be standard implemented
[31:27] this year with subscription based information technology arrangements or known as subitas.
[31:34] And so we were able to implement that along with the city staff to make sure you continue
[31:38] being compliance with the audit requirements.
[31:41] With regard to the internal control and compliance for the financial statement on it, we're pleased
[31:46] These two report again, I believe similar results as the past year, no material weaknesses
[31:52] and no instances of noncompliance with our testing for this past year.
[31:59] And then to continue the good news with our next slide, with regard to the separate single
[32:04] audit of your federal awards, we have issued also a clean opinion on that CFA or the schedule
[32:09] of expenditures of federal awards.
[32:11] And again, no material weaknesses or instances of non-compliance with the major program that was tested this past year.
[32:19] And then finally, the last component here is that Minnesota Legal Compliance Audit.
[32:23] So there are seven broad categories that we test that are applicable for your city.
[32:28] Many tests within sight of that, that we complete in questions that are answered and inquired of.
[32:33] And please, to report, we had no findings, again, to report with that.
[32:38] And I have just a couple more slides to share with you.
[32:42] I guess I didn't get a head there, but to share with you
[32:46] your general fund, the financial position and trend analysis
[32:50] for your city's primary operating funds.
[32:52] So your general fund that's past year,
[32:55] this slide provides you the annual total fund balance
[32:59] or the equity of that fund, the cash balance,
[33:02] and then the annual expenditures of the general fund
[33:05] to show you that change in financial position or the size of the operation for your city and as you can see
[33:12] It has had a very stable position. I sure it would look the same way if we stretched it out 10 years
[33:18] Going back that far and I really attribute a lot to that to the
[33:23] Also to your fund balance policy that the city has maintained for many years so
[33:28] Strong budgetary controls in place have allowed you then to maintain that fund balance level to you know
[33:34] provide you enough resources to get through the first half of the following fiscal year.
[33:42] And I think my last slide here, just some closing comments, I really already touched upon
[33:47] this for your general fund as you can see the primary operating fund you've continued
[33:52] again to meet that fund balance policy goal as of 1231-2023.
[33:57] And then just a couple of comments at ACCC for the annual comprehensive financial report.
[34:02] You can see we've noted here it's in the front of your financial statement as well, the city
[34:07] has continued to receive GFW or the Government Financial Officers Association's award for your
[34:15] financial statements for the past 41 years. This report has been prepared to allow you to submit
[34:21] for that award again. So we're confident that you will continue to receive that award.
[34:27] And then the last comment there, well, as I shared with you with you, that you've continued to
[34:32] prepared in that manner to be allowed to submit for that award.
[34:36] So, with that, I'm happy to try to answer any further questions.
[34:41] There's a lot of information in that, you know, comprehensive report,
[34:44] financial, as well as some non-financial information,
[34:48] but it seems to continue to grow with more standards and gas be requirements.
[34:54] Well, I'm not going to speak directly to the report itself, but
[35:00] But it's a trend of these reports as you pointed out, 41 years, getting the GFOA's award. It indicates that the city staff is truly committed to doing an exemplary job of managing the city's affairs. And I think that's credit to our city manager and the finance director and the staff. Every city, in my experience, has, at some point in time,
[35:28] and bumps in the road on their finances for one reason or another.
[35:34] I've been affiliated with the City of Long enough to know that that really has not been
[35:37] a problem.
[35:39] And I'm very appreciative of the work of the City staff in working on this and certainly
[35:45] for the comments that you and your firm has made with respect through the way the City
[35:50] staff keeps our records and books totally within the requirements of state and federal
[35:56] law in every particular and I think that's a credit to the staff.
[36:01] So I don't have any further questions with myself but any member of the council have
[36:05] commissary late to offer at this time?
[36:09] Councilmember Grigor.
[36:11] Thank you for this report, especially when I was reading 248 pages of the pages that are
[36:18] intentionally left the link, we're nice to get through that a little quicker.
[36:23] I did just, for clarification or for just a little general education, you're slide with the chart showing the fund balance and the cash balance and the expenditures.
[36:37] Can you help explain that to me?
[36:39] I know the fund balance is what we want to maintain because we only get our money from state and taxes and so on twice a year.
[36:48] Is the cash balance sort of what we actually had and the fund balances what we need to have as a minimum?
[36:54] Is that how that what this chart is showing?
[36:58] The equity is a good measure because it shows you the amount of
[37:03] that net position or the fund balance or the equity of the organization. So it's a good tool that you can use on a
[37:10] consistent basis for a year-to-year. So that's what we see
[37:13] cities use as the measuring gauge. And as you mentioned,
[37:17] And I didn't follow through with the full statement, the reason why you need that amount
[37:22] of resources is so you can't operate the first half of the year because of the delay
[37:26] in tax payments and state aid payments when they would come to you and to provide resources
[37:31] so you don't have to borrow to cover those operations along the way.
[37:36] The cash balance we simply use as a measure because it's an important tool if you were to
[37:40] see fluctuations. And what we watch for there is the difference is really accounts payable timing
[37:47] of payables or you may have big deposits that are provided to the city that would not provide
[37:54] equity for you. So if you're having or for instance your cash may be down because you're waiting
[38:00] for resources from organizations and then you'd need to borrow to cover it. But this shows that you
[38:06] I've got a solid basis that you're not needing tomorrow for those resources.
[38:11] Your equity really is really pretty liquid within the general fund because it's in a cash form, man.
[38:16] Thank you.
[38:17] Council Member Peterson.
[38:20] Thank you, Acting Mayor Willis.
[38:23] I just wanted to chime in and I think sometimes it's easy to, especially given our long track record of having clean and
[38:30] modified minions and reports out of our audits but sometimes in those cases it's easy to check the
[38:37] box and glance over the report and move on but it's it shouldn't be overlooked how important it is
[38:42] that we continue to have these results so I just wanted to comment on how that's it is good news
[38:50] that shouldn't be overlooked and so I wanted to you know offer my commendation to all those who've
[38:54] been involved in another good report you know I've reviewed the materials and oftentimes I feel like
[39:00] sometimes audits are looking for what isn't going well and then identifying that.
[39:05] But given your experience and given our track record, I would love for you based on your
[39:09] experience to kind of give us your perspective on maybe where our strongest points are what
[39:13] we're really, really doing right if you wouldn't mind offering your insight on that.
[39:19] Sure.
[39:19] I'll do my best from a financial statement standpoint because that would be the area I focus on.
[39:26] But a couple of thoughts, I appreciate they heads up with the question in the comments.
[39:31] So, I was able to give a little thought, so I did want to share, you know, I think some
[39:36] of the comments that have all been brought up, the tone from the top of the organization
[39:40] and starting with the council, they've been supportive of the Act for report for many years, the tone
[39:46] from the top from the city manager and then all your supervisory staff.
[39:50] A lot of process goes well beyond the finance staff as well and everybody is made available
[39:57] to us so I appreciate that, you know, walking.
[40:00] You can do an organization. You can tell pretty quickly how well things are operating, and if there are challenges. A couple of other comments that I would share with you. I believe the city has always been open to audit suggestions when we are asking for what our improvements we could make. And, you know, the city has been fortunate and worked very hard not to have findings. But, you know, occasionally it will happen, timely payments, and that kind of thing.
[40:28] and they take it in stride and they're always looking for how do we improve and we have
[40:34] you have to come back and have the winding a second year so the changes are made and
[40:37] accepted with regard to that. A couple of other things I noted, systems, the city has
[40:44] a lot of systems in place which are important because especially, you know, what we're seeing
[40:49] more with our governments that we work with is turnover and, you know, the where staff isn't
[40:54] with an organization as long so you lose some of that institutional knowledge, but the
[40:59] systems you've had in place have worked really well to allow people to come and step in
[41:03] and then you've continued to attract strong candidates I believe to in those positions.
[41:08] So a lot of good things there and again probably more so from my standpoint as those budgetary
[41:15] controls that you've had that as Councilmember Willis mentioned it's a pleasure to come
[41:20] do your meeting when I get to say you know you've met your fund balance policy and you know your
[41:25] budgetary controls they've come in under budget your revenues your positions on that so
[41:31] just a couple of comments that I think really off the top of my head this afternoon that I came up with.
[41:38] Great that's excellent I appreciate it I have a follow-up question if I may
[41:42] and this is just a kind of underscore for general awareness of anybody who wasn't really directly
[41:47] involved in conducting that, whether on the auditor side or the staff side. There's always a
[41:52] heavy lift on the staff side to facilitate the process. So if you have an estimate of how many hours
[41:58] your company spends undertaking the audit and then to whomever the appropriate staff member is,
[42:05] how many hours would you estimate roughly? And I don't need precision or documents, just roughly
[42:10] would fall apart. How much time goes into, um, you know, conducting these audits? Sure. Um,
[42:16] so for the city of Plymouth, I look back for several years here, and I think an average
[42:21] for about the last four to five years, uh, we were looking at about 600 hours of our audit staff time,
[42:27] you know, or about 15 weeks. So, um, giving kind of some scope of what that entails. So we do the
[42:34] pre-limata work starts in July. We come out shortly after year end, uh, spend a few days just
[42:40] getting to know the organization again, asking questions. We rotate our staff so that new people are
[42:45] looking at the information and getting that fresh set of eyes. Your staff has had turnover. So
[42:51] then there's also a new look on your end as well. So that's when the process begins. Then we go
[42:58] back and we continue our planning process remotely. The large brunt of the work happens probably in
[43:06] May and April, May time frame, we come out for two solid weeks with anywhere from three
[43:12] to five people over that time period.
[43:15] And then we leave and we start drafting a report and follow up with questions with regard
[43:21] to that process.
[43:22] So we're really aiming for early June to be done with it so that we can get everything wrapped
[43:27] up in the staff aren't scrambling on the last day of the year to get everything issued.
[43:31] So I'll let the staff speak to their end, I'm sure it's an annual ongoing process throughout the year, but there definitely is a heavy lift after year end.
[43:42] Yeah, I can speak to the finance department side of this and oddly enough when I put some thought behind this today, I came up with a very close number to yours.
[43:53] I think probably if I had one person working full time for about 15 weeks is what it would take.
[44:00] And much of that, we say it's audit prep, but some of it we would just be doing anyway because it's just the process of closing out year end, but it is a heavy lift.
[44:12] And obviously here we are in July and it is the end of 2023.
[44:17] Okay.
[44:19] Thank you both. I appreciate it. I hope that for anyone who wasn't aware how much time and effort goes into conducting this, that kind of find a spotlight on it for you.
[44:27] So thank you.
[44:27] Thank you if there are other questions right now I'm I was just going to say Mayor
[44:33] I hope that the finance team gets like you know New Year's you know hats or
[44:40] Losers or something like that but we appreciate the work that everybody has done
[44:46] Following the report I'm going to open the public hearing on the 19 or the
[44:54] this is a public hearing in order to accept the report.
[45:00] If there are people here who would like to comment on the report, the city's financial report for 19, or 2023, I'd be pleased to hear them at this time, because the public hearing is open. Is anyone here who wishes to speak at the public hearing? No one appearing to speak, the hearing is hereby closed.
[45:22] Other council members have any further questions on the staff or the auditor this time before taking action to adopt a resolution.
[45:29] and accepting the report.
[45:36] Oh, I'm sorry, I'm.
[45:37] I didn't hear.
[45:38] Oh, which, which Julie, Julie pointed out.
[45:42] OK, thank you.
[45:43] OK, thanks.
[45:46] I just wanted to say that I think
[45:50] is so important to point out as argument said,
[45:52] how hard work that has gone on from the city staff, the auditor.
[45:56] And also the importance that this shows from our city
[46:03] and that the residents should be really
[46:05] proud and understand the responsibility that we take with the funds that we work with
[46:12] and I just really can't say thank you enough and I hope that everybody gets a chance
[46:18] to read this and thank you.
[46:24] Thank you.
[46:25] I
[46:28] can make a motion if I'm allowed to do it this far.
[46:29] You may.
[46:30] You may.
[46:33] So I need to make a motion accepting the 2023 Annual Congress of Financial Report and Models.
[46:40] Is there a second to the motion?
[46:41] All second, motion has been made and it's second, all those in favor, excuse me, roll call.
[46:52] Gregor.
[46:53] Aye.
[46:54] Peterson.
[46:55] Aye.
[46:56] Chesnik.
[46:57] Aye.
[46:58] Nelson.
[46:58] Aye.
[46:59] Pointner.
[47:01] Aye.
[47:02] Willis.
[47:02] Aye.
[47:04] Motion is adopted.
[47:06] Again, thank you to the auditor.
[47:07] Thank you to the staff.
[47:09] City Manager for this report.
[47:11] I think just again perpetuates the progress that continues to be made in our fiscal operations,
[47:17] which in effect the management and the operations of all our city operations.
[47:22] So it's, it's really neat moving in on with the agenda item 7.2 is a public hearing on
[47:31] the vacation of a sanctuary sewer easement at 13.001 County Road 10.
[47:35] This is the new development of the former potential site.
[47:43] Please take over, you've got it.
[47:45] All right, acting mayor, members of the council, thank you.
[47:48] Tonight we are considering a sanitary sewer easement vacation requested by Skinnell Properties for 13.001.10, which is more commonly known as the Boulevard development, otherwise known as the former prudential site.
[48:03] They are requesting this vacation in conjunction with the final plat approval that will happen
[48:08] the next item in this meeting.
[48:10] This vacation consideration and public hearing is condition on the acceptable sanitary sewer
[48:19] installation of the new sewer and the recording of the plat which will include the easement
[48:24] for the new sewer.
[48:27] As is customary the city has notified utility companies and area residents and we have received
[48:32] no objections from them as well as city staff has no objections.
[48:37] Looking at what's being considered graphically, the yellow line that bisects the property at the formal
[48:43] potential site is the existing sanitary sewer that is currently in service for the city underneath an existing
[48:49] easement. The developer is asking to install a proposed sanitary sewer along the green line that runs along
[48:57] in Chicago and then North in a different alignment to serve the residents both west of 494 as well as the proposed development at the Boulevard site.
[49:09] Again, it's important to keep in mind that from a procedural standpoint, the public open house or the public hearing can be held and it does have a requirement on it that if the final plat is not recorded, this vacation does not go through.
[49:25] That's correct. And the resolution on the public hearing vacation will be taken at now,
[49:34] but as he says, the action to finalize the order, the revised easement relies upon the
[49:43] necessity to have the developer in the city execute the development contract, and that's
[49:47] next on our agenda. The council members have any questions or comments
[49:51] with respect to the site. Is there anyone here in the public who has a question? Oh, excuse me,
[50:01] Just who determines whether they, you know, the sanitary suit, when an acceptable sanitary sewer is, you know, in place or determined? Good question. Our engineering department will inspect the installation of that sewer and determine if it is acceptable.
[50:19] Okay. Any member? Okay. Council member says.
[50:24] And will and there will be a new easement placed on the new surveillance.
[50:28] Absolutely. Yes.
[50:32] The public hearing is open. Is there one of the council chambers who
[50:36] would like to speak to the subject before us, the vacation of these. None appearing. I'm
[50:44] going to close the public hearing. Council members, we have mayor. I had one question.
[50:51] And reading through somewhere in my packet, hundreds of pages, I feel like I read something about 494.
[51:00] Is this affecting anything going under 494 or is it just on this property?
[51:06] Good question, council members, no, it does not affect anything underneath 494.
[51:11] As a side note, there is a separate city project that is rehabilitating the pipe that does go underneath 494.
[51:17] In conjunction with this project, it does not interfere with either the proposed plans for the boulevard or the final plight considerations.
[51:26] Okay, thank you.
[51:28] And then whenever I see vacation, I just wonder where the easement is going.
[51:33] You know, stuck in airport or something.
[51:38] With that, I'd be happy to make a motion to approve the resolution vacating the sanitary sewer easement at the boulevard.
[51:47] All right. Is there a second second hearing the second on the motion I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. Gregor. Aye.
[51:56] Peterson. Aye.
[51:59] Chesapeake. Aye. Nelson. Aye.
[52:04] Pointner. Aye. Willis. Aye.
[52:08] Is adopted. Will we gone item 8.1 on our agenda is approved the final plat and development contract for the Boulevard for property located.
[52:17] at 13, 0, 0, 1 kind of road 10.
[52:20] SPRC land ventures limited or limited liability corporation,
[52:28] Mr. Drill.
[52:32] Thank you, Deputy Mayor and council members.
[52:35] Final plots are typically consent items, but due to the scope of this project and
[52:41] the sequencing with the easement vacation that you just considered, this one was placed under general business.
[52:47] I'm going to give a very brief presentation and then open it up for any questions.
[52:53] SPRC Land Ventures is requesting a final plat for the 75-acre former
[52:58] Prudential Insurance site located at the southeast corner of I-494 and Baselake Road.
[53:06] The 450,000-square-foot office building is currently or almost removed from the site and
[53:14] And site-grading operations are currently underway.
[53:20] The PUD plan was approved by the City Council in March, and planned uses include a grocery store up in this location, coffee shop.
[53:32] This would be an office building, and some at orthopedics would be the tenant in that space, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute.
[53:40] And then to the south, these blue areas are the Medtech Business Park.
[53:49] Up along the county road, there would be some general commercial retail.
[53:55] These two buildings would be waterfront restaurants and retail.
[54:01] And then the four buildings that you see with the lighter shading would be apartment buildings.
[54:06] totaling 925 dwelling units.
[54:10] And then last but not least is the central park feature in the middle of the site that's
[54:16] about 13 and a quarter acres.
[54:21] Here's the actual final plat showing all 18 lots including the park lot to be dedicated
[54:28] and that's again in the central portion of the site.
[54:32] The related development contract would address installation of the public streets and utilities
[54:37] within the development.
[54:40] And then lastly, just to refresh your memory, here are renderings of the summit orthopedics
[54:46] building, which would be the first lot developed within the site.
[54:51] And construction is anticipated to start very soon pending your plat approval this evening.
[54:57] And without I can stand for any questions.
[55:00] As you have of staff. Thank you, Mr. Drill, and members of the council, I have any questions remotely.
[55:09] No questions? I have one. Councilmember Gregor. My question is purely educational, but I'm looking at all these plat diagrams and so on. And I was thinking about, you know, how this gets recorded with the county and so on. And property lines have.
[55:31] You know, what are they like metal medallions and the corner and that kind of thing is that still happened and are those the little circles on this map like and how does that happen to?
[55:41] Officially pinpoint, you know, each corner of a lot or a block when you plat something good question mayor and council members, so what will happen is this plat would be recorded at head up in colony.
[55:56] And then the surveyor that was hired by the developer will be required to go out and place iron monuments at all of the lot corners and lot bends and
[56:09] Following this plan and then once they do that they
[56:13] Certified to the city that that work has been done our city staff goes out and inspects and makes sure that they're there and the process is completed
[56:22] So an iron monument is just like a piece of metal in the ground
[56:26] It's essentially like a pipe.
[56:28] Yeah, it gets pointed into the ground.
[56:30] Thank you.
[56:31] But each site has a legal description that it follows the survey.
[56:42] Any other questions?
[56:44] No questions?
[56:46] If there are no further questions, I would entertain a motion of a resolution approving the flat.
[56:54] Excuse me?
[56:55] I can make a motion.
[56:56] Please.
[56:57] Please.
[56:58] I make a motion to approve the final
[57:01] platinum development contract for the
[57:02] bill of buyer for a property located
[57:04] at 1-3-0-0-1 County Road 10.
[57:08] Motion is being induced by Council
[57:10] Member Pointer, is there a second?
[57:11] Second.
[57:12] Second by Council Member Gregor.
[57:14] Any further discussion on the motion?
[57:18] Council, are the clerk, please call the
[57:20] roll.
[57:21] Gregor?
[57:21] Aye.
[57:22] Ederson?
[57:23] Aye.
[57:24] Chesnik?
[57:25] Aye.
[57:26] Nelson?
[57:26] I have nothing
[57:40] else before us on our council agenda and so the I want to thank the council
[57:46] members for being with us and being present tonight by the computers and zoom but it allows
[57:55] us to serve the public and have the public's business done that we couldn't have had done
[58:00] if you hadn't been here, President, so thank you. And with that, the meeting is here by adjourned.