##VIDEO ID:ZfiLLyECmN4## okay let's call to order the August 26 2024 regular meeting of the city council of East bethl Minnesota please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America to the repic for it stands Nation God indivisible liberty and justice for all make motion to adopt tonight's agenda motions made to adopt our agenda do we have a second second motion made and second it all in favor say I I opposed none heard so presentations in public hearings the Anoka County Sheriff's Office and Lieutenant Derek Peters how are you today fantastic uh good evening mayor and Council yeah it's good to be back I missed last month I was on vacation but uh it's good to see everybody so did you have a good time it was excellent it was excellent it was nice to get away and nice to spend some time with family so I think we all need that from time to time absolutely so uh July had a a total of 442 calls for service which was up from the 422 that we had responded to in June uh we had four assaults four thefts and two damage to property calls uh we made a total of 31 custodial arrests um we uh executed 135 traffic stops which resulted in the issuance of 45 traffic citations on our roadways uh some of our more interesting calls that happened in July uh one being on July 3rd deputies responded to a residence in the 1100 block of 231st Lane Northeast uh they had information uh of a male that was standing there that had an active gross misdemeanor warrant out of R County when the deputies got there they spoke to a male and a female in the driveway of the house while another deputy walked around to the backyard while uh the two deputies up front were talking to the male and female out front uh they witnessed the maale in question try to escape out the back of that house um the deputies gave several verbal commands to this maale told him that he was under arrest uh they eventually were LED in through the front door by another occupant of the home when they went inside of the house um and began checking the interior they located the mail with a warrant hiding inside of a pullout couch so I don't know how you hide inside of it but um that happened here in this case uh the mail was located and taken into custody without incident transported to jail on the 6th of July at 1:00 in the morning um Deputy litzner was dispatched to a delayed residential burglary report at a residence in the 1600 block of 229 9th Avenue Northeast he arrived and spoke to the residents of the home who reported that at approximately 11:30 someone had entered the house and was heard walking around the house they didn't immediately call to report this because they believed the footsteps were that of their new puppy at around 1:00 a.m. the residents began walking around the house and located several items out of place and found that their vehicles had been gone through with property missing from inside of them our deputies has contacted CID which is our Criminal investigative division which is our Major Crimes unit of the sheriff's office we also had our crime scene unit also known as CSU out there that evening to physically process the scene for any of that physical evidence so um we're still working on that the investigation into that continues it's going to take some time but hopefully we can uh gather some information on that and get closure for those folks on the 22nd of July uh Deputy sea folk stopped a vehicle uh at around 912 near the intersection of pulk street and Klondike for an equipment violation the vehicle passed two of our deputies with no headlights on or tail lights Deputy culk spoke to the driver who showed signs of alcohol impairment Deputy caulk had the driver step out of the car to performed standardized field sobriety testing which he subsequently failed uh the driver provided a PBT sample which reported a preliminary value of 0.14 the driver was arrested and transported to the Sheriff's Office where he submitted to uh a DMT test which reported a final value of .13 he was transported to jail and booked on charges of fourth degree misdemeanor DWI and then finally on the 24th of July at 2 o'clock in the morning Deputy culk again stopped a vehicle at Jackson in 229th for an a moving violation the vehicle was observed to have been seen swerving its Lane and cross the fog line while Deputy seafolk was speaking to the driver he noticed in plain view a glass pipe commonly used to smoke methamphetamine the driver did admit to using methamphetamine as recently as 12 hours prior to the stop Deputy seol conducted some narcotic specific standardized field sobriety testing on the driver um and that driver was uh ultimately arrested for DWI as well uh on a search of the driver's person incident to his arrest a 4 G baggie of suspected methamphetamine was in the driver's front pocket Deputy C applied for and was granted a search warrant for the driver's blood and transported to the driver to Mercy Hospital to complete that process blood test results are pending but the driver was preemptively booked into our jail for fourth degree DWI and fifth degree possession of the controlled substance so um we had been speaking uh earlier before the the mics went live here but hard to believe August is nearly behind us and um our call load in July nearly matched that of our busiest month to date which was May and we see our traffic crashes remaining consistent across the board I think that's a positive considering all the construction that we've had in our area so um assault calls are also down this month which has been nice to see I don't know um the science behind the EB and flow of of those numbers but um wishing everyone a safe remaining few weeks of Summer and I will stand for any questions if anybody has anything just wanted to to cover one thing there was a a dog bite incident last month and uh without going into who is involved or anything else is there a standard procedure that you guys follow yeah yeah so we'll collect statements you know like we like we normally do who what when or why how um we usually collect photographs will fill out a potentially dangerous dog form things of that nature and then that will be recycled uh in front of you folks for discussion later on down the line so um I am aware of what you're referring to and Matt and I put an action plan together with our deputies out there sounds like some things came to light after the fact that we had after we had responded and we're currently in the process of getting that stuff resolved so I think that had a complicating factor of the victim whacking their head and yep real clear about that's correct so um I just checked the report today those things are still pending but I think we've got what we need and um if you're satisfied about how everything was hand okay uh we can certainly we can certainly discuss offline and I'm sure we will and um we'll uh we'll make sure that everything gets taken care of properly so okay perfect just wanted to ask you about it yeah have you um heard much of any about little kids getting assaulted up on the North End of town at at the bus stop no um that was something Matt and I spoke about earlier this week too I went through the reports I typed in what I do is I type the address in and I can look at every single call that we've got um not to say it didn't happen I don't know if it went reported or if the deputies responded there and found out that there was nothing to document and didn't complete a report we have um several stipulations that won't require a report but they should have CAD notes in there um but again I didn't see anything that would um draw my attention to those type of issues is there anything I'll get a hold of you I've got couple names and if you can talk talk to a few people yeah just let me know and um we'll work on it on the back end okay anybody have any other questions thank you dere thank you much thank you take care stay safe so Chief sanau from the East bethl fire department good evening mayor good evening mayor and Council evening uh I have the July fire report for the month of July the fire department responded to 105 calls to service this has tied the record as one of our busiest months since I've been Chief and I think since I've been on the department uh We've responded 80 Medicals seven accidents five fires and three alarms uh as of today we have responded to 654 calls for service compared to 6 20 in 2023 at our current Trend we are on Pace to respond to about 18 or 985 calls for the year and that uh that'll bring us up roughly 20 calls above last year and that at the end so that and then um with the upcoming Labor Day holiday we ask that you be extra careful on the road and drive with care um the last couple weekends we've had some car accidents and that so we just want everybody to be thoughtful and watchful out there and then after Labor Day uh school starts and so the kids will be walking on the sides of the road and everything going to the bus stops and that we ask that you'd be careful driving through the neighborhoods neighborhoods early in the morning and in the later afternoons um remember that the red flashing lights on bus mean you need to stop not go around them and if you can stay at least 50 ft away from the bus when the lights are flashing that'd be great there will be increased traffic around the schools so please avoid them avoid the school area if possible at the start in the end of the day in East bethl our schools are located on PKS and simps both schools are in the same area so that puts a lot of traffic through that area I live over there so I know what it's like yeah and that then with open burning can still be done but you still need to get a permit if the f is going to be bigger than a 3X3 and 3T High Flames um you can burn the burning permit will have the times you can burn and what what type of material you can burn the permits are free up here at City Hall and can be picked up during normal business hours and that and then uh just a note um we are going to be training with the no County Serv Marine unit on Monday September 9th from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. we'll be at the Lake uh county park access doing this training um so with I do believe they're going to plan on having divers in the water at that time so we ask people to keep that area clear as much as possible is that September 9th September 9th at 3 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. we'll be out training with them learning how to tend their lines and that yep because we do not die if they do and where on Lake again they'll be at the Lake County Park access y okay the East End of the lake yeah yep so and with that's all I got besides we'll be watching the weather tonight because I think we're going to get sort of busy might get whacked huh well we might get busy too so how we doing with heat stroke we haven't had any whatsoever today yet we know it's hot and that but any other questions for me not a question but I wonder if I could ask you to just stay for a few minutes because when we get into the bills to be paid there's a question I have that you can answer better than anybody I I either that or I'll ask you now you can ask me now because I do have to get back to training okay there's there's a a conference meetings bill in there for 2779 Lex that is our online training that's your online onl training online training um is that for everybody it's for everybody okay yep it's uh during the winter we use online training so we don't bring the people out but that's what it is it's for online training all right and and it's cheaper than the one we had that's the only question I have yep thanks Chief okay I stay safe tonight and that see you guys thanks Chief have a good training session okay um is there a public forum I believe you still have uh 4C oh excuse me yeah so we going to vote on this separate as a separate issue Matt is that what the intent is here yeah okay are you going to uh do the dialogue on it sure Mr Mayor um before you hear this evening is the resolution supporting increased increasing the post elction reviewer or the PE uh there's been a lot of talk about election integrity and uh there's the an NOA County canvasing Board that decides um what sort of uh um you know precincts are going to be how many precincts are going to be randomly selected which is out of a hat and um to to be counted now as everyone knows we use we use paper ballots to vote they're fed into machines machines re them and tabulate them right and the um I believe it's uh six precincts right now there's a possibility they may increase it to eight um but the six precincts essentially are randomly selected and they verify that the numbers on that are the same as what the machines have tabulated can I interrupt you for a moment we have a a lady here who is on the public forum signup sheet it seems like maybe maybe we just change the order a little bit and let you say what you'd like to say is that all right if that's I don't want to go out process well I well I mean I think we should probably hear what you have to say before we vote on the resolution don't you guys agree well we can just move it so Mr Mayor Ju Just to summarize this is passing a resolution this evening doesn't Force just a request it's just request it doesn't requesting from this canvasing board right to to up the numbers to increase the you know the oversight cuz what is the total number of precincts again no the total number of precincts in Anoka County so they're sampling like four is is state law requires four Per County minimum right and and the total number is like 128 precincts or something is it yeah I don't have that exact number right the top four is a very small samp um you know I I guess the the the reality is if you know if those that are saying that the machines are kind of changing votes or whatever the case is I'm not sure the machine would be able to determine even those four that are randomly selected to say we'll keep those ones legit while the other 124 are going to be off um there's been there's been instances as indicated here where most recent Noah henpen District 11 school election it was less than 1 half% and so it triggered an automatic recount um and there was one vote in that that came out different than the machine because if someone had marked something obscurely on the on the on the voting deal so those type of situations can happen um but um but they're not going to tip the uh tip the election in any sort of Direction so well if it's okay if I can take a point of privilege here do you want to come up and give us your comments about it absolutely okay yeah please okay all right um my name is Pamela CI I live at 485 224th Lane Northeast thank you um East Beth um what I'm speaking to is this um proposal that you guys are doing um a little bit of background on myself I've been an election judge for about 30 years prior to East bethl I was working south of the Cities so I have a lot of experience and a lot of passion about volunteering for election and election results um I am currently and have for several years now volunteered in this facility for all of your um elections thank you for doing that um I have one question before I start because my answer or the statement that I need to make would vary depending on the answer to this question so for this agenda agenda item 4C that's under discussion this evening um it's described as doing a hand count slost equals election review for the general election are you specifically talking to a postelection review you or are you talking about an election recount because those are two very significant different things it's referred to as a postelection review yeah then I know where to start and this is going to help Matt out help you hopefully understand what's going on so Minnesota statute 20689 states that after every state general election Minnesota counties perform a postelection review of the election result returned by Optical scanning ballot machine um that's used in the in the state the review is a handc count supporting Matt's information of the ballots for each eligible election for President Senator representative and Governor right I understand that you guys are looking for a recount of just the front page of the vot I'm not quite sure how I understand what you guys are looking to recount it didn't include judges elections okay yeah it didn't include what didn't did not include judges elections okay does okay good to know um so at a canvasing level for the state general elections the county canvas board will randomly select yes it's random precincts to be reviewed um and notify the the state of Minnesota right um the threshold for that is you do four precincts although I think my data is wrong because I got this off the off the the Minnesota state site um if there's more than 100,000 people in the county they they randomly select four precincts I didn't hear about the six or the eight and I'll check into that um or 3% of the total number of precincts in the county an NOA County according to statistics from 2020 has $360,000 360,000 citizens right and here's the post auditing information that I wanted to share with you um Andover Blaine Fridley and Ramsay were the ones that was audited in 2020 for a total of 84 individual and it's done by candidate they look at every candidate they hand count all the votes for that candidate right um the results of that hand count from the machine to the hand count there were 22 differences and by the way I have data I have pulled it off the state site and you can see which candidate and for what reason it varies um but I did take some time today and I tallied up the original hand count found 22 discrepancies 12 were ballots marked too like for a candidate eight were overvotes and two were ballots marked outside of the oval for 22 votes here's here's my conclusion and what you guys are trying to take a look at and this is where I become really really passionate we have a wful lack of Volunteers in this city for election judge nowhere where I have volunteered have I ever worked longer than an 8 hour shift your and it doesn't regard it doesn't matter what party you're at this is totally we're not talking party here right um we work we start at 6 we get done at 10: unless we need to go farther because we're off a ballot ballot account right or a ballot 16 hour days you don't have to take my word for this oops you don't have to take my word for this it's easy enough to see the election results that I've been talking to and I would encourage any citizen from east bethl to do this do an easy Google search for election results and audit findings in the state of Minnesota you can go and you can look at the Hard data yourself it's very easy excuse me one minute Matt seems like the generator might be trying to kick on I don't know if it's succeeding I can check on it yeah yeah maybe make sure we're still recording to broadcasting if you guys want to see any of this data I literally pulled out an NOA County from that from the state side and I took a look at what the hand counts were what the totals were and what the discrepancies were again to in in conclusion 22 inaccuracies all of them explained thank you thank you thank you very much what's he making sure it's going to still record I think so yeah we look good we're going to call it an act of God but yes I believe uh we're still good the generator is running so okay computer still working went to sleep but yes I think it um Mr Mayor if I can just respond um we it was for or as Commissioners we voted to increase it to six um and they're talking about possibly increasing it to another two more to eight which they can do as the they can do 100% of it if they want as a card the problem is is as was you know indicated Staffing people you know hours cost um so again it's um um it's a it's I understand the reason for this I understand for the ask and it's somewhat out of our hands in terms of you know the decision making but we it's not wrong to ask so yeah it's before you here this evening and I did talk to Tom Hunt who's in charge of an NOA County election process and uh got educated by him on this and it's basically a matter if if you have true Randomness then there's no way for anybody who wants to play with a voting system to really cover themselves you know it's you can't do it because it's random literally but I just I just wanted I'm promoting this just and it's it's only one Precinct so it's a third of the cost of what we were talking about before so it's not much I just want to want to let people know that East bethl takes the voting Integrity very seriously and it's just having eyes on that's all that's all is just letting people know that we're going to be watching and we'll probably not even be our our request will probably not be granted by the canvasing board I don't expect it to be in which case it won't be done so but just as a a matter of an endorsement of election Integrity which I I cannot imagine being a controversial uh position uh I would like to pass this resolution so that's where I'm coming from you guys got any questions or comments you want to make about it so this is not a request from the county it's this is a request a request on behalf of East bethl to the Anoka County canvasing Board to but they don't have to Grant the request and I don't actually expect them to a lot of lightning going on oh yeah it's getting dice out there yeah yep um stay could Carrie what's your opinion on this you handle all our elections hi hi please identify yourself identif I'm Carrie Frost I'm the elections coordinator for you spel um like Pam said we do we often are I'm scraping for election judges not necessarily for application but um it's between our budget and the number of applications that we have and having to keep party balance at all of our precincts throughout the the entire day that's where the struggle comes in it gets to be a lot of moving pieces that we have to balance can I interject something that I learned talking to Tom Hunt wow I'm glad we're in here instead of out there uh ham lake has 16,500 people give or take East bethl has 12,200 people give or take they have six precincts we have three correct and I think that's part of why it's so taxing the hours in addition to finding hard being hard to find people which is what you're talking about well and I don't know why that is it hard to find people that the number of precincts we have isn't necessarily going to make a difference on how many applic judge applications we get in because it's Citywide um we have in the past I've kind of poked around at looking at adding a fourth precinct because of the number of uh registered voters that we have for Precinct um it we used to be down right around the 2,000 voter Mark now we're right up around 2500 per Precinct um in terms of people who actually vote correct correct um I think Citywide we have just over 8,000 registered voters um which you know if it if we could split it up e evenly that would you know make a fourth precinct quite easily and we would still be sitting around 2,000 voters per Precinct um the trouble do you have any idea why we have such trouble finding people to serve as election judges um I have to pay to get the anwers we haven't we haven't increased our judge wages in quite a while um and we are bottom of the barrel um really amongst other municipalities within the county well that's probably something we need to address um yep and um be so between applications and you know pay scale but not all of our judges do it for the pay most of our judges do not yeah um it's a patriotic Duty yeah right I I think it's part of it is because it's the long day I mean 16 hours that's a long day insane day yeah and um this is the first year that I've been considering trying to do shifts for the general election because the turnout's going to be crazy uh in a presidential election year it turned out as I much much higher and you know anything that's hotly contested it always brings people out of the woodwork and um with that with the idea that we're going to have such a large turnout and it's going to be all day long our judges are going to get burned out at the halfway point so this is the first time I've considered doing shifts um we we're scraping to see if I can fill two shifts of election judges at all three precincts um to be fully staffed um I usually try and have eight judges per shift um so that way if somebody has to take a break we're not left with a station un unmanned right um but that means well head judges and assistant head judges are legally required to work all day so um that leaves six judges that have to rotate for the shifts so that means I have to have 14 judges per Precinct we have three precincts so we're looking at 42 judges that I have to try to recruit just for a regular election cycle um if and I work that try to keep that into the budget that's you know set the year before for training and hours served and all that good stuff and then adding any additional hours that are required to serve are only going to chip away at that budget that we've got so far and this was a 3 election year because we had the presidential nomination Primary in March the state primary that we just finished um on the 13th and then yeah we have the general coming e for