[0:00] I wonder if we can get more chairs. Call to order. The city council meeting. Um, for September. Was it the 15th, 2026? Chris, see if you’d like to take, um, roll call, please. Council member Ivo here. Council member. Commish here. Council member. Kaiser here. Council member Vanessa Rosen. Council member here. Council member. Cummings here. Mayor.
[0:30] Deshler here. We have a quorum. Okay. If we could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Thank you.
[0:55] Next is approval of our agenda, as was presented to us. Anybody have a want to make a motion? Tracy? I’ll make a motion to approve the agenda. All right. Second. Second. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Aye, aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries.
[1:17] First up, we have an appearance this evening from our superintendent of schools. Doctor Terry Clark. Yes, please. Thank you. Thanks for having us tonight. Mayor and city council members. There’s a lot going on at your meeting. It looks like this evening, and we’re delighted to be first.
[1:45] Um, I don’t know if the presentation is pulled up or should I go over to that station? I did not. Did they send a presentation? Hold it right there. Thanks. So I’ll go ahead and get started as we’re loading that. Um, thanks for the opportunity tonight.
[2:05] Uh, we have an opportunity to share with our community, um, about our bond referendum that will be going out for on the election on November 3rd. Building better together. Um, so tonight, what we want to do is be able to give you a context of our current reality. The position that we’re in. The work that we’ve done over the last two years, ultimately for the boards, make the decision for the bond to be on the election.
[2:22] Um, and then a little bit about what that is and impacts, if it passes and impacts if it doesn’t. So with me tonight is doctor Bob McDowell. He’s our assistant superintendent will be assisting with this. I’m going to go and you guys will catch me up.
[2:35] How’s that sound? I know you have a lot to do tonight. Um, our mission at Robbinsdale Area Schools is to learn, educate all learners to achieve their unique potential and positively contribute to our community. And we know we can’t do this mission critical work without our communities. We can’t do it alone.
[2:54] So we’re really proud that we are able to serve all or parts. Thank you so much. Of seven cities. Um, that is not the one. So if that’s what you have, it’s a different.. That was the last one. You sent. Okay. Then we’re going to go ahead and I’m going to go without that because that’s not going to be helpful.
[3:12] How’s that sound? Um, and then council members, I’ll be sure that I get the, the accurate ones. Who you all. Um, but as I was saying, we serve all our parts of seven cities, obviously, including Crystal. We serve about 9600 students.
[3:31] An incredibly diverse set of students in terms of culture and language and learning needs. Um, we have 92 different languages that are spoken in the home of our students. Um, over the last couple of years.
[3:46] So I’ve been here two years, just starting my third year and coming into the district, I knew there were significant concerns. I was here with you two years ago as I came into the district sharing some of that information with you. So what we’ve done in those two years is, first of all, we looked at our academics and our working on really aligning systems to improve our academic outcomes for students.
[4:03] We implemented a new English language arts curriculum in the elementary last year and are looking at piloting a new math curriculum right now. So making sure that that instruction for our students is really strong. We also wanted to make sure that we knew what our enrollment trends were going to be.
[4:22] That’s how we budget is with our enrollment. So we did a new demographic study to make sure we were using and planning with the data that was most current. We also knew that we had significant needs with our facilities. So we did a comprehensive facilities assessment, realized that we have about $140 million of deferred maintenance needs.
[4:42] During all of that, we did a very robust community engagement process where we did surveys. We had a lot of community groups, um, meetings with staff, students in the community, and we convened a 40 member reimagine our Daily Vision 2030 community group who studied our school district over eight months, ultimately came to the board a year ago.
[5:03] Now with recommendations on how to not only help with the financial crisis. The district was in, but to actually transform us to be a stronger school district.
[5:20] So then the board spent from September to June looking at those recommendations and ultimately making the decision to come forward with the bond that’s in front of us right now. Um, we also did some residential surveys during that time to make sure that we, again, were listening to our community as we were making decisions and what we have learned to date, uh, isn’t all good, but it all has helped inform where we are
[5:36] right now. So we know we have declining enrollment. We know we’re in statutory operating debt. We know our academic outcomes are not yet where they need to be. We know that we have that deferred maintenance needs, and we know that we’re operating too many buildings.
[5:54] So over the last year or the last three years, we’ve reduced the budget by $26 million. Um, in that and I wish you could see this graph because it’s pretty compelling. But we talk about our declining enrollment in 1971. We had a student enrollment of 28,000 students. We’re forecasted right now.
[6:19] We’re at about 9600, and we’re forecasted in 2034 to be at about 9200. There’s a lot of reasons for that. There’s fewer children being born in 1970. We were and still are, right, a first ring suburb of the of Minneapolis. Um, but there wasn’t anything outside of us. And those communities have continued to grow as well.
[6:34] Uh, we also have a capture rate. So we right now have 62% of our residents in our school district that choose our school district. The average is 72%. So we know that we need to improve that.
[6:52] But when you see this, after I send you the right one, when you see this graph, you’ll see that from 1971 to to today, as that enrollment has declined. What we haven’t done is right size, the number of schools that we have.
[7:12] So we’ve been operating too many schools, which is one of the and operating schools that have not been at capacity at all, at about 50% capacity, some of them, which is part of the reason we needed last year to close three schools, middle level programming in another school. And ultimately we’ll be closing the school. Uh, the district office. So we are in statutory operating debt.
[7:28] And again, the graph that you’re going to see shows that this isn’t something new, actually, in 2015 we had a fund balance of about 10%. School districts have a fund balance policy, usually of between 8 and 12%. So, um, in 2015 we were at 10%. We dipped down in 2018, we were really close to statutory operating debt at that time.
[7:50] And actually Covid saved us temporarily. We were able to use the Esser dollars to maintain at least an above zero fund balance and to keep us, um, to keep us a little bit more stable for a few years.
[8:08] But once those Esser funds, um, ended in two years ago, we went right into statutory operating debt. And that’s where we are right now. Um, what that means is that right? We have to balance the budget between revenues and expenditures, like anyone would have to.
[8:30] But without that fund balance, with declining enrollment, with, um, contractual obligations and other inflationary factors of about $3 million a year, we can’t get there without pretty significant reductions. And as I said before, we’ve made $26 million in reductions over the last three years in facilities, in transportation, in staffing, and a little bit in student programming. Um, and we can’t continue to do what we’re doing without falling further behind financially and falling further behind with other districts.
[8:55] Other districts are able to offer more opportunities for students because they have had communities that have invested in building bonds, so they’ve been able to use their funds for buildings, for buildings, and then they’re operational funds for programming and classroom and staffing.
[9:18] We’ve had to use some of our operating dollars for building maintenance and expenses, because we don’t have that bond. You’ll also see, when you see the presentation of area districts and the bonding that they’ve done over the last several years. We have neighbors like Saint Louis Park that passed a bond a month ago, and they also passed 1 in 2022.
[9:36] So this is not uncommon at all in school districts. However, Robbinsdale Area Schools has not approved a bond since 1981, and we have very aging facilities. Uh, right. Most of them, most of our schools were born, were built in the 60s and 70s.
[9:57] So with that, I am going to hand this over to doctor McDowell to talk a little bit more about the specific questions on the ballot. Thank you. Good evening. Um, so what we believe is that, um, a plan that’s based on data and information is intentional and gives us a, a path and a predictable path forward is really how we build trust with all the communities.
[10:17] Um, and that’s what we’ve been trying to do. And that leads us into the actual ballot language of the referendum. There are three questions. And the first question and the second question really together were the vision of our vision 2030 team.
[10:34] But then when we went out to the communities and surveyed for tax tolerance, what came back was the tax tolerance was less than what questions one and two together were. And so we went and reduced what we could. And so that’s why you end up with a question, one that met that tax tolerance survey. And then question two.
[10:49] So question one really has three big components to it. The first component to question one is a single high school campus that is on the Cooper High School site. And the new Hope Learning Center site. So that’s the first move that takes place. All high school kids would be on that site.
[11:08] The second move that happens is that our Spanish immersion program, which is about 700 to 750 kids, would move into the Armstrong building because that building is the only building right now in this configuration that’s big enough to hold that many kids.
[11:29] Our other elementary schools really camp out at around 500. So that’s the second big move. The third move that happens is all of our elementary schools become neighborhood elementary schools to serve all seven cities.
[11:45] And so every of those elementary schools, because they’re of different sizes, different capacities, have different amenities, would have different things done to them depending upon what the building is. So those three things are the main things of the first question. There are two additional smaller projects that happen. In the first question, they impact the middle schools. The pool at Plymouth Middle School is our competition swimming pool. It’s a six lane pool. The diving well is not competition.
[12:04] Competition. Legal depth. And so one of the things we would do there is increase that to an eight lane competition pool and increase the diving well depth so that our high school swim teams have a pool that they can actually do a full meet. Uh, when they do their competitions.
[12:22] The second thing happens with the pool at Sandburg. We don’t currently do instruction during the school day, uh, for swimming. And pools are really expensive to operate. And so the plan would be to fill in the pool at Sandburg with question one, turn that into usable instructional space in the form of multi-purpose instructional space, so that we would have
[12:43] that for Sandburg. Question two, which can only pass if question one passes. So question one has to be approved by voters before question two can even come into play.
[13:04] Question two does a little bit of a reconfiguration because we have those dollars back that we split up to meet that tax tolerance. So question two has Plymouth Middle School actually going to the Armstrong site. So we have the high school stays the same this time Plymouth Middle School moves to the Armstrong site and Spanish immersion moves to the Plymouth site. Why would we do this.
[13:24] Moving in the middle school to the Armstrong site allows us to gain a performing arts space for middle school students, and not have to erect a brand new auditorium and things of that nature for middle school, because it’s already on the Armstrong site. So that is the first big change, the second big change.
[13:41] As we go back to Sandburg and we take that filled in pool one step further and we make that pool of 400 seat auditorium. So now both middle schools have performing arts spaces which they don’t currently have. So that’s really what happens in question two.
[13:58] The next thing that that does is it guarantees our ability to get out of our leased spaces, making those moves with question one and two frees up enough space in our district own buildings where we could get out of the Crystal Learning Center lease, as well as our warehouse lease and bring those into district, further saving ongoing expenses that we have.
[14:18] Question three is really a separate question from one and two, and it really is more about do people want a new elementary school in the east side of the school district? So question three really asks the seven communities, do you want to put a new elementary school on the site of the Robbinsdale Middle School site? It doesn’t
[14:40] impact the other changes that I’ve talked about. It, again, can only pass if question one and question two pass. So it’s it’s built in a sequence like that. Question one can stand alone. Question two can only pass a question one passes. Question three can only pass if question one and two pass.
[15:01] So talking a little bit about the impact of of those questions. So when we do impact of referendum we look at a median size a median um home in terms of value. So $340,200 is the median home value that we use. And so the impact for question one is a $15 a month impact.
[15:25] If 1 in 2 were to pass, there would be $2 more. So a $17 impact. And then of question three would pass because you would have all three of them. That would be an additional $8.
[15:42] So again, the reason that is set up is we believe that question one is really the piece that we have to have in order to make the moves we need to make to become the most efficient and effective. And then question two and three, the communities would need to decide, is it something that they were willing to go above that tax tolerance that they told us in the survey? That was the the expense that they were
[15:58] kind of topping out at. So I’ve shared a little bit with you about the questions and what happens if those are each approved. Um, if the ballot is not the questions are not approved. We’re in the same financial position that we’re in today. And as I said before, really there’s four ways that we can make reductions.
[16:20] Staff, student programming, facilities and transportation. And at this point, the student programming is the piece that we haven’t had to yet to make some reductions. And that’s one of the things we’ll have to look at, actually, we’ll look at everything because all options will be on the table.
[16:36] Um, we still are will be operating too many buildings and we still have considerable, uh, budget deficit as we’re in statutory operating debt. Um, so that’s kind of what we’ll look at. We’ll look at maximizing class sizes. We’ll look at potential walk distances to schools.
[16:52] And really what we have to do is figure out how to maximize capacity in our buildings. So that might look like differences in grade configuration ninth grade in one building, 10th, 11th and 12th in another building. In order to still be able to reduce.
[17:11] But then without the bond we would be reducing buildings without any of the renovations and opportunities for future ready learning. More hands on learning, more of those types of things that, again, other districts have. Um, so a couple of questions really quickly that we’ve gotten that I want to be really clear with, um, regardless of if it passes or not, we have about two years.
[17:27] Even if it passes, that will have to do about $2 million in reduction. So part of what happened is the board approved in January a statutory operating debt. We have a five year plan. Um, so we’ll just have to keep making some of those reductions.
[17:42] Those might look different if the bond passes, because we have a really predictable path forward. If it passes, then if it doesn’t, we also want to be really clear that we’ll continue to use long term facility maintenance. That’s a board approved funding stream that this district has used for years. Will continue to do that. However, if the bond passes, that amount will be lessened.
[18:03] Um, also want to be clear that we’ve heard some people say, well, if we vote no, we’ll save our schools. Um, that’s not true. We still are going to have to make difficult decisions about closing buildings. Um, and none of our buildings will look like they do right now.
[18:20] We want to be clear that this isn’t about buildings. We’re using the the funding stream of a building bond to free up operational expenses so we ultimately can have better programming, better support, better educational opportunities for our students. Um, we know that our families want what’s best for their kids.
[18:41] We want them to choose Robbinsdale area schools, and we need to make sure that we have what we need to make that happen. Um, a couple other things that I want to just briefly touch on. Um, we got the ballots and the questions are actually split.
[18:58] Uh, one side Has one question, and then you have to turn it over to see the other questions. So we just want to alert people to that. And of course we want everyone for a lot of reasons, to look at both sides of the ballot.
[19:17] Also want everyone to know that there is a constitutional amendment about education that’s also on all ballots, not just our school district, but the permanent school fund is a source of funding that’s been in place since 1858. And because the interest has increased, they want to look at how do they allocate more of those funds to school districts. But you can’t do that without a constitutional amendment.
[19:32] So I just want to be sure people know that voting yes, for one, doesn’t mean you’re voting yes for the other. Voting no for one doesn’t mean that you’re voting no for the other. Um, so we’ve got some, uh, informational meetings coming up, community meetings coming up. Um, I’ll leave some literature with you, and I’ll get to Adam the presentation.
[19:50] But we really appreciate, the time with you and having a chance to share this publicly with all of you. And we’re happy to take any questions if you have them. Just a quick question. Um, is there any discussion about selling any of the properties to bring more revenue in, as opposed to doing cuts on expenditures? Yeah, well, absolutely do that.
[20:11] You know, right now, until we know what happens with the bond, we don’t know what our set of schools are going to be. Once we know that, we absolutely will. The SC would be probably the first one that we can take a look at putting on the market.
[20:28] We’ll start that conversation with the board actually, at our next meeting. Really important to note, um, that again, we’re using the the request is for a building bond. We also have operating funds which we use to operate our buildings. Right. Staff are buildings. We also have a capital funds. Um, anything over $5,000.
[20:49] So a lot of times we think about equipment or you think about curriculum. If we sell, when we sell our buildings, uh, the, the profits of that can only go into the capital.
[21:06] So it’s important to know, because I’m glad you asked the question, because sometimes people say, well, if you sell, can you free up expenses for salaries? And that’s not where that bucket of money would go. But yes, short answer. We will sell excess buildings. Thank you. Taji, did you have one? Yeah. Um, I appreciate you being here.
[21:25] Uh, can you just kind of elaborate a little bit more on if this doesn’t pass? I just want folks to understand, like, the long term implications of that. So you haven’t really touched student programming. You might have to look at that. I mean, there’s no reason that that would entice people to to stay. You know, the residents increase, you know, percentage to increase for people that opt in to rail.
[21:42] And so, I mean, enrollment will continue to decrease. Less funding like, yeah, there just there really isn’t a it’s not really a viable solution. Um, if we want to turn things around. So I really appreciate the question.
[22:01] Um, what we have said for two years is we can’t cut our way out of this because you’re exactly right. If that’s all we’re doing is cutting staff and cutting student programming, which means any non required courses. So any of our our CTE college and technical education, our AP classes, music, art, any of those non required um looking at sports, looking at clubs.
[22:27] And again sometimes when I say this people say well you sound threatening and I don’t want to sound threatening, but the reality is we have to balance the budget and we’re not going to have a lot of options because we’ve already made such deep cuts to staffing. So you’re right. Unfortunately, we we we fall further behind our area districts.
[22:43] And the way that we get our residents back here and folks to continue to choose being here is by offering an excellent product. It’s going to be harder to do when we’re cutting the very programming that people are really proud of in this school district. So yeah, if we have more continued, deeper declining enrollment, that means less revenue.
[23:04] That means even more reductions and closures of buildings. So as I said from the beginning, we’ve said we can’t cut our way out of it. And that’s why we chose to gather input from the community to say, what do you want for our school districts? What are the school districts our kids want, need and
[23:18] deserve? So we built with a community driven process, board directed process, a vision of what could be. And this bond really represents that vision to doctor McDowell’s point.
[23:38] We split it into a couple different questions, because we also heard from our community initially, the tax tolerance was higher on the full package, so we backed away and we went with that first question, which was closer to what the tax tolerance was, that our community said that they would achieve. Thanks. Thanks.
[24:00] Can I ask a question? Um, with if, for instance, if only the first, um question passes, um, within that question, you have some pool renovations, so you’d be able to maintain both pools with that first question. Nope. We would just do one. We’d maintain and make sure that we had at regulation, the Plymouth Middle School pool, the standard pool would actually be filled in and be used for a flex classroom spaces. So ultimately the Sandburg pool is going away.
[24:21] It would. Yep. And then with that second question, the Sandburg pool becomes an auditorium. So both of our middle schools would have that. You know, that’s one thing we heard from our community that was really important is ensuring equity in programming, and that if we have strong arts programming or strong
[24:40] engineering or innovation programming in one building, we should have that across the district. So working hard to make sure that that that’s a possibility. Thank you. Uh, Go ahead. You talked about neighborhood schools. Is that doing away with all the magnet schools then? Yeah.
[25:00] At this point, that’s been the conversation and the recommendation from the vision team. Um, was, other than Robbinsdale, Spanish immersion because the the staff at Robbinsdale, Spanish, Spanish immersion obviously have a very unique skill set.
[25:20] Um, however, the goal would be that, as I just said, that the arts and innovation piece that we see both at the C school and Fair Pilgrim Lane, um, the, the arts and the engineering and innovation, um, we want to take that to scale and make sure that all of our students had had those opportunities.
[25:40] And then what we have to do, right, is because we don’t have buildings big enough to be all four section schools. So we would have that’s why this bond is so important. We would have fewer elementary schools, but they’d be larger, renovated, have flexible learning spaces for hands on, inquiry based outdoor learning opportunities, which again, we heard from our community is really important. All right. Thank you.
[25:59] Um, one of the other things that we didn’t touch on yet. Um, you know, some people I think, think that if this passes on November 3rd, these changes take place on November 4th. And this is a phased process that new high school wouldn’t open until 2030, 31.
[26:17] So we it will take some time, right, to make the renovations to then determine at what point we when we’re closing which buildings, what some boundary changes might look like. So again, plenty of time for communication and to ensure that our families are well aware of what those next steps would be.
[26:35] Yes. And then one last question. So the constitutional amendment for increased funding to school district. If that passes, that would actually be of net benefit to the school district. It is. It’s about um, it would be a couple hundred thousand dollars is what annually that will be for us.
[26:53] So, you know, we will take that any day of the week. Um, certainly not the scope at all of what we’re talking about and what we need to not just balance the budget, but really provide the, the programming and opportunities and facilities for our kids. But you’re right. Great. Thank you.
[27:10] I know that everyone here is here to talk about something else. Um, so. I’m glad I’m here, but I do. Have a really quick question that I just have to ask, because it’s something that residents have asked me, and it’s a concern that I also have related to the magnet schools.
[27:23] Um, you said that doing away with the magnet schools and kind of pushing some of a flavor of that into all of the other schools, uh, came out of the visioning process.
[27:44] I do want to ask, have you done any comparative analysis or as you said, the product has to be good to have people come here? Um, and obviously the whole idea of magnets is you’re pulling people to the district. Have you done any analysis on student retention and student attraction by not having any of the magnet schools? I think that’s always an interesting question for any district.
[28:07] And so one of the things that we’re going to do an updated analysis on is we hit October 1st, which is the big date for schools. Um, we’ll have the actual numbers. And that will also give us the current reality of how many are open enrolled versus how many are simply inter-district transferred.
[28:23] Uh, what many people don’t know is that in, in across the seven cities that make up Robbinsdale area schools, many of our students that attend our magnet schools are actually already Robbinsdale Area School students that choose to be at that school versus the school that their neighborhood school would be.
[28:43] Um, so the other thing I would point out is that all of our elementary schools provide the same base curriculum, right? They’re all teaching the same base curriculum. And the magnet schools take that and make some infusion of arts with that base curriculum, infusion of engineering with that base curriculum. That’s what makes that school a bit different in terms of how does that work.
[29:04] But all of our elementary schools have the same core curriculum that they offer to our students. Okay. So the answer is you haven’t done that analysis yet in that looking at the parents that are at Robbinsdale School District, parents now and are choosing to use the magnet schools won’t look at going to other districts that offer magnet
[29:27] programming. You haven’t done that analysis yet. We’ve done it in a historical sense, in terms of when the vision 2030 team came out. Those were types of things that they looked at, and that’s what got them to the recommendation of, we should scale this, we should scale this thing that’s really good for all students
[29:46] and give all students the same opportunities. Um, rather than just keeping it at 2 or 3 schools.. And, and there’s certainly, you know, all of this is about trade offs. Um, so it’s a fair question.
[30:06] And, and risks, you know, I think that looking at the number of folks that are open and rolling in from other districts isn’t as great as what people might think. Um, and what we want to do is, again, make sure that all of our students have those opportunities.
[30:25] I had a chance last year to be at the fifth grade play musical, put on it our, our our art school fair, Pilgrim Lane, and it was amazing. It was absolutely fantastic. And I celebrated our fifth graders and the staff who supported them and thought it was wonderful.
[30:44] And as I drove back to the district office, I thought, wow, wouldn’t it be great if every one of our fifth graders in the district got that opportunity? And I think at the end of the day, that’s where that vision for a district wide arts and innovation, um, notion came from. So solving for that issue, as well as how do we continue to condense and offer great programming throughout? Thank you so much. Well, thank you for coming.
[31:09] Thank you. I apologize about the presentation. Adam, I’m going to leave some, um, information that you can give to council members. Just our fact sheets and stuff. And then I’ll make sure that I get that to you tonight. Anthony sent it. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck. Thanks.
[31:31] All right. Item four is a proclamation. And this is, um, proclamation for United Nations International Day of Peace. So I’m going to quickly read this. Whereas the United Nation recognizes International Day of Peace, honoring the legacy of nonviolent leaders.
[32:00] Uh, and encouraging nations and communities to commit to active peacekeeping and active nonviolence in the is the pathway between passivity and violence, a robust practice that fosters conflict resolution using methods that respect human dignity and seek to create a more peaceful society.
[32:28] And whereas the principles of nonviolence and the skills of peacemaking have been instrumental in helping build just policies and thriving communities around the world and locally, led by great leaders like, Gandhi, Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Dalai Lama, father Harry Buri of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul. And Whereas, the twin Cities and surrounding communities, Twin Cities, nonviolent and allied peace organizations have garnered civic and faith community commitments to learn about and practice active nonviolence.
[32:52] Drawing on these deep wells of wisdom, and Whereas aspirations are that the Twin Cities will be the catalyst for creating world class cities that provide citizens with safe and vibrant neighborhoods, high quality and affordable health care, great jobs, a strong system of education and innovation, and a high quality of life while addressing climate change. Now, therefore, I.
[33:16] Julie Deshler, mayor of the city of Crystal, do hereby proclaim September 20th, 2026 as Twin Cities Day of Peace. As mayor, I will encourage and continue to take steps to build a society of active nonviolence, continue our civic work to promote nonviolent conflict resolution, restorative justice, mental health, support safe neighborhoods and equitable access to resources.
[33:48] In addition, encourage initiatives that educate people of all ages in the principles of nonviolence. Dated this 15th day of September 2026. All right. Thank you, everybody. Next item is our consent agenda. Consent agenda are, um, consist of items which are routine and non-controversial in nature.
[34:14] And we generally, um, approve them in a single motion. I’m going to go ahead and read the items. And if any of the council members want to remove an item and take it off for further discussion, we can do. That. So, uh, first one is approval of minutes from the following meeting. City Council work session on September 1st, 2026. City Council work session on. Uh.
[34:37] Well, wait, was the City Council meeting on September 1st, 2026 and a city council work session on September 20th. September 1st, 2026. Approval of disbursements over 25,000 submitted by the Finance Department. Approval of list of license applications submitted by the City Clerk. Adoption of a resolution recognizing Constitution Week.
[35:03] Adoption of a resolution authorizing an application for a metropolitan Council. Local Planning Assistance Grant. Adoption of a resolution approving the 2023 MCE. S, I and II grant. Approval of a memorandum of understanding with law enforcement, labor Services Local 44 for the 2027 Health Insurance Contribution. Approval of a memorandum of understanding with Law enforcement, Labor Services Local 56.
[35:35] The Police Supervisors for 2027 health insurance contributions. Approval of a memorandum of understanding with International Union of Operating Engineers, local 49. Public Works for 2027. Health insurance contributions and finally approval of the 2027 wage adjustment and health insurance contribution for non represented employees.
[36:07] Is there any discussion? Anybody make a motion to approve the consent agenda? I’ll make a motion to approve the. Second. Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Next item is open forum. Open forum is an opportunity for residents to come and talk to the City Council about areas of interest.
[36:29] And I am going to say, uh, any number, any topic, you’re limited to three minutes. And each topic we usually cap out at ten minutes. But, you know, we have a public hearing tonight specifically to address the tobacco and vapor. Um, subject ordinance. Yes. Conversation is what I was gonna say.
[36:54] So is there anybody here to talk? Uh, at Open Forum about something other than tobacco or vaping? All right. Seeing none. Oh. We thought you’d be happy. I am, I am. Good evening. Uh, you all no doubt know who I am by now, though on principle. No, you won’t hear it from me. You’ve said my name. Welcome, Brady. Correct.
[37:24] Uh, this is my sixth time here talking about Alper Alpers and FLoC. Uh, I want to start out by thanking the Crystal Police Department for representing the unanimous voice of the community and removing most of the Alper cameras.
[37:40] I say most because I haven’t been completely uninstalled yet, and although it’s still early in the process, I want to voice, I hope that there’s a plan in place to remove the remaining portions of poles of the polls soon. I also came here to reiterate my July 20th, 2026 records request for all FLoC audit logs, which has still only been partially fulfilled as of today.
[38:01] I filed a formal complaint regarding this records request on September 9th, though I know that complaint will go nowhere and change nothing. I’m trying to be exhaustive and thorough in my attempt to get public records. I’ve also requested these records and reiterated this request before the council on August 18th. September 1st and September 2nd, a complete fulfillment of FLoC audit logs involves two elements, one of two elements of which was filed on on September 11th, 2026.
[38:22] The internal audit logs, the other being the network or external audit logs, remains outstanding. I will be here at meetings as promised until we as citizens get records requests that we are entitled to filled in a timely manner as we deserve. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
[38:43] I would just like to say thank you to the Crystal Police Department for their quick action on removing the blocks cameras from the city. I just think it was a rather. I’m going to use a word that might not be appropriate. Baller move on your behalf.
[39:02] And, uh, and just like to say that, um, I’m very pleased with the outcome. Thank you. All right. Anybody else here to talk about open forum other than tobacco? All right. Seeing none, we are closing open forum next we have a public hearing, which is why you’re here.
[39:28] We are here to receive, uh, do we want to first do a, uh, presentation kind of of sorts, and then open it up for a public hearing? We gotta. Read that. I was going to introduce the. To the public hearing. And again, just to, uh, just to explain the. Process. So the public hearing will take place. That’s part of the public comments we have received written.
[39:44] Um, I do believe that there may be some online, uh, participants as well that want to speak, um, after the public hearing. Uh, the council, you know, before the public hearing, the council can ask any questions of staff. Uh, then the public hearing will be open. Comments will be received. Public hearing will be closed.
[40:04] And then, uh, at a later item. 8.2. Uh, the council will discuss the ordinance. Proposed ordinance amendments. That’s correct. So, um, just for a little bit of history, if you like, the earlier this year, um, starting in the spring.
[40:26] Um, in May and July, the city council had discussions at several work session or a couple work sessions regarding the city’s retail tobacco sale ordinance, with the intent of reducing the availability and appeal of commercial tobacco products within the community.
[40:46] And the proposed changes would also help protect youth from the harms of nicotine addiction and support community members who currently use commercial tobacco for their effort in their efforts to quit that. So based on those discussions with the City Council at the work sessions, the city staff worked with Hennepin County and came up with an ordinance, proposed draft ordinance for consideration.
[41:11] And in general, um, the main changes are the prohibition on flavored tobacco products, setting minimum price and packaging sizes, the elimination of penalties for purchase and possession for individuals who are under 21 years of age, and reducing the number of retail tobacco licenses to two. So, as we said, staff worked with Hennepin County Health Department and developed the proposed language.
[41:33] Based on your discussions at those work sessions and the according to state law. Um, all the tobacco holders, which we have, 20 of them, were notified by mail of the date and time of this meeting and for this public hearing.
[41:51] So at this time, we’d encourage the council to open up the public hearing, take comments, and then, um, further discussion to take place at the end. Later on in the agenda, when you discuss the first reading of the ordinance.
[42:13] Now, we do want to I do want to clarify for the viewing public, we are reducing the tobacco licenses to two, but that does not mean that anybody we’re going to yank any licenses once a business, if they were to go out of business and then it remains tobacco free sales for a year. The next business owner coming in wouldn’t be able to get a new tobacco license, correct? No new, no additional tobacco licenses would be issued by the city. Okay. All right. So I’ve got these, uh, yellow slips here.
[42:38] Mayor, can I ask, is it the same rules as you described for, uh, the public forum? The the time limit and everything? I don’t know that. I think it’d just be good. So everyone’s on the same page of that. Because it’s a public hearing.
[42:58] We typically do not limit the length of time for the public hearing, but it has been three minutes per speaker. Okay. Madam mayor, I would just like to ask point out we do have one person on the on the zoom. I do not know if they’re here to, uh, speak for the public hearing. So I would ask anyone participating in the meeting via zoom.
[43:17] If you do want to speak. Please raise your hand on zoom, and then we will call on you at some point while we’re going through the people who are physically present as well. So, okay, if you don’t have your hand up, we won’t know that you wish to speak on this item.
[43:33] All right. Well, I’m going to call Nancy Chandler. I have no I have known Nancy for years. I thought that was you. You look great. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen. You. I am Nancy Chandler. Um, I resided in the city of Crystal for over 40 years.
[44:00] I am still moving back in the city of Crystal after leaving four years ago. It’s not for me. I’m going back to my hometown. I worked with Robbinsdale School District as a family advocate for over 18 years, so I worked with families and individuals from young to old. I went to court with families. I went to sessions with families.
[44:20] I helped them find this, that and the other. So I have a deep concern for our families and individuals and people in the city of Crystal. I truly do. I wish no harm on anybody. However, I do believe, as I did with my children, we are in charge of our children.
[44:45] What our children do, what they say, how they act. So when it comes to flavored vaping, vaping in general, what I find disturbing about this is that we as a city, as a community, do not take in charge of what really is the issue here. The issue is we keep tobacco out there.
[45:07] It’s 21 and over. Correct. Okay, so if a child walks in there at 18 years of age and and and doesn’t get checked, but there’s a sting which I’ve seen before and they decide, oh, they didn’t check that kid’s ID. You’re out.
[45:33] I understand all those things, what I don’t understand is why you’re taking my right away. To have a flavored tobacco. What I can tell you personally, I’m not a doctor, nor wish to be. Or compared to me.
[45:55] But for me personally, ten years ago, a little over ten, I was to the point with my smoking cigarettes to where I could hardly breathe, choking, coughing, spitting and sputtering. But yet I took to the tackle. My son. Excuse me. Dry mouth. My son, who worked at that point for Dark Horse vapor and Crystal, said to me, mom, you need to stop this. That’s going to kill you. That’s terrible. And I said, well, yeah, whatever.
[46:21] I tried it. I still vape, not a lot, but I vape. Do I hack and cough and spit her and sputter all this shit? No, I don’t. Now I’m like I said, I’m not a medical person. I’m not telling you this is the route to go.
[46:37] I’m telling you, is that it helped me get off of cigarettes, which is you’re blowing that right in people’s faces. I try to be very respectful. I have grandchildren, children. I would not do that. Vaping cigarettes, any of that around my kids. Nor would I think anyone else should.
[46:57] But to take my right away to say, because children could get there and could get these vape products or or cigarette products flavored, you’re taking my right away to have that near me in my community that I’ve known for all these years, because why? Because sure, we’re concerned about our children and we should be.
[47:23] But they can’t go into a liquor store because the age is 21. If the age is 21, in a tobacco or a vape shop, what’s the problem? I guess I’m not seeing it. I don’t understand it.
[47:41] The only thing I see what’s happening here, number one, you’re going to be taking out revenue coming to the city of Crystal. And I know the importance of that. And having been a residents for all those years, and now coming back to your residents. So that’s happening now, I’m going to speak as the mom.
[48:00] I hope he doesn’t get mad at me, but I’m going to tell you, I’m the mom, my son, Jeffrey Chandler, opened up and and it’s now ownership of Dark Horse Vapor and Crystal. He worked there 11 years before starting ownership of that. Just a few months ago.
[48:22] He’s waited all his life, worked all his life to have a business, to be something in his community of which he grew up, born and raised here in Crystal. And you’re ready to take that out from underneath him. Everything he’s worked for, what I’ve helped him, what his dad has helped him in getting this business for him. And you’re going to shut him down.
[48:40] I don’t see the fairness in that. I say keep the restriction like you do with cigarettes. No one under 21 gets it. That’s pretty simple. You got a problem with that, then? That’s where our police officers step in and say, hey, this is not okay. Then take it that direction.
[48:59] Don’t take away from me and from many, many others. The right to have that tobacco. Tobacco. I’m sorry. Tobacco and vape shop here in the city of Crystal. I don’t get it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Nancy. All right. We have Robert Bellows. Good evening. Council.
[49:32] First thing I want to say is, you know that guy there in his parents used to be my neighbors up the street for me. And you lived two blocks down for me and for him. For you wanting to take his job away. He business away. And he moved into house and crystal. That’s appalling.
[49:51] You know? I mean, you shake your head all you want about it, but it is now. I’m not a smoker. My dad was. And I watched how he died from smoking related illnesses. I watched him, my grandfather died of smoking related illnesses. Vaping is a much better option now. This should be up to everybody sitting here.
[50:10] This is up to the parents. This isn’t up to you guys in that it should be the parents doing this for their kids. Restricting this, not you guys as city council for this stuff. Granted you do it because of yeah under 21 and 18 and that’s fine. But I’ll ask you one question.
[50:28] If you support stuff like this, how can you support signs in the city that I see that say f ice everywhere I go? I’m not kidding. You know, don’t you think that’s bad for kids to to read that? It’s terrible. It is. Why why isn’t anything done about that? But now you’re trying to take this away from people.
[50:46] And she has that right to vape. I know a lot of people at vape. I’m in support of what he does 100%. But if you decide to do this, then why don’t we do something about getting kids off of fast food for obesity? Let’s ban fast foods, let’s ban gambling, let’s ban the liquor
[51:03] establishments in the city from any of that stuff because it’s so addictive. So do it all. Don’t just do part of it. If you’re going to do one, you know, you all sit there and I know you all got looks on your face like, hey, go away, that’s fine. But that’s the way it is.
[51:17] You know, I’m appalled at some of the stuff I see the council doing in the past few years, and how you’re destroying Crystal. I support him 100%. I hope he gets what he wants. Thank you. Thank you sir. You bet. Thank you. Robert. Thanks to you all.
[51:36] Madam mayor, we do have one person on zoom who’s raised their hand. Lance Klatt, the executive director of the Minnesota Service Station and Convenience Store Association. If I may.. Absolutely right. Go ahead, Mr. Klatt. Of the City council. Thank you for allowing me to virtually this evening. You’re getting a repeat. Pardon? We’re hearing you fine, sir. Okay. I’m just. I’m hearing that I apologize. Okay.
[52:12] Uh, my name is the executive director of the Minnesota Service Station and Community Service Association. My organization reports nearly 300 individual stores fueling locations in the state of Minnesota. The Minnesota school station Association opposes this proposed ordinance.
[52:46] For many reasons, the harm this will cause our retailers and small businesses who would lose the ability to sell awful and product to adults. As other retailers will continue to sell to adults just as little as 15 minutes down the road in the next community. I heard and read a lot about how the goal of this is to protect the kids.
[53:07] I hundred percent support protecting the kids of Crystal as much as I protect my own kids from tobacco, but this doesn’t need to be an either or a choice. We can continue protecting the kids in our communities while supporting and promoting small businesses.
[53:32] That’s why both myself and Minnesota Retail Association, on behalf of our retailers, reached out several times to members of this council and city staff. Because when you’re looking to make a decision that is going to have significant negative changes to licensed businesses, you should be bringing all parties to the table. Unfortunately, that wasn’t done here.
[53:53] So while those advocating for this ordinance were able to be on the ground floor of working with this city, we were told that we would not be welcome to participate. Our retailers and retail associations have real ideas on policy. We want to be part of a solution which can keep protecting our children, while not putting small businesses out of business.
[54:14] I’d ask the council to not pass this ordinance tonight and have a real constructive dialogue with all parties, including your constituents, not just the advocates. By pushing this ordinance. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you. Abby Schreiber. Hi, guys. It’s my first time up here. Um. Welcome.
[54:48] Dear Mayor Deshler and Crystal City Council members, my name is Abby Schreiber, and I am a recent graduate from Robbinsdale Cooper High School and a crystal resident of section one, Ward two. I’m here in support of this proposal.
[55:03] Thank you very much for considering these changes to the City of Crystal’s tobacco ordinance, especially ending the sale of flavored tobacco products, including nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes. As a student promoting the health and wellness of young people like myself and advocating for our futures is very important to myself and my classmates. We know that the flavored products, sorry, the flavored products being sold in stores are targeted to youth.
[55:22] There are pouches and flavors like Strawberry Lush, Cactus Spice, and vapes in flavors like Tropical Rainbow Blast, Sunset and Honeydew. Pineapple orange. Young people who are who use commercial tobacco products start because of appealing flavors like these. Misinformation runs rampant online, and some students may not be aware that vapes contain the nicotine equal to sometimes thousands of cigarettes.
[55:41] When nicotine addictions start young, it creates a lifelong customer for the tobacco industry. Nicotine affects the parts of the brain that students need to establish themselves academically, socially, and psychologically. Nicotine can affect emotional regulation, decision making, motivation, memory, and the stress response. With the brain not being fully developing until 26. Nicotine on the young brain disrupts important neural processes. Adolescent brains.
[56:05] Sorry. Adolescence brain shows a greater dopamine release in the reward center. And simultaneously, adolescents brains show reduced negative effects, including less nausea and less anxiety from high nicotine doses. This means that because of the physiology of the young brain, there is more reason to keep using and fewer warning signs to stop.
[56:23] Academically, many nicotine users tend to skip class or attend or spend additional time hiding in bathrooms, which in turn to make school more difficult to end. Good grades harder to achieve. That additional stress tends to have tobacco addicted users turning to more hits of their vape, leading to more struggles.
[56:40] It’s a vicious cycle for young students. This addiction can have lasting effects. Minnesota Student Survey data shows that although vaping rates are down, those who are vaping are using daily or near daily with strong dependence. However, the same survey shows that anxiety and depression are still high in Minnesota schools.
[56:59] Addiction is stressful on your mind and body, as is hiding it from teachers and parents. Schools are doing everything they can to prevent youth from picking up a vape, but they can’t do everything alone. Ending the sale of flavored tobacco products reduces the access and appeal of these products, reducing the amount of young people who ever decide to try one.
[57:16] Please vote to end the sale of flavored commercial tobacco products. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Gabrielle Horsford, I hope I pronounce that right. Good evening, Mayor and city council. My name is Gabrielle and I am a health professor at North Hennepin Community College.
[57:44] And Norman Dale Community College, as well as a community outreach coordinator at the Association of Non-smokers Minnesota. As a faculty member in this part of the Metro, I teach health courses to many of your youth and guiding them as they learn about healthy behavior, disease prevention, and behavior change models is the most fulfilling part of my day.
[58:04] Every behavior change model that we discuss in class highlights the importance of our social and our physical environments, and the impact that these environments have on our health outcomes. It is easier to be active when we have bike lanes. It is easier to eat well when we have markets, and it is easier to prevent youth tobacco usage.
[58:23] When our communities make efforts to improve the environment. When addressing the economic impacts of flavored bans on a community, it is important to recognize that the cost associated with tobacco affect everyone. The goal of ending the sale of flavored tobacco is to end the sale of flavored tobacco. That is a fact. But. That does mean it will have an impact on tobacco retailers.
[58:47] But when children and young adults are addicted to flavored tobacco, what does it cost us all as a community? The harms of nicotine addiction impact all of us. First, through health care costs, as insurance costs for businesses and employees continue to rise. It costs all time and lost productivity.
[59:08] It costs us, our friends and family through preventable mortality and morbidity, and it affects our students futures as they repeatedly leave the classroom to satisfy their addictions, or as they struggle with mental health issues like depression and anxiety, which are worsened through nicotine addiction. We cannot pretend that these products with flavors like mother’s milk and white gummy ice, are not marketed towards young people.
[59:31] The way these products show up on social media make them seem attractive and sometimes even beneficial to young people who are already struggling with finding their footing. In a world that looks a lot different than the world that we grew up in. Eliminating all flavored commercial tobacco products will reduce youth smoking and nicotine use rates.
[59:51] Address health inequities. Improve health outcomes, and lower health care costs for all Minnesotans, including those in Crystal. I implore the council to move forward with these proposed changes that would end the sale of all flavored commercial tobacco products, cap tobacco retail licenses, set a minimum price, and remove price discounting. Thank you very much.
[1:00:13] Thank you so much. Crystal tobacco. Mohammed Aishah Muhammad. Hello. Hello. Good evening, Mrs. Mayor. And the respected council members. My name is Mohammed Aja. I’m a general manager of Crystal Tobacco Depot, uh, located here in Crystal mall. Um, I’m here on behalf of the ownership, Mr. Cory Mitchell. He’s here with me today.
[1:00:46] Um, um, we’d like to address this, uh, notion here from our point of view or from our side as business. And, um. Uh, first of all, just so you guys know a little bit more about this specific business. Uh, Mr. Karim has purchased this business in January 1st of 2026, beginning of this year.
[1:01:04] So he’s been in ownership for about nine months. Yet? Uh, their business is partially paid off. Not not in full. So he still got, um, payments going. Um, uh, with the with that being said, uh, he’s basically in a very tough spot right now with this, uh, with this, uh, decision here.
[1:01:27] Um, uh, uh, Mrs. Mayor, you did stop at my store, and we had a conversation. You took a look at what we got and how our system works. Um, uh, as I explained, uh, back then, uh, the, uh, products that you guys are targeting here are about, uh, 65 to 70% of sales or revenue in general.
[1:01:50] So, uh, applying this law will basically mean automatic bankruptcy of all the smoke shops in the city. And, uh, I can tell you this from experience, because I manage multiple stores in multiple cities. And, uh, with this being said, uh, we we can tell. So this is gonna destroy the stores.
[1:02:11] And along with their employees, for example, our store has four employees in total, along with the ownership. And, uh, the other stores, I’m sure are also the same. Um.
[1:02:33] Uh, the issues we have with this is mainly that we we don’t think it’s fair for business, for small or small business, especially specifically. And the, the main reasons we we think so is this is a very small city, very small jurisdiction. So when you apply such huge changes to the industry, it’s a nobody is going to cooperate with the retailers.
[1:02:54] For example, if this is a state wide ban or something on on a big scale, it will change the the industry itself with, with the supply chains, the, the warehouses and all the way to the retail to take it in the direction that you are hoping to get to, where it’s less appealing to children or, uh, or so.
[1:03:16] So, uh, but when it’s a very small jurisdiction, we’re talking about, um, it’s not going to have any effect. And we’ve seen this in Arden Hills and Bloomington and other in other places.
[1:03:33] Uh, basically what what happens in this case is you just close up your stores, you destroy the small businesses that you have in the city, and the customers will just drive six minutes to new Hope or Robbinsdale and and buy what they like, you know, um, when it comes to, um, the, uh, the, the things that we were discussing here about the children, um, uh, I am I’m very surprised that this is being discussed in, uh, with, with the smoke shops when it comes
[1:03:59] to children, because smoke shops are 21 plus facilities. And, Mrs. Mayor, you walked in, you saw how we work, and, uh, our system doesn’t even allow the cashier to make a sale unless they scan an I.D..
[1:04:18] Um, if somebody, for example, has a passport, it has to be a manual entry, and a manager has to enter that with a code. No cashier can can make the sale to begin with. So I don’t see how is the children involved in this whole process.
[1:04:39] Now, uh, somebody may say, oh, maybe there is an adult buy in it for them, but an adult buying it for them, that’s, that’s I think I think we’re talking a solution for that will be maybe an educational solution. Not, not not a banning solution for the business. Um, uh, other than that, I mean, uh, honestly, I was a smoker myself of cigarettes, and I stopped smoking cigarettes six years ago.
[1:05:00] Uh, I wasn’t planning to do that because of health reasons, but to be honest, my wife hated the smell, so I had to keep my jacket at the at the garage, keep my clothes at the garage, things like that. Because the smell. So I switched to vaping and I do.
[1:05:16] I did want to mention that because I heard, uh, our friend here talking about how she felt better and yeah, I did have morning coughs and all of that every day with smoking cigarettes. And I felt better. I smelled better, you know what I mean? So, uh, I don’t think it’s it’s a good thing to take this choice from adults.
[1:05:34] You know, as an adult, I want to vape. I like to vape, and I like to to use nicotine pouch. Why? Why is a cigarette better? I don’t understand what’s. Why is a cigarette better than a nicotine pouch, for example, or a vape that doesn’t have as many harmful chemicals and it cause as many problems, right.
[1:05:57] Uh, we what we suggest is if we’re talking about children exposure, we’re worried about children seeing these products. Uh, we can assure you we don’t even let them in. If you want us to check IDs at the door, we’ll do that. But don’t don’t. Don’t make us jobless.
[1:06:19] You know, uh, we need these jobs, and we need our store. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Uh, see, um. Jackie Stewart. Good evening. Mayor and city council members. It’s nice to see you all. My name is Jackie Stewart. I’m with Hennepin County Public Health.
[1:06:52] I have had the pleasure of providing education and resources to you and your staff on commercial tobacco ordinance updates, and I want to commend the city for taking this important step. Commercial tobacco is a significant public health concern, as it can lead to death in up to half of its users.
[1:07:12] When used as intended, commercial tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability and death in the United States. Nearly nine out of ten adults who smoke cigarettes daily first try by age 18, the most effective solution is to prevent this before it starts, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
[1:07:36] In 2023, 76% of Minnesota students who experimented with commercial tobacco reported that the first product they ever tried was menthol, or another flavor. 93% of students who reported vaping used a flavored vape. Four out of five of these students may become dependent on nicotine, which impairs cardiovascular function, degrades their mental health, affects brain development, and primes the brain for any chemical addiction down the road.
[1:07:59] In 2024, Hennepin County Public Health and our partners assessed 17 tobacco retailers in Bristol. We found that flavored commercial tobacco products are abundant here, with 33% of retailers selling more than 20 different e-cigarette flavors. We also found that the average cheapest advertised price of a single disposable e-cigarette was only $17.
[1:08:25] 14 ten Hennepin County cities, including three that border crystal, already have policies that regulate flavored commercial tobacco. If Crystal adopts this ordinance, it will become the fifth city in our county to end the sale of flavored commercial tobacco. This is one of the most effective ways to prevent future generations of crystal residents from becoming addicted to nicotine.
[1:08:45] We know teenagers and young adults are sensitive to prices. When commercial tobacco prices are higher, it can help prevent young people from using commercial tobacco, and it helps support people who are trying to quit.
[1:09:03] We also know that exposure to commercial tobacco advertising and marketing is associated with increased use and youth initiation, reducing the number of tobacco retailer licenses in your city will decrease youth exposure and potentially lower commercial tobacco use throughout the community. Please consider Hennepin County Public Health as a resource as you consider and implement these measures. Thank you for your leadership and thank you for prioritizing health. Thank you Jackie. Uh, Aaron McCarthy. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very kindly.
[1:09:35] Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Aaron Maxey. I’m a local government affairs manager at Philip Morris international, US Corporate Services Inc., and I’m here to respectfully oppose the proposed tobacco ordinance this evening. And I appreciate the opportunity to offer. Comment.
[1:09:51] Uh, I’d like to note up front that while we have a similar name, Philip Morris international, or PMI, is not Altria or their subsidiary, Philip Morris USA. Importantly, and unlike Altria, PMI does not commercialize combustible cigarettes or vaping devices here in the United States.
[1:10:12] Rather, at PMI, we’re committed to achieving a smoke free future by commercializing smoke free alternatives such as Zin oral nicotine pouches for adults 21 plus who did not quit the use of tobacco and nicotine, according to the CDC. There were upwards of 25 million Americans who continue to smoke, and nearly 500,000 of them who die each year from cigarette related disease and death.
[1:10:36] At PMI were passionately committed to two non mutually exclusive goals. First is ensuring that we’re keeping our products out of the hands of youth who should not use any tobacco or nicotine product. We do that by not commercializing products that are youth appealing or marketing to anybody under the age of 21.
[1:11:02] And second, helping those 25 million American adults who continue to smoke by providing them with scientifically substantiated, smoke free alternatives. And we do so out of a belief that those individuals who do not quit the use of tobacco or nicotine, folks like my grandmother, should not be left behind to face a binary choice of either quitting cigarettes or becoming a statistic of one of those
[1:11:21] 500,000 that the CDC says we lose each year. Now, Crystal’s made significant strides in keeping youth usage of tobacco and nicotine products low. And that’s that’s a goal I share in the PMI shares as well. According to the 2025 data from the Department of Education here in Minnesota, 96.
[1:11:42] 3% of youth grades eight, nine and 11, in the Robbinsdale School District are not using any tobacco product. And that’s a good thing. Now, there are legislative alternatives to a full flavored ban of products that can continue to keep youth usage low here in crystal, and work to drive it down even further.
[1:12:01] But in a way that doesn’t disadvantage adult consumers that are working to better their long term outcomes through a flavored, smoke free product, PMI is opposed to this ordinance because we believe, as it has, the FDA, under the past four administrations of both parties in the public policy principle of tobacco harm reduction and the ability of less harmful smoke free products to make a meaningful difference in the life of
[1:12:22] current adult smokers. To move away from cigarettes. The proposal is currently written, would remove all flavored products with no distinction made for products which have been authorized by the FDA, either as appropriate for the protection of public health or a modified risk tobacco product from store shelves and crystal.
[1:12:40] This would be leaving the most harmful form of tobacco and nicotine a combustible cigarette. As the almost exclusive choice for adult tobacco and nicotine. Consumers having significant negative effects on the proven successes, which folks smoke free flavored alternatives have had in helping adult smokers transition away from cigarettes and potentially pushing recovering smokers back towards
[1:13:04] that most harmful form of tobacco nicotine in a combustible cigarette. Again, I thank you for your time. The ability to make comment tonight, I would respectfully urge you not to pass the ordinance as drafted, nor close the door on proven progressive public health policies like tobacco harm reduction. Thank you. Thank you. Elise, let’s.
[1:13:34] Thank you. Mayor Deshler and council members, for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Elise Les, and I’m the executive director of Tobacco Free Alliance, a Minnesota nonprofit focused on preventing youth commercial tobacco use.
[1:13:55] I have more than 20 years of experience in community health prevention and policy advocacy, working with youth schools, public health departments and communities across Minnesota. I’d like to take a moment to address one argument that you’ve heard tonight from the tobacco industry and From some of the people who’ve spoken against the ordinance. The proposed ordinance, and that’s that.
[1:14:16] Vapes and other oral or oral nicotine products are, quote, harm reduction tools. Before accepting that claim, we need to ask a very basic public health question what does harm reduction mean? Harm reduction is an evidence based public health strategy to reduce the risk of death, disease and other negative consequences associated with drug use and other high risk behaviors.
[1:14:41] It is not simply a claim that one product may be less harmful than another. For an individual who already smokes combustible cigarettes. In public health, we have to consider the entire population, including people who currently use tobacco. People who don’t, and young people who might otherwise never become nicotine users. If an adult who smokes cigarettes completely switches to a potentially less harmful product, that’s one scenario.
[1:15:06] But when people add another nicotine product while continuing to smoke, use multiple nicotine products, or when young people who would otherwise never pick up a cigarette become addicted to nicotine. The public health picture is very different, and the data show that these products aren’t simply replacing cigarettes.
[1:15:32] In 2021, almost 30% of adults who vaped also smoked cigarettes. Among adults using two or more tobacco products, cigarettes and vapes were the most common combination. The same pattern is showing up among young people.
[1:16:00] One US study found that 73% of young people, 15 to 24 year olds, who currently use oral nicotine pouches also smoked cigarettes, and among 18 to 24 year olds who used vapes in 2021, more than 61% had never smoked cigarettes. These numbers matter. They show that the public health picture is much more complicated than the tobacco industry’s harm reduction. Framing suggests. These products are not simply replacing cigarettes. They are creating new pathways to nicotine addiction.
[1:16:28] And we should be cautious about accepting the tobacco industry’s framing. The industry has a long history of presenting new products as solutions to the harms associated with its previous products, and that brings us back to the young people that I mentioned above. For them, vapes and oral nicotine pouches weren’t harm reduction.
[1:16:50] They are harm acceleration. And that is why we encourage you to consider the full public health picture when evaluating the potential impact of these proposed ordinances. Changes on the entire Chrystal community. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Leadership. Here we have eight yellow slips left. Sylvia Amos. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening.
[1:17:19] My name is Sylvia Amos. I served 13 years as president of the Women’s Auxiliary and Minnesota State Baptist Convention Group, and I also work as a community organizer with the Association for Non-smokers Minnesota. I am here today in support of this proposal.
[1:17:36] I have been a tobacco control advocate for a long time. And one thing I know for sure is that there is always more work to do. The tobacco industry is relentless. They continually change their products and present themselves as champions of public health. By promoting products they claim may be less harmful than cigarettes.
[1:17:55] But the bottom line is this the tobacco industry, including its retailers, survived by selling an addictive and deadly product. They make money from a product that kills people and costs all of us money. But more importantly, costs us our loved ones. You have heard from business businesses concerned about their bottom line.
[1:18:13] I urge you to look at the costs from another perspective. Tobacco costs our communities a lot, both in lives and in money. A report from Blue Cross Blue Shield shows that every year in Minnesota, we spend more than $4 billion on smoking related disease and death. That is $824 for every adult and child in Minnesota.
[1:18:34] Whether or not they smoke. On top of that, we lose approximately 6500 precious lives every year to this deadly product. Those aren’t just numbers to me. I have seen the horrible consequences of tobacco addiction affect my own family. For me personally, tobacco addiction has cost me the life of my mother.
[1:18:53] The life of my husband, and the lives of three aunts, all of whom smoked menthol cigarettes. The loss of life associated with flavored tobacco, particularly menthol tobacco, is prevalent in my community. The tobacco industry has relentlessly targeted black Americans with its marketing, and we experienced tobacco related disease at disproportionately high rates.
[1:19:16] That is an issue of racial inequity. We clearly understand that Dei diversity, equity and inclusion is not popular in this country, that the majority community, millionaires in the tobacco industry are comfortable maintaining the status quo of racial inequity by preserving racial hierarchy and protecting white advantage.
[1:19:41] But regardless of how you feel about Dei, the underlying health disparities remain. We cannot. We cannot ignore the unequal burden that tobacco related diseases places on the black community. For the tobacco industry, this is about power and profits. For us, it is a matter of life and death. It is time to stop putting profits over lives and start putting lives above profits.
[1:20:03] Ending the sale of flavored tobacco products and ending the tobacco industry’s underhanded practice of cutting our communities. A deal with coupons. Buy one, get one promotions and low price products to make tobacco more accessible can help protect young people, advance public health, reduce health care costs, and save lives.
[1:20:25] All lives matter, including black lives. Please vote yes on this proposal. Exceptions cost lives and you have an opportunity to save lives. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you very much. Anna Donato. Hi. Hi. Good evening. Yeah. Connie. Yeah, well. Thank you. I’m learning a lot tonight. Um, my name is Anna Donato. I am.
[1:20:56] You might know me. I’ve been in Cristal for years and years and years with Donato Floral, Mama Donato and Pickles Catering. Do you guys remember 36 and noble? No. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I own, um, the building on 42nd. There’s a tobacco store there.
[1:21:14] And Aman, who is the owner, uh, called me and said, Will you come to this meeting? And I didn’t know, to be honest. Only three days ago, I learned what all this is about. And I did make some phone calls, and I did do some research, and I’ve learned a lot.
[1:21:32] And I’m amazed how many people are here and how much passion they have on both sides. Um, but I’m going to give you a little perspective of, um, business. Um, I’m going to talk a little bit about trends. Um, and I’m going to talk about the city of Crystal. Um, I have a lot of passion for you because I grew up in Crystal and third grade. We moved from Minneapolis.
[1:21:51] I had Italian immigrant parents. We lived in Minneapolis, and they moved to Crystal on 3548. Kyle and, uh, I grew up there, went to samba, went to Lee school, then went to Sandburg, and then I went to Armstrong. Uh, I got married, opened a business. Donatas, the flower shop. And then we opened.
[1:22:10] Eventually, Mom and Xanatos. Um, if all of you know the history of 36 and noble, some of you, you know that there was a thrift store called Bibles Formation Thrift Center, right. And ever bought the building? I should have bought the building from? Um, uh, the owners that were there, Stan and Merle were there.
[1:22:28] They owned a drugstore called Noble Drug. I mean, I might be going way back. You guys, this is from 70s and 80s, but Crystal is my home. I don’t live here now, but I own a business here.
[1:22:43] Um, we didn’t buy the building, so we were in this position where we were at the mercy of Bibles for mission. Who did buy the building? It was Snyder Drug, and then it turned into Bibles for mission in 2018. Um, the volunteers there got into spat with my husband, who is foreign. He’s, um, born in Kenya.
[1:23:09] And, um, they were not happy that we had already renewed our lease when they bought the building. They were trying to evict us for absolutely no reason. Um, so a long story short, my husband wanted to move his catering company a restaurant, and he bought that building. He just on a whim.
[1:23:28] I didn’t even know he was going to buy this building, but he bought it. Um, we ended up working with fees. This this owner of the leasing company of the building, and, uh, we found a renter.
[1:23:51] We found a renter who was open a tobacco store, and, um, I’m going to I’m going to go back to what I feel we have to talk about, because when he told me that this would potentially put him out of business. I was flabbergasted, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that that could put him out of business, where I won’t have someone lease the space. And he’s a great, great guy.
[1:24:10] Um, and he follows the law. I guess there’s all kinds. I’ve heard that they have to be 21, and I don’t know if you have to be 21 to walk into a tobacco store.
[1:24:27] Do you? Does anyone know you have to be 21 to walk into a tobacco store? Um, the the point I want to make is if we have these businesses that people are still walking into as walk in traffic, it is so hard to have a business where a brick and mortar store is still desired and still has patrons. I can’t tell you how hard it is in this climate right now.
[1:24:47] When you can pick up the phone or look at or order online, and they can also order these products online, I believe. Is that correct? You can order can you order vape online? Yes, yes you can. Okay. So there there is ways to get this product.
[1:25:04] Um, many ways to get to get the vape right. So the city of Crystal is going to take on a position of literally putting all these businesses out of business, leaving vacant spaces isn’t a vacant space something that you don’t want? What, what what is going to replace these tobacco stores? What’s going to
[1:25:30] replace my tobacco store? What can who can I lease to? Because retail has switched, it’s completely changed the climate of how business is done. I can tell you a story. We were canning tomatoes on Saturday, Sunday, and I didn’t have a funnel.
[1:25:50] And I called my niece and I said, you know, you got to bring a funnel. She goes, I don’t have one. I want the big mouth funnel. And she goes, don’t worry, I’m going to get on Amazon. It’ll be here tomorrow morning at 8:00, 8:00 in the morning you’re going to get a funnel.
[1:26:08] You mean you cannot get up and go to the store and buy one? It’s no different if you take away this type of people. The neighborhoods want it like adults want to be able to walk into a store and purchase what they want to purchase. It’s just like liquor. It’s just like anything that is, uh, a law abiding citizen can purchase.
[1:26:28] I mean, you you’re taking that away. You’re taking revenue away. If we want to talk about kids and, uh, what is really affecting. If you want to get into the business of public health and I respect I mean, it I respect the people who are here that are against it.
[1:26:50] I understand, I understand, but I think it’s too drastic to ban it in crystal. I mean, you’re a tiny little town and you’re banning something that it absolutely makes zero sense to me.
[1:27:12] If people are still making purchases and this is 60, 70% of their business, it’s like telling me that I can’t sell lilies because cats potentially can eat them and die. I mean, is that logical? I mean, you don’t change everything because of this one issue. That’s a huge issue to put on this council, to say that you’re responsible for kids vaping and their health. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about other things. Well, we got. I’m going to go over three things and then I’m done.
[1:27:39] Okay. Do you know that children and teenagers, the calorie of junk food and processed food, 62% have that in their diet every single day? Okay. The addiction of sugar and highly processed foods. Are you going to get rid of every McDonald’s? Every.
[1:28:03] You know, I think people have already said that taking on such a big thing and thinking you’re going to be the change and you’re going to be the savior of of these kids, is absolutely incredible to me. This is not something they should even put on you. This is a business, a community. You are not going to make a change just by closing down the vapes.
[1:28:24] Sorry, not going to happen. You can try, but it’s not going to happen. And I don’t know what the whole key is of fighting this battle. Um, because these big box stores, these conglomerates, you know, they want to take away the American dream from these people who own these businesses.
[1:28:43] They’re family owned, they’re educated people that know about these products. They’re they’re making sure that it doesn’t get into the hands of, of of kids. But I don’t know how much, you know, um, how much you can do and go online, I think. I don’t even know how you prove that.
[1:29:01] Can you make a purchase online? Can you prove it that you’re 21? How do you prove it? I require. An ID so you can go get your mom’s ID, and you can just scan it in and buy your products. Anyway, uh, thank you for your time. I actually, I oppose this. Okay, but I love your flowers. Thank you. Seriously. Thank you.
[1:29:26] All right. Next person. Uh, Nimmo. Ahmed. Did I pronounce that right or. No? No, it’s not Ahmed. What is. It? non-GMO. Nashville? Yeah. Okay. Um. Good evening, mayor and Crystal city members.
[1:29:53] My name is Najwa Ahmed, and I am a sophomore in high school and a member of the Association for non-smokers Minnesota Student Action Team, a group of students from different high schools passionate about protecting our peers from the harms of commercial tobacco and nicotine products. Thank you for considering the ordinance in front of you, which would end the sale of flavored products, increase minimum prices, and cap the number of places that can sell these products.
[1:30:13] We fully support this. Simply stated, it would reduce the access and appeal of commercial tobacco and nicotine products to young people and help all people quit ending the sale of flavored nicotine products reduces their appeal to teenagers and helps prevent younger siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and classmates from starting in the first
[1:30:34] place. To be honest, as part of the youth, um, youth aren’t drawn to original tobacco flavored product. They’re drawn to the sweet, fruity and minty flavored designed to make the poison taste better.
[1:30:59] Although the consequences of using tobacco products is not are fairly immediate, excluding the psychological and neurological effects in which these products will alter the brain chemistry, which I believe is absurd and bizarre considering their heavy appeal to youth. The serious health risks include, but are not limited to, chronic respiratory disease, various forms of cancer and cardiovascular damage. The damage is does not accumulate right away, but it is still very dire.
[1:31:26] In addition to presenting serious health risks. Sorry, these products contribute significantly to environmental damage. Vapes are labeled as disposable, in which they are not. They are very few facilities. Facilities here in Minnesota in which they can take and dispose of them properly.
[1:31:50] A lot of the time this leads to fires and very harmful leaks in which damages the environment and it costs, I think, about $5 to properly dispose of each one in which that money is taken away from Minnesota taxpayers throughout their lifecycle, commercial tobacco products contribute to deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, single use plastic waste, and electronic waste. All flavored products are made of plastics and contain hazardous chemicals that pollutes our environments.
[1:32:17] All of us deserve to live in communities where they are not aggressively targeted by the tobacco industry with appealing flavored products in which vapes, nicotine pouches, all tobacco products are included at every corner. Thank you for your ongoing time and commitment to protecting Minnesota’s youth’s health, everyone’s health, and the environment. Thank you.
[1:32:39] Thank you very much. Hey, we’ve got three different names here, but same handwriting and everything, so I don’t know if it’s same organization. Gene Nichols. That would be me, Gene Nichols. Okay. Thank you. Madam mayor. Council members. Friends, my name is Gene Nichols.
[1:33:13] I live in Shoreview, Minnesota, where I serve on the Human Rights Commission and also serve at the Ramsey County Charter Commission. I’m here today as a community member to ask you to consider the policies in front of you.
[1:33:39] So let me give you a little context of why I’m here between 2016 and 2018, I was a member of a community based organization, um, who received a grant from MDH in conglomeration in collaboration with Hennepin County. Uh, we did a survey and investigated the impact of flavored menthol tobacco in the African-American community.
[1:34:09] We found that 84% of African Americans smoked, flavored, um, uh, menthol in the metro area and 72% agreed that menthol flavored products made it harder for them to quit. Well, this is where it gets a little personal for me. Um, my brother, who received cigarettes free at the age of 15 on the streets, started smoking, and he died at age 68 from COPD. He was my best friend. My grandfather died at age 69.
[1:34:36] He smoked cigarettes and cigars most of his life and died from lung cancer. My mother had it a little easier. She tried to quit after 25 years of smoking. Her death was due to smoking related illnesses, so she got away with it. Wasn’t direct, but this is the way I think.
[1:34:59] I wanted to talk a little bit about business, and I understand what you’re here to do. I served at 3 a.m. company for 35 years in the health care division. As such, I saw a lot of issues with the physicians that I work with. One of the things was tobacco related illnesses, and what I found out to working with 3 a.m.
[1:35:28] now solvent, am, um, that it cost Minnesota more than $4 billion in excess in health care costs. That’s about 600,600, $600,000, $600,000 per adult in each and child in the state. The long term interest here is you cannot compare the cost of doing business with the loss of life. That’s what we have to deal with in the community that we serve.
[1:35:57] So I ask you this evening to consider these programs, these policies that are in front of you, not for anything other than helping to protect our young people from continued addiction and using flavored tobacco. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Jeanne. Emily Anderson. Good evening, mayor. Members of.
[1:36:23] The city council. My name is Emily Anderson, and I’m the director of policy at the Association for non-smokers Minnesota. Our organization fully supports your proposed tobacco ordinance updates. These policies have proven to reduce youth initiation, improve health disparities, cut health care costs, and most importantly, as you’ve heard, save lives.
[1:36:41] You have heard from tobacco. Retailers say that they share the goal of protecting youth and improving public health. However, the question before you is not whether individual retailers care about young people. The question is whether flavored commercial tobacco products drive youth tobacco use and addiction. Decades, literally decades of research show that they do.
[1:37:01] Prevention for youth means fewer health disparities, lower health care costs, and more life saved for adults. This is why public health policies focus on the product themselves. At the population level. Impact. Retailers are also concerned that a flavors policy may push consumers to purchase their products in neighboring communities.
[1:37:20] There are numerous peer reviewed journal studies that do not support that concern. It is true that a few consumers occasionally purchase products from another city, but the choices of a few do not end up undermining the overall effectiveness of a local flavors policy when it comes to protecting the health of the entire population.
[1:37:37] Retailers have also raised concerns about unregulated disposable e-cigarettes flooding the market. This is a legitimate concern. However, they are describing products that they themselves are currently selling in their stores. Almost all vape products on the market are not authorized for sale in the United States by the FDA.
[1:37:55] So when you hear unregulated or illicit disposable vapes, don’t think of products being sold on the black market or in a dark alley. Instead, that these products are being sold by retailers right here in crystal products like these geek bars and loons are the unregulated, illicit vapes they have not received FDA authorization to be on the market, passing a Comprehensive Flavors ordinance will address the vast majority
[1:38:14] of these products, and it’s one of the few tools that local governments have to do so. Finally, some retailers call for more compliance checks or more high tech age verification systems. These proposals missed the root of the problem and are things retailers should be doing anyway.
[1:38:32] The problem with flavored products isn’t just underage sales. The root problem is that these products are highly appealing to young people. Young people are drawn in by the flavors and hooked by the high levels of nicotine. If we don’t address the appeal of these products, the flavors we’re ignoring, the root of the problem.
[1:38:49] Crystal will be in good company if you pass a comprehensive flavors ordinance and everything else you’re considering. Many of your neighboring cities have successfully implemented similar policies because they recognize that these policies work. Please vote yes. Thank you. Sam Krueger. Thank you. Welcome. Madam mayor members, thank you for having me.
[1:39:19] And today, my name is Sam Krieger. I’m a lifelong Minnesotan, and today I’m here representing the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, an organization representing 66,000 tobacco retailers nationwide, including several in the city of Crystal. I’m here today to speak in opposition to the proposed ordinance before you today.
[1:39:39] Um, at the risk of being repetitive and discussing many of the arguments that you’ve heard today and will undoubtedly hear in the future, and emails and phone calls and letters, I’d like to focus on some a few points you might not have considered in this proposal.
[1:39:55] But first, I’d like to establish something that I think we can all agree on. And that is every city, including Crystal, has several foundational businesses. This would include your your gas stations, your grocery stores, your convenience stores. And and being that we are in the Midwest, liquor stores as well. These are businesses that we rely on frequently to make sure we can get where we’re going.
[1:40:17] Now we can buy the products that we want and need for everyday life. For the sake of this discussion, I would like to make specific reference to our gas stations and convenience stores. On average, tobacco products make up about 30% of the products sold at these Main Street businesses.
[1:40:35] Of that, roughly three quarters are flavored products. So at a glance, this ordinance would eliminate about a quarter of the total sales that keep these businesses afloat. And keep in mind, people that go into these stores don’t usually just go in to buy tobacco products while in the store.
[1:40:52] They buy drinks and they buy snacks, groceries and other items. For this reason alone, the impact of this ordinance would be devastating to these businesses that we all rely on. Businesses that have historically very slim margins to begin with.
[1:41:15] Another reason to oppose this ordinance is that it will have a general inflationary effect on these businesses and on the people of Crystal, and here’s why. We have observed in localities that adopt minimum pricing ordinances, especially those as extreme as this one. In some cases, almost quintuple the price of certain popular products. There is a marked increase in the theft of these products.
[1:41:37] This is a public safety issue just as much as it is an additional cost factor that these businesses need to absorb. This ordinance will also increase the cost of selling the products in general, when retailers are forced to charge a higher price for their products. The costs associated with that, including credit card fees and other factors, also go up.
[1:42:04] Finally, with such a significant loss of revenue and again with ancillary sales, we’re talking about 30% or more retailers will need to adjust their prices on all of their other products to make up for that. That loss of revenue. Um, all in all, these wide ranging ordinance, ordinance proposals.
[1:42:24] Um, this is a classic example of death by a thousand paper cuts to these essential businesses. And for these reasons, and many others, I would encourage you to to reconsider the adoption of this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Siobhan. I can’t even start your last name. Oh, Shrivastava. What is it? Srivastava. It’s very pretty, but. Oh thank you. That easy to pronounce.
[1:42:52] Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Shivam Srivastava and I’m a Congressional District five representative on the Minnesota Youth Council. We are a legislatively mandated council composed of young leaders from across the state who work to uplift youth perspectives and ensure that young Minnesotans have a voice in shaping the
[1:43:09] policies that affect us. I want to express my gratitude for your consideration of changes to the Commercial Tobacco Ordinance, specifically ending the sale of flavored tobacco products. I am in complete support of these changes.
[1:43:27] As a student, my priority when it comes to commercial tobacco and nicotine products is youth flavored tobacco products, including menthol. Explicitly target youth. In fact, 93% of middle and high school students who use e-cigarettes use flavored products. Tobacco companies spend billions and billions of dollars on marketing, creating flavors remarkably similar to the things only kids love from the Gen Alpha social media trend. To like Dubai chocolate to candies like Sour Patch Kids.
[1:43:50] Now I put Dubai chocolate in there because my sister loves it. But I’ll expand a little on Sour Patch Kids because that’s my favorite. And it’s a lot of my friends favorite. Don’t don’t get between me and my don’t get between me and my Sour Patch Kids.
[1:44:06] If you come to my school and wave a Sour Patch Kids in front of a kid or a group of kids in one second, it’s going to be gone before they can even read the text on it, before they can even register that it’s a Sour Patch Kids, they’re going to take that pack just by that yellow and green imagery. Just buy that fruity look to it.
[1:44:24] The tobacco industry is spending so much money on creating vapes similar to that Sour Patch Kids, and I just wonder, what if that kid snatching the the the Sour Patch Kids was one of my friends was my sister was me.
[1:44:45] I’m concerned about my own safety to marketing budgets on products like pouches to have expanded and skyrocketed in the past two years, so that when those vapes aren’t available, you can have something else to fulfill your nicotine addiction. This flavored tobacco makes it easier to start and harder to quit. It’s only kids that love flavors.
[1:45:05] The price of tobacco products directly impacts usage levels among price sensitive communities, youth being one of them. Current tobacco prices are already too low, and the presence of coupons and promotions makes them even lower. The low prices render such products easily accessible to youth, who are already drawn in by the flavors.
[1:45:21] So now imagine you’re not just waving around the Sour Patch Kids, you’re handing it out and you’re shoving them in their faces. You might as well spoon feed it to them for such dangerous items. Tobacco products are far too attractive and far to attainable because of the profit centered methods of the tobacco industry, youth suffer the greatest consequences of these policies.
[1:45:36] And as a high schooler, I have seen and heard these stories firsthand, prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products is a crucial step in protecting Minnesota’s youth, and a step that many cities across Minnesota have already taken. I hope Crystal will join and take this step, too, because at its essence, the purpose of this is to save lives. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[1:45:53] All right. And the last one, gentry, since I let your mother go first, I didn’t even know that it was your mother. I try not to. How are you doing again? Good evening, mayor and members of City council.
[1:46:20] When discussing how to prevent youth access to nicotine, the debate often feels split between doing everything or doing nothing. A complete vapor ban is the frequent presented option as the only definite solution. However, a much more targeted, practical and effective approach exists that protects youth without disrupting adult consumer choices are hurting local commerce.
[1:46:42] Strict electronic age verification, coupled with robust local enforcement. As I said in my last time up here, we used to do multiple tobacco stings a year. Now we do the bare minimum, which is one, and we should increase that. Prohibition has has historically failed to eliminate demand. Instead, it shifts transactions to unregulated spaces.
[1:47:03] If we pass a blanket ban, a flavor ban, we surrender our oversight. The market doesn’t simply vanish. It moves to the trunk of an illicit seller’s car or across city borders. However, by keeping these products within our legal, regulated system, we maintain complete control over who buys them. The data proves that the system built on accountability works.
[1:47:23] I’ve heard other stats pointed out tonight, but this one was neglected. According to Minnesota Department of Health, youth vaping in our state has already dropped to historic lows, with 11th grade use going to just 8% from 36% in 2016. This progress didn’t happen because of a total ban. It happened because of education.
[1:47:48] The statewide tobacco 21 law and retail network that takes compliance seriously. Furthermore, data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services has shown that retail compliance checks regularly yield exceptionally high compliance rates. The overwhelming majority of our local store owners are responsible gatekeepers who follow the law requiring ID checks for anyone under the age of 30 that are.
[1:48:09] We are not the problem. Instead of an outright ban that punishes responsible small business owners and adult residents, we should fortify and enforce the framework we already have in existence. This council can achieve better public health outcomes by pursuing for specific, enforceable actions, mandating digital ID scanners at all tobacco retailers, increasing compliance checks and penalties, significantly raising the fines
[1:48:37] and risk of license suspension for any retailer not selling to minors. Ensuring absolute accountability. Funding mystery shoppers more tobacco stings direct local resources towards proactive undercover compliance checks to keep retailers constantly vigilant. Number four restricting sales to adult establishments only. If the council wants to limit visibility to minors and accessibility to minors.
[1:49:02] Remove these products from gas stations, convenience stores, grocery stores and all other common spaces that are not strictly 21 up establishments. By restricting flavored products exclusively to a licensed adult only tobacco specialty shops, we immediately drop youth exposure to zero while preserving the legal market.
[1:49:26] For us, a consenting 21 adults, a total ban represents an illusion of control that creates an unmonitored, underground economy. Strong enforcement, explicit age gating and move these products out of everyday retail spaces represent real control. Let’s choose the path of measurable accountability. Let’s protect our youth by strictly enforcing the law rather than introducing a prohibition that solves nothing. As we’ve known, we’ve learned in our history.
[1:49:49] Prohibition does not work. We saw it on how it expanded with alcohol. We have cafes called Rum Runners in Minnesota. We saw it and how it works with drugs. We saw how it works currently with tobacco, prohibition simply does not work. It looks great on paper but applied in real world practice. It’s not achievable. Thank you.
[1:50:10] Thank you very much. Also, one other thing. I have over 500 plus signatures I’d like to hand off to you. You can. Give it to the city clerk, please. My store and some others that there should show you. Um.
[1:50:26] I would pay close attention to where it says people are located. Not only Crystal residents shop in Crystal. I would like you to pay close attention to the cities that are mentioned in there that have full flavor bands. That should signify right there that that flavor band and Golden Valley did nothing. They drive to another city and buy it. I have Wisconsin customers. Wisconsin as a state bandit.
[1:50:47] Completely. I have a high amount of Wisconsin customers who come from Wisconsin to here to buy their products. Again, prohibition does not work. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anybody else to speak before the council tonight of this public hearing? Oh, okay. Come on up. Yes. So.
[1:51:14] How’s everyone? Uh, this is the list of names with the list. Uh, we just we just want to add about the the banning flavor. It’s act like, uh, there is a lobby that as a tobacco stores. And this, uh, it should be a, um, I mean, the kids and the neighborhood and everyone.
[1:51:38] Actually, if you want to talk about banning the flavor in the first place, if it’s a if it’s a part of the chain, if we call the tobacco industrial, we are one of the chain. We are not the whole chain.
[1:51:59] So if I want to if I want to put a ban on a flavor I saw, I have to look at the whole chain for the industrial itself. Well, I can see here that most of the banning it comes from, um, e-cig e-cigarette, which is still is not that tobacco stores. Are a problem.
[1:52:27] We are just a retail, you know, but at the same time it’s it’s it’s always when it comes in, in a flavor that, okay, let’s ban this flavor or less ban. Um, or let’s change the age of the customers. But at the same time, still, it’s not affect as a business.
[1:52:52] So if you are put any a ban on the flavor, why not look at the whole industrial itself? I just want to add this a point. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Hurt anybody else? Good evening. My name is Kelly Marsh. I’m the owner of Crystal tobacco. Oh, okay. Hi. I buy this business January 1st. Uh, I’ve been a smoking Marlboro Light. One pack a day. Eight years ago, when the e-cigarette, they came.
[1:53:19] They came with a lot of flavor. And one flavor was just regular tobacco. No flavor in it. I buy one, I try it, and I’ve been smoking it for eight years, and I quit my pack of cigarettes a day.
[1:53:39] Uh, if you guys gotta stop the flavor, we’re gonna lose our business. And it’s gonna be really, really tough. All of you have a phone, as have GPS on it. If you say, where is the closest dispensary is a three minute from here. Dispensary is not better than our tobacco shop. The flavor. We don’t make it. The factory in America.
[1:54:02] They make it and we sell it all. We want to tell you, we want to live just like everybody else. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Anybody else? Okay. The public hearing is closed.
[1:54:22] We’re not going to take any action right now because we’re going to talk about, oh my gosh, 9:00. And we’re just getting to our first regular agenda item. Oh. So, um, we’ll circle back on this at agenda item eight two. Right. It seems kind of odd. Isn’t it? Okay. A regular agenda item for, um, 8.
[1:55:01] 1 is the preliminary 2027 budget and property tax levies setting the date for the truth and taxation public input meeting. Who wants to make, uh, Jody Hay, how many slides is this gonna be? Less than 20. Motion. Yeah. Can I move to amend the agenda to have the 8.2 go now and have the budget item go after tobacco. But then they. Have to wait.
[1:55:24] That’s fine. All of these people are waiting. I so I move that if there’s a second. To second that. Here. Okay. Good question. Huh? All right. There’s a motion on the table to postpone eight one, which is. Nothing against you. It’s just all these folks are waiting, and.
[1:55:48] Yeah, let’s discuss. We’ll move it to eight two. But we need a vote. We have a. First and a second. Any discussion about moving 8.2 The Tobacco Ordinance discussion ahead of the budget agenda. What, are we so tired? We’re not talking or what? So I okay. Ask for. A asked if there was any discussion.
[1:56:21] No, there isn’t any. Okay. Good to go. All in favor, say aye. Aye aye. Okay. Motion carries. So we’re going to temporarily suspend the budget discussion for a little bit. And we are going to move. Talk about the first reading of an ordinance amending this crystal city code. Chapter 1105 Tobacco and Related products.
[1:56:44] In order to establish minimum sizes and prices for covered products. All right. I suspect there’s going to be a discussion on this. Who would like to go. First? I can go first. Okay, John. I am in complete support of this ordinance. I smoked for 25 years starting at age 15.
[1:57:19] Um, as a kid, um, my parents would ask me to go to the corner store, and I would purchase, uh, a pack of cigarettes. And I got to be at the point where I purchased my own cigarettes from the vending machine that was outside the gas station. Um, I smoked regularly.
[1:57:39] My wife and I, when we were looking for a place to live, we came to Crystal, and, um, I was not sure about living in Crystal. I mean, I grew up in Saint Paul, lived in Minneapolis, and my biggest concern was, um, how was I going to be where was the corner convenience store? Where
[1:57:53] was the store? Where I was going to be able to buy my smokes and, um, um, it finally got to the point where I was able to slowly wean myself off of cigarettes. It was very difficult. Addiction. Um, it was something that affected our life immensely.
[1:58:16] And, um, um, the the final ultimatum was my wife’s asked me if I wanted to have children. And I said, of course I want to have children. She says, then you got to quit smoking.
[1:58:33] And that was the that was what finally pushed me over the edge to quit smoking had been smoke free ever since, and, uh, I can’t tell you how difficult it’s been. I grew up in Saint Paul. There was a smoking area for my teachers, and there was a smoking area for students, and I played football and ran track.
[1:58:55] And, um, before we would, you know, start our game or or, um, or run, run our track meet, we would, uh, we were nervous and so we would have a heater underneath the, uh, underneath the stands. So, um, I’m in complete supportive of this ordinance for the city of Crystal. I think it’s just part of a regular progression that we’ve seen for tobacco products.
[1:59:12] You know, moving from, um, you know, smoking and not smoking in restaurants to, um, um, having to be 50ft from any building entrance. I just think it’s, it’s it’s time. So I’m in complete support of this. Thank you. I can go next and I’ll try and be brief. Um, similar to John, I am also in full support of this ordinance.
[1:59:35] Um, it is not lost on me. The impact that this has on businesses. I will be completely honest. Um, thank you for the industry lobbyists that came, but really, gentry did a really good job, um, making me feel that that impact. So it’s not lost on me. And I just want to say that publicly.
[1:59:55] I think when I looked at this and really reflected on the impact, and I talked to residents, um, and reflected on those around me who currently use vapes, and one of them is a family member who’s actually a customer at Gentry’s store.
[2:00:15] Um, I thought about, you know, yes, this is an impact on one business or two businesses or 20 businesses here in Crystal. But every single day there’s an impact on our community in terms and, you know, we bring this to dollars because we live in a world of dollars. There’s an impact on our community in terms of dollars.
[2:00:34] Every single person over $800 in excess health care costs in crystal alone, if you just look in crystal, that’s almost $20 million, $20 million in excess costs here in Crystal. Um, that’s a big, big number. And then you don’t even include that. The emotional, the sociological, the other impacts that this has.
[2:01:03] Um, I think when you look at nicotine, it’s a drug that’s extremely addictive. If you look at a number of different studies, and all of us know that there’s lots of studies out here, some of them industry funded, some of them government funded and whatnot. But from the government funded studies that I’ve seen and they similarly talk a similar tune.
[2:01:20] Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances that you can find. Some studies say it’s as addictive, if not more addictive than heroin. It’s just a lot harder to overdose on it. So obviously there’s that. But that means that there’s a business model out there.
[2:01:36] There’s a whole industry out there that is capitalized on this, on this substance that is so incredibly addictive. And if I think about what the purpose of government is, what our purpose up here is, it is to protect the public interest against the forces that are out there to abuse them.
[2:01:57] And addiction is one of those forces, especially when it’s commercialized at an international scale. And I feel the pain for those at the end of that large industry, because you are residents here. But at the same time, that large industry has a huge impact on all of us in this community.
[2:02:17] And yes, as some of you said, we’re just a little city here in Crystal. But you know what? I represent Crystal. I grew up in this community. I went to Cooper High School and I care about doing what I can do in this community.
[2:02:35] And if I go and I look at myself in the mirror, or if I talk to those around me, I want to be confident in knowing that I did the most I could do to protect my community from those forces that are out there to abuse them.
[2:02:54] And so that is why I’m in full support of this, and I hope that this sends a message to the other communities out there and to the state legislature that, hey, we are a small community here in Crystal, but we care about our people and we care about this industry. Taking advantage of them and creating these costs on our on the whole society as a whole. And we’re saying, no, enough is enough.
[2:03:13] And so, yeah, let’s make our city green on that map and join our, our friends in Golden Valley and Plymouth. And hopefully we can turn the whole state into that color as well. So and also I would say those individuals who are like, well, what about these other substances? I’m right there with you. Up next, kratom. Like I watch out.
[2:03:30] So, um, that’s I, that’s my that’s my 10s there or however long. That was. 25 bits. Oh. Tracy. I just have a little statement. Um, when I gathered my thoughts, I just wanted to share.
[2:03:48] Um, so first I just want to thank everyone in attendance tonight for taking the time to share your diverse perspectives with the council, and also to express my appreciation to the retailers who took the time to welcome members of the council into their shops and give us an opportunity to learn more about their businesses. Tough decisions like these often require a difficult balance between competing priorities.
[2:04:07] While I fundamentally oppose government overreach and want to protect small business interests, the data surrounding youth tobacco initiation is undeniable and has been ignored for too long. Statistics show that 90% of youth smokers start with flavored tobaccos or products, and 97% of youth who vape use flavors. Because research proves that individuals who avoid tobacco until age 25 rarely start.
[2:04:29] Protecting our youth now is paramount. Sweet and fruit flavors are engineered to mask tobacco’s harshness, creating highly addictive pathways and young and developing brains.
[2:04:48] Although our local businesses are diligent in preventing underage sales, and consumers can easily purchase these products in neighboring cities, I feel that these factors alone do not absolve us of our duty if we use regional inconsistencies to justify inaction on a documented harm to children, we fail to protect our communities future. We have been fighting this battle for decades, stretching back to my own youth when tactics like Joe Camel were used to target children.
[2:05:09] Today, the products have changed, but the strategy remains the same. I have continued to weigh the pros and cons, but I keep coming back to protecting our youth. Therefore, I intend to vote in favor of the flavored tobacco ban. Setting a clear standard here in crystal that the health of our children comes first.
[2:05:26] This local restriction may not stop the tobacco industry entirely, but it sends an unequivocal message that Crystal wood will actively protect our next generation. I appreciate everyone coming out tonight. Um, just great conversation around this. I am not fully in support of the ordinance in front of us. I’m in favor of most of it. So certainly want to continue with moving from 20 licenses to two.
[2:05:56] Um, knowing that over many years we will just see less tobacco shops in the city. Uh, but and I only want to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco. I want to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco. Except for in 21 plus tobacco shops.
[2:06:17] So being able to visit a couple of the shops over the last few days, um, the systems they have in place to prevent anyone younger than 21 in those stores. Um, was was nice to see.
[2:06:38] Um, and so for me, I think some of the things that the ordinance put forth, Will has put forth will help us reduce the exposure, uh, youth exposure to flavored tobacco while also allowing adults to partake in what they would like. Um, and so I would like the market more or less to decide, uh, the, the future of tobacco stores versus the council, um, determining that so, uh, that that is where I am at with the proposal.
[2:06:56] So, uh, as the, as the ordinance is, I’m not in favor of it, but hope we could make some amendments if possible. Anybody else wish to speak? David? Yeah, I’ll go ahead. So, um, I’m pretty close to Taji on this one.
[2:07:18] Um, it’s been great to have a lot of conversation today. I appreciate everyone who came and spoke. That’s been great. Um, but it’s my job to represent people who are in Ward four. I heard from several people who live in Ward four who are against this.
[2:07:32] Um, I want to support some of our local businesses, and I understand the arguments on every side. Um, but to me, it’s supporting residents who contacted me. And, um, that’s what I’m here to do is to represent people in Ward four. So I think allowing 21 plus shops, because I feel comfortable with the safety procedures that they have to limit tobacco to people 21 plus. Um, so I’m I’m okay.
[2:07:53] I’m open to changing that ordinance there. However, on the limiting tobacco shops, I believe that is a good thing to do. 20 tobacco shops in a town of 23,000 is way too many. And I’m hoping that that number can be drawn down over the years.
[2:08:11] I just think having too many in crystal is just a bad luck for the city, so I hope that number drops in the number. And naturally in the coming years. Um, but I would like a change in the ordinance to 21 plus shops going forward. So thanks.
[2:08:28] I guess I you know, I started out kind of a in favor of the total ban. And over time I, as things have evolved to feel like, um, the actual tobacco stores or shops that address the, the age group of 21 and plus, I feel like as an adult, people do have the right to go in and purchase it in their
[2:08:51] community. That’s where I stand on it. In terms of the retail gas stations and the grocery stores, any, anywhere where a person under the age of 21 can enter and buy other products. I’m not comfortable with them having the those products in the store.
[2:09:16] And if we can’t come to a consensus on the city council about how to go forward with this path, I’m hoping that we at least can be mindful of the fact that these stores, you know, maybe we increase the time that it would start, for instance, if, you know, allow them to stay in business until 2028 or something so they can have an opportunity to find a
[2:09:41] different business model or different products that they could possibly sell. Because I think the turnaround is too fast and it will put them out of business. So, you know, I understand the health aspect. I really do, because I have been a lifelong smoker.
[2:10:02] Um, this kind of why I want to see that city get healthy, because I can see what’s happening to me. But, um, I also am not everybody’s mother, and I don’t want to pretend to be sit up here and make decisions for other adults. I don’t think that’s my place. And so that’s kind of where I’m at right now. Okay. So really. Uh, Tyrese.
[2:10:29] It’s kind of all on you. Kind of three, three right now. Oh. Boy. I should have spoken earlier. Yeah, right. Yeah. I, like everyone else, want to thank the participation of all of you coming here tonight. This. It’s an engaged community. And I do appreciate that.
[2:10:56] I have changed my mind about this after hearing the business leaders here. And I really advocate keeping tobacco away from kids. And I agree with John and Forrest on that. But I’m also seeing the business community and the tobacco only shops that are there.
[2:11:16] A whole business model is set up so they don’t allow people in the store that are under 21. I don’t want to see those people go out of business. So if we can pass the ordinance that allows for the tobacco only shops and then keep the flavored stuff out of the supermarket or.
[2:11:38] CPD or Speedway and Cub Foods, if they still whatever, wherever they keep the flavored out of the stories that allow people under 21 and and I’m in support of the businesses that sell flavored as long as they’re 21. Plus only. That’s where. I’m at. Mayor. may.. I. Know? In for three. You’re done. No. Oh, okay.
[2:12:07] Um, I don’t know if other people on the council received an email from a former city council member in Saint Paul today. Yes. Um, and I think we might have somebody on that don’t want to throw it on the bus. Somebody who might have experience, um, in that specific jurisdiction. But I am very concerned about this path because it will.
[2:12:29] And this was discussed in our work sessions as well. If we go down the path where we only allow this in 21 plus establishments, that level of it kind of goes back to what Adam was saying earlier.
[2:12:52] It’s like we’ve essentially softened this to a point where it creates enforcement issues, right? So it’s like, what’s to establish a 21 plus area? Is it, uh, you have cubicle walls in a gas station.
[2:13:08] Is it you have like what? What does this mean? And and so the communities that have done this, you all of a sudden see an explosion of 21 plus add ons in these, these areas that were no longer 21 plus, um, I think that. But they have to get a liquor, a separate tobacco license that we’ve already stopped, that we’re not allowing that. So but the but they already have a tobacco license. Um, I. Maybe I’m confused.
[2:13:31] I’m not seeing this as a store within the store. The way the, uh. So how are you going to how how how can we draft that? Really? Subsection Council members. Um. I, I do have some.
[2:13:59] I did work for the city of Saint Paul during all of the tobacco changes and the evolution and and can explain a little bit about, um, the issue became what is an establishment? And they required a separate door. And so what happened is some stores would kind of subdivide, create a separate door, so they would have a separate, separate entrance. And it did cause a proliferation of these 21 and over separate establishments.
[2:14:17] So I, I don’t say that to to pick a side in this argument at all. But just by way of information and as your attorney, what I would if this is the path that you want to go down, then I think we need a layover for a bit before our
[2:14:28] second hearing so we can have an opportunity to thoughtfully draft what that language would look like so we can make a solid recommendation to you for what? What it looks like, what the language would be, what the what the enforcement would be, and kind of have a comprehensive conversation with
[2:14:45] your staff about what that change means to be implemented in Crystal. Okay. With that? Yeah, that’s what I’m in favor of. So I don’t want to try to amend the current ordinance. I think there’s too much we need to address.
[2:15:05] And so I’m in favor of can we just table The this item until we can have another work session on this. Yes, that’s fine with me. I wouldn’t want to do another work session because I think we’ve belabored this enough. I would propose we pass this resolution and then have staff, um, make edits as directed by us for the second reading.
[2:15:31] I don’t know if that’s appropriate unless it’s unless these are made. I don’t know if these are major. I, I procedurally, I think what you’re doing is you’re just you’re just continuing this to the next hearing. Um, and you’re directing staff to make some. Updates. To propose some amendments. Yeah.
[2:15:54] I would just encourage you not to do this at your next council meeting. Give us at least I’m going to look at Adam. I don’t know how long he thinks this will take, but I don’t think coming back in a week or two weeks is, um, is is the best way to manage figuring this out. Yeah. I mean, I don’t think we’ve belabored this.
[2:16:15] Obviously, our community is very engaged in this. I want to get this as right as we can, knowing that folks are going to be disappointed one way or the other. So I am in favor of taking as much time as we need for the council to be as aligned as possible.
[2:16:31] I don’t think there’s any rush necessarily on this. Um, so I would prefer we take the necessary time to, to draft a new ordinance. Okay. I concur. Do we have to, uh, have a motion just to table it? Let’s see. Yeah. Okay. I won’t make a motion that we table this.
[2:17:03] Um, conversation and decision so that staff and the attorneys can, um, make some proposed changes or amendments to the ordinance. Does anybody want a second. That I’d like to second that? Taji. Okay. Any further discussion? No discussion. No discussion. Okay. For motion. but a motion to the table. Okay. So, all in favor, say I. Aye. Okay, this is gonna be a roll call. All opposed? Nay, nay.
[2:17:31] Okay. Oh, you know how this is gonna go. Council member Cummings. I.. Mayor Deshler. Aye. Council member ID bow. Nay. Council member. Commish. Nay. Council member. Keyser. Aye. Council member Vanessa. Rosen. Aye. Council member. Boo. Nay. Motion carries. Okay. All right. There you have it. All right. Government and action. Right there.
[2:18:01] So it will be announced when the next conversation will have. And we will let you know. Okay. Thank you, everybody, for coming. Taking your time. We really sincerely appreciate. That it’s great to see you. You’re welcome. I’ve been over to see your son. I didn’t know that. Yes. Thank you for coming. You were his mother. He’s a. Nice family. Yes.
[2:18:32] I appreciate. Yeah, I would say you. Did come. Into the store. I got to keep this meeting going, so we’ll touch base. Okay. Hey, did you know what he passed. Away? They really wanted her. She used to call Jim that passed away recently. I’ll send you a Facebook message. I’m sharing. So we’re.
[2:18:52] Good. Thank you. Okay. There you go. So just let me know in the. We got. All right. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you, thank you. Gentry. Thank you. And then when you’re done, I. Need you. Okay. We are gonna, uh, keep this meeting rolling here. Natalie, I’m so sorry for the delay tonight.
[2:19:14] Didn’t know that we were going to need cats tonight. Did you? No worries. All right. So if you want to begin about the, uh, general fund and budget, have at. It. All right. Thank you, mayor and council.
[2:19:37] I’m Natalie Dawn, and I’ve been working with the city’s finance department for about over three years now and have begun assisting in. Thank you. Uh, budget preparation this year. Tonight, we will walk through the proposed 2027 budget, our general fund budget and property tax levy. We are asking council to take action on the following items tonight. First, to approve the 2027 proposed budget and general fund levies. Second, to set the date for the budget hearing.
[2:19:58] And lastly, adopt the EDA tax levy. Tonight we’ll cover the goals and directions used to build the budget. An overview of the budget timeline. A review of the 2025 2026 city achievements. The major impacts on the 2027 budget. A summary of the General Fund revenue and expenditures.
[2:20:22] The proposed property tax levy and estimated tax payer impacts. And lastly, we will see Council’s approval on the proposed budget and tax levies. Set the date for the public hearing and adopt the EDA tax levy. As a quick reminder, the budget goals included meeting community service needs and legislative requirements while trying to limit the impact on taxpayers.
[2:20:46] Address Council’s strategic strategic priorities. Excuse me. Um. Continue to using a two year financial plan so we can look beyond the next year’s budget. Keep investing in long term capital needs, including parks and streets.
[2:21:11] Remain competitive with wages, so the city staff can, um, can attract and retain quality staff and stay responsive to changing economic conditions. Um, a quick overview of the budget process, timeline. Tonight, Council will consider the preliminary levies and the general fund budget and receive public input.
[2:21:33] There will be another opportunity for public input on October 6th, and council will review the long term plan on November 12th and consider the fee schedule on November 17th. And lastly, on December 1st. Council will adopt the final budget. The final budget tax levies and the long term plan. Um, before we get into the 2027 budget, I wanted to take a few minutes to highlight what the current budget has supported.
[2:21:53] Um, I won’t go through every line item. There’s quite a few, but the next few slides will show all the great accomplishments that the city has achieved over the last two years. Um, this slide shows the progress of the administration and community. Community development departments. Um, just to name a few.
[2:22:13] The city adopted its 2025 2027 strategic plan and a Climate action Plan, and as well, the city also supported two apartment projects that will add 222 housing units and 50 million in property. Our market value. Uh, the next slide continues. The highlights for public safety.
[2:22:39] Um, the police department expanded victim services and community connections and achieved one of the highest case clearance rates in Hennepin County. West Metro Fire Rescue implemented a more reliable response model and improved incident command and operational readiness. Um, next, uh, the final accomplishment slide highlights Parks and recreation, as well as streets and utilities. Um, parks and recreation. Redeveloped woodland and forest school parks.
[2:23:06] Um, and then it also the Crystal Cove Aquatic Center opened its for its first full season since 2023. And for streets and utilities, the city increased street maintenance and crosswalk painting. Um, and improved security at water reservoirs and lift stations. Um, now we’ll look at the larger items impacting the 2027 budget.
[2:23:34] Um, for wages, there was no new full time staffing request. However, seasonal and temporary wages did increase. Um, insurance charges provided a net decrease of about 278,000. Internal service charges for it. Building and fleet increase by about 1.1 million.
[2:24:00] Uh, for community development, a comprehensive plan consultant adds about $100,000 over the 2027 and 2028 budget, so split between the two years and part of that total cost will be offset by a $54,000 Met Council grant. The budget also includes several technology updates. Uh planned $500,000 reserve decrease from about 1 million in the prior year. And then lastly, a potential franchise fee of $6 per month per utility. Um, this would actually impact the street reconstruction.
[2:24:27] Our street construction levy proposed tonight and will impact the street fund rather than the general level. General fund. Um, next, the slide identify our. This slide identifies the changes in both revenue and expenditures between the 2026 budget and the proposed 2027 budget.
[2:24:54] We are projecting an overall increase to the general fund by about to 1.84 million. On the revenue side, property taxes accounts for most of that increase, while the on the expenditure side, the largest increases are in personnel costs and internal service charges. Uh, next, the following chart shows a more in-depth review of that same year over year change in expenditures by department.
[2:25:18] The largest increases can be seen for police, followed by street maintenance and park maintenance. Several other departments have more moderate increases, while fire and mayor and council show decreases compared to the prior year budget. Um, and to note, the percentages on this slide are compared with that department’s prior year budget. Um, as well.
[2:25:40] Um, and then the key point is the overall increase is spread across service delivery, staffing, internal support costs. Um, rather than just one, one department. Um, next, uh, this summary provides, uh, is a summary of the general fund revenue and expenditures as compared to the prior year budget. Um, the proposed 2027.
[2:26:04] But general fund totals about two 28.1 million, which is a 7% increase over 2026. The property taxes remain the largest revenue source for the general fund and the largest service areas for expenditures are public safety and public works. Um.
[2:26:29] This next chart highlights the breakout of funding sources for the general Fund, as shown in the previous table. Um, property taxes support about 78% of the general fund, while all other sources make up about 22%. Um, to put it another way, the levy provides approximately $3.54 for every $1 of every of the other revenue sources. Um, next, this pie chart shows the percentage of the general fund budget expenditures by major service area.
[2:26:58] Public safety represents the largest share of 45%, reflecting the city’s continued commitment to community safety and well-being. Public works represents the next largest share of 23%, reflecting the city’s focus on maintaining and improving infrastructure, recreation represents about 14%, reflecting the city’s investment in community, social and recreation activities. Um, to break that down a little bit further on, the expenditures.
[2:27:29] Um, this table shows breaks it down by department. Um, police is the largest individual department at about 36% of the general fund budget. Fire park maintenance and street maintenance are the next largest departmental shares. Um, this chart illustrates the city’s full time employee count and how it’s changed. Uh, over time.
[2:27:56] The graph includes full time employees only. This does not include seasonal or part time staff. Um, the increase shown between 2025 and 2026 reflects positions previously discussed um, including the building and commercial inspector. Uh, another police officer, victims advocate and the Forestry and Natural Resources coordinator. It also represents some changes in employees switching from part time to full time.
[2:28:23] Um, and then, as previously mentioned, no other full time staffing is requested in this budget. Uh, the following chart shows the projected unassigned general fund balance compared to the city’s 40% target. Um, the fund balance for 2020, um six is currently projected to be 36. Approximately 36% based on the budgeted expenses, which is below that targeted 40% line.
[2:28:52] Uh, the 2027 budget reflects a planned $500,000 transfer to the fund balance. Um, it’s important to maintain a healthy fund balance as it provides flexibility for unexpected costs, supports cash flow, and to manage long term financial risk.
[2:29:13] The planned transfer demonstrates the city’s continued commitment to building reserves toward its target and preparing for future needs. Um, next, we’ll move on to the proposed property tax levy for 2027. Um, and we’ve presented that with the prior two years as a reference. Um, the total proposed 2027 levy is approximately 24.1 million. That is about 1.7 million, or 7.
[2:29:39] 66% increase compared with the 2026 adopted levy, which is about half of the prior prior increase. The General fund, or the general levy, is approximately 21.8 million, which is a 9.4% increase. The total levy also includes the EDA levy, but the um. The additional levy details were covered in a separate presentation earlier.
[2:30:03] Um, and again, this is a pre preliminary levy as a reminder to council. Um council can reduce it before final adoption but it cannot increase it after the primary levy is certified. Additionally, as more communities adopt their preliminary levy, we will provide further comparisons to our crystal. As at compared to others.
[2:30:27] Um, so with the property tax levy, what could it mean for taxpayers? The levy, including the HRA, include our increases by 7.6 or is increases by 7.66%, while estimated tax capacity increases by 3.81%. Based on those assumptions, the estimated tax rate increase, uh, increases by 3.10% for the estimated home values shown in the second box there.
[2:30:57] The estimated annual tax increase for a typical homeowner ranges from about $99 to $191, or roughly between 8 to $15 per month. It’s important to note that these estimates are preliminary and may change slightly. Change as the county refines, refines its data. We will provide updated figures as additional information becomes available.
[2:31:25] And to wrap up tonight’s presentation. Again, we are asking council to approve the proposed 2027 budget and levies for both the city and the EDA, as well as set the public hearing date for December 1st. Um, with that, staff is available to answer any questions. Thank you.
[2:31:47] Does anybody have any questions? Now? Sure. As you know your name, that that’s 7.66 or whatever. Proposed tax levy will keep us. On the straight, narrow path and not in dangerous in a year or two? Yes. Madam Mayor. Um. I one of the things that I. As the manager, have. Been very, uh. And I. Want to just give a thanks to. Abdul.
[2:32:19] Both. Jody and Natalie for helping us do this. I’ll just describe it as magic. Um. But we we we. Had to move a lot of pieces, but I at the end of the day, I’m very confident that this maintains our progress and does not set us back. Okay.
[2:32:38] Um, because of where we were when I started in 2023 and the challenges we had, we made quite a bit of progress. Um, we were able to take a take, you know, ease the the rate and the pace.
[2:32:53] Um, but this does keep us on, on track and tries to balance, you know, the public appetite for the the pace, but also does what we need it to do. Um, we’re not out of the woods yet, but we are much closer to the. Okay, the clearing up ahead. I trust you implicitly.
[2:33:09] I just, you know, I sleep better at night knowing what the city, you know, the you’re steering the city and the right direction that we’re not in any financial jeopardy will be a viable and vibrant community for the next, you know, 100 years long after, you know, we’re gone.
[2:33:27] So thank you for all your work and all the staff and the accounting firm, because this is not work that I would be too interested in doing day in and day. Out. So I do I do have one question. So if you can go back to your slide, you were talking about health care coverage. There’s a decrease in everything I’ve heard from across the board is that, you know, most insurance, health care. It says. Decrease in work comp.
[2:33:50] Work with cough. I’m sorry, what about health care? We’re our health care was stable this year. Um, we did start a new three year contract. Um, and so that was reflected in the, um, all three unions had agreed to that. Um, okay. So that’s what was on the consent agenda.
[2:34:08] Um, but we were very fortunate because we’ve heard the same things. Um, this year was kind of wide open because it was a new contract. Um, but the next, next three years of the contract, there are caps. Um, next year, I believe it’s 4.5%. No, sorry. Ten, 10.5, 10.5. And then the year after that is 10.5.
[2:34:28] Um, obviously our we’ve not reached that because our, our usage, our claims have been under. So we’re at one of the top, top bands within the 11 bands that they now are going to have. Um, so we’re employees are doing our part. The wellness programs help.
[2:34:48] Um, but yeah, our we were very lucky and very fortunate that our it was we were able to maintain stability with our health insurance specifically this year. Awesome. Thank you. I. Nice job. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. What do you want on there? Oh, I’d just like to make a motion. Oh, okay. Can I do that? Yes, please.
[2:35:11] Uh, I’d like to make a motion approving or like. No, I’d like to adopt a resolution approving the 2027 general Fund budget. 2027 preliminary property tax levy. Set the public input date for the 2027 budget and preliminary property tax levy. Second. Oh, sorry. Oh. That’s okay. Go ahead. Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye.
[2:35:42] Any opposed? Now, uh, resolution approving 2027 proposed economic development. Yeah. I’d like to make a motion, um, to adopt a resolution approving the 2027 proposed Economic Development Authority property tax levy. All right. Is there a second? I’ll second that. Okay. Thank you. Theresa. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye.
[2:36:15] Any opposed? Okay. Next item is, uh, 8.3. We’re kind of jumping around here. Uh, Council is considering a second reading of an ordinance amending council salaries and a resolution approving some summary publication. Thank you. Jody. Uh, Natalie. Uh, mayor. Madam mayor, members of the council. This is the second reading of the ordinance to amend the council salaries.
[2:36:46] Um, I’m not going to go through all the details, but what this does is uses the, uh, CPI w for workers and clerical workers index. Uh, that the Bureau of Labor and Statistics produces every month. And it also updates the base salary that will be effective January 1st of 2027.
[2:37:07] And then will be adjusted annually, uh, using that CPI w index, uh, same materials that were provided the last the first reading, uh, shows where Crystal, the crystal, mayor and council salaries would compare to the comparable cities and the neighboring cities. Um, so with that, I’m happy to take any additional questions.
[2:37:33] Other than that, I would ask the council to consider adopting the ordinance and also the resolution for summary language for summary publication. Uh. Yes. I guess. I can’t. remember your name. Forrest. I’m sorry. I have nothing, I was. Scratching my. Oh, you weren’t making a motion. Oh. But. David. I can make a motion. Okay. Yeah. I know, I lost my plate. Oh, God. Oh.
[2:38:04] There we go. Oh, sweet. Thank you. Okay, I’ll make a motion. Um, for ordinance 2020 603, an ordinance amending section 211 of the Crystal City code pertaining to salaries of elected officials. I’ll second that motion. All right. Any further discussion from the council? Hearing none. Uh, all in favor? Aye.
[2:38:25] Any opposed? Okay. And do you want to just continue on with the resolution approving summary language? Yes. I do. Um, so I’ll make a motion, uh, approving the resolution, uh, for the resolution approving summary language for the publication of ordinance number 2026, dash zero three. And I second that motion. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none.
[2:38:50] All in favor? Aye, aye. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Everybody. That concludes our council meeting tonight. With the exception of some, uh, announcements. I will read those, uh, city’s free annual vehicle fairs coming up. Community event will be held at the community center September 19th, from 10 to 2.
[2:39:17] So if you’d like to look at all the equipment and the big trucks, that’s the day to come. Next city council meeting will be Tuesday, October 6th at 7:00. Here in the Council Chambers at City Hall and also will be available via zoom. City is accepting applications for several volunteer positions on both our boards and commissions.
[2:39:39] For more information, please go to Crystal gov slash volunteer City Council meetings and work sessions are always open to the public. Current and previous meetings, of course, are available to view and listen. Uh, at WW crystal gov. Is there any other announcement that we might have missed? Yes. Uh, tomorrow is the Crystal City Council candidate forum. Oh yeah. Yeah.
[2:40:05] Right here in City Hall. If you want to come back and. Oh, I don’t know if I can. You love hearing me talk so much that you can come. What time? I think it’s 630. I was gonna look up what time it was before I spoke, but I ran out of time. So is it just you and.
[2:40:25] Me and, uh, Matt? I think he’s gonna be there. We’ll be there. Okay. The League of Women Voters would tell me if it was off, so. And they didn’t. So are the other candidates allowed to make a statement? No. It, um, it’s just the competitive ones, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah.
[2:40:45] It is. A friend of mine is very active in the league, and, um, I was talking about she goes, we’re not going to talk to you. I’ve been better. Yeah. Four years ago. They they did. They did, they did. Um, they let you come up and do a little monologue. I think that’s nice that they do that.
[2:41:00] Two years ago, they did not when I ran unopposed two years ago, there was nothing. Yeah. Something bad must have happened. For years. I don’t know what. It feels like. All right. Well, it’s about. I hear what time you said 7 or 630. Kristi.
[2:41:16] What are you gonna say? Kristi? I would just say council member, but I believe it’s 7:00. Thank you. It’s 7:00 for all those listening at home. Come at seven tomorrow. I thought we had a work session on Thursday. No. Cancelled. Cancelled? It was about flat cameras. But tonight. Okay, okay. All right. Anybody make a motion to adjourn? I make a motion. To adjourn.
[2:41:37] Okay, Forrest. Uh, second. Okay. Any discussion about that? No. Okay. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Okay. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Everybody. We’re gonna. finish EDA here. Yeah. We have to kind of. Yeah, yeah. And we have to move for the work. Are you getting ready to go? Yeah. No.