##VIDEO ID:zhhCXfu2DC4## hey it's out there everybody turn around I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justicea yeah yeah yeah yeah I got it item two public comments anyone wishing to address the council please step to the podium yeah public comments John like I said three minut this is scary I really don't like public meetings I was just in grammar and they told me to get my ass out of there it was really bad but St Joel has been a great town John if you wouldn't mind name John pet thank you um I've been involved in St Joe uh as an investor passionately lost sleep um I worked on some senior housing over here um which which is a wonderful little Community I uh worked on mstream shops where we have an Italian restaurant the best ice cream shop in Minnesota not from Wisconsin we have people that live there we have employees and it's been pretty cool uh most recently I was involved in Bou allei Flats which is the three-story building where we have a great restaurant we were very lucky to get people that had Soul and Spirit and I'm here to talk about Rick and it all has to do with this town and I want to thank Rick um I have notes I can't read sometimes Rick is way off in never Neverland sometimes he's right there but Rick has been a big part of this town and how it's evolved D it's about people that have passion I used to have an office in Minneapolis it was fun I had an office in St Cloud it was fun but when I was a little kid one of my favorite experiences on Sunday was going to linman's talk to Epsy to get two for one penny candy I remember that he was friendly he was welcoming first car I ever bought was from Ray krebsbach I traded in my 55 Ford blew up on the way out and I upgraded to a 57 Chevy and I bought a new car from him this town draws people I'm not a resident but I love this town it's not a big town big towns have neighborhoods we have our tribes St Joel is a big neighbor neighborhood and it's a wonderful one and in the last 15 years we've had a number of things that have been wonderful happen and Rick I want to thank you for helping guide this town welcoming people sometimes he tried to kick me out grab me one time by the but but it was probably re necessary but it needs a town like this needs someone involved whether it is Staff or residents who have passion relationships when you look at a town and sometimes or a business and you say it's not personal that's it is personal if you're a small entrepreneur and you're going to be somewhere you want to know who you're going to be working with you want to know who you can call in this town I can call Lori say hey Lori you know that check I was supposed to send you two years ago she go oh yeah she'll fill me in and we figure it out if I want to talk to the St chill Police Department because something's funny going on I can call the chief of police and he might be out hunting but he'll answer his phone he will help this is a wonderful town and Rick you've been here a long time and I want to thank you for your service to this community you have a lot to be proud of and I still have a minute left thank you Rick the other thing I want to talk about is I know that on the agenda the city is looking at having an outside service to come in and help them with economic development I think there's a place to find out about what the latest Minnesota Housing Finance Agency packages for housing or maybe Greater Minnesota housing fund it's impossible for somebody working 40% of the time to understand all of those things but I got to tell you in a town like this an entrepreneur a business that's thinking of coming here they want to know who's gonna say yeah you're welcome and Nate is the guy who's been doing that and I want to thank Nate also for doing that and I hope that you don't lose that amazing person who has a soul and a connection to the people and is dedicated to this town thank you thanks John anybody else public comments mat tail MC B crew flower flower soon to be jail toown smash Burgers um I would just like to uh Echo kind of what John is saying that you know we came and looked at this community as a community of do did we think that we could be a part of it did we think that what we were bringing could add value um our mission has always been about Community it's always been about building it's always been about bringing diversity into communities and making them better than they were um as you all know a lot of small towns in this uh not only state but country are dying um and embracing diversity you can look especially around this state and right here in St Joe embracing diversity is what has allowed us to be able to flourish um I'm try to be a very humble person but we have put a spotlight um as far as crew and flower and flower on this city not only nationally but internationally and I have to say that Nate is a very big part of why that happened and so um my relationship with him um and knowing the diversity in his family um makes me feel a little bit more at ease living in a community like this knowing that somebody who has at least a similar um Vision or um eyesight into the world as I do allows me to have a a much better communication with somebody who I know their family their upbringing and where their values and morals lie and so I would just like to voice my um opposition to not having Nate involved in this he's been very instrumental in the communication with us and asking us what we need and if there's anything that we need and anything he's always been available for us to be able to call and have a person that um I see usually on a monthly basis inside of the restaurant um coming to us and asking us um those things on a personal level and I value relationships over anything else um in our businesses so I just want to say thank you to Nate thank you for mayor Rick for doing what you've done and congratulations on your way out um but also i' just like to to to voice my support um for for Nate and and keeping him in the position that he's in thank you thank you anyone else wish to speak I'm Jessica Turner um we bought the old grain elevator in St Joel um to piggy back off what they've been saying we've been dealing with that gsdc and lately they've disappeared Nate's never disappeared anytime we need something Nate is there Nate is when we're not asking for information he's providing information try this try this we're two women that are just trying to bring our Dream to fation we got a big dream and we don't know which way we're going without him we would be lost I mean he brought us to this GSD DC and you know but he still is our go-to thank you thank you anybody else I also came to check out with the oh I'm Julia kingle I own the perfect fit in St Joe health and wellness by the meat market um I wanted to hear more about what was on the table with the with whatever the abbreviations are sorry um but I wanted to know more too because I work so well with Nate he's he's taken time to get to know my business and what I need and some potential offerings that I thought would be valuable to the city and he was available to hear me out and see if it would be a great option for for St Joe and that is what that partnership with the city is why I brought my business to St Joe and didn't have it in another town because I really wanted a community that worked together so I'm just kind of feeling out what the proposal was tonight as well um to see if it's it's of any value but I still like local and I'm not open as much to someone who doesn't know our community coming in and trying to develop it their way thank you anybody else you know what come forward to move on item three approval to approve agenda second Motion in second to approve the agenda issues or concerns all those in favor signify by I I oppos motion carries item for consent move to approve second motion second on consent agenda any issues or concerns you want to pull all those in favor signify by I I opposed motion carries item five David thank you Mr mayor council members again it looks like this is the agenda item that everybody is here to hear about tonight um so I guess what I will do is I'll give a little bit of the background here I um I touch on it here in the staff memo um so I have been approached by the gsdc president nataya bman about the possibility of partnering with the gsdc for fractional economic development services they are exploring offering this type of service for their member cities um there would be some Buy in or something along those lines that would be required um exactly how that would work and what it would look like uh we don't know um and that is why I wanted to get some feedback from the council and get the direction before I spent a lot of time and effort into um researching this and bringing something back um so with that being said um I think there's been um maybe a lot of projections as far as what this might be um I mean this from what I'm getting from this we're not looking at replacing positions we're looking at potentially modifying positions if um there would be services that they might be able to do or help us with or whatever I said we we don't know exactly because we haven't fleshed this out but um so I think there's been a a bit of a um maybe an assumption that this is that we're looking at hiring gsdc and then replacing our staff that is not what I've been that's not the the indication that I've gotten from my initial conversations with the TAA we're looking at seeing what this could do um and how that could be of service because it is something so we are a member of the gsdc and it is something that they are looking at offering I understand that excuse me I understand that they um do have a tentative agreement with another city in the area here um that they're looking at I'm not sure how that's been fleshed out with them yet or not but it's something that they are offering it's something that other cities are looking at and um I quite frankly think it's something that's worth exploring to see if it is of a benefit to us um I still feel that way um so um that's why I'm putting it before the council see what the council thinks about that and if this is worthwhile to explore so that I will take any questions um that as my staff report I think my biggest comment would be as I saw this on the agenda and I'm the type of person that reaches out um to the residents to see what they think and what kind of interaction that they have had and I didn't know um that businesses were going to be stepping forward which thank you so much this is what I want this is what we want to see as involvement and that you're keeping an eye on us that's is very important and my opinion in this process would be um not only as I heard tonight that he is interjecting um the hometown feel for St Joe Nate has um he's developing the position and this Council had voted down a support position part-time part because it to be able to look at uh possibilities for Nate to maybe grow and uh work with the administrator to be able to maybe separate some of his duties so he could really um palet to the city more and give his service more to the city I think he is doing a good job um looking into what this proposal is they do an amazing job they train they um what's her name again NATA thank you um looking at what they offer um but I think there's just a lot of irons in the fire um with that I don't know if they would be able to really give St Joe the family approach and that's what I love about St Joe that's this is why I've lived here for 34 years and so I'm nervous in the sense that if we looked at something that somebody's doesn't even they're not even sitting or tushy in this building um and they get to decide for St Joe and I know Nate doesn't live here but he's invested here and so I I I'm very uncomfortable with that thought process of um looking at um a I wouldn't say a company they're doing an amazing job training businesses and that and I think that's where they need to focus on more and stay with um and not be um branching out into looking at trying to support cities that they don't belong to and haven't invested in that's my opinion I would agree with a lot of what Kelly said and my few thoughts and questions would be is how is this going to more finitely impact us as like a city Nate's position because a lot of this seems very just like overhead and like brainstorming basically like it doesn't give us a lot of just precise actions um what they would be doing um what would be expected of Nate and relation um like what were compensating them how that would affect Nate uh I understand that this is very preliminary but I would just like to have a lot more information present to us as a council in the city so like we can understand this better as how it's going to affect our city and Nate and everybody may I have the opportunity to speak or after the rest of the council speaks no Nate not tonight I can of agree with you know looking forward to more information I mean this is minuscule information that uh I would need to even you know commit to something like that but you know with more information I don't know if that there is more information out there or you know the nuts and bolts of the situation well well I guess if I may if I may answer that that question uh and that that is really why I was bringing this forward here at this point is because um if this is something that we want to look into or if it's something that that um I think because the answer is we don't know the answers to that I mean I can't give answers to that is because it it is a like like for example like Adam said it is still a very high level idea of this so before I would put in a lot of time and effort into trying to flesh this out to bring that I want to see is this something that we're looking at that we would be interested in pursuing um and how that would work and how that potentially would either benefit us work with us or whatever like iess so like I said before as far as the idea of replacing staff or whatever that that's it's way too way too early to talk about I I I'm not looking at bringing this forward and saying the council has to vote on this tonight and this it's going to mean that excuse me staff is going to be replaced or or that what I'm say what I'm asking is is this something that would be worthwhile into exploring further and bringing back these types of these types of answers because because we don't know these right now it's an idea and why I'm bringing this forward is because we are a member of the GSTC it is something that they are proposing to really all of their cities as far as I could tell that that are are part of them and that's something that they're looking at doing so is or a potential offering so is it worthwhile for us to explore that further personally I think it's I I don't think there's anything wrong with exploring it but I'm not going to die on that Hill either so I appreciate all the comments tonight I think this gets tabled I think we've explored it enough and I think David you and Nate need to look at is there too much on your plate that's a valid question Nate do you have too much on your plate just like we're talking about a fire study is there a way to organize our fire department services and medical calls and whatnot better than what we better than what we do and I think sometimes you are stretched with planning Community Development Eda on and on and on but there's no question what we've experienced in this town in the last several years has been a uh impressive expansion of business and a lot of businesses that that care about this town and care about you so I just think we're going through an election tomorrow we'll have seated a new mayor and some new counselors and we can bring this up we can bring this up at another time that's my recommendation may I respond oh the question before St is and David continue to pursue what this might look like even if we table it to New leadership to here yeah I I think so I say no I don't want him wasting his time on it right now we can ask him to look at it when we go through NE the next budget cycle this wasn't even in the budget um if I may we're not changing the budget Rick isn't a table normally according to parliamentary procedure supersede any other action if there's a second G to be a second motion um I first would like to make a comment it says on number two it says that the speakers that come up should not be talking about uh regarding items not on the agenda and let that happen there he has requested to at least say something I don't know why you don't let him you know if if you can disregard in bold letters right there regarding not the items which I'm appreciative that you did thank you for that but this man has asked to at least say his say and I don't know why you won't let him not why that's the that's the Bear's Choice here's Joy Char the I have a difficulty with that and I just want to go on record that we are a weak mayorip and I don't know why if one council member is requesting something that that can't be happening also so that's my comment you want to table it yeah I move to table I second motion and second to table all those in favor signify by I I opposed I motion prevails say table until what time till we see a new government so Wednesday no no January no it's it'll be February or March let table it till March just for clarification who voted for and against one two three Bob and I against three and two okay thank you all right uh anything from departments okay I have nothing counselors anything well I would be remissed with all of you sitting here if I wouldn't mention get out and boot if you already [Laughter] have move to adjourn second Motion in second to adjourn all those in favor second signified by I I opposed adjourned e