I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go toreen Owl. I serve as an at-large city councillor and I am calling the personnel committee meeting and interview to order now. Can I call Mrs. Kate Fondail to the podium? Hello Mrs. Fondail, thank you so much for joining us here today. Today we're conducting an interview for the planning commission. The planning commission advises the City Council on all planning and development matters, including rezoning, issuance of special permits and community development practices. The Commission has final authority in approval of plans and serves as responsible government unit and conducts environmental reviews pursuant, Minnesota Statue chapter 116D and applicable state regulations. Thank you Mrs. Vandale for coming and being willing to serve on the planning commission, fill a vacancy and just willing to serve our community in this way. As we begin our interview today, I'll ask a set of questions and then I'll turn it over to my council members to ask any following follow-up questions And then I'll give it back to you to end on any last remarks. Does that sound good to you? Chair, I will thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. That sounds great to me. Thank you Why don't we begin by why don't you introduce yourself and just Tell us a little bit about who you are Sure, so my name is Kate Bandail. I'm a native Minnesota and I grew up in Minneapolis. I didn't really spend a lot of time in Duluth until my husband and I would come back and need a place to refuge away from my family just to be alone. And so I ended up coming to Duluth while coming from Denver and just really honestly fell in love with this community. So it was hired from the city of Duluth and took us away from Denver and I don't remember what year but had two different jobs. One was in the planning team originally where I helped to work on the comprehensive plan that is before you today. Imagine Duluth 2035 and then served as the public information officer for three a half years. So had a wonderful chance to get to know the staff, the role that we serve in the community really would try to do my best to lift up what taxpayers should expect from this body and their services that they provide. Miss it very much. Still in touch with a lot of different staff and look forward to cheering on the city every day a different role. Thank you so much for your continued service, your past service with the plan and even continued as you're up for this this potential appointment. Would you, you've already kind of explained your previous experience with potentially planning. Would you be you've already kind of explained your previous experience with potentially planning. Would you be willing to expand on why you're interested in serving on this particular board? Sure, Terrell, thank you for the question. My interest in serving on the Planning Commission stems from a strong dedication to our community and my experience as a former employee, both on the Planning Commission and as the PIO. Having been involved in the development of the current Imagine Duluth 2035 plan, I understand both the vision and the detailed work that went into creating the roadmap for our community. It's a plan that I take a lot of pride in and want to ensure that its goals are implemented outfully in a way that reflects both the values and needs of our residents across the city. I see serving on the commission as a natural step in my commitment to this community and a different space than I have served in past. It would allow me to bring my firsthand knowledge, collaborative approach, and passion for equitable development to the decision making process, ensuring that we're continuing to building a community that thrives economically, socially, and environmentally. Thank you. If you wanted to expand on this upcoming question, you've already laid down some of the ground works. Would you be able to please give a brief outline of your educational and work experiences? How will your background, your lived experiences, and personal strengths be of benefit to the planning commission? Sure. Well, so my mom ran an environmental nonprofit out of the Twin Cities and I started writing grants for her when I was 13 years old. So started working in the development capacity then just because I wanted to help out. I think like a lot of people did not want to be like my mother and instead went to college to be an education professional. Really got into politics. That changed my viewpoint and so ended up being a political science major who then did exactly what I didn't want to do and turned into my mother by going into nonprofits. So after that went to Denver served, served in a AmeriCorps, and then ended up working for the city of Denver on homelessness issues. And so worked in a variety of capacities, both as a street outlet reach counselor on the streets of Denver and then an executive director roles for public health entities that then brought me to this wonderful city to then work on not only the planning team but then really work to elevate the communication within eight departments out of nine in addition to the mayor's office. So long history, very colorful experience across a lot of different both public service government and now on the corporate end at Lens. And so I think I bring a broad perspective, not only from how the city would want to be viewed as a former spokesperson, well aware of any risks that I think Miss Lear would agree to in terms of what we can and can't say, thinking about the role that we serve and then also taking development and how it impacts our city very seriously. Thank you for that robust answer. Would you mind stating your full name again? I just want to make sure I'm not misspelling, miss pronouncing your last name. Yeah no problem. It's when I married my husband it's a Dutch name so the extra e-throws everybody off. It's Catherine Van Dail. Van Dail. Thank you Mrs. Vendale. Could you give an example of how you have promoted diversity equity inclusion in your pastures? Thank you, Chair Elf for the question. You know, I believe equity is about creating opportunities for everyone in our community regardless of their background or circumstances. And I think in pastures, you could see that from the lens that I brought from being a street outreach counselor to meaning youth street youth where they were and helping connect them to services all the way to working at the city where I work to highlight different initiatives that the city had throughout our different departments. I'm really proud to work at Minnesota Power where we have a robust E&I program and initiatives that has not changed and stand by those initiatives and the work that I do every day. Thank you. I have a few more logistical questions, counselors, then it'll turn to you if you wanna think about your questions and get ready in the queue. These are really fairly quick logistical questions. Do you have any personal or financial interests, director indirect, with the planning commission, or are you engaged in any capacity whereby a conflict of interest may arise? Chair, I'll thank you for the question. I do not believe that I have any conflicts. And if I were to, I know that I would either remove myself or just not be a part of that conversation. Thank you. Do you foresee any personal scheduling conflicts which may prevent you from attending the regular board meetings of the planning commission? I do not believe so other than there might be a hockey game for my six year old that we have to miss, but they are tentatively in my schedule pending your decision and I will do my best to be at all of them. Thank you so much. And are you presently serving on any other boards or commissions, if so which ones? Thank you for the question, Chair Elle. I am the Chair of the Duluth Children's Museum Board, and so happily have served in that capacity. There's other boards that I have served on including the former Duluth Chamber Board member and I am currently serving on downtown Duluth Board of Directors as well. Thank you so much, Councillors at this time. I'm going to look to you for questions. President Tamanik. Thank you, Chair All. Good evening. Ms. Bandail, can you tell me how you plan on staying informed on all of the issues that affect planning? It's a big responsibility and there's a lot going on. Chair Allell, Commissioner, President Tamanik, thank you for the question. Unfortunately, I'm not able to turn off my communication lens. So as I mentioned, I am the city's biggest cheerleader and do pay attention to all things in the news. So whether they're housing developments or different new businesses that are coming into our city, I am looking at all of those different options, not when the news covers them and look forward to bringing my voice to those when appropriate. Thank you. Thank you, President Tumonic. Thank you for the response. Councillor Forzman. Thank you, Chair Owl. It is fun to see you in this setting again, Miss Vandale. Question since you're applying to be on the Planning Commission. I think Planning commissioners often get put in the role of Arbitra between developers and neighbors when projects are coming forward and I was just curious if you had any thoughts on balancing those two perspectives. Yeah Chair Alcounter, for us men thank you for the question. I think it's a really important relationship that to distinguish between developer and neighbor. Both are equally important and both I think determine a different touch. So when I was in the Planning Commission, I were planning staff, apologies before. It was one of the things that I prided myself on. It was making sure of asking questions and being a thoughtful listener of what challenges that neighbors were bringing up and then making sure that there is an opportunity for developers to have those conversations with neighbors so that not only did they know their plans, they were transparent, but that if there were additional issues that they could work for them, work towards those issues together and try to find compromise when we can, based on the impact and decisions on the codes that we abide by. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Forstemen. Councillor Mayo. Thank you, Chair Aul. Thank you, Miss Mandale, for your interview. I think your experience with the Vision DuluthAlouther imagined Duluth 35 is a very unique thing that distinguishes you. And I'm curious how you view that document because we've had a variety of different perspectives. Some folks view it as a guiding document or a vision document and others maybe more of a policy document and something we should be following more strictly to its e. So kind of your approach on that document and how you'd apply that and your planning commission role. Yeah. Chair All and Councillor Mayhew, thank you for the question. I remember when I was a planning staff and as I've mentioned, there's no traditional planning background that I have. I didn't go to school for it, but one of the things that I did appreciate was having more of a layman's lens of what the comprehensive plan is, why we update it, and why it's essentially looked at as a roadmap. And so I think that with different municipalities, we see, especially in my work right now, there are different entities that view comprehensive plans more as a policy guidebook and others that look at it as kind of the thing that defines how cities are gonna navigate their growth. And so one of the things that I think is important to remember is that these plans generally are created at one snapshot in history and we do our best to think about what the needs of the community are at that point while guiding towards the future. But I don't think any of us saw COVID happening when we built that plan, and I don't think any of us saw the needs of shopping sometimes more online. Also having folks look at neighborhoods that were developing at a rate that that maybe we didn't see when we were building that plan. So I think it's really important to look at Imagine Duluth 2035 at its intent and then also guided by data that I think we see on a regular basis, whether that's housing needs, you know, the rate of folks going to different clinics or big things that impact our communities that help them to make sure that people have the opportunities not only to work, but to live and to play. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councillor Meil. At this time, there's no other questions. Thank you so much. This is Vendale. Did I say that right? You did. Mrs. Vendale for interviewing with us. Do you have any last final remarks? Councillors, I just want to thank you for your service. I know that there are a lot of these applications in front of you. Certainly I realize that I have a bit of unique perspective in being a former staff person. But what I'm hoping that you can see is that my passion, even though I've stepped out of two different roles that the city has not changed. And so I would welcome the opportunity to serve in a new capacity and thank you for your time and your consideration. Thank you so much for interviewing with us today and for your willingness to serve on our boards and commissions and especially the planning commission and bringing all your expertise potentially to this commission with your possible appointment. Your resolution that confirms your appointment is not currently on this council cycle. It will be on it will be on the next council cycle and be voted in at that time or voted at that time. Thank you so much and with that we conclude the personnel committee chair meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Okay. Come on. the and state your name? Hello, good evening. Hello, good evening. My name is Jennifer Katie. I'm the Vice President of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs for Minnesota Power. Welcome. You have a long schedule here. Could you try speaking in? I'll try to talk louder. Better? Can the audience hear? No, no. Okay. We will just have you speak as closely to the microphone as you can. You can adjust the lectern as needed. Okay. I'll do my best. Go ahead. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Councillors, for having me here today. Can I interrupt for one minute? Yes. I'm going to ask that the folks in the gallery keep the signs down low so we can see everyone's face please. Thank you. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be here with you all today to give an update on some of the exciting things happening with Minnesota Power. So I do have some slides to walk through but happy to take questions at any time as you have them. So I'd like to give you updates on two major initiatives occurring at Minnesota Power right now. And the first is on our Integrated Resource Plan, which is our long-term 15- 15 year energy plan and The second is on the acquisition of elite so I will walk through the IRP first maybe but I'm not sure where to Click I'm sorry, I don't Okay, thank you Okay, so I know many of you are very familiar with Minnesota power, but a few reminders perhaps. First we have been headquartered here in Duluth on the corner of Lake Avenue and Superior Street for 100 years, proudly serving Northern Minnesota since 1906. We have just over 11 hundred employees, the majority of which are here in Duluth, but also across our service territory. We serve 150,000 customers and some of the nation's largest industrial operations. So we power all the mining operations on the iron range, all the paper mills across northern Minnesota, the port and other industrial activities. We also provide wholesale power to 14 municipalities across our region, including cities like Proctor, Virginia, where we provide them electricity and also maintain their system in some cases. Many people don't realize that elite, the parent company of Minnesota Power, is the largest investor in renewable energy of any company of its size in America. And Minnesota Power specifically is nearly 60% renewable today, which is the most renewable utility in the state of Minnesota. Our renewable portfolio comes from a diverse set of resources. Wind, solar, hydro, and biomass, including the Hibbert Renewable Energy Center right here in West Duluth. Hibbert produces electricity from biomass and pays approximately $800,000 a year to the city in taxes, not including the employees that work there and vendors that support service there. Next slide, please. So what is an IRP? In Minnesota, the largest utilities are regulated by the Public Utilities Commission in St. Paul. To ensure thorough planning of our system, we provide plans that look out 15 years into the future. There are two parts of those plans. First is forecasting what customers' energy needs will be over that time period. And then the second is determining what the best mix of resources is to provide those energy needs and serve customers. The IRP is filed every few years. Minnesota Powers last IRP was filed in 2021. And it's the start of about a year long regulatory process with opportunities for broad public input. So I'm so pleased to have the opportunity to come here today and just share a little bit with you about what we recently filed a few weeks ago. It's important to note that when we look before we look at what the plan for the next 15 years entails, I'll take just a moment and talk about where we're at today. So as I mentioned, Minnesota Power is the most renewable electric utility in the state of Minnesota and certainly across the Midwest with nearly 60% of our power coming from renewable resources today. However, our remaining 40% of power comes from our coal unit at Boswell Energy Center in coal has it just outside of Grand Rapids. So this IRP is really going to be about our C-S coal plan, really eliminating coal from our power supply over the next 15 years. One of my favorite analogies about kind of our energy transition is we've been remodeling our house for many years and we've remodeled the bathroom, remodeled the kitchen as we've gotten to 60% renewable. And this next piece is really looking at the load bearing wall of the house, which is our Boswell Energy Center. And so as we move off of coal, it has to be thoughtful to make sure we keep reliability of the system intact. So our IRP goals, I'm so excited to share with you that this IRP outlines an ambitious plan for Minnesota power. In 2005, Minnesota Powers Generation came from 95% coal resources. We operated nine coal plants across northern Minnesota. Since 2005, we have closed or remissioned seven of those nine coal plants. Much like the city of Duluth with the Duluth Seam Plant conversion from coal to natural gas, now we're looking at what comes next after coal and what's the best way to reduce carbon emissions on our system while ensuring reliability. So the plan that I'll talk through in a moment gets us from where we are today, which is over 50% renewable to 90% renewable by 2035. And when we take a step back and look at where we come, where we've come from, it's a remarkable transformation of the electric grid in just a few decades. So what does our plan include? Our 2021 IRP included significant new renewables. So 700 megawatts of new wind and solar resources that we are in the process of adding. We are really excited to announce two large solar projects one actually at the Boswell Energy Center. So it's in the middle of its transition and we're reinvesting in that host community. So building upon the last plan of 700 megawatts of newer renewables, this plan calls for an additional 400 megawatts of new wind resources. So more renewables. Next we're investing in more energy storage resources. So we know that energy storage technology continues to evolve and we're excited about where it's going over the next 15 years. So this plan calls for 100 megawatts of new energy storage projects by 2035. One of my favorite parts of the planning process is energy conservation. The cheapest, the cleanest kilowatt hour is the one that we don't have to make. And so the foundation of our planning is how to be more efficient with our system, how to conserve energy and work with customers to do so. We also are incredibly lucky because we have decades of experience working with those large industrial customers that I mentioned earlier. So nearly 70% three quarters of Minnesota powers energy sales go to these large industrial customers and we have worked with them over the years on a product called demand response and how that works is when there is an increase in energy demand on our system we can actually curtail those customers where they stop their operations and we use that energy for other things. It's been a great product and we're looking to do more of that and leverage that more into the future. In fact, when you look at other utilities across the state and nation, many of them have natural gas plants in their portfolio today. The reason Minnesota Power does not is because we have used that demand response product as essentially a peaking plant. So instead of building a power plant, we work with these customers to control their usage and benefit the grid. So we're gonna maximize conservation. We're gonna maximize customer program. And then after that, after we've done all we can on renewables, energy storage, conservation, demand response, we are proposing to add a thousand megawatts of new natural gas capacity to our system. And this is to replace the nearly thousand megawatts of coal that's currently on our system at the Boswell Energy Center. And today our coal fleet plays an important role in the system in backstopping renewables and providing energy when those renewables are not available. It's been the workhorse and backbone of our system for decades, really keeping the lights on at all hours. So as we see coal operations at those two facilities and move forward, maintaining reliability is really critical. Next slide, please. So what is that going to look like? Boswell Energy Center has two units. The smaller of the units is unit three. It is currently scheduled to cease coal operations in 2030. We are proposing to refuel that unit to natural gas. What this means is we're going to keep the house, we're going to remodel the inside, we're going to change the boiler out, and instead of rail cars of coal coming to co-hacet, it's going to burn natural gas instead. This is important for a couple of reasons. It will immediately reduce carbon. It will ensure reliability, but it will keep costs down for customers. Because what we're essentially doing is we're leveraging infrastructure that's already there to keep that energy generation source. It also allows us to continue to invest in the city of co-hacet. The Boswell plant actually contributes a majority of that city's operating budget each year and finding ways to reinvest in that host community is really important to us. So Boswell 3, we're proposing to refuel to natural gas and then Boswell Unit 4. We are going to explore replacement pathways and a refuel of that as well but that will probably come a little bit after Unit 3. So this plan is really identifying pathways to replace Unit 4 which is scheduled to cease coal in 2035. So at the end of the day, this plan, which goes past 2035, we'll see Minnesota Power cease all coal generation from our system be 90% renewable and lean on natural gas for that 10% of the time that the renewables aren't available. So again, a pretty historic transition. So in addition to meeting the status quo of energy needs today, Minnesota Power has an obligation and we look at it as a privilege to provide electric service to anyone in our service territory, any customer, any business that wants to locate here. So our plan does need to plan for kind of, we call them high, high customer needs scenarios. So as we look at the next 15 years, we do see an increase in energy needed for a number of reasons. New industrial growth that might come to our area, the electrification of transportation, of home heating. And we're also seeing as we experience more extreme weather, our data shows that people are using their air conditioners more than they ever used to in the past. We're seeing more extreme cold, more extreme heat, and a need for reliable energy. So that all factors into our plan of what we need. So a few things. Our IRP, our Integrated Resource Plan that we submitted in the beginning of March outlines our path to meet the milestones in Minnesota's carbon free standard to be 90% carbon free by 2035. We talk a lot at our company about doing that the right way. And what that means is any customer survey we do will tell us two things that are probably very obvious. One is no one wants their bills to go up and two no one has any tolerance for outages. So we expect the lights to be on when we need them, especially on our coldest days of the year. So safeguarding reliability is our inherent responsibility, transitioning to cleaner sources of energy and keeping customer bills as low as possible, is the Rubik's Cube we're always trying to solve. So if you could go to the next slide please. This marks the beginning of the planning process. So what we filed in early March is reflective of Minnesota power, what we've heard from our customers, from stakeholders, from advocates, from tribal nations. We've tried to incorporate all of that feedback into the plan we presented, but now it's in some ways the beginning of a process. So we expect the regulatory process to take about a year, lots of opportunities for public comment and public hearing, but I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce our plan to you in person right after we filed. So that's a quick update on the IRPM, kind of track in my time here. I'll switch gears a little bit. That was one of the two major initiatives I wanted to provide an update on. The second is the acquisition of Elite. So you may know Elite is the parent company of both Minnesota Power here and also Superior Water Light and Power across the bridge in addition to a few other companies. Last May, our elite board of directors entered into a partnership agreement with two large infrastructure investors. The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, which is essentially like Canadian Social Security, they manage investments for 22 million Canadians' retirements. And Global infrastructure partners, which is a leading infrastructure fund, and they invest in things like airports, railways, a big infrastructure. So why did we go down this path? Well, Minnesota Power is a relatively small company in the public markets, and we're a relatively small company with really outsized risk. So the public markets are a volatile place for us to be and what I just outlined to you when we look in the next 15 years we need large amounts of capital for the infrastructure we need to build. It is a risky place for us to be in the public market trying to access that capital with our unique risk, which is that exposure to industrial customers that can idle, just like we saw last week with the announcement of Cleveland Cliff's idling of Menorca and Hibbing Tech andite. So that presents a unique risk for Minnesota power and makes it harder for us to access capital in the public market. Our lead board of directors saw that kind of need for capital and that risk of us being small and competing in the public market and strategically partnered with two investment partners who would be aligned with our strategy over the long term. One of the things that gets kind of lost in the coverage that I'm really excited about is utilities are inherently long-term business models. We build big infrastructure that lasts a long time, 35, 5, 40, 50 years, and having investors that also have a long-term view like pension funds are more aligned with our business model than quarter to quarter investors in the public market. So, I'm really excited about the opportunities that this can bring to the company. Oh, sorry. Okay. It's important to note though that this acquisition is essentially us changing our investors or changing our bank sometimes is a way to think about it but we remain a regulated utility. So all of the oversight from the state of Minnesota, all of the Minnesota energy policy and regulations that apply to us today will apply to us next year and the year after. Nothing changes in terms of regulatory oversight from the state of Minnesota. What does change is instead of trying to access capital from Wall Street, we have long-term investment partners that are aligned with us. Sorry, now you can. It's a lot of pressure here. When we signed our merger agreement, it was very important to the elite board of directors to our elite CEO, Bethany Owen, that we chose partners who are aligned with our values. Minnesota Power has been here in, had quartered in Duluth for 100 years and we want to be here for another 100 years. We chose partners that value our commitment to the communities we serve, and they have agreed to as long as they own our company, we will remain had quartered here in Duluth, our existing employee base and leadership team will stay. They will honor all union contracts and collective bargaining agreements. They will maintain all of our corporate giving, our Minnesota Power Foundation. All of the things that make us uniquely MP will stay in place. And that's part of why our elite board of directors set out on this path to kind of chart our own future, to choose our own partners, instead of being at the whim of whoever decides to invest in us on Wall Street. So I'm excited about this. I work with the partners on a daily basis and they're so aligned with our values and our direction and excited about supporting what we need in the future. So next slide please. This is again, a long regulatory process. So we announced to this deal about a year ago, there are a number of state and federal approvals required because as I said, we will remain a regulated utility, both now and after this acquisition closes. We've received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, our Federal Energy Regulators who said this acquisition is in the public interest. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission approved this just a few weeks ago for our Superior Water Light and Power Company. And right now we're in the middle of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission regulatory process. So this is the last remaining approval needed before the transaction can close. And we have a number of public hearings coming up in just a few weeks across our service territory. So here in Duluth, Cloquet, Little Falls, Cohasset, Evelet, and a virtual hearing. So I wanted to share that information with you so you know that that opportunity for public comment exists and we'll continue working through this process. We expect an order from the administrative law judge in mid July and then probably a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in the fall meeting in the fall. So a ways ahead of us in this regulatory process but we're at an exciting point to receive public input. So I think that's my last slide and I have tried to stay on my time because I know you have a busy agenda but I'm happy to take any questions. We do have time for questions. Thank you for your presentation. We'll start with Councillor Mayo. Thank you, President Tamanik. Thank you, Miss Katie, for the presentation. Exciting to hear about some of the updates. But I had a couple of concerns I wanted to share and start off first with the end-tech inclusion with the IRP. I think we have many folks in the audience as well as some maybe in superior who might be surprised to see that. I in particular was also surprised I guess to see that included with the IRP plan just given the conversation at the superior council last year and I think the air permit was maybe withdrawn late last year. So curious about that first and then secondly, Councillor We'll be taking one question at a time because we have limited time. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Actually, the Entech project is not included in the plan I just presented to you. Okay. Thank you. Next, Councillor Swenson. Thank you, President Tumonic, and thank you, Miss Katie, for being here. You did talk about the acquisition and the merger. I guess is there a timeline of how long that would be in the contract? Like at what point maybe they could take the headquarters out of Duluth or is at a concern at all for our community? Thank you, Councillor. The partners have committed to the headquarters remaining in Duluth for as long as they go in the company. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Councillor Derwockter. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Councillor Derwockter. Thank you, President Tamanik and Ms. Katie. Sorry, I'm losing my voice a little bit. Where could we find language that shows that elite with this merger with CPP and GIP, where could we find language that they will not raise the rates for the customers? Thank you, Councillor. In our contested case proceeding that we're currently in, the partners have provided sworn testimony that no transaction costs, no costs associated with this acquisition will be recovered from Minnesota Power customers. So I'm happy to have that sent over to you, but they've provided that in sworn testimony. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Derr-Walker. Councillor Neufue. Thank you, President Tamanik. Thank you for being here tonight. My question is like 400 megawatts of new wind, like bring that down to a level where we all would understand it, and then also, how much does that actually cost? Well, I thank you, Councillor, for the question. For a little bit of context, our energy need is around 1600 megawatts. The slide that I had earlier shows you that we have currently about 1300 megawatts of renewable generation. We're adding another 700 and from the last IRP in 400 here. So that's a long way of saying we're building a lot over building renewables to make sure that they can generate energy when we need it. So when the sun is shining, when the wind is blowing wherever it is, we're over building. The cost of these plans is in the tens of millions of dollars for each project. How the process works is the commission will tell us directionally, yes, that's how much wind we want you to procure, and then we'll go out and issue a request for proposals and get specific projects and specific numbers But it is significant and takes a significant amount of capital Thank you counselor nephew that was one of my questions next we have a counselor, let's see who's next Counselor Swenson Thank you President Tumonic. My next question was, is Minnesota power the only one building natural gas facilities? No. Natural gas facilities are being built across the country. In fact, Excel Energy just received approval here in Minnesota to build a new natural gas plant in southern Minnesota. Thank you, Councillor Swenson. Councillor O'All. Thank you, President Tamanik, and please excuse me, I'm also losing my voice. Thank you so much for your presentation and like really going into the IRP and then also the accusation information. I've received multiple emails and like I'm sure all counselors have been talking. I know Entech isn't covered in this presentation you covered today but people are wondering and they're concerned. So to summarize some of those emails and information and what I'm hearing from the public I had a constituent really pushed me on this as well and I wanted to just allow this question. Their concern was accusations by private equity firms often only last around 10 years as firms impose cost cutting measures such as restructuring, strategic planning to minimize cost of their businesses that they acquire so they can resell the business for immense profits. These are words that the constituents are saying. What assurances will there be for transparency and accountability for customers by the Minnesota Power Utility if it becomes privately owned? People really want to know how their power utility is operating. What happens to local input on rates, reporting maintenance responses to power surges and just accountability in general. That's such a great question, Councillor, and I certainly understand the concern. There are examples of private equity acquisitions across the country that have certainly not gone well. I would say not all private equity is the same. And what we're talking about are a pension fund and an infrastructure fund that are in it for the long term. So they're not the same private equity that gets in the business of kind of flipping companies or extracting value. The extensive regulatory processes that they're going now, I think are a little bit of, or that we're undergoing now, are kind of proof that they're not, it would be a bad investment for them to flip us quickly. But that said, regardless of what their intentions are, as I mentioned, Minnesota power will remain a regulated utility by the state of Minnesota. So that means the Public Utilities Commission in St. Paul will still approve all projects, approve customer rates, ensure that we're meeting our service quality requirements, provide opportunities for public input. None of that process for how decisions are made are changed by who our investors are. Thank you for that. Thank you. We've made it through our first round of questions and we have just two minutes left so I'm going to ask one of my questions. Ms. Katie, first of all, thank you for being here. And in order for the public to know, at this point is the City Council vote on any resolution related to acquisitions or the IRP? No, Councillor, I'm just here to give you all an update on what we're up to. We have only one minute left. Is there a way that Councillors can contact you for their further questions? Yes, of course. My email address is jjcady at mnpower.com. Thank you. Happy to connect anytime. Thank you. We will begin the meeting in one minute. Can't hear. Wendy? Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. Can't hear. How did I get it? Yeah, what do you mean? How did you figure out what was the matter? How did you figure out what was the matter? Sorry Good evening if you're coming in or leaving please try and do it as quietly as possible as we are calling the meeting to order Will the clerk please call the roll? Clerk Danem, can you call the roll? Thank you. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here your closing. Yes. I'm going to have your here. Here, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. The pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The agenda for this evening's meeting is posted on the bulletin board and copies are available at the rear of council chambers. For those watching on public access television, the agenda for this meeting is available on the city's website at www.deluthmn.gov Livestreaming can also be found on our website under Council Meeting Media. Citizens in the audience who wish to address the council, please sign the sheet located near the clerk's desk. Please turn off all cell phones while in the council chambers. In addition, we are taking applications for boards and commissions, those applications are on the desk also. I will now read the tools of civility in honor and memory of Councillor René Venette. The City of Duluth Council promotes the use and adherence of the tools of civility and conducting the business of the council. The tools of civility provide increased opportunity for civil discourse, leading depositive resolutions for the issues that face our city. We know that when we have civility, we get public engagement and because we can't make each other civil and we can only work on ourselves, we state that today I will pay attention, listen, be inclusive, not gossip. Show respect, seek, common ground, repair, damaged relationships, use constructive language, and take responsibility. Thank you. Next we'll have the approval of minutes. Is there a motion? So moved by all. Second. Second by mail. All those in favour? Opposed? Passes the approval of the minutes passes 9-0. Next we have reports from the administration. Mr. Staling? The council, I'm happy to report that we've arrived at terms with Dr. Shana Weaver for our sustainability officer position. Both city attorney and I have signed off on the contract and so we expect that she can be starting some day soon. Hopefully this week. Great, anything else? No. All right, thank you. We now have the opportunity for citizens to be heard. I will remind people that you have three minutes to speak. When you reach the lectern, I will let you know when you have 30 seconds left to speak. In this chambers, we do not allow clapping, booing, any sign of approval or disapproval after a person has spoken. Clerk Denham, can you tell us who is first? And please start with your name and address. Good evening. My name is Eric Hemberg, MD, and I practice family medicine in West Duluth. My address is 5425 Morris Thomas Road in Hermann Town. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I am very concerned that the proposed private equity buyout of elite will be both bad for the poorest people in town, the working class people, I serve every day, and for the climate, and here's why. While we don't know exactly how this deal is structured, private equity firms typically put up about 50% of the cash to buy a company but borrow the other half. It becomes the responsibility of the purchased company to not only maintain and indeed increase their profit margin, but to also pay off a crushing debt load with interest. This is how the equity and the private equity firm instantly become so much return for its investors. Favorable tax laws such as the carried interest rule is the cherry on top. So who pays for all this? Captive rate payers are the major source of revenue. Given that 74% of the electrons of elite go to large industrial users, such as mines and paper mills who claim to own narrow margins, much of this demand for corporate revenue will fall on the residential and commercial customers, in other words, Duluth. Your constituents are the narrow shoulders upon which this need for revenue will fall. The need for increased profits and debt repayment will also be bad for the climate. Several of the purchasing entities have fossil fuel interests, and nothing can be so efficiently rate-based with a 10% rate of return than fossil fuel plants such as the proposed Namaji Trail Energy Center in Superior. While California is putting up so much solar and storage that they cut their natural gas usage by 25% just last year and Texas is moving even faster, Minnesota power slash elite again missed an opportunity to leapfrog over fossil fuels and inter renewables with storage in its latest integrated resource plan. Make no mistake about it the needless increase in electricity rates will tragically result in less beneficial electrification of home heating and transportation. Indeed, our family has been amazed at how our cheap solar electricity that we have at our home has replaced gasoline and soon natural gas. This buyout is a solution in search of a problem. A lead has no documented inability to secure capital. Investors love utilities precisely because of their captive rate payers. Rather, we have a current management team at the lead, which seems highly motivated to see this deal through. Don't let them, and don't let your constituents down. Keep a lead under the microscope of transparency as they publicly owned corporation. Thank you. Thank you. Look down on our next speaker, please. Good evening. Would you start with your name and address, please? Yes, I'm Beth Taminin. I live at 502 Madison Avenue, in Duluth. And I'm also speaking to the acquisition of the lead in my concerns. I'm a 30 year or my husband and I are 30 year shareholders in Minnesota Power and a lead. And we have overall been pleased with the service we have received. With this bio offer came, I was surprised because the bio offer is considerably higher than the current stock value. So as shareholders, although small time compared to many, we would be receiving a one time considerable premium on our investment. However, when I look at it, it is as a customer, and it's a citizen of Duluth, which the city is a major customer of the power company. I think that concerns far outweigh any particular benefit that I would be receiving or we would be receiving from this stock. Say, when the whole, or when Minnesota, I all eat is bought out. I think Dr. Enberg has spoken about many of the concerns about private equity owning this. According from the Citizens' Utility Board investigation, and they say that GIP, the Infrastructure Holder, the primary bi-art party, typically holds their investments or five to seven years. That means that when they say, yes, our headquarters will stay in Duluth as long as we own it there's a very good chance that in five to seven years they will no longer own it it will go on the market and who knows who will buy it. This creates a very to me a much less stable environment than what we have now in the public market. So I'm concerned about that. You also have to know that GIP was acquired by the largest investment firm in the world. That has a budget higher than any country in the world except the US and China, which means they have a huge amount of financial power. our society at a moment. One of this clear that money has an extremely loud voice in the policies that are being set in our nation. These things together make me reach the conclusion that I would ask you as a council and as a city to make a statement saying we do not think that the acquisition of elite by two private equity firms is in the interest of our city or our citizens. Thank you. Thank you. We'll look down on our next speaker, please. Linda? Karen? Good evening. Good evening. I hope they can hear me back there when I was sitting back there I couldn't hear anything. I wonder if there's a way to turn up the system to make it louder. Thank you, President Tomonic, Council Members, and new City Administrator, Mr. Staling. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to this issue as a diluthian. The potential acquisition of elite parent company of Minnesota Power by global investment partners and its parent company, BlackRock, engenders serious concerns on the part of Minnesota Power customers like me. Some of these many concerns are transparency. As a property of GIP BlackRock, Minnesota Power would be privately a privately owned utility, not subject to all the regulations governing public utilities. The reporting requirements of private utilities are much less stringent than those for public utilities. Don't we want to know how our utilities are functioning and what about accountability? This next concern I have is compliance with Minnesota's clean energy laws. What guarantee do we have that GIP BlackRock would work to reach our state goals of 100% carbon-free energy by 2020, excuse me, 2040, or other energy mandates? Would Minnesota power lose all local control of operations and outcomes. Raid increases is a third very serious concern. Private equity firms focus on increasing revenues and decreasing expenditures. A case study in Raid increases following a buyout by private equity is upper peninsula power in Michigan where rates increased twice shortly after and are currently three times our rates here Can you imagine paying 20? 27 cents a kilowatt hour Yeah What is the reputation of GIP BlackRock? Does decreasing expenditures imply inadequate expenditures on maintenance of your equipment? Responses to outages, customer service, so many uncertainties and so many negative indicators. Let's face it, this buyout is not in the public interest. I urge Minnesota Power to back out of this deal and continue to serve its customers as a publicly operated utility. I ask this council and the city of Duluth to recommend that the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission deny this proposal because it is not in the interest of Duluthian who represent the bulk of Minnesota powers residential customers nor the interest of any customers in its service territory. Thank you for taking my comment. Thank you. Clerk, down on next speaker. John Crumb. Good evening. Councillors. Would you begin with your name and address? My name is John Croum and I live at 3645 East Third Street. Thank you. So I looked it up and blackRock is a 11 trillion dollar company or they hold 11 trillion dollars in assets. Do you think BlackRock will care about what Duluth wants when we want something, when they have that much much money Now I saw many of you folks yesterday protesting at the post office You know you were concerned that Private companies we're going to come and take over the post office and sell out sell our public assets to the highest bidder. That's what people spoke about. Well here we have a case of the world's largest asset managing company. Coming in and buying up our assets, our local assets, and we're not going to have any control over what they want to do. They're going to have so much money that they're going to be able to lobby the PUC when they want as much as they want with as much with as with as many lawyers and lobbyists as they want to get what they want. And we won't have that much say over the issue. These folks are not in it for the people. Okay? Global warming will not be stopped by BlackRock. It will be stopped by people working together organized in solidarity. Minnesota power should be owned by Minnesotans. It's in the name. Let's make it real. to be a- The public policy is a policy that is not a policy that is not a policy that real. It should be a publicly owned company with a public mission to provide clean power at the lowest possible cost period. Thank you. Thank you. Flook down in the next speaker place. This one is a little unable to read. Thank you Look down them next speaker please Good evening good evening counselors My name is Luke Noley. I live at 4415 Leverend Street. I attend East High School. I'm here on behalf of not only our climate club but the city's youth as a whole. I'm here to address a significant problem our planet is facing. Climate change. Every community deserves clean air, safe streets and resilient infrastructure. Our city's development and energy solutions must align with sustainable practices. We all share this responsibility to ensure that every new project, from new buildings to the maintenance of historic spaces, incorporates green infrastructure and energy efficiently. For example, as Duluth prepares for the upcoming revitalization of Forestry between Masabe Masabe and 6-Abono East, I wonder how can we assure that this project becomes a model of transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly and sustainably sourced development? Research has proven, again and again, that sustainable urban design not only reduces emissions but also improves public health and boost local economic success. Cities that invest in renewable energy and green technologies often see lower energy expenses and improve quality of life for residents. By decarbonizing our infrastructure we can create new job opportunities and reduce the health risks associated with air pollution. I met with Councillor Daredo, Councillor Meyue and Councillor Erwyl, all of whom spoke of climate change to be a principal issue that needs to be addressed citywide. I hope this sentiment is unanimous throughout this council. This council has set ambitious targets and declared climate emergencies. The public deserves clear evidence that these goals are being met. Transparent reporting and measurable progress are essential if we are to build a greener, more climate resilient dilute. Similarly, Minnesota Power has committed to a greener future. What's important is that we all remain diligent towards this goal. As the general public, we have the responsibility to hold our local government accountable. I urge you to make sustainable solutions a top priority. We must continue to work together to integrate climate action throughout our city. We hold ourselves accountable for the legacy we leave behind. Thank you. Thank you. Clerk, down. Keith. Ypel. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Kate Yappell and I'm a member of the National Assembly. I'm a member of the National Assembly. I'm a member of the National Assembly. I'm a member of the National Assembly. I'm a member of the National Assembly. Good evening. My name is Kate Yappell. I'm a senior at Duluthie's High School and in part of the Duluth Climate Club, a group of students advocating for sustainability in the ISD 709 school district. About two weeks ago, it was brought to my attention that elite Minnesota Powers parent company had established a contract to go private with Canadian pension plan investment board and global infrastructure partners, a part of BlackRock which is a $10 trillion hedge fund. With the ever approaching deadline for Minnesota's utilities to be carbon free by 2040, I'm concerned that privatizing our utility company would lead to a lack of transparency as to whether those goals are being met or not. There is no way of knowing whether or not these two investment groups will abuse this freedom of being able to release minimal information to the general public. Recently, big investors have been searching for utility companies as they are seen as an underappreciated area of poor economic growth. I feel that sentence explains a lot of what I'm trying to get at. Shareholder profit is what these companies want from a Lee and Minnesota power. What will stop them from pulling back sustainability projects if their only goal is short term economics, economic gains. Quite frankly, people need to be able to hold their utility companies accountable. With the science out there, I feel very confident in saying that as a city and as people, we can't continue to open more gas burning power plants or prolong the shutting down of coal plants. The pollution humans have inflicted on each other, and every single other being on this planet has been overlooked for way too long. And what's behind this ignorance is the desire of big companies to grow their already absorbent massive wealth and power. What will a $10 trillion hedge fund care about Duluth, Minnesota? Or the other thousands of ratepayers who are captured by Minnesota power in a week? They won't care. Just because laws are in place now that regulate utilities doesn't mean laws won't change with the shifts in the political environment. These corporations want money and they want to do the smallest amount of work possible and the shortest amount of time possible to turn a profit off their acquired debt. They will do this on the backs of deluthians. This is unacceptable. Young adults and children need the clean energy transfer to ensure a good, healthy future. We need people to consider the long-term impacts of a buy-out like this. That could have on the community. The economic power these companies have has lies in the hands of all its consumers. There is no way they can survive without us. Obviously, energy is hard to boycott, and that is not what I want from this situation. But I do believe the longer our needs are ignored, the more necessary these actions will become. Since my sixth grade year of school, I've worked with many amazing people from Minnesota Power on a project to bring solar to ISD 709. Some of my most impactful and memorable experience have come from meetings with staff there. As a 12 year old, having an adult, leaving your project and vision gives you hope that people want to make a difference. I want to maintain this relationship with Minnesota Power. I hope that other kids will gain an interesting climate action from speaking to staff about all the incredible sustainability projects they have accomplished. Minnesota Power, to me, is more than a utility. It is a part of our community. Because of this, I believe the cities and ministrations should support the ratepayers of Minnesota Power by advocating for what will be the healthiest long-term solution for the city of Duluth. Thank you. Thank you. Click, Danum. We now have Evan Levin. Good evening. Good evening. tunnel of the school year is approaching. I'm here on behalf of my busy friends and peers as the light of the tunnel of the school year is approaching. I'm here on behalf of my busy friends and peers as the light of the tunnel of the school year is approaching. I share similar sentiments to previous speakers. I find it difficult to follow up on their impactful words. The underlying acquisition of Elite by global infrastructure partners and its parent company, BlackRock is not in the public interest or benefit of the citizens of Duluth. The consideration, the consolidation and privatization of public utility has been justified under the premise of cutting costs and achieving energy goals. I believe this justification only leads to raised rates as we have seen in Michigan and the perpetuation of greenwashing, something that only appears sustainable. This acquisition does not align with the loose future energy goals as presented earlier this year, nor does it align with the energy forward proposition. And it does nothing to encourage energy or public utility sovereignty as a city. It actually discourages it. We are in need of energy and utility transformation, but this is not the solution. As a city, we have a duty to stand up to Black Rocks, Black Hole of apathy, in consideration and greed. Please keep... We have a duty to stand up to Black Rocks, Black Hole of Apathy, Inconsiduration and Greed. Please keep the power with Minnesota. I yield my time. Thank you. Thank you. Cook, Dana? Can you now have James Calloway? Good evening. Good evening. My name is James Calloway. I live at 829 East Third Street in Duluth. I only heard about this merger a couple days ago and I'm a Minnesota power customer. So, you know, seeing that next to BlackRock, you know, an $11 trillion company as past speakers have mentioned was, I mean, a little bit concerning. I don't think this is the right direction for our community. I think you have a choice here between corporations and people, you know, and local communities. I mean, past speakers have brought up issues of local oversight, control, and accountability. Yeah, so I think it is important that we don't stand as a community. I had a quote on my mind from naturalist and from naturalist Henry David Thurall on my way over here. That goes, it is not a man's duty as a matter of course to devote himself to the radical occasion of any, even the most enormous wrong. Yet, he may still properly have other concerns to engage him, but it is his duty at least to wash his hands of it, and if he gives it no thought longer and not to give it practically his support. It is those evils which we are implicated in, which we have the utmost duty to oppose. And so that is why as a Minnesota customer and a citizen of Duluth, I'm here to oppose this merger with BlackRock. Thank you. Thank you. All right, now Brandon Parker. Good evening. My name is Brandon Parker and I live at 621 at Lantic Avenue and Lincoln Park. First, I want to applaud and elevate the speakers that came before me, especially the well-spoken youth engaged in collective governance here today. I'm here to address three issues. First, the private equity buy-out by Minnesota power. Minnesota power may claim this acquisition is in the best interest of their business and customers, but to be clear, private equity acquisitions are driven by profit, not the public good. Their approach typically involves short-term cost-cutting to maximize resale value, but potentially at the expense of service quality and rate stability. This council had the opportunity to legally intervene before the Minnesota PUC, but chose not to. That decision must be reconsidered. I urge the City of Duluth to submit comments before the Minnesota PUC opposing this acquisition. Residents need assurance that their essential utilities are protected from predatory corporate tactics. The city must advocate for its citizens interest, not private profits. Now, the mayor's rushed boards and commissions appointment process. It seems like the mayor was being very negligent by not appointing boards and commissions positions over the past several months. Based on prior actions, it's clear that a majority of the appointments he is trying to push through are donors of his or public supporters. I would also assume based on his condescending line of rhetoric about Duluth having a larger number of positions compared to his cherry-picked examples of other municipalities that he is eyeing strategies to get rid of many of these positions altogether. If counselors who were advocating to ram through these appointments were truly committed to public service and were willing to offer their time and transparency to govern in governance, they would be advocating for open interviews to show the public these positions, who's applying to them, and not just shoe-horning them through for the sake of their desire to have shorter meetings. The status quo coalition shouldn't be advocating to give the mayor more power with fewer checks and balances. Finally, the West Skyline Parkway Demonstration Project. If the city is willing to take action on West Skyline in response to crises of motor vehicle recklessness, then why aren't they taking preventative measures to repercussions and other areas along the by way to ensure that we don't have pedestrian deaths along the route again because of core infrastructure design flaws? While I appreciate the effort to address motor vehicle recklessness on West Skyline, I'm concerned that this demonstration project is nothing more than a temporary fix. We've seen these so-called demonstrations before, like the protected by Clanon Michigan Street, which never produced lasting change. The city should either offer permanent and proactive changes to our shared environment, or they should stop teasing us. I urge this council to commit to transparency, prioritize public safety, and defend the interests of Duluth residents against corporate greed. This is about- There are no seconds. I see that. This is about accountability, good governance, and making sure our community's voice is truly heard. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder, if there are people in the audience that would like to sign up to speak, you may do so here. Click denim. Good evening. Hi, my name is Justin Dean I live at 2039 Woodland Avenue. And I'm here to encourage you to not allow a lead to be bought by Blackwater. Blackrock? Just a little louder into the microphone, the people. Thank you. I don't want Minnesota power to be bought by Black Rock. They're the they own GIP entirely and private equity. Their one goal is to make money for their investors. They don't care about Minnesotans. They don't care about providing affordable power or clean energy. Those aren't concerns to them. What they do, we see what private equity does. Despite what the Minnesota Power Representative said about GIP not planning on cutting costs and stuff by getting the company, that's exactly what private equity does. They slash work forces and that way they can they'll sell off anything of value that the Minnesota power has. They'll raise prices. That's how they will make their money. And I do not want private equity owning Minnesota power. It should be owned by the public. It's a public utility and it needs to stay that way. Thank you. Thank you. We now have... Try and... Try and... No. I am. I am. Hmm? Oh, no. It is. Good evening. Hello, everybody. I'm Shia Ann. I'm over on lakeside. I'm back tonight. It's a little bit of a different topic to clarify a few things. In my accusation two weeks ago that the safety ordinances as well as some other moves this council has been making, I think make this council complicit in the current Nazi takeover of our federal government. But to be clear, I don't believe any of you are literal Nazis or like intentionally trying to do this. I'm really trying to work with you here and help you understand. So I choose to believe that you're all operating within your best capacity and that you just genuinely want this community to be safe. I just want to point out that there are contradictions between how welcoming the city is and how it wants to appear. More specifically, the degree of welcoming seems to be class exclusionary. You want wealthy residents and tourists to feel safe but if you are existing as a lower class or heaven forbid, houseless human, this city is an openly hostile environment. Those July ordinances as presented to the council appeared alongside eerily similar safety packages across the US. These ordinances provide an illusion of safety for certain classes of people. Laws and police do not stop or prevent crimes. Though framing this as a way to help people into the system, some of these ordinances target houseless folks with an end result of removing what little bodily autonomy they have left. People have the right to refuse resources. As we continue to witness police violence and mass deportations, there has been a narrative that this will only impact criminals. I cannot believe that as we have already witnessed good humans kidnapped from our own community. But the sphere of the criminal migrant or criminal addict or criminal houseless person, it's all propaganda. This is how they continue to justify the dehumanization of whomever they choose. The safety ordinances directly fuel this fire of fear, hate and bigotry just as the Nazi spread propaganda against real life people. People who are simply existing as Jewish, queer, trans, houseless or disabled humans. I think many residents of this city have fallen for the propaganda that strangers on the street are dangerous. In reality, certain powerful strangers are actively preventing survival by withholding basic needs, basic human needs like food, water, housing, rest, and medical care. Obviously, tonight we're talking about utilities. I think this is also a human right. Your constituents are scared, but are you willing to protect them from the right people? Or will you continue to perpetuate propaganda that houseless addicts are the problem? On a separate note, I wanted to say that it feels very calculated that Mayor Reiner chose to overwhelm this council with a nine-month backlog of applicants while announcing he's also considering slashing some of those roles I'm really grateful to hear that this council is planning to prioritize filling those positions 30 seconds open for a while. I just see this as another opportunity for this council to protect your constituents by continuing with the public interviews as well as protecting these positions and traditions of transparency. I think the public will greatly benefit from these roles and as well they will also benefit from the open interview process, hopefully leading to more positive public engagement and trust in the system. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We now have Lisa Fitzpatrick. Good evening. Thank you. I'm Lisa Fitzpatrick. I live in Lakeside, 5229 P.B.D. Street. And as a leader that helped to pass the city's climate emergency resolution that kicked off a climate action plan, thank you, City Council. I would like the city to step up to defend its progress and its people. If Minnesota Power Elite is acquired by international conglomerates, private equity companies as has been described, these companies won't have little local interest, frankly, and particularly in a carbon-free future. I urge the City Council to oppose this acquisition however you can and also for the Public Utility Commission to deny this proposal. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening, President Tamanik and Consulars. My name is Matt Baumgartner. I am the resident of the Lakeside neighborhood, and I'm the president of the Duthoria Chamber of Commerce. And I'm here tonight to speak in support of elite and Minnesota power. And I want to just take a moment to level set too. My understanding is that this was an informational presentation to the committee of the whole tonight, not an item that is up for debate or to be voted on or that the council even has jurisdiction over. So I just want to level set there. And I also want to point out that Minnesota Power and Rates will still be governed by the MPUC. So I think that's an important clarification to make. Then I want to take my time, my couple of minutes tonight to talk about a couple things. So if we want to have a clean energy transition, if we want to have reliable and affordable access to rates and service, then we have to have access to capital for businesses. And that's what this is about. And it's not a zero sum game. New access to capital is critical for elite clean energy transition. Scaling renewable energy projects to meet both regulatory mandates and community expectations are incredibly expensive and elite needs the financial capacity to accelerate large-scale renewable projects. These are long-term investments and take a significant amount of capital and it's very, very risky. New capital provides the financial buffer needed to manage the risks associated with clean energy development such as project delays, fluctuating energy prices, and technological challenges. So then there's the connection between access to capital, affordable rates, and reliable service. Economies of scale reduce costs. It prevents costly delays, and it maintains reliability within the grid. So everybody here wants to have affordable rates. I've heard that. Everybody here wants reliability with their service. This is a way to get that, and at the same time, work towards those clean energy goals that folks are talking about. Then finally, we've heard a little bit tonight about who some of the acquiring parties are. I think it's important to note that Elite already is a public-traded company with a lot of institutional investors. This is not a co-op that is being sold to institutional investors. So I think it's important to draw a distinction between how elite is publicly traded, how Minnesota power is still going to be governed by the MPUC, and then furthermore that this acquisition by the Canadian Pension Plan and Global Infrastructure Partners, and I keep hearing BlackRock, and I get why people want to throw the name BlackRock out there. But these are two players who share values, the CPP and GIP, with our community and with Minnesota Power Elite. But- 30 seconds. Thank you. That capital, if it's not going to produce a return, will go elsewhere. And so there won't be the investments made for clean energy transition for a liable service and for affordable Service without that capital producing a return So it doesn't have to be a zero-sum game And I think we're starting to mix some of those things up And I think I'll end where I began where this was an informational presentation where this will still be governed by the MPUC and Is not within the jurisdiction of the council. Thank you very much. Thank you. My name is Rebecca Keller. I live in 2007 or 2002 East Fist Street in Superior, Wisconsin. We would like to thank the Duluth City Council for hearing us tonight. And we haven't spoken before you before. I'm with neighbors against Intek, one of the co-founders. And we are neighbors, definitely. We both live along Lake Superior, breathe the same air. A lot of us live up in this area because we love our wilderness, we love the lake, and we want to protect it. Now I am not sure if Entech is gonna be built just because it wasn't part of the plan tonight, doesn't mean it won't be, but if it is, it does concern Duluth as well. You may not be aware of the fact that there is no air monitoring over in Superior in Douglas County. Elite did withdraw from court and we're not willing to defend the air permit for the plant. So at this time, there is no air permit. Superior does have the only oil refinery in the state of Wisconsin, and they right now just brought their air permit up. They're doing some kind of expansion. So this is a lot of pollution going on over in Superior. NTEQ would increase that pollution. Pollution knows no state lines. We know if NTEQ were built, it would affect residents on Park Point. Those are Duluth residents. If the wind is blowing in a certain direction, it is certainly going to come over here. If the oil refinery expands, that's going to increase the pollution, which will also be blowing in your direction. Okay. If N-Tech is built, if there was an accident on the N-Maggie River because it's on an unstable clay bank This is going to go right into the Namaji River, right into the drinking water and lake superior that we all share. So I wanted to greet you tonight as neighbors and I wanted you to be aware of several things. I'm sure you've already thought of that. Ntech is built. It affects both our cities and all the residents in the area because we are all residents on the shore of Lake Superior. What happens? Pollution wise and one city affects both of us. So thank you very much for your time tonight. Thank you. All right. Next we have Jim. Luke Carter. Clark. That's okay. A lot of things done with that name. Good evening, Council members. Madam Chairwoman, my name is Jim Clarkard. I reside at 206 North the 11th Avenue West Duluth. I'm here because we need you. We're going to be in the middle of the world. We're going to be in the middle of the world. We're going to be in the middle of the world. We're going to be in the middle of the world. We're going to be in the middle of the world. We're going to be in the middle of the world. We're going to be in the middle of the world. We're going to be in infrastructure going into private hands. The disparity in wealth is a trend in our country that undermines our democracy and the disparity in power means that folks like me come unbedded knee to our government to stand in defense of a larger good. We are facing a huge financial corporation, BlackRock. They know what they do, but their job, number one, is behold into their shareholders. I prefer the people that run our public infrastructure to be beholden to the entire population, to all of us in the greatest sense of democracy. We have a trend in Duluth to live in a mixed economy. Capitalism, unrestrained. capitalism capitalism where the profits are passed, are privatized to the few, and the costs are absorbed socialized by the many. It's time to reverse that trend. It's stand up time for you who have served us in government. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. Thank you. All right. Our last speaker will be Rachel Dawson. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Council President Tom and I can city Consolors. My name is Rachel Johnson. I live at 502 O'Nightest Street in Duluth. And I also am the president and CEO of APEX, which is a regional economic development organization had courted here in Duluth. Thank you for the chance to have an opportunity to comment on tonight's meeting. First, I want to point out that elite Minnesota Power is a community partner in philanthropy and employee volunteerism. There are neighbors and employees around us. And so they're an important friend of the community in addition to utility electric service provider. And I appreciate that they have taken a leadership role in renewables for our region helping to achieve our state's renewable energy goals. And to do that it takes a lot of capital. And so this acquisition helps them maintain their headquarters here in Duluth that have existed for a hundred years and also allows them to build out for the future for our communities. The Integrated Resource Plan will be handled by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, our state's regulatory party, and will be reviewed and will be working through that process. And so there's ample time for you to learn more about the process and all of the inputs to that and I encourage folks that have questions about the plans to learn more because that informationally publicly available. And so I'm in support of the IRP and Minnesota powers ambitions to create a cleaner state and a cleaner country with their expansion plans. Thank you. Thank you. Clerk Danemar, are there any other speakers? No, thank you. Councillors, we will move on to the consent agenda. Please notice that resolution 217 has been removed from consent and we will bring that up after. Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda? Moved by forcemen, second by all. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Same sign? We'll pause for just, that passes 9-0. We'll pause for a minute while people are leaving. Please leave quietly so we can continue our business. Oh, yeah, correction. Clerk, denim, it was 8-0. We have Councillor Randolph not here. We would ask the people in the audience to please leave quietly and promptly so that the that council can continue with their business. Danim. Clerk, can you tell me who will read item number 26 resolution 217? That was removed from consent. Councillor Swenston, do you want to read that in? Number 26 resolution 217 resolution authorizing a license agreement with the Duluth boat club for the use of certain property in park point through 2030 for operations of its services at no cost to the city. Thank you. Sorry. Is there a motion? Sure. So moved. Okay. Is there a second? Okay. have discussion. Councillor Dürr-Walker. Thank you, President Tumannock. Thank you for pulling this item today. I did it in just to be preemptive in case I was going to vote against it or vote to table it. I was just in search of new information or more information, and I was concerned I might not get the information in time to make a vote that I would feel comfortable with. However, I want to thank Jim Philby Williams and Jesse Peterson for getting me all the information I requested. I also was able to have a wonderful conversation with Jim and I don't remember his last name but he runs the sailing club and is a board member for the boat club and I now feel fully confident in voting in support of this. Sorry for the extra vote we have to take but anyway thank you. Thank you Councillor DuWakter. Any other questions concerning resolution 217? Seeing none, we have a motion by Swenson, seconded by Forzman, Oles and Favor. Any opposed, same sign? Passes 8 to 0, thank you. Next, we have ordinances to be read for the second time. Councillor Neff you. Thank you, President Tamanik. Ordinance 2 in ordinance and lending UDC section 50-18. Natural resources overlay. Section 50-20 use specific standards for manufactured home park and recreational vehicle park. Section 50-33.2 site design for plants, table 50-35-1, procedures summary table, section 50-37, administration and procedures for special use permits, subdivision, plet approval, and variances, section 50-38.2, provisions for non-comformities and floodplains and Article 6 definitions. Thank you Councillor Neff you are going to move that. So moved. Is there a second for this ordinance? Councillor Kennedy. Thank you. Moved by Neff you, seconded by Councillor Kennedy. Councillor Derr-Walker. Thank you, President Tamanik. I am otherwise in support of these ordinances. However, there was a gentleman who emailed the council and with some concerns about some accuracy with the new floodplain guidelines coming forward. And I just am curious if planning the planning department was able to address those. The last time Mr. Schimp had a concern about accuracy he was 100% correct so it was definitely on my radar and I'm just curious if we can confirm. Council President Tamanik, Councillor D'Arductor, I have not seen that email. I'm not sure if our planning department has had an opportunity to review it and weigh in on that. I'd be happy, if you could share the email with me, I'd be happy to pass that along to them and get a response back to as soon as possible. Okay, thank you. I thought I had, but maybe my memory is incorrect. So I guess I'm just curious about what the timeline implications of this are. And I guess I would like to propose to table it so that we could get that clarification. All right, we have a motion to table. Is there a second? Seconded by mail. We will vote on that. All those in favor of tabling say aye. Oh, thank you. That's open it for discussion. There's no discussion on tabling. All right, back to the vote. All those in favor of tabling say aye. Opposed? Aye. Let's do that again. Yeah, let's do roll call vote. Uh, how about all? Yes. Welcome to your offer. Yes. Professor Korsman? No. Professor Kennedy? No. Professor Mayo? Yes. Professor Sw No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Okay. Okay. Councilor Nafiou. Thank you, President Tamanik. My understanding is that this is to get us in compliance with the new FEMA floodplain laws. Is that correct? Vice President Nafi, that is correct. So basically we're doing this with both these two ordinances just to be in compliance and it's something that we have to do and it's something that the Planning Department I believe has been working on for many months. Yes that is correct. Okay thank you. Thank you Councillor Neufy. Councillor Kennedy. Thank you President Tumonic. Thank you Councillor Dure-Wakter. I would say that if this passes that if there's any changes that need to be made those can still be made and a resolution can go forward or an ordinance to correct anything. Thank you Councillor Kennedy. Councillor Mayo. Thank you, President Tamanik. And Mr. Staling, I just wanted to ask if it would be possible maybe for staff to continue looking at this one. I think part of the letter as I'm reading it is that Lake Superior and its water basin is continually rising over each year. And the next scheduled update, I guess, is in 2027, according to FEMA standards. So we might be a little bit behind that scheduled update. So there might be a necessary update, maybe, in 2026, even for us keeping up with that, just given the uniqueness of Minnesota Point and the North Shore Lake Superior, I think I even learned the other day that because of the way the glacier impacted Lake Superior, it's actually continuously tipping over time as it kind of levels out. And it's sloshing essentially back towards us and over time that will continue to rise the water level on this side of the lake as well. So I'm not a scientist, but that's what I was told. And so maybe that's something that we can kind of continue to look at as we update this ordinance here. Thank you, Councillor Meil. Councillor Neffio. Thank you, President Tamanik. Do we even have control over the decisions on those arcs? I know professionally when I deal with FEMA, There's not a lot of room for negotiation as far as timelines and so forth. Council President, Tamanik, Vice President, nephew, I'm not sure. I know that our planning department has been working on this one for several months. I'm not sure when the next updated requirement will be, but certainly we will follow up, Councilor Mayo, Councilor Derracher, we will certainly follow up on the concerns you've raised this evening. And if I missed an email, I'll go back and look for it but I'll be sure to get that tour planning department for follow up. And it might be nice to have a little bit of context on like what if anything we're able to do with negotiation with FEMA? Because that might be helpful. Certainly. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Neffu and Mr. Staling. Councillor Sanyo, other questions? If not, we'll call for a vote. This was the motion by Neffu, second by Kennedy. All those in favour? Aye. Opposed? Sam sign? The ordinance passes H-0. Councillor Neffi, would you read in the next ordinance, please? Thank you, President Tamanik. Ordinance number three, in ordinance amending UDC section 50-41.16, principle use definition. So moved. All right. Is there a second? Thank you, Councillorffi. Second moved by the nephew, second by the candidate. Any discussion or questions, Councillors? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favour? Say aye. Aye. Opposed? Same sign. That ordinance passes 8-0. We have time now for Councillor questions and comments. Councillor Awele. Thank you, President Simoneck. I've been getting quite a few questions regarding the board and commission process. And I'm no Councillor's had questions too. And I was hoping to take some time to just clarify how we're moving forward and then just also answering some of the more recent questions. I've gotten and what I've heard from constituents here today. So just bear with me, I'll try to get through this as fast as possible, but I feel like this information is also very important for the public. I would like to make some comments regarding the board's commission application process. The City of Duluth has 39 different boards and commissions providing valuable input leadership on topics that include public arts, disabilities, heritage preservation, parks, recreation, trees, zoning, and many others. The boards and commission members are a volunteer positions that are generally appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council. This is the minimum requirement per city code to fulfill these positions. The mayor appoints and the city council votes the appointments up or down. Some appointments to regional authorities and boards are made only by Duluth City Council. Previous mayors and council Councillors have worked on processes and have varied in the processes to fill the vacancies that meet their own needs and standards. The process currently in place goes as follows. Once a community member applies to the vacancy, the applicants are first reviewed by city staff to see if they meet any required qualifications for the appointment. While also notifying the board's and commissions regarding the applicants, then if the applicant meets the qualifications desire for the board and commission, the city staff may contact the applicant for active consideration for the position. This may involve an interview to evaluate their strengths for the position after which the staff and board chair will direct the applicants to the sitting mayor. The sitting mayor, who may further contact the applicant and further make gather information for the mayor's decision. Dislections are based on current board specific needs, qualifications, personal educational community involvement, interest and desire to serve. Special knowledge or strengths that make the important to a particular boarder commission. Once the mayor finalizes the candidates, he sends them to city council president and the personnel committee chair who I am currently serving as. And of course, president Tamanik. After Mayor Reinhardt sends us, the individuals decide the process to add them to the City Council agenda through resolution and a potential interview working in conjunction with the clerk's office. The appointments to regional authorities and boards such as the dual airport authority or spirit mountain recreational area authority require an interview by City Council.. In the past few years it has been common practice to conduct interviews of various boards and commissions applicants that have been sent forward by the mayor, by the personnel chair. In recent practice we do not interview all applicants sent forward but we have been increasing that practice to interview more and more boards and commissions. As the current personnel chair, it is in my values that we have a process that accomplishes a few things. That the council and the public has face time with the applicant. It gives the board or commission more visibility and for the public to understand exactly what they do and how they serve our community. build a relationship and gather information that really informs our vote on the applicant. Which is why I'm in favor of an open interview process for a couple of reasons, transparency, accountability, community engagement and trust. All of which are things that we've heard from public speakers today. It offers a layer of transparency by doing a public interview process. Intures like we have openness in the government allows our residents to see how decisions are being made and who's being considered for these leadership roles that will serve the public. It also offers a level of accountability as these interviews help ensure that selections are based on merit and qualifications rather than favoritism or political connections. And of course, all of this brings in more community engagement and trust in our local government. As residents can provide input on the candidates, they can view the interview interviews and ensure that their values and interests are being met. When this process is visible to the public, it builds trust in our local government by demonstrating fairness, integrity, and thus increasing even more trust in their government. Currently we have been interviewing applicants to our authorities and to handful of boards and commissions. Given the volume of applicants that have come through and the fact that we need to get these applicants through as soon as possible, it has, we are faced with a decision to potentially change our current process. Or try to adjust our current process to make sure that all of our needs are being met. We want to make sure that applicants are moving through the process as swift and quickly as possible to make sure boards are making quorum, to make sure that the service provided, the information provided is, that they're doing to our community as being met, while at the same time ensuring there is a public transparent option. I had conversations, consistent conversations with Mayor Ryan Hart and President Amanek, who have been just great partners on this, as well as with City Clerk Demon. We have collaborated on the following process to ensure applicants are moving through the process while maintaining, of course, the standards of transparency, accountability, community engagement and trust. We'll be conducting group interviews on select boards and commissions, planning, human rights, African heritage, the LGBTQ AI plus, the Indigenous Commission, the Library Board, and the Parks and Recreational Board. At this time, we do not plan on interviewing the alcohol gambling and tobacco commission, the Building Appeal Board, the community development community, Duluth Public Arts Commission, and the Energy Plan Commission. However, still wanting information regarding the applicants to the board that will not be interviewed to be public. We are planning to send the robust questionnaire with questions that go even further beyond what is sometimes possible at one and one interviews on council to the applicants, which the applicants have the choice to fill out and then that will be made back to the will be made public. So even though due to limited time and capacity, we might not be able to interview all the boards and commissions we're still going to make sure that questionnaire with their answers and why they're interested in serving and what they're bringing will still be accessible to the public. And we'll bring that forward and attach it as a resolution or an attachment to the resolution to a point and fill that will come up after we go through the other group interviews that we have named. We will also not be moving forward with reappointment interviews since a lot of these candidates have already gone through the process and have already served on the board and this is a continuation of their turn or of their turn. I think that kind of summarized everything that I am again sorry for the lengthy explanation. Just wanted to give that context just hearing a lot from people and provide that clarity as why you'll see in the next tonight will again be interviewing the human rights commission but you'll see in the coming next agenda cycle and council meeting we'll be doing more interviews which will lead up to a vote on all of the boards and commissions I need to be filled. What we did vote on today was the reappointments today. So we did approve of three reappointments folks who have already served and will continue to serve. And with that, I'll conclude my comments. Thank you so much. Thank you, Constor Mayo. Thank you, President Tamanik. And thank you to all the members of the public who came tonight to speak out about a variety of issues, but in particular the Minnesota Power Acquisition plans. I wanted to thank specifically, there were six folks that I could identify tonight that were from District 2 in particular. So out of the dozen or so speakers we had at least on this issue. Happy to see that my constituents are showing up and speaking out. I wanted to share I got to ask a one question during the Our committee of the whole but I also wanted to share my general thoughts kind of on some of what's happening both with the control of Minnesota power as well as what I had kind of brought up with NTECH being a part of the plans. And I understand that NTECH was not a part of the presentation tonight but in my review of the IRP I did see NTECH reference several times as a plan for the Boswell plant and taking that offline and just wanted to reiterate my concerns with that as we strive to hit this 100% renewable by 2040 goal in Minnesota knowing that this is planned in Wisconsin that doesn't necessarily impact that. However, we are shared air spaces. We are shared communities in that way. One resident who is from neighbors against NTEX spoke very eloquently about how we all share that space and residents across Duluth will also feel that impact. I remember getting an email back when this was first being discussed in Superior, actually from a resident out in West Duluth who was very concerned about their kids growing up and potentially seeing the impacts of air that is shared between our communities. And then secondly, I just did want to speak about the acquisition by GIP and CPP and the consolidation of wealth in our country, I think is a really big thing that's happening right now. And speaking to that on a larger level, we see it across all of these different organizations as well as even here in Duluth. And adherence with clean energy goals and consistent prices for our customers along with local control are things I'm really concerned about. It was brought up many times tonight, I've had many emails from constituents asking about this as well, along with things like SEC oversight of these private equity firms which can be more limited. And I think while it's important to note that we're not voting on a sort of resolution or an ordinance or anything dealing with this acquisition, we as public officials can make comments as well in those regards. And I do plan to submit comments to the Minnesota PUC on behalf of my constituents and advocating for my constituents, and just expressing my concerns about some of the things going on here. So I wanted to bring that up and also just to say thank you to everyone that came out tonight to speak on every issue on both sides of every issue and appreciate hearing from folks. Thanks. Thank you, Councillor Neill. Councillor Neill, thank you, President Tamanik. Last week we had a couple members of the community asking us to speak about federal funding changes. Many of the items that they're asking for us to speak about were county issues. So I did reach out to Chair Harla and just asked her to provide with a statement for us to pass on to folks here because I realize we can be a little bit more public facing. She said that the county is working diligently to track any changes in funding from all levels of government and we're committed to partnering as changes arise. She does ask if you guys have any questions about particularly county dollars that you go to them and not ask us about that and encourage us all to kind of lack of better words, I guess, standardly and on that because it it is changing so quickly. So that's all. Thank you. Just in a follow up to that, we will be having a committee of the whole with the county coming in and talking to us. Thank you. Councillor, let's see who's next. Yeah, Councillor Forrestment. Thank you, President Samonic. First of all, thank you to you and even more so our staff who came on Saturday for our Councilor's treat. I appreciated your time and thought we had a good agenda that you helped craft. So I appreciate that you were the architect of that. The interview process is an interesting topic. And first of all, thank you, Councillor Wall for all the work you've done so far on that. I know that having served in the personnel committee, Chair, we've had similar questions over the years about which boards and commissions have interviews, which don't. I think it's a worthy topic of further discussion. I can tell that you and President Samana have worked on a solution for now. I have some agreements and some disagreements with that process as it's being proposed and I would guess that every counselor probably does. Having been educated in human resources, I have some thoughts around process for selection of things like this. And so I would recommend that perhaps after we get through this cycle, that we come back to the drawing board and perhaps do a resolution clarifying intent because there's some commissions that we've never interviewed for in my time that we would be. And there's some in particular the ones that I think is the right way to be able to do that. I think that's the right way to be able to do that. I think that's the right way to be able to do that. I think that's the right way to be able to do that. I think that's the right way to be able to do that. I think that's the right way to be our process. So I just think this is the topic that probably needs council discussion, but I recognize in the short term, we should fill these vacancies and get through that backlog. But beyond that, I think this needs to be a council led decision and not just a discussion between a couple of counselors. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Forz. Councillor Dervoctor. Thank you, President Tumonic. I also would like to thank Councillor Owl for your hard work on making sure that this process was as fair as possible while also respecting our time with this almost unprecedented seeming backlog. And also thank you, Councillor Forzman, for addressing that concrete resolution would be warranted. I would be glad to take part in that discussion. I also want to thank all of our speakers tonight on a topic that is very important to Duluth. While we do not take a vote on that as a council, nor does our local PUC, I just want to let the public know that we can have a say. And I also want to thank Ms. Katie for her presentation today. It was very informative. But we do have a say and we can all email the state PUC and give our opinions which may have an impact for them because they still have a decision to make. So I urge everyone to do that. Also, I do share some concerns with the public. The fact that the entire operation is going to be converted to private equity is extremely concerning to me. This is a wonderful thing because it made me go and do a deep dive on what is private equity. I grew up in investment firm family or investors. And I am learning now that private equity is vastly misunderstood, even by people that are knowledgeable of investments. Private equity, there's a lot of information out there. Even Warren Buffett calls private equity a fraud. And in his words, returns are not calculated in a manner that is honest. If I were a manager of a pension fund, I would be very careful of what was being offered to me regarding private equity. And then we're learning that one of these entities that wants to buy elite is a pension fund, but they are private equity. So to me, given these statements, it seems a little bit of an oxymoron. I know Ms. Katie also did mention that utilities in general are, their goal is to be a long-term investment. But private equity, by its definition, is the purpose is short-term investment. so it's very difficult to see what the advantage is here. And I know Mr. Baumgartner mentioned that we need our rates to be lower and I appreciate his words. I agree with him. What I would like to know is does a private equity, utility own or private equity own utility? Is there an example out there where rates have not increased and they've actually been lowered? Is there an example where they haven't increased to a level that is higher than the surrounding region that still has publicly owned utilities? That is a question I would like answered. So we have the CPP. We also have, I believe it's called GIP. GIP will be the majority owner in this and the majority of GIP will be owned by BlackRock. So it is perfectly right to question the integrity of BlackRock. It's not difficult to find a lot of information out there that criticizes BlackRock. Not only do they have major environmental violations across the world in their investments, they also have no comprehensive policy on indigenous rights. They fund companies that contribute to deforestation, that harms climate and biodiversity. They destroy indigenous lands through industrial activities. They abuse indigenous territorial rights. They displace communities from their ancestral homelands. And they are known for intimidating and coercing indigenous peoples from lands. And while we may say that the Minnesota PUC will still be able to regulate this, to, I would like to know of an example where those regulations were actually honored by a company of this size across the world. I want examples. I heard somebody mentioned that there will be lobbyists. They have all the money in the world. Look at what is happening to our national government. Billionaires are taking over our country nationally and this company owns trillions. So if we're going to expect that this company is going to care about us in Minnesota, I urge you to do a little more exploration. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Dure-Walker. Seeing no other comments and we have, I'm going to remind Councillors we have interviews for the Human Rights Commission after this meeting. I will take a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? All those in favor? We will take a five minute break before we resume for interviews for human rights. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the Human Rights Commission come sit at the table? It's a bit smart. Also, horsemen brings up a good thing. It's a possibility of the energy and the communities that are going to be for the week after. And maybe we can do it in bulk. Or like we interview them, we both, we interview them. For hell. for the week after. And maybe we can do it in bulk. We interview them, we interview them. Right now. Yeah. Okay, can you tell me which individuals are here today? Okay, okay. I do jail with you. I want her healthy. My fire. You got it. You got it. I'm going to start on the move this off. I can start on the move this off. I started out pretty good. I'm not going to miss glad for your patience and as you waited for this interview to happen to. this off for a minute and then add. This will be sitting up here. Yes, yes, yes. Amanda Louise. Louise? To be true. Marcus, Marcus, to be true. That's very true. I'm gonna hold that for a minute. Hey. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hello folks. The personnel committee meeting will now begin. We will be conducting interviews for the Human Rights Commission. Thank you for joining me here today. My name is Azari Nau. I serve as an at-large city councillor for the City of Duluth. And today we'll be doing interviews for the Human Rights Commission. The Human Rights Commission promotes cultural diversity within Duluth, promotes the elimination of hate, prejudice, discrimination against persons or groups based on race, color, creed religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, and status with respect to public assistance, disability, and familial status. It educates the community on issues of discrimination and cultural diversity, advises the city council and the city on human rights issues, and promotes the goals and objectives of the Minnesota Human Rights Act. The commissioners should reflect the full spectrum of diversity. Spectrum of diversity of the community and should represent the representative of different gender, sexual orientations, religions, economic levels, racial and ethnic identities, age group abilities and property owners and tenants. The terms are three years and the meetings take place. The second Sunday of every month at 5.30 p.m. at in City Hall in room 4.30. So thank you for gathering here today to conduct this group, our first group interview for, at this time. Thank you so much. I would like to thank Amanda, Shai, Marcus, Edgett, and Luis Esla. Isla? Isla. Isla. Isla. Thank you so much for coming forward. We do have two other candidates who we're not able to join us today who will send in their interview questions via questionnaire as well. So how we're going to work, do this, because with me, this is my first time doing this. I have a set of questions already that I will ask. How we're gonna ask those questions is like, if we can go down the order and then reverse, right? That kind of gives a fairness to each question and depending on what order you heard them in. So we'll just kind of snake back and forth. I'll ask my prewritten questions out that I ask all interviews, applicants, and then we'll open it up to council. Sounds good. And if you could, before each question, just to keep us grounded and remember, if you could say your name before you answer each question as well. Okay, thank you so much for your, just for your willingness to serve on the Human Rights Commission. This is an important commission which has quite a few vacancies right now and we're trying to fill these vacancies so that Dr. Marshall Lou can begin the important work, her important work as the human rights and equity officer. For the amazing applicants be for me today, if we can start by just having you introduce your names, your pronouns, and we'll just start there just recognizing the time, just keep it short and brief, but we want to get through all the questions as fast as possible too as well. Marcus, I use he-day. Oh, Marcus, if you want to feel free to expand into, like, who you are and introduce yourself to the council. So I grew up in Duluth. I moved away for a long time. I lived in Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Denver, Colorado. Came back to Duluth because I love it here. I love this community and I'm very concerned about all of my neighbors feeling safe and heard in this community. Thank you, Marcus. Hi, good evening. My name is Amanda Shai. I use Shivei pronouns. I am a relatively new diluthian. I just moved here in July. I'm a current communications associate with Minnesota Secret. I come here from Indiana and one of the things that actually drew me to Duluth was its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and making this a safe and inclusive community for all residents. And so I'm really excited to have the opportunity to talk a little bit more about why I'm interested in the Human Rights Commission. Hello everybody. Luis, I'm Hedna Varro Islas. I use he, him, L, pronouns. I'm actually a relatively new resident of Duluth as well, but essentially I come from the Latinx community and also the indigenous community. I come from the, we've had a couple of people of Central Mexico. I grew up in an undocumented family kind of all over the west coast. My family was, there were migrant workers so we kind of traveled all around and then when I moved over here to Duluth I'm a big believer that you give back to the community that you hold dear and Duluth has quickly become said community So when I saw this commission and I saw the opportunity for you know a potential appointment to this commission I thought you know what better opportunity to get involved to give back to the communities that I hold so dear And I'm looking forward to kind of talking a little bit more about what I hope to gain from this commission too Thank you you so much, all of you, for answering that question. My first question is, just let's get into why are you interested in serving on this particular commission? Why the Duluth Human Rights Commission, if you want to expand, on that, and we'll start with you, Luis. Yeah, of course. As I mentioned before, I'm a big believer in getting involved with your communities. And've spent the majority of my career safeguarding some of the civil liberties human rights and constitutional rights of underserved marginalized communities. I previously worked for the ACLU in leadership teams on that front, so I have a lot of experience with anti-racism and anti-colonialist work or ARAC work if you're all familiar with that, somatic evolutionism as well. So coming over and seeing this opportunity for the Duluth Human Rights Commission was basically my head assigned. So I saw this position open up. I applied to it and I really wanted to get involved in this community to actually give back to those communities that intersect with my identity and intersect with the communities that I hold so dear, as well. Everybody here knows, especially if you come from an underserved or marginalized community, that it's those helping hands that kind of help you along the way. And my life had no shortage of those helping hands as well. So it's only fair that it comes full circle, and I really wanted to get involved with this commission to do that. This community is ever changing as well. I mean, everybody here knows that Dilut is continuing to grow as exhibited by two new converse to this community too. And this community is only going to continue to become more and more diverse as well. So utilizing my background in indigenous communities, Latin American communities as well, I wanted to bring that to the table to help advocate for said populations, safeguard their rights, their human rights, constitutional rights, and also promote the cultural diversity that this committee focuses on as well. Hello again, I'm Amanda. So as I mentioned I am not only a new diluthian, but I come from a queer and disabled background and that is again one of the reasons that I was I was drawn to Duluth and into Minnesota as in general, moving from Indiana, which did not always feel the safest for those identities. It has been a breath of fresh air to be in a space where it feels not only welcomed but invited. It is incredible to see the amount of civic engagement in this community as well. I've never been involved in a community that has been so passionate about giving back and maintaining their voice in local governance, which I think is incredible. And similar to Louise, I would really love to be able to give back, to be civically engaged. I come from a background of civic engagement work, political activism, as well as victim advocacy in my previous role before coming to Duluth. I was a victim advocate at Purdue University. And that gave me a really insightful look into the intersectionality of all of our work, as well as how trauma impacts everything that we do. Nothing exists in a vacuum, no one exists in a vacuum. All of our identities, all of our policies, they all bleed over and intersect into each other. So with that, I have a lot of firsthand experience in addressing systemic barriers, understanding how intersectionality and trauma impact local governance. And I'm particularly interested in being able to bring my communications and outreach experience to make the Human Rights Commission more visible and more of a resource for dilute the ins. Again, I'm Marcus. For me, we're just being in this time where national policy is stripping away, programming and initiatives, and specifically attacking DEI. I look back just historically, again, I moved to Washington DC when I was 18 and I ran restaurants for about 25 years all over the country and building these teams of people from all backgrounds and being successful and having these spaces and not only running these teams and those different faces sort of enriching the entire experience for all of us to see that specifically being attacked. But also being in those spaces and having opportunities with folks that I worked with, like in Boulder I worked with Intercombio which helps teach immigrants English, for fondraisers, Planned Parenthood, Out Boulder, Surge. All these groups to bring people together to discuss how our community is doing a great job of creating safe spaces. And I think that we continue to do that from our neighborhoods up. And I just wanted to be part of a space too, where people that feel like they need to be heard, feel like they need to be able to do it. And with existing services, like, you know, Trans Northland or NAACP, or things that we have with immediate impact that they could help somebody needs community, or whether they constitute making actual complaints with the state. Like do we have resources that help folks initiate a complaint? Is that can be a really terrifying thing? I mean just showing up to speak to the commission could be a very scary experience for someone. So how do we help facilitate that next step? Creating a space where even making the complaint is a safe space is a significant interest to me. I'm also raising a non-binary child. I am part of the queer community but I walk with a certain amount of privilege because I'm also in a 20-year relationship with a cis woman so it doesn't look a certain way. So we find people in all sorts of walks of life that we don't know whether they're going through sort of an economic situation, mental health situation, a systemic racist situation. So how do we make those conversations comfortable and also facilitate support? Okay, thank you so much for the first question. The second question, please just a reminder to keep it briefest possible. And all of you have done an amazing job. I love that background, and I'm learning so much from all of you already. Just you've already kind of touched on this, but if you want to put it in the relation to the specifically Duluth Human Rights Commission, please give a brief outline of your educational and work experience or expand upon. How will your background lived experience and your personal strengths be a benefit in relationship to the Duluth Human Rights Commission? If we're going to take back. For me, my personal background, my educational background isn't hugely impressive. I went to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Scholarship and then coming from a situation where basically my mother died young and I was raised by a single mom. So I moved to the East Coast and that's where I got to start at the lived was, you know, at that point very poor dealing with that sort of a situation being on person on your own for the first time, working my way up in an industry that you could still do at that time with only a high school degree, and then moving into running restaurants and to, in the lived experience space, space working for restaurants where I was helping open restaurants in like Chicago and Los Angeles where again building those teams working with other people working with all kinds of people and then turning around to give opportunity to others would be I guess what my lived experience was into bringing me to where I was from a professional level from being, you know, very, you know, not having a lot of resources to feeling really well resourced and uncomfortable where I am. So for myself and again, this is Amanda. My professional experience that relates to this committee or to this commission, I'm currently working within a sort of Sea Grant in a communications capacity which I think can only benefit the commission's work to making it more visible to Duluthians, to helping to help to educate on topics that the Human Rights Commission is speaking about. But it also gives me additional close-up familiarity with not only university governance as well as federal governance, because we are a federal university partnership. And so that has broadened my experience professionally, especially in dealing with sort of policy documents, and staying up to date, especially right now, on the current state of governance, and all the executive orders that keep coming out. Previously, I worked as a prevention programming specialist with Purdue University, where I was educating a campus of over 50,000 college students, faculty, and staff on interpersonal violence prevention, which is sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking. And because of the nuanced nature of those topics, it requires a very delicate approach to that conversation, to be able to not alienate any individuals in the room. And it also, beyond giving me an understanding of intersectionality, help me understand that late, there are almost always different nuances to each subject that you approach. For example, male identifying folks are not always minoritized, but when it comes to interpersonal violence, that is a hugely marginalized community. Men face a higher rate of struggling to share their experiences with interpersonal violence and getting the support that they need for it. I've also done undergraduate research on misinformation and disinformation with the US State Department, and then it done experience with bilingual education and the success of that in the classroom. Ultimately, I bring skills and project management event event planning, communication, and advocacy, which really equip me to support the work of the Human Rights Commission. Thank you. Once again, Luis Anjid Navarroíslas. A little bit about my educational background. I have an undergraduate degree in political science, history, and pre-law. I have a graduate degree in business leadership, managing people in the workforce, and I'm currently receiving another joint masters. So a graduate degree in public health and a graduate degree in public administration as well. I have a certificate in Human Rights Management Administration. I've worked as Latinx community liaison for the city of Bozeman, and I collected information and feedback from the Latinx community in Southwest from Montana to inform their Parks Recuriation Active Transportation Plan. I served as the Latino vice chair for the Idaho Latino caucus and then I also served as the Latinx representative in liaison for the American Red Cross and their Save the Alarm Campaign. Yeah, those are the experiences that can feed into this position right here as a whole, but as I mentioned before, the Latino community is something that is always going to have a special place in my heart, especially coming from that background as well. I hope to continue to be able to engage the Latino community on the ways that they want to be engaged, by collecting feedback, garnering trust, and fostering a supportive and safe environment for them as well within this committee. Thank you so much. And just for clarification, because we are also, you know, we're recording this for listeners, listeners are listening in. That was the reason why it just doesn't accessibility measure. I'm having y'all say your names again to the mic. So thank you for doing that practice. This one you've already touched on, and I do have to ask it to be consistent with all interviews. But can you give an example how you have promoted diversity equity inclusion in your past roles if you want to just give one example that you didn't expand on or didn't mention right now? Yeah, definitely. I held a joint anti-racism and anti-colonialism training at the American Red Cross. The ACLU of Montana, previous to come into Minnesota, with that consisted of was actually working alongside Akila Dernos, who is the executive director of the ACLU of Montana, alongside a couple of other partners from the National Office as well. Those who are either familiar with the Emergency Volibody's Union know that we collaborate with different affiliates from different states at the local and national level as well. So with this AREC training that we put on for the affiliate of Montana, this was also put on virtually to actually promote anti-racism and anti-colonialism practices within different affiliates as well. So different affiliates across the nation were able to participate and collaborate to this two-day training that we held and it was wonderful. Great participation, great feedback and some good implementation moving forward. And Luis Eastlas. This is Amanda Shai speaking again. In my time as a prevention programming specialist with Purdue University, I came into the role and there was no existing relationship on our campus with our office to other cultural entities and Purdue is very fortunate to have cultural centers, five cultural centers for us to engage with diverse groups of students. And so when I came into the position, I realized that there was an absolute gap in that knowledge. We were only speaking to primarily fraternities and sororities, which definitely helps, but is certainly not speaking to the whole campus that we need to serve. So with that in mind, I began to reach out to our Cultural Center representatives, not only to just say, hey, can we have a presence, but what do you need from us? And how can we be more trustworthy to your students? What that looked like for it looked like,