##VIDEO ID:gyAd7vdOa0I## did you orchestrate that Grinch thing or okay one day at time yeah can't even imagine mean our bonus checks aren't on here okay we'll call to order talking to the mic I think we have learned that by now uh call to order the December 23rd 2024 regular meeting of the East bethl Minnesota city council please join us in say in the pledge Al to flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you make a motion to adopt tonight's agenda with the addition of supplemental payment summary under consent consent agenda okay thank you Brian I'll second that thank you Bob any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I it's unanimous okay under item four presentations and public hearings we have the Anoka County Sheriff's Office monthly report and I'm sorry I've forgotten your name but you're sitting in for Derek Peters our normal AA onone correct good evening Mr Mayor members of the council my name is Sergeant Justin Nelson with the county sheriff's office thank you uh Lieutenant Peters is on vacation this week uh November saw a total of 421 calls for service which was one less than we responded to in the month of June deputies handled three thefts three damage to property cases and took seven assault reports deputies made a total of 42 arrests for miscellaneous other offenses there were 173 traffic stops conducted which resulted in 54 citations making that the highest total of the year to date some notable calls for service of the past month include um on November 3rd Deputy borgus arrested a person at 12:37 a.m. he observed a group of juveniles yelling at each other in the 20500 block of Monroe Street as he stopped to check on what the issue was he observed a vehicle pass his parked squad car and drive into the yard to avoid a collision with the people standing in the street the vehicle rapidly accelerated away Deputy borgus caught up to the vehicle and stopped it while speaking to that driver Deputy borgus noticed indicators of alcohol impairment have the driver step out of the vehicle to perform sfsts the driver complied but failed all roadside tests he refused to provide a PBT and was arrested on PC charges for DWI that driver was transported to the acso Sheriff's Office where he refused any additional testing he was eventually charged with DWI test refusal careless driving and driving after suspension uh one of our newer deputies Deputy bang on November 10th at 11:26 p.m. deputies were dispatched to an address in the 400 block of 215th Lane Northeast on report of an assault on arrival deputies learned several residents in the home had forced entry into a bedroom to confront another Resident who had intentions of hurting themselves with a firearm while inside that room it was alleged the suicidal party had pointed a firearm at the other residents and threatened them with it before they were able to pry the firearm away during the struggle the suicidal party bit one of the residents in the arm before fleeing the scene in a vehicle when deputies arrived they took statements from all involved and determined that second degree assault charges were warranted in the case and began looking for the suspect who they learned had prior left in a vehicle information on the case was passed along to other assisting agencies requesting the suspect be stopped and arrested for that assault later the next day on the 11th deputies received info the suspect had been located and arrested at a residence in Blaine deputies then took custody of that suspect and booked him into the inoka county jail on second deegree assault charges on the 15th of November Deputy dinari at 8:10 a.m. deputies located a stolen vehicle that had recently left the holiday station at the 1300 block of 187th when deputies attempted to stop the vehicle the vehicle fled South on 65 at a high rate of speed deputies pursued the vehicle at a distance until it crashed until it crashed at Highway 65 in Bonker in the city of Ham Lake deputies arrested three parties inside the vehicle and later transported the driver to jail on charges of fleeing in a motor vehicle in possession of stolen property thankfully there were no serious injuries in that accident on the 17th Deputy Menard at 9:56 p.m. observed a mail he knew to have an active gross misdemeanor warrant out of our County on a weapons violation working on a vehicle at a residence in the 24100 block of Pierce Street Northeast Deputy manard stopped out with the vehicle with the mail advis to me at a warrant and he was under arrest the mail complied with directives and was detained in handcuffs he was transported to jail on his warrant with the holidays upon us we are entering another dangerous time of year on our roadways I'd like to remind everyone to drive safely use good judgment in difficult weather and finally find a sober ride if you plan to drink any of the holiday Gatherings you'll be attending on behalf of everyone at acso have a safe and happy holiday season thanks for allowing me to provide a quick update regarding last month's activities thank you very much any questions no have Merry Christmas yeah good seeing you again next item on the agenda is East bethle fire department and chief SOS with us good evening mayor council um our November fire report for the month of November fire department responded to 71 calls for service 53 Medicals four accidents and Three Fires as of 15 minutes ago we have now responded to 940 995 calls for service this year uh compared to 936 in 2023 our current trend is right now is going to put us right about 1,5 calls in that the year um we had had a couple of fires in um December that'll be on the next month's report and that um with Christmas just a couple days away be careful out on the roads when traveling and that make sure you get plenty of time get to your destination safe and that if you have a live Christmas tree please continue to water it until you take it completely out of your house these these trees can be composted at the Bunker Hills compost site they also or contact your garbage hauler um they may pick them up also do not burn them in your fire P pits because they will ignite it really fast and burn really hot yeah so you don't have much time to get out of there uh do not burn wrapping paper either uh some of the wrapping paper can be recycled if you Bunch up the wrapping paper into a ball and it stays in the ball that wrapping paper paper can be recycled the wax stuff cannot throw that in the garbage uh cardboard boxes take to uh the recycling center on Viking or put in your recycling Bend do not burn them that and then with the New Year's coming on the SPL uh fire department wants to wish everybody a Happy New Year in that but also if you choose to partake in adult B B is like the no County Sheriff says get a sober right we don't want you to put your life in danger it'll in danger anybody else's life out in the road and that and we are also coming into uh the heating season um with wood stoves so make sure you take the ash out of the wood stove make sure you put it in a metal container and let it sit outside and cool for at least 48 hours and that before disposing it in your garbage bin even then check it with your hand to make sure it is out that if nothing else you can throw the ash in your yard inspirationally and it's good fertilizer and that and finally I'd like to thank maror Lewis and council member do ro for your service to the city over the last two years in that and I would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year be safe out there on this enjoy the holidays and one other thing with the rain coming on Friday Saturday that the ice is probably going to get unsafe again so please be safe out there on the ice if that'll take any questions how' the Santa parade go uh we Santa parade we collected 736 pounds of food for the mace and I think $180 and then we had some clothing also donated and that we're ways behind Ham Lake but Ham Lake go out and they go out I think three or four nights and they collected roughly 10,000 lb of food yeah so like I said we we're going to work on getting it more but oh every little bit helps yep well thank you Chief any other questions okay thanks guys thank you have a Merry Christmas next item on our agenda is storm water pollution Protection Program public hearing do you want to Sure Mr Mayor uh this was brought uh to us here by our city engineer Craig yolum city of Beast Beth has developed a storm water pollution prevention program as required by the national pollutant discharge elimination system uh General permit for discharge of storm water associated with small Municipal separate storm sewer systems MS for and uh it requires us to come up with some strategies they are indicated there to include street sweeping inspection of approximately 20% of the city's storm water basins annually posting City programs such as cleanup days on the city website conducting the annual meeting which we're doing here tonight developing and distributing educational materials to Residents and investigation of elicit discharges and other reports of non-compliance uh again this is a public hearing uh to check that box for the year and so Mr Mayor if you would um you can have discussion or open the public hearing any uh discussion before opening the public hearing not we'll open the public hearing for Resident comments about the storm water pollution prevention program anybody have anything to say about it not we'll close the public hearing on that then and me Mr Mayor that's all that's required for this evening on that is just to conduct a public hearing very good uh next item on the agenda is the public forum do we have any signups mayor I don't see any signups zip okay with that we'll move on to the next item which is the consent agenda make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented anybody want to second that I'll seconded okay discussion motions made and seconded do we have discussion yeah I want to pull C Mr Smith wants to pull c yeah and L and C and L okay let's see oh c you pull on C all right I'll see if you don't cover then I will um any anything yeah L I guess I'm you're pulling L as well yeah okay so both of you want C and L i I want to pull the item but I just wanted to ask a question of our city administrator on the approved bills list it was there was a Knife River Corp payments KN River Knife River Corp which was for road work and I just wonder why I was put under professional service fees part of it instead of just like Street repair or something like that that'd be a question for Nate but I'm assuming it must fall under their perhaps um the um the layout and design of the work that they're doing or going to be doing yeah not sure I can I can follow up on that well if you want to yeah if you could if you could uh you can tell me later this week just a a matter of curiosity more than anything okay so how about we approve the consent agenda as amended all in favor say I I I opposed no one heard so that was unanimous so Mr Smith item C I went through the minutes and the minutes for the December 9th December 9th meeting city council meeting and there's information in there that's not written I listen to some of the meeting not all of it uh but uh there's some important stuff in there about the fire department that was presented that's not in there and I feel it should be so I've got the time wrote down for that but then also I believe there's information in there that Mr D Ro and Mr Miller both had said and that was not in there either so I want to look through that and I'll find out the times for that too so basically I want to make a motion to table the minutes for until we got them all improved okay all right motions made and seconded to table the minutes for the December 9th city council meeting any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I opposed none heard does that cover a your concern with item SE yep okay so then it's the other one was item L which is the uh recording secretary contract addendum I was wondering Matt on this here uh it says uh it's an hourly based that's how they do the minutes when they're going through it we pay them hourly so then you're saying for 2025 it's 13,000 what was for 2024 I don't know I'm just asking a question I would have to look up the budget of what we spent on that okay can you also check and see how much of a difference there's is between the way they're doing it now and verba minutes because when I look through all the minutes after being at the council meeting there's a lot of stuff that I feel is important that should be in the written minutes as well and there's a lot missing so this uh is this contract we have to vote on this contract tonight or can we table that until we find out more info we would Mr Mayor and council members we'd want to get that contract approved for the first part of the year um the issue this has come up before as to whether the contract should be a summary or word verbatim and there's a significant difference and cost between the two um and so essentially the uh the the individual doing the the transcription would listen to the comments and kind of summarize it and and that's why we're not necessarily having all the detail in there now as it relates to this last um item C issue I did contact Carla who is the owner U of the firm and said we need to make sure that this is in there she took the notes down but unfortunately that didn't get passed on to the minute taker so um that can easily be be changed not a problem but uh but there is I I don't recall the exact amount um difference for what the estimate was for word verbatim but it was a significant difference yeah like 50% 40% is yeah I recall that as well yeah so I I think Mr Mayor and Council if I could make this suggestion I think if it's a sensitive matter and you want to make sure that something is in there um I know council member Smith went back through the video and said you know under minute [Music] 34.2778313 meeting that you would feel that that's important to do so and if it becomes a repetitive thing then we're going to then you'll have to talk to Carla and her staff which we've done before sure you right okay so so are you okay with us going ahead and approving it yeah I guess my thought would be too is like do we research other companies that do this before we just assume and then just move on with them I mean have we ever done that I'm just curious yeah and again again I I I know we we looked at this before as well and there isn't a whole lot of companies out there that are willing to do this so we um we somewhat I I recall there was a little bit of a disagreement last time and um and uh it kind of got to a point where they may not accept our contract anymore and so we kind of had to smooth things over and make sure everyone was reasonably happy in the end which they were and uh we're able to maintain that service um I think I think the discussion this is dates back to the beginning of last year uh was uh the discussion was staff would potentially have to do it and that's a significant amount of time that staff would be required to to do this yeah I never ascribed to that idea just to have somebody else do it but but again these people are set up to do it so it should just be normal give and take supplier and customers you know you talk to each other and you straighten things out if there's problems don't need to be dramatic so you got anything to add Bob yeah first of all a staff person did used to do it Wendy Warren along with scheduling and putting up agendas and city clerk and you name it and she did it um there was aate a minutes up until I finished my term and Steve loss came in and as the transition happened I I think we get in a situation where people are interpreting what is being done and when there's key issues like the fire department I mean there were people saying we were going to cut their benefits and take their pay and all this other stuff there's quite a bit of discussion about that and there's none of that in the minutes and I I think it's important because between social media and just being out and about a lot of that crap caused some problems and that was our only way me and Mr Miller especially our only way of telling people look this is what happened whatever you read on social media it's wrong and I think some of the people that were at that meeting that heard what was really going on no because since I've been on here we we've done nothing but trying to get more money for the firefighters and trying to figure out how to do that there was never any discussion about well let's cut pay let's do this and that well the last time there was discussion and this is another thing that wasn't in there that was talked about the the position that was trying to be filled and part of it was well we need to do a recruitment we need to get more people in so we don't have firefighter burnout and yet at that meeting there was a gentleman in the back who stood up and said well it's not burnout don't we like we like getting together with each other so don't worry about burnout and I thought well if that's the mentality which is it you want more people because of burnout or you're okay with it or is it what you're hearing and what I have found is I still have all the minutes from when I was in office and I can go back and I can say okay there was a lot of well there were seven lawsuits going on when I came in but I can go back and I can look at the discussions not just the Y and nays but the discussion and say this is why this this decision was made not because somebody that's at Time Savers or whatever they hear it and well I mean yeah we we could get all hostile and do whatever is needed to make them think oh jeez this must be pretty important you shouldn't have to go back and if they're reading it I I would have thought reading those comments that were being made were pretty important and and they're not in there and I I just think I don't for the money money didn't seem to be a problem before when Wendy Warren was doing it and it just seems that we we've we've gone more the more we go with this place the less get that gets done and we can't be cutting Corners Mr Mayor if I can comment on this um you know we can certainly go word verbatim that's not a problem I'm told it's uh double the cost uh for word verbatim so whatever the contract is double it and we'll be right in that ballpark now there might be some sort of hybrid we can look at um you know if um if the council wants and and they're discussing it I mean let's say the storm water deal I mean it passed in in a matter of minutes word retim is probably not necessary on that but if there's something highly sensitive then perhaps Mr Mayor or somebody would say you know take a vote that we want this portion of this discussion word verbatim in the me in the meeting minutes that would change the contract amount too but it wouldn't be everything word verbatim that's you know 90% that's unnecessary perhaps there's a a hybrid we can look at on that well in I guess not just the minutes before there used to be rfps done on everything engineering Finance uh the ice arena minutes you name it there was rfps done on it I don't know if that's even been done Carri to know if there when was the last time that a request for proposal went out last time we had RP for minutes when we started with ERS and ERS was the only one no I mean for just kind of everything in general we've kind of gotten away from rfps in general I believe last one I can recall is the traffic study that was um ordered for the Capstone project we did submit for for contractors and Engineers all right well I guess I think it's unfortunate that somebody has to say beforehand oh by the way make sure you get this part because this is going to be an important part of the meeting I could be requested after that portion of the meeting too it yeah it's recorded it's just a request that's well you guys are going to deal with that Kevin and I are kind of on countdown status it's not my problem I don't want to you know mror if I can also say I think I think um you know years and years ago meeting minutes were the only option for people to understand what was happening in in a public meeting such as a short of attending it in person I think today with video recording we have you know another very um effective tool for the public to be able to watch and actually get the intent of the discussion not not what's written uh but actually what people were intending when they were when they were speaking on the on the topic I think that's certainly a valuable tool as well maybe that's the answer at the top of all the minutes that should say this is a version of what happened if you if you want the verbatim go to the recording and those recordings are kept and actually talked with a gentleman about uh YouTube he said he didn't have uh internet so we're talking about Channel 10 yeah but um you go back through into YouTube and there's meeting minutes from or you know meetings from I don't know when you know that you can pull up that's that's an archived uh form there so it's actually a very nice um nice tool for folks and we have a lot of money invested in doing it too right so well midco is a nice idea but it don't work yeah a lot well fortunately YouTube does so i' it's all right well that being said let's move on so is there a motion in a second to approve item make a motion to approve item L second no did I say 11 I meant L okay all right so item L on the consent agenda motion made and second yep okay all in favor of doing so say I I opposed it was unanimous okay well here's what everybody's been waiting for the ordinance change uh regarding cannabis in the city of East bethl settle down we don't have any samples of anything here so who's going to be leading it Matt or eron you are I can uh I can kick it off here Mr Mayor um I I put stuff on your desk didn't I mayor I'm so sorry about that well lean on the City attorney as well on this um Christina Benson was very um helpful in the planning meeting yeah very informative in uh in the work that she did to put this together as I understand she's done a lot of this for other communities as well it's been successfully applied and so rather than blazing a new Trail or you know we're we're um we're kind of figuring out what what has worked and kind of trying to implement the same so uh we have an ordinance uh for the city of East bethl amending appendix a zoning to regulate cannabis and hemp businesses and amending chapter 18 providing for the registration of cannabis and hemp businesses in the city why well as we all recall the state of Minnesota um in their wisdom uh authorized the use of uh recreational cannabis in the state of Minnesota and um and uh and As Cities uh we are required to allow businesses in our communities um as defined by state law and we needed to get something on our books on our ordinances so that we could control how many businesses and and we'll get into some of that information and this was driven by there being a desire to have such a business in East belth correct well um the trigger is uh January 1st in terms of office of cannabis management and and um they're going through a lottery system or however they're going to determine who gets these businesses it was based on Equity to begin with now being challenged by the courts and they they need to iron some of those things out but we need to dab something on our books so that if and when they get their ducks in a row uh and uh and someone is given the green light to have a license to do this and they come to uh to request a um you know a permit uh with the city we have to have something on the books to be able to control how that process goes down so essentially Minnesota State Statute 34213 C regarding the authority of a local unit of government to adopt reasonable restrictions of the time place and manner of the operation of a cannabis business provided that such restrictions do not prohibit The Establishment or operation of cannabis businesses um we need to look at our section two which is um definitions which defines what a cannabis business is or a cannabis cultivator a cannabis event cannabis manufacturer a meso business a micro business a retailer a testing facility a wholesaler hemp business low potency hemp edible manufacturer uh low py H hemp edible retailer and uh and everything goes with that and then our appendix a is would need to be amended under Section 30 uh to to establish your minimum buffer requirements how many feet does it need to be from a school property line how many feet from a a daycare you know how many feet from a residential facility and how many feet from another business for example if you had you know one after the other on on on the main drag you might get a reputation for that um and uh there's noise associated with this there's certainly odor associated with this there's hours of operation um there's signs and how does do those signs need to are they going to scream cannabis or are they you know not allowed to do that what type of lighting and security outdoor use Etc um all this kind of helps Define that and put it in a format so that as staff we can rely on this to be a when we get a request say this is um the the restrictions and requirements you need to comply with in the state or in the city and then it gets into uh the procedures as far as the submittals for application the application approvals the compliance checks location uh change if they choose to do that renewal of registration renewal fees uh suspension of registration length of suspension civil penal civil penalties and everything else that goes with that so as you as you've read through this it is a complicated document um that um again I think kind of get some control around this now if you watch the planning meeting they um I think they landed on you know the state requires for every 12,500 people within a city you you you should be allowed one B you know you have to allow one business uh or a minimum of one business and um and so their recommendation I believe was three or four businesses per category and um and they asked me I was sitting in the audience uh what what staff thought of this and and I'll be honest with you staff's uh position is um is more concer conservative than that uh we we think that um you know if you if you let the horse out of the barn it's a little hard to get it back in So if you start with the minimum and you can always increase it later you can change these ordinances but you can figure out how this this works in the community what works what doesn't work what needs to be changed at a later date and uh and that should be reasonable um I know that many of the uh planning members were contacted by concern members of the community uh concerning how this is going to impact uh their kids and and uh and that sort of thing and I think those are Justified concerns and uh and so that in my opinion is a um is a kind of an you know would would encourage me to think more on along a conservative vein of thinking on this rather than just opening up Pandora's Box and letting it roll and uh and I think we're going to find out a lot about how law enforcement handles this we're going to find find out about what sort of uh you know does this lead to other types of drug usage as some people claim it does I mean there's a whole lot of things we're going to learn in this process the state's going to learn it as well and uh and we're going to find out um I think it was Elton John who was recently quoted as saying this was a huge mistake so um Willie Nelson on the other hand might not might not agree with them on that but uh but I think although I guess Willie actually quit it 90 years old so I don't know so um so somewhere in between reason somewhere in between terrible mistake and not a mistake at all I think we're going to find ourselves and we're going to learn a lot in this process so anyways um attorney Larson is here with us this evening so we can Hammer with questions he's also one of the foremost experts on this and uh and again we're we're trying to find the best path forward for what the state has imposed upon us yeah and anybody who saw the Planning Commission meeting it was very thoroughly vetted there the whole subject and for the sake of discussion I move to uh approve this so I have a motion to approve this change to our ordinance second for discussion okay so it's moved and seconded so time for discussion those of you who want to discuss it uh I do have one question uh Mr Larson do you know if any of this would conflict with uh the existing licensing ordinance for believe it's for the uh Edibles in THC THC drinks that I think we passed the year ago or so short answer is it does not conflict as a matter of fact that's one of the things that uh uh attorney Christina Benson does is make sure that she aligns at least the proposed draft with your current code um and some cities such as East bethl uh did enact a code with respect to uh lower potency edible can cannaboids um that being said a bit of a long answer is is that effective March 1st the state has taken that registration licensing control away from the municipalities and has embedded it in the Minnesota office of cannabis management um that might be almost a distinction without a difference because all they're doing is taking your licensing away but not your overall code regulation away so that they have embedded all licensing whether it be low potency or cannaboid in the office of cannabis management and has allowed the city registration only so I see council member Smith giving me a quizzical look and probably maybe someone else out there because I know you're going okay licensing registration well that's a lot of lawyer gobbly G well I kind of agree with you so let's define that um registration is basically so you know where these businesses are located uh licensing means you can regulate the business um and regulation has to do with kind of the day-to-day operations and oversight our code allows us time place and manner oversight in other words okay where can these businesses operate and during what time frame can they operate and and then as you've also indicated you know signage as well odor those type of very common local controls what I like about your code here is um and I think East bethl has done it really smart just keep with and put these businesses egg in your Egg Zones retail in your retail zones commercial packaging distribution in your distribution zones it makes it easy for the city it makes it easy for the residents it makes it easy for the businesses it makes it easy for enforcement uh try to keep this actually as City administrator look has indicated there's a lot of complexity there but I think what you when you take a look at this code as as best as any code can be it's actually fairly simple and straightforward and and does what's proposed here pretty well conform with the cities around us too that's very important as well because that consistency helps out uh especially law enforcement but also uh helps out as far as our overall code enforcement as well um I should have just said yes it does and a fine answer Eric what kind of time scale are we working on here do we have to have this approved tonight or do we have to have it approved before March 1st um you use the word have to I would strongly recommend you approve tonight I don't uh at least in my judgment don't see anything major uh if you find issues that over the next few months you could certainly amend um March 1st the Office of canus Management really comes down to uh an as your when are they going to be issuing licenses I don't know um it's all depends upon when they get the rules actually enacted and if they could be enacting those rules 30 days from the day they publish and I expect that to be the case they haven't published yet I don't know why I've been waiting for a few months they get published tomorrow if they do then the flug Gates they're just waiting to be opened there's there people are just waiting I want us to be prepared for those when those floodgates uh open and uh and I'd like us to be proactive rather than reactive could you wait until January yes but that makes me nervous it's kind of like what's the point so in like March 1st that's is that like aing you can grow it you can sell it you can is that what that means March 1st it could happen before then uh council member Smith but that's really the outside time frame um so that's when licenses would be issued at the very latest is my prognostication but it's probably going to be beforehand and that's when people would be engaged that be able to engag in the businesses from from growing to retail so January 1 what does that mean basically what you said that it's going to be well it's legal now but yeah that's the interesting thing is it it it's legal to to possess and use and also have some limited home growth and so forth we just haven't uh we haven't made within the state the actual commercial Enterprise from growing all the way to uh distribution and Retail not legal yet that's where the licensing oversight's going to come into place that's that's my thought to is like the State legalizes all this stuff but they basically don't have rules in place and they're like making it up as they go because for some reason they're not doing nothing I think my own opinion of it is that the state's just trying to come in there and collect tax money from whoever they can because that's what they do other than that they don't care that's my opinion mayor council member I I don't know um I don't try to get into the minds and heads of others and so forth uh you could be right um I suspect that you're right but I think that there's probably a lot of other complex motivations and reasons behind it in addition to what you said at the end of the day I just know that the city of East bethl uh doesn't have control over any of that this is the only thing we have control over and I like to control what I have control over in order to protect the the best interest of my client in this case the city of East bethl I understand that I agree that's all I got okay Eric I have a question here is there a reason we went with a th000 feet from schools and only 500 from daycare centers that is basically following your code in order to keep it uh in symmetry with what what you already have I know that one of the things that Christina and and this is where even though your city administrator said I'm the foremost expert I would actually um say I'm comparatively a good expert um but Christina actually uh in our office is probably the foremost expert in the state of Minnesota we're lucky to have her in the firm and frankly we're we're we're lucky uh that are um Municipal clients such as city of East bethl Hazard is part as uh the bench but one of the things she did is uh she's really good with GIS she took a look at where all your daycare centers were all your schools and so forth and looked at those distances and one of the things that when you're doing good zoning is you don't want to have also of those distances mean that even though you say you can and you're we're supposed to have at least one license um that those distance requirements mean that that's not even realistic and practical um so she was very very clear about where all those work and and that's one of the things she told me is that if this type of question comes up uh she was very very confident that all those distances work con concert because you have to think about them not in isolations but the daycare center the school where do they overlap and so forth and how that is essentially creating a permitted Zone thank you um with uh the condition number five 1,000 ft from another cannabis business uh this might be answered in uh the definition but we do have couple of the uh gas stations that have the the Edibles the gummies would that would a gas station be considered a cannabis business if they sell those items that's that's where cannabis business is licensed by the office of canis management under Minnesota statute 32.0 one4 so no it's it's it's a cannabis business not a low potency or edible it has to be licensed correct okay that answers that question thank you well I I have a few questions L um first thing I guess I'm want to say is I thought we had killed this a year ago because we weren't sure when the laws were going to take effect and we didn't want to go into something and then have the state come out with different rules and have to go through this whole Workshop again and pay a lot of extra money I'm who crafted this I mean is this just from scratch made up or is this post what do you call it boiler plate paste copy and paste out of different cities or well let let me address what what you killed a year ago was a moratorium it wasn't an ordinance code for zoning this is zoning what was proposed a year ago had no zoning aspects whatsoever the moratorium was put in place because at that point there was a lot of pressure on the state to essentially do licensing ASAP and as a matter of fact they were engaged in the legislative process to actually accelerate uh the legislation so there were a lot of cities that were using moratorium Powers because they weren't sure if the office of canis management with then without you know uh some careful TR and so forth all of a sudden be issuing licensing um this body said you know what we're just not going to be one of those cities that are worried that all of a sudden things are going to get away from us and it worked um office canis management they weren't able to get a director in time the director they chose uh turned out to not work work and they still don't have a director they have it an interim um but it wasn't the code so now let me talk about the code um the Office of cisman Management legislatively had to put together a model ordinance they issued that model ordinance what was it approximately end of July first part of August um so that was a start one of the things we did is we looked looked at that model ordinance and we wanted to keep that as consistent as possible for our cities because then what you have is if there's ever a challenge you can say well we're just following what the state recommended so that is the starting point but an answer to your question is not the end point that's a little longer answer than I was looking for well be careful what you ask for well at the end of the day I I'll just cut to the chase your end point is to make sure that your zoning code matches the city of East bethl zoning code each of our codes each city has a different zoning code so this code is not the same as your neighboring cities and it's not the same as the other cities we represent you have to conform it to that city code so that's what this does it can it conforms it to the city of East beths zoning code all right well I'm asking these questions because however my term is up I represent all the residents some people smoke pot some people don't but a lot of the people that don't smoke pot and that want to regulate it are the ones that'll wind up down the local Saloon and get hammered and drive on the roads so trying to be to come out and be as restrictive as you can I think is unfair to some of these businesses I don't INVU somebody else wants to go for it I don't know what law enforcement what they've seen since the law has passed I mean I haven't seen any major traffic stops of somebody being too high see a lot of drinking and what I guess it was my understanding was before this was going to come up we were going to have a chance to get together and look at it see what we thought put our input in and then come up with this that didn't happen it's too late but again I just there's some things in here that concern me too late now that I don't want people to get in that same mode of when Reefer Madness came out anybody remember that you know it came out with the alcohol and in the pH pharmaceutical companies because they the pot industry was going to interfere with their business and so they put out these commercials oh you smoke pot you're going to get crazy you're going to do all this stuff most people I known that I've responded to with an ambulance that were Stone they were mellow they weren't all excited and stupid and doing whatever you get somebody that's boozed up they sure can get that way I don't know I I just some of it I think is too restrictive I think and and to to say that well we'll just do it now and we'll change it and make it easier later on I've never seen that happen with ordinances once they're in there they're in there uh I don't know we've we've clarified and modified some ordinances in the time we some architectural stuff this is but the purpose of it was to loosen up once you get a certain distance out away from 65 and stuff so they're they're amendable you got to have the will to do it but you know anyway smoke my piece okay um any other discussion of this do anybody want to make a motion we already did okay it's been so long since we did a good remember um I do have one more question Matt the one that was in the packet in this one tonight are they different no they are identical aside from the number at the top it's um an ordinance number uh 05 not 94 96 96 yeah I just want to make sure it was the same one so it's an ordinance change not a resolution right the next resolution in line was 96 but the next ordinance in line is 05 got it yeah well I don't hear any need for further discussion from you guys so call the question all in favor of approving this ordinance change ordinance number 224-0557 so that's it under new business any Department reports that aren't on here it's item a on the AG eight on the agenda Mr Mayor just by way of recognition uh this is the final meeting for council member D Ro and yourself mayor Lewis and I just want to say it's been a privilege and an honor to work with both of you um having spent 18 years as an elected official I I understand the uh personal sacrifice that both of you have made uh in serving your community and I want to say on behalf of a grateful Community we thank you both for your service it's been a well thank you and feelings are mutual thank you mat and it's really just to let everybody know we really do have a great staff of people in East bethl really excellent staff and uh there's M Carrie Frost back there she's one of the members of that excellent staff but thank you uh item nine on the agenda staff report is there any further staff report further staff report Mr Mayor B it's the last meeting so I'm making sure I get all this stuff right for a change B Council report uh just have one we we're supposed to have a Highway 65 Coalition meeting um instead we had a snowstorm on that day so it was uh rescheduled for January 30th okay and I'll say uh Merry Christmas everybody happy Holidays happy New Year and I'm give my thanks to you Kevin and you Bob for your service to the city once once you sat up here you know what it takes and know how the sausage is made as they say yeah yeah okay so well I guess I'd like to thank Kevin Brian Tim and oh no not even Kevin yeah Kevin and Jim Smith um year and a half go they brought me on because I had some history of things in the city some good some not so good but history is history and they took a chance caught a lot of flack for it but they've never turned their back and they've always stood by they know when I come to a meeting I've been I'm somewhat prepared I do my research and I look things up people may not like it and that's fine because everybody's entitled to an opinion I just wish that people before they put crap on social media that they fact check because it affects everyone not just me or anyone on the council but it affects the families and I think it's very rude and very uncalled for and most of the people that I heard badmouth us and write things I didn't see any of their names on the ballots last fall or this fall if if you're going to sit back and do talk smack and do whatever yeah love the city love the city what really is kind of troublesome is you work your butt off to try try and bring business here get people to come here and like it but then they go my god look it on social media East bethl is a piece of junk they're they're falling apart why would I want to come here we're trying to get a city planner to come in here in my mind I'm going well geez if I was a city planner would I really want to go to East bethl well sure why not I mean anybody that's followed the city for a while has to has to see and that's why I'm so critical on verbatim minutes that the people that sit up here they do care about the city and they make a lot of commitment my commitments now are going to go with my grandsons I got five and a half years doing city council don't regret a minute I don't particularly care for some of the crap that came out of it but that doesn't mean I won't do it again so don't worry about that folks I I would expect like I say if you think it's an easy job then come up here because being on this side of the DS and being on that side you got to make decisions that may not be very popular but when you got 12,000 residents out there going God I hope they decide right because if something happens what are we going to do you got five people up here making the decision you got to good attorney you got a good City administrator that hopefully they're doing they're due diligence as Kevin would say getting all the facts ready and getting everything together so that when we come up here we can make kind of a decision there is no guarantee who's right or wrong all you can do is go home you look in the mirror and go well I didn't hurt anybody I hope so hey it's it's been a I've had fun it's been a pleasure and I just want to thank these guys again I thank Matt for coming on I mean he came we seem to bring people on and when it was hectic Brian right on that's all I got thank you Bob um yeah I wasn't going to say anything but I'll read something to you guys last time I posted this it was on Facebook and it was in honor of Suzanne URL on a Veterans Day she was a career Air Force this was a quote it's a very famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt like 1910 or so at the sbon the University of Paris and it's an exerpt from a speech and I'll try to convert it into modern language where he uses man I'll say person but this kind of gets at it what Bob was saying it is not the critic who counts not the one who points out how the strong person stumbled or how the doer of Deeds might have done them better the credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood who strives valiantly who HS and comes short again and again who knows the great enthusiasms the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause who if he wins knows the triumphant of high achievement and who if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid Souls who know neither Victory nor defeat it takes some balls to get up here and run for office and all that stuff and you got to respect that anyway and I have no apologies to make other than one person it was at a it was at a a city council meeting probably about 6 months ago and he was a resident and I've been dealing with the dying of my brother-in-law a friend of 43 years and I just was not on edge that day and I apologized to him immediately afterward but other than that I was I was short-tempered with him and I apologize but other than that I don't apologize for a single thing we did we did our due diligence we were prepared when we came some meetings we were honest about everything any comments on social media otherwise or well just what that is but anyway thanks for your uh your support and your engagement and for everybody being here that's great great uh now we're going to go into item 9 C on our agenda and that is a closed session which we're going to have in another room uh to do a performance review for the fire chief I just want to say something too though it's thank you Bob and Kevin I mean when we asked you to step up to the positions that we asked you to be in you guys without a doubt didn't hesitate at all and I do appreciate the knowledge that you guys bring to this this a lot I mean it's it's great to work with people that are not here for their agenda it's for the residents of East bethl and that's why I ran and I believe Tim all of us did and we've stuck to that the four of us for sure and I just want to tell you guys thank you appreciate it appreciate say the same thing Wason apprciate guys pleasure and I know Brian we weren't always lovey D every moment of the way but we got through it all sure did we're adults we can handle it you know y all right so we'll adjourn to uh mayor be be clear that uh the regular uh meeting is not adjourned you're going to be proceeding this is the lawyer in The Recess and then after the closed session uh then the council will come back and adjourn the regular meeting so it's a timely it's timely to say thank you Eric for keeping me on the straight and narrow path through this process Excuse excuse me mayor I believe the fire chief is uh you have to go through the mayor on that I ask question please if you like sure can I have a witness no I don't know no no the the only uh individual statuto that in a closed session is uh is yourself the council my myself and the city administrator it will be recorded at the at the end of the the closed session it will become a public uh record y I've a lot of e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e so ch right yes okay so foot Allis is there any procedure to come back from Recess mayor council members uh just for the record uh council's back in regular session approximately 8:07 p.m. the council recessed regular session and proceeded into a closed uh session uh during the Clos session at approximately 9:38 uh p.m. and is now back in a regular session with that I hand it back to you mayor okay thank you thank you for your patience uh we met with fire chief Sano and uh had a Frank talk Frank discussion of looking at how we got here and how things are operating and all that and we know we had that report by Jerry strike um really an unimpeachable expert in the subject of how fire departments ought to be managed and where we arrived at we've we've identified several things that need to improve and uh it's it's real dramatic for people to take you know drastic measures and all that it's makes a lot of people happy but it's preferable if you can make things better without being so dramatic about it and so where we where we wound up up was we'd like to hire Jerry strike to come alongside uh Chief Sano and work up a performance plan that he can be held to with clear-cut goals and and it's going to take some changes on on br's part in terms of how he deploys his time and become more of a manager and less of a firef fighter and it is a transition management is about getting things done through other people not just doing them yourself and it's it's a shift in mentality and it takes work takes training takes experience but anyway that's the role that's the route that we've decided as a group 4 to one to pursue that with monthly updates to the city council on how it's going and uh time indeterminate but really we're probably thinking about a two-month kind of horizon to come to have another meeting and have another decision made by a differently composed council is that pretty close to a summary of it guys does that kind of get at it come on how about a little feedback you said it all oh yeah cover I'm asking you did I sufficiently summarize you just look at me like that's a sufficient summary yes okay well I guess that summarizes it then any other business to do tonight before you can I have a second of your time sure so today I came across this uh post and it says that positions are temporary ranks and titles are limited but the way you treat people will always be remembered some significant things have happened real recently and I've I've made the decision to resign from the city of east bethl no oh no I'm sorry to hear that Aaron provide a resignation letter for all of you and um request that you consider taking action on that tonight uh but certainly understand if you want to move that to the 13th your decision final it is final what if we don't accept it I don't I don't think it's up to us so do we need to accept that formally you don't need to accept it formally but he has asked that you do so so it's just up to the will of the council is this a complete surprise yes [Music] um it's up to you mayor you could just uh deem that it's been received or if you want to put it to an acceptance vote that's that's fine too it doesn't require a formal acceptance vote well that's why I asked Aaron the question it was Final it's final it doesn't matter whether we accept it or not well then we'll just for the record indicate that it's been deemed received yeah well more would some time away from here for a little bit I mean he he's lot going into details he's been through a lot in the last month or so unbelievable mayor I think that makes sense why why why acknowledge anything more formally let's leave options open it's been let his you know immediate supervisor deal with it y uh I will say for the record that Aaron's a very smart guy and one of the hardest working people I've ever run into so that's I'm very disappointed as a resident of East bethle to hear this um and he's been through brutal stuff lately just brutal so um yeah I can't imagine going through what he did but anyway um we'll chat later Matt okay that said I move to adjourn second for the last time motion is made and seconded to adjourn all in favor say I I opposed none heard oh that's got cookies over there