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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 Mr. Ron Chica to kind of kick us off and to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, every one it is 615 and as promised we'll start on time. This is the committee of the whole we're going to hear some visioning. I'm going to call Mr. Ron Chica to kind of kick us off and to set the table for what we're going to hear tonight. Thank you. Thanks to the council for having the opportunity here. Appreciate it. I've been a little while since I've done this. Thanks for having me. I always enjoy talking about our plans. Many might know at first things to Teresa and Mike, Councillors are on our Mick board, our policy board, as well as there's a mayor's appointment as well. So thanks to them for inviting me here today to talk about this corridor, very key corridor. Need some work, need some help. It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen, I'll get ahead of myself here some, but it's gonna happen and we need needs some work, it needs some help. It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen, I'll get ahead of myself here some, but it's gonna happen and we need a road network, transportation network to complement it. So, most folks might be, again, Ron Chica, as Director of the MIC at ARDC, and have been there for 30 years now, almost 30 years, time has flown along. We've been doing this plan for about that long too, by the way. But I'll get into that. I should mention that even before that, I've been coming through this area with connections up on the range. So I think I know this corridor very well. It's been so many different plans that we have done here. But again, appreciate this. I've got a few slides. Then I'm going to turn it to City. We'll talk about what's a very key element is the City's small area plan here. So, oops, are we moving? Let's see here Hopefully we are One point and let me just go for go forward hopefully it'll come along Quickly about what we are I think Some of the most counselors might know What we do I won't get deep into this. We're the federal transportation planning body for this Delus superior metro area. We've been around for a long time. We do strictly transportation planning, land use planning, all modes of planning, bike, pad transit, freight, et cetera. For this area, Delus superior, some of the townships. Every population of 50,000 or more has one of us. Their house a little differently throughout the country, but there's 400 of us across the U.S. and every city in Minnesota has one as well. I should mention also that the day David Montgomery is very familiar with with us. Steve was our back a few years ago was was my was my board chair very very good to have that connection here at at at that time. So thanks, Steve. What do we do? Well, we do plans and we get local input. We get input from the neighborhood, from businesses. That's one of our charges per the federal bill. I'm sure you've heard of what I-35 plan that we did over the last couple years. Central entrance plan was done about two years ago or so. That's led to where we're at now. So what is the, oops, what, this is sort of zips along here. The plan area, as you would kind of from the DOT copper top there, moving toward the mall, the old corridor, the old commercial corridor, 194 up towards CUB and Trinity, this section. The right of ways are all a bit different here too. So a little bit of background. This isn't every plan, but this will give you some idea. Many plans. It is without a doubt as I said to a different group, it's the most studied corridor in this area. There's not a close second. It has been looked at and looked at and looked at. It's a tough one to crack. It's a key corridor for freight. It's a key corridor for traveling public. But there is some things that have changed over 50, 60, 70 years. And that's kind of the background to this. What is our ask here? And I'll say this a couple times, but where this is at, and it's shown here in the last couple of points here, these are the various plans that have been done over the year. We're looking at what are the needs at intersections for other modes. All have been very well documented over most of these plans. Some have been city plans, some have been our plans, we work pretty closely. Some are the DOT plans, they're here tonight too by the way. Some are transit, transit plans as well for this area and what it could be. Where things are at right now is right on those last couple of points The DOT as a consultant on board And they're unveiling a few design options Over the next few months they're unveiling some design options two three whatever it might be I'll speak to some of them here that's follows along the lines of what our plan did. Our plan is kind of the plan for planning. We often do this, then it goes to a construction phase and that's what's being decided here. So my ask, our ask, and I have a board and committee, of course, too, is for this group to think about whether it's with the council and or the administration to say here's here to go up to the DOT and say here's what we would like to see per the city's plans per investment you'd like to see in this under invested area That's in need of some change from modes. Here's what we would like to see and hand deliver it right to the DOT and say This is what we would like to see here. And that's important. I mean, there's consent that has to occur at some point anyway. It's state highway, but the need to hear what you want for the future of this corridor, especially 34 going out, because it hasn't changed as you'll see in a long time. Not land uses on getting that, but from curb to curb. It hasn't changed. A little bit more on history. This is Palmetto. Maybe call it that. This is where all the fruit trees in this area when it developed in the 1930s. It was four lanes in the 50s. Some center turn lanes were added, but I don't want to, just to make the point, truly in 60, 70 years, nothing. From curb to curb as far as amenities, maybe that's not right the right word. Anything with the other modes, there truly has been nothing there. And I lived off it, by the way, I lived off of this for 10, 10 years too, and of my 30 here. There's really been nothing there. Center turn lane, yes, there's been mail-in overlays. That's just normal maintenance. I'm talking about actual facilities for other modes. There has not been anything. The roadway counts are about 20,000. There's peaks that occur with construction. There's a peak going on right now. With the traffic there now is not normal. Because obviously we don't have 53 going up and down the hill. So you're getting more traffic on it right now than normally would have. Once 53 is done, it'll lessen to a degree. I'd like to look at some of these old maps. There's the the incline that went up and then what it did is at right at the top, it hit a trolley line and a trolley line went right into this neighborhood once upon the time amongst all the fruit trees that can't grow here. I lived right off of this again just off of the H in Duluth Heights. So this was Paul Meadow, you can see the roadways were kind of a combination. There was a sun-be central entrance wasn't really there until years after, went into Swan Lake. So the Old Neighborhood centered around the school there, with not the school, low school at that time. As I mentioned, the 80s around 20,000. It's been consistently that 20, 22 somewhere in there. Posted the speeds are 30 to 40 times, they'll go quicker here because you can kind of zip along. I'd say the infrastructure is in kind of poor conditions. Certainly some of the pedestrian facilities are many access points. That's been studied in all these plans. You've got curb cuts for every business, very key for the business, not so safe for the traveling public or pets and such. Some higher crash rates in the middle area, but the right away is a bit different throughout here too. So I just, a few pictures are worth taking a look at. This is what it looks like. This is just down Anderson downbound this is off Arlington not necessarily your best facilities for moving around and they're right off the road be careful don't slip into the road many access points not sure what that one on the right is kind of a pull in the way this is by this is by the the pawn shop area on the right This is although this is a few years old. This is what we got. I think most folks probably know the look of this It's moose traffic Well, it's good for motoring. Maybe not so good for much else. People, although this is a little bit old too, because that gas station and the pizza hut are gone, this is, they make their own side walk, right? Bikes use it, if they can. Cars gotta go around them. This is one brave person, very brave person. I lived off of for 10 years. I saw this quite a bit. They're just right in the lane traffic. Not the best choice. And this is not staged as I tell people. It's a little bit like Frogger. Hopefully that, I think we did see that person make it to the other side. So I think this occurs see that person make it to the other side. So I think this is, this occurs quite a bit. Especially now as we're getting more housing there, which is again, the housing is going to come and we've got the right transportation facility that matches all those people that are now going to be there. Big picture trends. Okay. This is kind of key to this. I think this will be mentioned as well by city, city, staff. 50, 60 years ago before the freeway, this was the main route. Highway 61, you had 53, and you went up central entrance. I was the way things were. Well, fast forward, 50, 60 years. That isn't the way things are now. And the destinations have changed. So you've got obviously 53 going up, I-35, et cetera. You can get through the downtown up 53. You don't have to go central entrance. And the time give or take is close to the same. And this is a, this is really kind of a key slide key slide and by the way I've presented this along with city staff and a number of then of groups over the last three three or four years. This was what's really key. Destinations change especially in superior. Superior doesn't have them all anymore. They don't have two big boxes anymore. They're gone. So where are they going? Well, they're coming up more on the Bong Bridge in Haynes. I think what the county left to be concerned about is four lanes on Haynes at some point. If you've been up and down that, that gets some crowded, especially as you get closer to Maple Grove area. So you get the idea, there's travel patterns that just naturally shifted as the attractors have shifted. They're not going on. Don't have to go on Central Entrance, or 1.94. They'll take in 53 when it's done here over the next year. Or they're going up and down Haynes. The movement of 50, 60 years ago is not the movement of today. Trends in plans and in cities across the country. A role of central entrances evolving. It doesn't need to be the same. I would argue, we would argue, in our plan. How we fund these streets, there's limited amount of funds, of course. And looking at city goals, I'll keep going back to the small area plan. That's what our plan tried to adhere to. That's what we tried to follow. And just shopping has changed a course to over the last 30, 40 years. But lower speeds, lesser impact on pets too. As you go up in speeds, the fatality rate goes up. That kind of obvious thing. We're getting a lot of these now. These are a course across the last 10, 15 years or so whether it's by UMD or on London Road. And now, well, there's one right there. I guess I understand this development 200 is about half full. Another half is going to probably fill up pretty quick. This is right off Palm, if you've been back here. A lot of people be here, hopefully they can get around in other ways besides the car. That picture is not too complimentary of what is right outside there on Palm. That was actually in its day in 1983, a bike-ped way. It's the condition as it went down. But you can see this is right there. So the nature of the land use is changing right now. If there's any slide that we have here, I'd say this is probably the most important one. We had public involvement in our plan, and the DOTs will have it there too, but this is what our plan talked about and what the neighborhood, the residents wanted to see. Something that they never had, of course, in their lifetime. Something walkable, bikeable, safe, all ages, eight to eighty is the term to move around here. Cross in there is obviously pretty tough. But, well, it's also important is to encourage new residential and commercial. What you're seeing in the residential, there could be much more higher value commercial here, not a car rental or a laundromat or pawn shop, etc. Low-end uses, there could be much more tax base here. We showed that, the city's plans showed that too. Did batteries go? Maybe we can just hit the next one. I mentioned this a little bit. Our themes in our plan are walkability, place making, safety, bikeability. We had many examples and I won't show but just this one. This is what something could look like. This is in a verb of Twin Cities and it brings in the development to this curb. It's just right there. It's not set back from the curb, whether it's some mixed use and you're putting in some appeal with some greenery, whether it's on the boulevard or in the center area. You're just slowing some traffic down naturally, simply by the sight, sight lines. It could look something like,. There's examples all over. So, quickly, let's see where we're at here. The zones. This is what could occur here if there's enough input from the neighbors, the business, the city. This is one option, not the option, just one something that could do. On the two ends, so from Trinity toward Anderson, and then from where the DOT is up to Pacon or Blackman. This is at least a step in the right direction. We would, we would, we would, we would, at state advocate for. You've got four lanes of travel, but you've got enough, and we have to look at the right away. This isn't exactly of course how things could look. The right away changes along the way, so we'd have to see how this could fit in, but that's not the point here. You get the idea is that you could have something in some street trees on either side and something that is much better for walking public. Maybe that's on either side as you're coming into Anderson, or as you're coming into Blackmen, something like that. The middle area, this is where it gets a little tricky. You could do the same thing or you could do a few other things. This is how it looks now, of course, pretty wide four lanes in this section. There wasn't enough room for center turnway, and you can see the school just off the left there. This is what it looks like. I often say this is probably a good auxiliary runway. You can land something right on that thing. That's pretty wide. Here's what it looks like. This is east of our downbound from Arlington Lake in the background. But here's what you could do. Wait, there's two things. This is one that you could, that has been thought of in our plans. It was looked at, I think it's looked at now in the current DOT plan. I'd say this is not that great of an idea anymore, although you probably would have a little bit more right away if you could split these, you split them. You have upbound uses current central entrance. The downbound is obviously pretty tricky. Personally, I don't wouldn't say this is in the direction that the city would want to go here, but it was in our plan. It's in the DOTs plans if you split this. I'm not sure how you do this, especially if you're sticking half of the traffic in a residential road right here as you go from Anderson to Arlington. First of all there would be properties and maybe a few houses that have to be bought up wherever those funds are coming from. But you're introducing level of traffic and trucks to an area that's not ready for it. This this this move traffic very well is fantastic for that. It's also pretty good for speeding traffic. This was thought about in many towns 30, 40, 50 years ago. Don't personally think that our plan would get behind this whole lot, but it's in there. It's in there. This is what you could do, and this one gets tough. This one probably has some pain associated with it. Because this is where is this traffic going to go? Well, there's other routes, even though I know we're not on a grid here. There's other routes traffic can go in 53 and arrowhead. Yeah, but traffic can shift. Traffic shifts in Lincoln Park, they're doing pretty good. Conjession is not a bad thing. I say this on many different plans. Conjession means vitality. What's wrong with that? But this would be tough to do. This is one lane each way, turn lane or you have a median with some trees. This introduces something very, well, it's very new. Would be bold, if you will. Could it occur here? I think so. Would it have some complaints? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Certainly. What does a city want? This could get to, as we'll mention, what the city's smaller plan would talk to. And again, the usefulness of what that quarter was 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago is not exactly the same. So this is out there, but it's being discussed and been discussed in the DOT's plan to. We kind of like this, because it gets to something that this neighborhood has never had. Quickly, an overview, I won't read all these. We've talked about entrance ways. Maybe there's a roundabout at each area that says you're either at Anderson or Pecan. And saying you're coming into a new area here, slow down, different land uses. We've talked about crosswalks that you could put here, that mid-block type of crosswalk. Maybe a roundabout at Arlington. You have to figure out if the footprint is there, the availability. But something like this is discussed. This is in a quick overview of all the things we discuss for all modes, including transit, which we have to figure a few things out in a three lane because there's pulling in, but it can be done. It'll mention in the city part of this, but this is a very high level about what's missing here. This is where we would get to the tax base thing. The land use is there could be so much more, so much more, higher value, millions, whatever it might be. You're getting some of it in the residential now, of course, is what's been built. But you could get certainly a lot more in the retail side of things that is not, you know, the couple of things that are there that could be anywhere. That's what's important. I'd say that input from the public and this is what can drive this, because you're missing out. And this isn't unlike other corridors in town or any town, but this type of higher value is not there now, but could be with the right network there. So last one or two last slides, I mentioned central luncheon says now the design is going on with the DOT and their consultant and they're getting some further stakeholder engagement that's supposed to occur some of these design workshops over the coming months. I mean I'll make sure that this gets out to my board. There are dollars there. What are we talking? Probably they haven't got all these funds in place yet. They've got a place holder if you will. For 29 and 33, 15 million each. It's probably going to go up a little bit. So at some point if we get a design pick the DOT will combine these dollars or try to find a source, combine them, and maybe it's try it's done in 30, 31. But I mean this is how transportation works. We're doing making decisions now. Projected this scale is five, six years away. That's normal. But we're picking what we could do now. So it's 30 million somewhere in there. And those dollars have to go through the, the MIC. If it's federal funds, we have to approve them. And hopefully we'll see some of the things that we've talked about in our plans. So I'm gonna turn this over, if I'm timing right here, to Kyle. And this is the small area plan, and I believe he'll queue up a few slides here so Welcome Mr. Devin Good evening President Randolph counselors. I'm Kyle Deming. I'm a senior planner with the planning and economic development department and Here talk about the central entrance Miller Hill small area plan and this kind of an adage in the planning world that planners do plans and then they go on the shelf and you don't use them. And this is actually a plan that I didn't have to blow the dust off of because it has been used as Ron has been mentioning multiple times here that that division for Central Entrance that they're working on on the transportation solutions comes from the landiest plan that starts out so You can switch over to my presentation that'd be great And I'm gonna just start talking a little bit about Comprehensive planning is where we we start from you know what is the vision for the community the city as a whole and then we work on smaller Plants and the smaller a plan is one of those. I want to go to the next one here. So the city's comprehensive plan, that's the 2006 version as you remember in 2018. We updated the plan. 2006, these were the governing principles that applied in this particular situation, strengthening neighborhoods, being play specific, looking at maintaining connectivity and applying for a mix of different uses throughout the community. The Smollaria Plan was adopted by Council in 2009 after a community engagement process that lasted for about 10 months. We had a fair amount of media coverage as well as a webpage and some lot of public input. We had 14 members study committee including six property owners in the commercial world, some members of the city councilor. I think it's Gary Crouse at the time. And some in dot and and Mick representatives. I think Ron, I think you were on that panel from member eight. One of the first things we did was ask for some help. Planners need help sometimes and we asked MXT development strategists to help us envision what this district could be in the future. This is a firm that works with the real estate industry developers, retail outlets and so forth on how to create developments that are attractive to the communities that they are situated in. And so they looked at our supply of different kinds of land uses, of land that was available. They looked at the supply of different kinds of land uses, of land that was available. They looked at the market for different kinds of retail and office and multi-family housing. And put together really great studies. It's the bulk of the appendix that's on that document you see in front of me here. But these three points here are kind of key that the long-term outlook for central entrants is a more local, independent, retail, smaller boutique office, professional services. And I think we're actually seeing a lot of that. You know, Fahalek, Vita Pizza, you know, your locals are now moving into this district. It's not so much about chains anymore. So that's a good sign. Small and local shops, eclectic and lively, I think you might even feel that way when you drive by the Vita Pizza with the murals on the wall and such. And they propose the idea that central engines should be a distinctive place and rather than a collection of standalone businesses potentially a main street for Duluth Heights. So serving both a local and regional function. One of the studies that they cited was this reinventing America's suburban business districts, ten principles to look at. And this slide here has some pretty important information on it, too much traffic or poorly planned traffic can strangle a commercial strip when traffic counts get to that 20 to 30,000 vehicles per day. Visibility of the source is really high and the merchants are all happy about that. But access starts to becoming difficult. We've all experienced it. Turning movements and that sort of stuff, lots of curb cuts. To ensure continued mobility, traffic planning and design must resolve the inherent conflict between through traffic, local traffic, how do you, the traffic that wants to get to the businesses and the strip themselves? So that's what we're looking at trying to not kill the goose that lay the golden egg as they, as they said in their quote. The MXT study also provided these recommendations and some examples of similar types of districts in other areas. The, and there's a picture of the, for contrast, a picture of one of the businesses or properties in Duluth. But they looked at, you know, the areas being a diverse, well conceptualized, they were basically explaining that diverse well conceptualized developments that are coordinated and entertaining lively are worth more in real estate value. Ron pointed that out before they call that the design dividend and it materializes in better sales tax revenues being able to charge higher rents, higher property values and that sort of stuff. So, looking to see that design dividend improve. So looking at all of the information, the study committee came up with this vision for central entrance, attractive, walkable place, wide sidewalks, both sides of the street, inviting storefronts, monitoring public will actually enjoy traveling to and through the district, as it provides good access to the businesses. And again, the idea of the main street for Duluth Heights. And so the recommendation that actually pertains directly to the transportation improvements that is in the plan, I don't remember which page is on, but it basically says that when central entrance is reconstructed, it's critical that the context of the street be a walkable urban thoroughfare and that if you respected that design solution permit comfortable use of the street by pedestrians forgot to say bikes and transit as well as the motoring public. And a couple other recommendations that are in there. Entrance monuments to kind of distinguish the district from signage and places for green items, vegetation and so forth. So this is where James, you wanted to talk a little bit about next steps. Thanks, Kyle. James Goodamir, Senior Transportation with the City. And this really is the question for the City of Duluth. This road reconstruction project will actually end up before you as a municipal consent. And so we wanted to have, I guess this is a good opportunity to have this conversation early, early in the design process that we as a community can really have a full conversation here of what kind of street do we really want in the end because we all as a community can really have a full conversation here of what kind of street Do we really want in the end because we all as a community get to decide this? It's not a Pre-ordained to be one way or another and so these big questions and land use visions that come up through the smaller plan and what Ron has brought up with the McPlan are really before us And if it was simple, we wouldn't even have to have this conversation. We would just know what we need to do and we move forward. This is really, I guess, a key point in the future of central entrance and not an easy conversation to have the community really bring out this vision, the potential, and not really easy conversation. I have to get to the final design of this thing. So I think that is really all we had tonight, and I just thank you for the opportunity to be able to present this. Well, thank you so much. We wanna thank Mr. Ron Chica for coming from the Director of the Mick, Kyle Demings, Senior Planner, and you, James Gidemire for this fantastic presentation. Open it up. Do we wanna open it up for some questions? Do we have any questions? We do. Yes, go ahead. We've got Councillor Derracher. Thank you, President Randolph. These plans all look really beautiful. I'm curious to know about how the businesses will be protected. I'm sure you have a plan. So if you could just let us know. I mean, very selfishly, how do I get a meal at Phaholic? I mean, while you're doing this. Can you answer this, too? We have engaged them in our document. DOT as well, you want to answer? Yeah, this design process will involve all the business along the corridor. Mindat has done a great job actually reaching out to everybody on the corridor. I don't remember if you remember the name, how many? Like almost everybody has been reached out to him. We'll be a part of this process as the design was forward. Perfect. Next question comes from Councillor Mayo. Thank you, President Randor. Thank you all for the presentation. And James, if you want to stick up here, this might be relevant to you or maybe Ron Kinsheim. And if you want to just kind of talk about if the vision from the small area plan and what Ron presented tonight were to move forward, is there a difference in the time to travel that corridor? And kind of if you have a general estimate, I think Ron might have had that from a few years back. And then what that kind of relates to in terms of traffic and crashes with those visions versus what's there today. The currently, I mean, even with the Twin Ports interchange not in place right now, there's still a current similar time travel if you're going from Trinity to down to I-35. Whether you take Highway 53 or Central Entrance, there's a similar, I think it's 11 or 12 minutes time that it takes right now. The corridor, the estimates of time, what it would take to get through, especially if the design option of a three-linking through Would move slower so there would be additional time. I'm not sure if that's just minutes of additional time or or seconds And actually probably depends on time of day with traffic going through there traffic is dynamic so You know as we've seen with highway 53 work and twin-force interchange traffic moves around some traffic disappears trips are very dynamic work in twin-personer change, traffic moves around, some traffic disappears. Trips are very dynamic. Crashes though, this corridor, regardless of what option is picked, Minda will be addressing. There are safety issues on this corridor and its current configuration with all the accesses and the two lanes of instruction in the center term lane. And it is a design that has inherent safety issues. And regardless what option that will be something that is addressed with the design. And Ron, did you want to chime in? Thanks, it's a very good question. Yes, we did. Especially in the peak hours. Let's think about the afternoon rush going out. That would lengthen by two and a half minutes or so estimate. Inestimate. It's not quite as pronounced in the AM, but yes, if you have something that's less lanes, it's going to take a little lot, but it's a dynamic thing, as James had said. There's other routes, but yes, there would be a little bit longer queue to go through here if traffic would stay the same. Likely traffic would reduce. This is what occurs in communities. But there is some, this is the, I mentioned, ways is a little bit two and a half minutes longer but potentially saving a lot of lives and a lot of crash incidents along that corridor. So We'll be very interested to kind of see what those designs are once they come out from MINDOT. Thanks Thank you, Councillor Bail. Next question is Councillor OWL. Thank you, President Render Thank you so much for the presentation. I just had a quick question really thinking about pedestrians kind of using central entrance, knowing myself, visiting Faholik, how difficult it is to cross that street and even walk central entrance. And I had noticed in some of those zoning plans that there was that shared path, right? And some of those plans had that shared path continuing some of them didn't. I'm just curious, is long-term vision to make sure that pedestrians have a safe way on either side of central entrance? That is correct. The mixed long vision plan for this does call for pedestrians to have a safer way on both sides of that corridor and some kind of shared use path for mixed modes on one side. That's the recommendation. Just to clarify, regardless of what potential plan is going to move forward in those individual zones, there will be a pedestrian crossing throughout the entire area. That's the plan. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councillor Owell. Any final questions? Councillor Bail. Thank you, President Randolph Owl. Any final questions? Councillor Bail. Thank you, President Randolph. Just around it out. I don't know, Doug, if Mr. Curfield, if you had planned to speak tonight, but I'm wondering if you could kind of give a general update from Mendoc's perspective of when the public can expect to see some initial plans and kind of what next steps might look like with the project. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. So, and Mr. Mejim. Yeah, my name is Doug Kirkhold and lead project manager from MINDOT and the one that's currently managing the Central Entrance Plan from the MINDOT side. I've been working on it for four years already, starting with the MICK plan and being part of their advisory committee and now in two kind of the planning phases. In the next couple months we're hoping to get a public meeting together after we've kind of routed all of the recommendations through the different agencies. We've had, I think, over the last two years, about seven different agency meetings with the city, engineering, and planning. St. Louis County, the DTA, as well as MINDOT. Talking through these different alternatives, the recommendations that were brought forward from the vision plan that the maker put together. So kind of moving forward, we're looking to go to the public in the next couple of months. Present these, get feedback from the public, and then revise those recommendations and kind of do a cycle of two or three iterations with the different alternatives for the project and then move forward into preliminary design once we have a prepared alternative selected. Fantastic. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Councillor Mayo. Any final questions? I have a question for you, Mr. Chica. You mentioned you would like to see Council Action. What specific Council Action would you like to see this body take? Well, similar to what Was done a few years ago with i35 i35 a couple years ago the council Roto resolution It was addressed to the DOT is addressed to the mech to To say here's what we'd like to see in i35 in the long term Which has led to the plan that we did and of course there's further plans going on to say here's what we'd like to see in I-35 in the long term, which has led to the plan that we did, and of course there's further plans going on, looking at I-35, 20, 30 years or so from now, and what might be a different interstate right down here. But what was done at that time was a council action. Maybe it's with administration, and you say based on the plan, the city's smaller your plan, based on some of our work. And what the public talked about in our work and what it's been quick forth again in this plan is saying this is what the city would prefer to have, based on plans done, many plans done. And say to the DOT, they're looking for this. I mean, good Doug could say the same thing. They're looking for this. They want to know where the city lies with respect to the long term of central entrance. Whether it's a letter or resolution, something to the district engineer, citing some of the work and citing the city's plan and saying this is what we would prefer to see or aspects of it. You know, and it will go from there. But what's key is you've mentioned what you would like to see 20, 30 years from now, which isn't, I would say, what it is right now. That's what would be good to do. Wonderful. Thanks for the clarity around that. And as that the final question, thank you so much on behalf of the council for putting together the central entrance vision plan. Much appreciated. Have a great night. We will reconvene at 7 o'clock. 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 do it. Oh. 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 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 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 a little bit of the same thing. All right. Good evening. We will begin in 30 seconds. All right. The meeting of the Duluth City Council will now come to order. Mr. Johnson, will you please call the roll? Councilor Law. Councilor Derwacher. Councilor Forzman. Councilor Kennedy. Councilor Mail. Councilor Nafi. Councilor Swenson. Vice President Tumonik. President Radoof. And I think our councilor Swenson just walked in. Go ahead and let them know you're here. Here. There we go. Please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands for Nation, Under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. All right, good evening, everyone. The agenda for tonight's meeting is available at the table in the rear of the chambers. For those listening on public access, TV, radio, or online. The agenda is available on the city of Duluth website at Duluthmin.gov. Positions are currently open on our city boards and commissions. If you're interested, please pick up an application at the back table and out of courtesy to others. Please take this time to silence your phones. Citizens in the audience who wish to address the council on any matter are welcome to do so tonight by completing the sign-up sheet over by clerk johnson's desk. You'll have three minutes to speak to the council on any matter you wish. Please begin with your name and your address. I'll give you a 30 second heads up when your time is about to expire. And we do adhere to the adopted rules of civility in this chambers. Those rules can be reviewed on the top of the printed agenda. Okay. So we will move to approve the minutes looking for a motion to approve. Moved by mail. Do I have a second? Second by Owl. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Same sign? Motion carries. And right now, Councillor Tomic is out, so that is eight and one absent. Next we'll do reports from administration. Mr. Montgomery. Thank you, President Randolph. Councillors, I want to update you on the status of the city's investigation into the allegations involving the mayor's campaign manager raised by John Raimus of the monitor and Jan Ahaling's worth of the Minister of State Tribune in late September. The city attorney's office has completed their investigation of this matter, including reviewing the relevant data of these allegations and conducting interviews with appropriate city staff. I have complete confidence in the impartiality of the city attorney's office and the attorneys in that office in their investigation. That being said, in an effort to be completely transparent, I directed the City Attorney's Office to engage an independent attorney to conduct an outside investigation. To that end, we have engaged an identified expert in this type of investigation, Michelle Soldo, Soldo Consult consulting PC. All documents collected as part of the city's review will be delivered to Ms. Soto this week. Her investigation is completely independent and she has full authority to conduct any additional investigation if she feels inappropriate. The city will continue to cooperate with her as it did with our internal review. A final report from Soldo will be presented when it is available and she is completed her work. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Montgomery. I have a Councillor in the queue. Councillor Derr-Wockter. Thank you, President Randolph. How is Michelle's sold out selected? Is she somebody that anybody in Duluth personally knows? President Randolph, Councillor Derr-Wockter, I don't know how many people in Duluth may know her. Her firm is involved in these type of municipal investigations. They are known to be competent and involved in these sorts of investigations. We have used them on prior occasions for other investigations and found their work to be very excellent and competent. And so we have confidence in in their work to conduct this investigation. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Derrhoctor. I have in the queue, Councillor Meil. Thank you, President Randolph. As part of that external review by Michelle Solvill's company, will they also review procedures and kind of questions that were asked as part of the interviews. Or is it solely just the documents that were collected as a part of that investigation? President Randolph, Councilor Mayo, as I indicated in my statement, Ms. Solvill will be free to conduct her investigation in any manner she sees appropriate appropriate given the information she has and pursuant in any manner she feels as appropriate to get to a completed resolution of the matter. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you Mr. Montgomery for that update. Next we'll move on. We have four public hearings. I'll open the first one. I'm opening a public hearing on the downtown waterfront special service district renewal This is as related to item 40 ordinance 42 Do I have any anyone in the audience that would like to speak to the public hearing for the downtown waterfront special service district? Please approach the lectern My first question is did you sign up with Clark Johnson? Yes. Excellent. Go ahead and begin with your name and address. Yes, Mariah McKecney, 317 North 23rd Avenue East. Thank you, and Duluth. So, President Randolph and counselors, my name is Mariah McKecney. As I just stated, I'm the owner of the Beley Building from 313 to 317 West Superior Street. In downtown Duluth, I've been a long time tenant on Superior Street just directly across the street for about 10 years at 314 West Superior Street. In 2022, my husband and I took a leap of faith and decided to purchase the Bagley Building and become a property owner and to truly invest in downtown Duluth. Truly, I've never looked back. The bagley building has become the home of four and soon to be five of my businesses. It is truly a hub in downtown Duluth for the wedding and event industry and something they're very proud of having built. We were, we looked to investing in downtown Duluth because we felt that the energy was coming back and I've always been a big proponent of downtowns everywhere and was very excited to invest in hours. One of the many ways that we have, one of the many things that we thought about and decided to invest in downtown Duluth was the role of downtown Duluth organization. I had been participating as a member for many years with my business. And when I learned about the recertification process of the Duluth Downtown Waterfront District, it was a no-brainer for me and for my husband to contribute to this as property owners. By pooling our resources and dollars with other property owners, we can get a great return on our investment truly the amount of money that we will contribute annually is but a drop in the bucket when we look at all the services that we receive from the district. I can't say enough about the clean and safe team, all of the work that they do to continually keep our downtown both safe and clean, just as they say that they will. Anytime we call them, any issues that we have there prompt and immediately come to support us in any way that they can. I also love all the additional support I get through marketing, through just general knowing my neighbors as part of downtown Duluth and have been very active in the organization, certainly can't imagine not having to continue having the downtown waterfront district as an amenity as a downtown property owner. So, hi about a building. I invested substantial dollars in refurbishing the building, continued to do so. Even today, I'm in the process of opening new business on Superior Street, Josephine's bridal, because I believe in our downtown and I'm excited to continue to be part of the rejuvenation that is happening. I'm doing this because like I said I believe in in the downtown and I encourage you to vote in favor of re certifying the Special Service District. It's truly would not be the same without it and it is a small price to pay for all of the services and amenities that we receive. Thank you so much. Well, welcome up our next speaker on this public hearing. Ordinance 42. Welcome. Good evening, President Randolph and City Councillor. My name is Tiffany Hughes. I reside at 1801 Anderson Road in Duluth. I am the CEO of ANL Properties which has numerous commercial properties throughout the region, seven of which reside in the downtown waterfront district. They include the Duluth Technology Village, Wheeling Building, US Bank Building, Phoenix Building, and the Duluth Athletic Club right across the street. All told, we have more than 500,000 square feet of commercial real estate in the district, making ANL properties one of the larger property owners and managers. I'm here tonight to share our support for the recertification of the special service district. While we take care of our properties, including having on-site security within the tech village and other buildings, we know there is great value in the programs and services provided by the Special Service District. We can imagine a downtown without such programs as a clean and safe team. We see them and the outreach specialists out on the street in the skywalk daily, oftentimes several times throughout the day. They are cleaning up litter and debris on our sidewalks and public spaces, connecting unsheltered individuals to much needed resources and serving as ambassadors to demonstrate that our downtown is safe and welcoming to all. The Clean and Safe team is also that extra set of eyes and ears for the police department that is so important for the overall safety of our downtown. A&L properties believe so strongly in supporting the district that we have even contributed beyond assessment through items such as storage space, donation of storage space, sponsorship of events and contributions and items for the special outrears. Items needed for the outreach specialist. As a major property owner, we already paid good amount of property taxes. Yet we see this additional assessment working for us every day. We, along with our neighboring property owners, are truly investing in the betterment of our downtown. I encourage you to renew this Special Service District. Our community and the property owners in the downtown waterfront area cannot afford not to do so. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll welcome up our next speaker that would like to speak to us about the downtown waterfront special service district renewal. Welcome. Good evening. President Randolph-Councillors, my name is Christy Stokes. Five West First Street. I'm the president of the organization downtown Duluth and happy to be here today talking about the renewal of the special service district. We have a track record of 19 years managing the special service district and the initiatives and programs that go along with it. As you heard from some of our property owners, this is something that provides a great value and a great value on their investment because what they put in, they get a substantial amount back because everyone is pulling their resources and we have it as a partnership with the City of Duluth. So we greatly value that from our initiatives of the clean and safe team to hanging baskets to streetscape planters to enhanced marketing and assistance with special events. This is an initiative that is helping our downtown and similar things like this are helping downtowns across the country. So I really encourage you to support and continue this private public partnership with us. It is something that we see as a great value. And as we look at the future of our downtown, this is something that will continue to provide a great benefit for us. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, but any other speakers that would like to come speak about the downtown waterfront special service district renewal. I will make a second call. Anyone who would like to speak on this public hearing? Please approach the lectern. We will do a third and final call on this public hearing for the downtown waterfront special service district renewal. Seeing none, we will go ahead and close that public hearing. Next, I'll open up the next public hearing. This is tax abatement property. This is relating to resolution 785. I'll go ahead and open up this public hearing. Please approach the lectern. Second call on this public hearing for a tax abatement property. And I'll make a third and final call for anyone here that would like to speak to the council on the tax abatement property public hearing. Seeing now, I'll go ahead and close that public hearing. I'll open up the next one. We have a public hearing for the business subsidy for Sofital. This is their tip. This is in regards to resolution 796 item 33. Please approach the lectern if you'd like to speak on this public hearing. I'll call second call for the public hearing on the business subsidy for Sofidel. And a third and final call for this public hearing on the business subsidy for Sofidel and this is regards to the TIFF. Seeing none we'll go ahead and close that public hearing and we'll open up the final one. This public hearing is the Sofidel deed applications as it relates to Resolution 795 item 32. If you're here to speak on that public hearing please approach the lectern. I'll do a second call for the public hearing related to Sofidel deed applications. Seeing none, this is the third and final call for our Public hearing on Sofidel deed applications. Seeing none, I'll go ahead and close that final public hearing. Next, I'll take any reports from officers. Reports or any council committees or open issues. Seeing none, we are now at opportunities for citizens to be heard. Clerk Johnson, can you please call the first speaker? The first speaker on the list tonight is Sorsche Rowan. Good evening. My name is Thisha River. I'm from E25 Partridge Street. As you may know, it has been over one year since Israel began at seed of Gaza. It is also the day after Indigenous Peoples Day. So in recognition of those two things, my comrades and I will be honoring those killed in Gaza by reading some of the names of the 40,000 recorded flame in Israel's genocide. We will also be reading some educational postcards about Palestine. Ruan Ibrahim, Tafik Abu, Libet, Libet, with a 15 year old woman, 15 year old girl killed. Yourself Hassan Ali Al-Kafarna with a 15 year old boy. Abdul Rahman Abdul Muhammad Al-Aqad with a 15 year old boy. Isam Hattain Nabil Al-Katib with a 14-year-old boy. Maryam Gassan Sahedad Redwan with a 14-year-old girl. Muhammad Gatar Mahar Al-Khaferna with a 14-year-old boy. Anas Al-Saheed Muhammad Al-Aqad with a 14 year old boy. Roa Moat's Abed Yalseen with a 13 year old woman. Muhammad Ihab Sadala Al-Helou with a 13 year old boy. Farah Muhammad Imaad Al-Katib with a 12 year old girl. Muhammad Hatim, Muhammad Hatim, Nabil Al-Katib, with a 12-year-old boy. Gisei, Muhammad Mustafa, Nabil Al-Aliwa, with a 12-year-old girl. Muhammad Gisan, Shehada Radwan, with an 11-year-old boy. Sadala Ihab Sadala Al-Halou with an 11-year-old boy. Mu'at-e-Sam Abdul Halim Bafir Al-Halou with an 11-year-old boy. Al-Bara Ayaman Hasan Yasin was a nine-year-old boy. Farah Moatas Obaid Yasin with a nine-year-old girl. Arij Saber, arij Saber, Yunus Radwan with a nine-year- annual girl. The young Muhammad Muhammad Abed with an annual girl. Elighter Muhammad Mustafa Nebih Aliwa with an annual girl. Mata Sam Ahmed Said Redwan with a seven year old boy. Muhammad Ahmed Mahood Abud Lebda was a seven year old boy. Salma Fadi Jihad Redwan was a seven year old girl. You have 30 seconds left. Al-Mu'atasir, Bilal Moatas, Moatas Abed Yasin was a seven year old boy. Asil Basil, Asil Basil, Ramadan Abed, was a seven-year-old girl. Uday, Muhammed, Muhammad, Abed, was a seven-year-old boy. And Malek, Hamed, Nidal, Al-Iwa, was a seven-year-old girl. And that's your time tonight. Thank you so much. Tonight's next speaker is Quill Cough. Good evening. My name is Quill Cough. I'm at 602 East 5th Street. Thank you. My childhood best friend and the first person I ever loved is Palestinian. I have not heard from them in over a year. I have no idea where they are. I have no idea if they're safe. And I may never know. I will be reading the names of the martyrs of Israel's genocide in Palestine. Malakhamad Nidal Aliwa, seven years old. Abdul Karim Saber, Yunus Radwan, seven years old. Manal Rashid Nidal Aliwa, seven years old. Manal Rashid Nidal Aliywa, seven years old. Batul Murad Ismail Yasin, seven years old. Lana Gassan Shahidah Radwan, six years old. Ahmed Rami Farah, up dead, six years old. Ahmed Rami Farah Abdeh, six years old. Duay Mahanan Mahmud Abed, six years old. Anas Rashid Nidal Alewa, six years old. The fair Ayub, the fair Al-Halloo, six years old. The fair, Iube, the fair, I'll hello. Six years old. Amir Nadir, Harbi, I'll hello. Five years old. Fatima Hassan Ali Al-Qfarna. Five years old. Amir Muhammad Jumah Dahir. Five years old. Amira Muhammad Jumma Dahir five years old. Adam Ahmed Saeed Radwan five years old. John Ahmed Mahmoud Abu Labd five years old. Heba Ihab, Salda'la al-Haloo, five years old. Yaya Nour, Eldin Yaya Al-Aqad, five years old. Lujain Moatz, O'Baid Yassin, five years old. Lujain Moatzobaid Yasin, five years old. Ya'ya Muhammad Yusuf Abed, five years old. Al-Iwa Hamid Nidal Al-Iwa, five years old. Saleh Ahmed Saleh Abu Lebda, five years old. Dree Fatal Ziyad Yasin, four years old. Musque Munther, Fatal Ziyad Yasin, four years old. Musque Munther, Saladah, Al-Halloo, four years old. 30 seconds. Sally Shidah Hassan Dair, four years old. Abdul Aziz Radwan Naim Al-Halloo, four years old. Marwan Ahmed Mahmoud, Abu Lebda, four years old. Muhammad Moat's Abday Yassin, three years old. And that's your time tonight. Thank you so much. The next speaker is Robert Koso. Good evening. Hi. My name is Robert Koso. I live at 1224 East 11th Street. I've been for 42 years, so I'm snowing. The next name is Amir Muhammad, from Madah here, a little boy, three years old. Sabah Mahmoud Jamal Al-Khatib, a little girl, three years old. Nura Ahmed Diwraguan, female girl, three years old. Adam, not their heartbeat, I'll heal you, a boy, a boy, three years old. I'm a basillote, Ramadan, I've been a boy, three years old. Hamza, Rami, Nidal, Al- girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, a little girl, to a boy, two years old. I'm going to stop there and just mention that to get more information about the workings of the Palestine Solidarity Group, you can go to get out of meaningless at this site, Palestine Solidarity, at TwinPortsDSA.org, or you can go to the Democratic Socialists of America, TwinPortsDSA.org slash Facebook.com slash TwinPortsDSA, NorthwoodSosisCollective, NorthwoodSosis.org slash grandmother's piece, Facebook.com, G4P, Northland. Twin ports against weapons trade, link, TR.E, slash TPAWT. And lastly, the anti-imperialist league, Facebook.com, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm the next speaker's Linda Heron. Good evening. Thank you. Thank you. I'm the next speaker, Linda Heron. Good evening. I'm a member of Grandmothers for Peace, and I'm here to mourn for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Lebanese citizens in Lebanon who have been slaughtered by the Israeli defense force. Here are the names of but a very few of the 43,000 Palestinian men, women, and children for whom I mourn. Moaman Ihab Sadala Al-Helou, a baby boy of two years. Habiba Shiday Hassan Dahir, a one-year-old baby. Yakut Anas Hassan Dahir, another one-year-old baby. Nevin Muhammad Yaya Al-Akhad. Another one-year-old, baby. Muhammad Fadi Jihad Redwan, a baby boy less than one year. Asil Muhammad Yamu Dayu, a young baby girl less than one year. Muhammad Nur Aldin Yaha Al Akad, baby boy less than one year. Muhammad Nidal Aliywa, a baby boy less than one year. Abdul Rahman Suleiman Ahmed Al Malawi, a man of 83 years. Fatih Abdul Fatih Al Hanafa, Mahmukhamel, an 82-year-old man. Muhammad Iid Muhammad Al Mahallilawi, a man of 74. Fatima Murlak Hussein Abu Obed, a young, a woman of 72 years. Kamis Muhammad Ahmad Abu Nima, a male of 71 years. Nasir Al-Deen Muhammad Ahmad Abu Nima, a man of 69. Nasir Yosef Abdu-Rabo, Abu Obed, a man of 68. Ataf Ahmed Abdel Majid Abu Niyama, a woman of 64. Ahmad Abdel Hamid Hanafi Mighameer, a man of 63. Hamada Misbah Mughamid Mughameer, 63 years. Man. Wadat Abdel Fata Hanafi M Muhameer, a woman of 62. In Shira Mamadan Salem Abu Nimah, a woman of 62, and Hanan Muhammad Ahmed Abu Nimah, a woman of 58. 30 seconds left. I wish to quote from Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan from her interview with CNN on October the 11th. She said, I am genuinely afraid about what we're going to find out when the dust settles. History books will be written on this, she added. And countries will have to reckon with their major role in the genocide of an entire population and then the destruction of humanitarian law and rule of order. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Penny Craig and I live in 3780 Lundgrod. I'm also a grandmother for peace, a mother or grandmother, also a regular participant in the women in black vigils. We've been meeting every week for a year now. And excuse my emotion, but hearing the names and the ages of so many children is hard for me. Jihad Ata Yusav Sayyid, a man 55. Jalal Jamel Abdullah Sayeed, another male 52. Batsina Mahum Yusuf Ab-Mahali, a female 51. Muhammad Ab-Alaman, Suleiman Al-Mahal Watlawi, a male 50. Majed Ata Yusuf Saad, a male, a man 47. Sana Abdul Ruhmuhabun Abdu Abad, a woman 46. Khalud Hassan Muhammad, Mughal Hamir, a woman 46. Yusuf Nasir Yusuf Abu Abad, a man 45. Sama Muhammad Ali Gendaya, a woman 42. Muhammad Hassan Hussein Zaid, a man 42. Muhammad Nasir Al-Wid, a man 42. Muhammad Nasir Al-Wim, Muhammad Abu Mima, a man 41. Muhammad Jabil Asan Al-Sanin, a man 40. Walid Abdul Hakh, Muhammad Al-Mah Malawi,, Aman 40. Atah Ibrahm Muhammad Said, a woman 49. Al-A'fati Abdul Batam Makama, a male 49. Hamid Abdul Rahman Suleiman Al-Bahlawe, Aman 48. Walah Abdulah Suleiman Said, a man 48. Wala Abdullah Suh Luman Zayed, a woman 38. Anaz Ahmad Abdi al-Hamad Mukhamer, a male 38. Muhammad Asan Muhammad Mukhamer, a male 37. Muhammad Abdi al-Hamad Muhammad Judi, Amal 37. Muhammad Abdi Al-Haman, Muhammad Jundi, Amal 37. Nur Jamil Galin Said, a woman 36. Hussam Jamil Hassan Al-Sanin, Amal 36. Amal Salimah Saeed Ghandaya, M. 35. Muhammad Jihad Atasaheed, M. 35. Kulud Muhammad Hassan Al-Sanim, M. 35. Muhammad Ani, Muhammad Adman Ali Malawi, M. 34. 30 seconds. These are real people, people who have died. I'd like to read you a poem called, If the War Goes On. The war goes on and the truth is taken hostage and new terrors lead to the need to euphemize when the calls for peace are declared unpatriotic. Who will expose the lies. If the war goes on and the rich increase their fortunes and the armsail sores, new weapons are displayed, when a fertile field turns to no lands land tomorrow, who will approve such trade? If the war goes on, will it close the doors to heaven? If the war goes on, will'll close the doors to heaven. If the war goes on, we'll re-greach the gates of hell. If the war goes on, we'll be ever be forgiven. If the war goes on. Thank you. The next speaker is Scott Ball. Good evening. Good evening. Sisters brothers, friends, counselors. I'm Scott Bohl. I live at 231 East Superior Street, Duluth, Minnesota. I'm here to also read names, lives, Palestinian lives, matter. I'm going to share a little note here too, I was given. Anti-Sionism is not anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Western world. Remember the main chance of 2017 Unite the Right, March of Charlottesville, Virginia? Jews will not replace us. Jews people have been persecuted for centuries throughout the world, subject to pull pogromans, exile exile and gas chambers. Sintically, US military support for Israel is not to correct past harms. It is to defend US corporate interest in the Middle East. Israel is a garrison state Always ready to serve as a launching pad for US troops and armory to check the ambition of Arab countries and suppress Arab nationalists and freedom movements, and importantly, oversee oil and gas interest. To oppose the actions of the State of Israel does not automatically mean you hate or fear Israel-Israel-Israel-Jewish people. It means only that you oppose racist, expansionist Zionism. Palestinian Lives Matter, Salama, Hamada, Ms. Ba, Makhaeir Mir, female, 34 Palestinian woman murdered in Gaza. Nimaar Ahmed Abdel Hamid Mokhara, male 34 Palestinian murdered in Gaza. Manal, Ismail, Khalid, Judal, Female, Palestinian woman murdered 33 years old. Mohammed, Nabil, Abdullah, Moukhair, Male, 33 Palestinian men murdered in Gaza. I'll read a quick quote here from the Dalai Lama. Love and compassion are necessities not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. Herba Ismail Hussan El Zan, female murdered in Palestine 33 years old. There, Laiad, Salah, Genoda, Mail, Palestinian murdered in Gaza. Thirty-Secrets. Thirty-Secrets left. Okay, lives matter is a retort that was given to Black Lives Matter. Folks, sometimes when they were in disagreement, Black Lives Matter was looking at the disproportionate killing by police and brown people. It would be good. If Black Lives Matter, it's important that we also now notice with these names that Palestinian lives matter too. It seems sometimes that more lives in our media some lives matter more than others. Palestinian lives matter. Thank you. The next speaker is Brandon Parker. Good evening. Good evening, Council. My name is Brandon Parker. I live at 621 at Lantic Avenue in Lincoln Park District 4. Before continuing with reading the names of those martyred and the US funded Israeli genocide of Palestinians, which by the way did not start on October 7th last year, it's been ongoing for over a century. I'm going to read one of the cards we're passing around town in spaces committed to advocating people take more direct actions for justice and liberation. These cards are meant to correct the record and combat liberal revisionist propaganda that is so pervasive in the corporate media and the hegemonic narrative. This one is on the knockbaugh. What is the knockbaugh? Israel was formed in 1948 when Zionist forces displaced roughly 800,000 indigenous Palestinians destroying more than 500 villages in the process. This event, known as the Nakba catastrophe, has led to 70 years of settler occupation. For those listening at home and on the radio or on TV, on the back there are resources on these cards connecting the reader to organizations that are doing the hard work and bringing the working class into our local grassroots power building movements here in Duluth. Palestine Solidarity Working Group, Democratic Socialists of America, Northwood Socialist Collective, Grandmother's for Peace, Anti-Imperialist Action, Twin Ports Against Weapons Trade. Magda Mahed, Muhammad, Abu Abad, 32 years old, female. Fida Hamada, Meshbaah Makoma Hamar, female 31 years old. Mona Adni Muhammad Al-Mahallawi, female 32 31 years old. Adel Hamid Ahmed Adel Hamid Makat Hamir. Male 31 years old. Iman Hamada Mesba Muk Hamir. Female 29 years old. Muhammad Saleh Muhammad El Malawi, male 29 years old. Ahmed Aman Mohammed Muklamir, male 28 years old. Nurhan Raeed Ramadan Abu Nima, female 28 years old. Heba Salim, Muhammad, Abu Nima, female 27 years old. Muhammad, Ahmed, Afjal, Ahmed, Mukhamir, male 27 years old. 30 seconds. Muhammad, Ahmad, Mesba, Mukhamir, male 26 years old. 30 seconds. Mahamad, Amada, Mesba, Mukha Mir, male 26 years old. Hassan, Salah, Mahamad, Abh-Mahabli, male 26 years old. I think that what we asked of you all back in March wasn't a hard choice. All you had to do is just be your voice and that's all we asked of you. Please hear us. Thank you. And the next speaker is Kalice Derroche. Good evening. Hi, my name is Klee Sterou, share live in Lake Sin, and I'm here representing Twin Ports against Wappen Street. Before I get to the names, I would like to point out that you failed us both your constituents and for not listening to our voices and for the countless people in the Arab world who are being murdered as we speak by Israel. The fact that you can sit back unbothered while we watch the rapid extermination of semites is an unquestioned reflection of which side you would have taken during the first Holocaust. You have labeled certain people in this community and abroad as less desirable, therefore less worthy of food, shelter, and safety. And you may not think of yourself as blood thirsty. And honestly, if I were to put a Palestinian child in front of you and tell you to shoot them, I don't think any of you could, but giving someone else the gun is just as bad. You play the hand in the death of the people we name, so yours are just as bloody. We need you to really think about the ramifications of your actions and reflect the demands of the Jewish community, Al-Zan Al-Zan Al-Shemaayah Mahmoud Yunus Sad Ahmad Mahmoud Omar Jinnayya Ahmoud Salah Asam Ibrahim Sad Hamza Rami Nasr Abu Abed Qasim Majid Atas Ahal, Hamza Jamil Khasan Al Zanin, Ahmed Anwar Yusuf Mahmere, Muhammad Yusuf Nasir Abu Abed, these are full families that have been exterminated. Entire bloodlines that do not exist anymore, do you know how much history that these people have brought to our world? Do you know how sacred this ground is? Do you ever think about that? That you play a part in desecrating our world. You really do. And the fact that you cannot see us, the fact that you cannot hear us, I saw someone being burned to death in a hospital. I be still in their arm. What is happening here? I feel like I'm so disheartened by the fact that you all can dare to be this. You dare to stand in front of us, sit there and look at us telling you what we want. Thirty seconds. Asking you to reflect the desires of our voices, what we know to be true, what we know is right. I'm not kidding, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is your responsibility. You need to reflect what we want. That is your job. Hear us. I can't believe that we have to be here now. Free Palestine. Thank you. Thank you. And the next speaker is Mary Ellen. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Mary Onum at 3645 East Third Street. That's where I live. And I am here because I teach genocide about Native Americans. I've taught about what happened to the people in this country, and I'm not going to stand by like people did when my people were being persecuted in this country and go down in history as someone who didn't stand up. I'm also here because I'm hoping that people in the audience who are listening on TV or on the radio, here are please, and go out and educate yourself about what's actually happening in Israel, much akin to the apartheid that happened in South Africa that actually was eventually taken down. And I hope I'm not boring or none of us are boring any of you counselors by reading the names of people who have been killed with our dollars. First, I'm going to read a card. What is apartheid? Is Israel in apartheid state. The term apartheid comes from a former South African policy of segregation and economic discrimination by one racial group over another. A heinous practice made illegal in the 1990s. Israel has implemented walls, mandatory checkpoints and now indiscriminate bombing of Palestine, Palestinian cities and villages, all with the aim of removing the Palestinian population so Jewish settlers can build on land outside of Israel. To be Palestinian and Israel means interminable lines, vastly restricted economic opportunities and escalated military presence in all neighborhoods, in all neighborhoods. Gaza before the bombings was designated the world's largest open-air prison. Israel is an apartheid state, and like South Africa, this apartheid will eventually end with or without you. So last name I see on here is Diana Mamoud Ata Al-Zanin, Risala Muhammad Muhammad Al-Azinnin, female 26, Ihab Sakur Jaibreen Gendaya, and I apologize to folks for their names, being just pronounced. Fun Kamas Muhammad Abu Nima, Islam Qadir Abraham Abu Obaid, female 22 Fatima Ramina, Sir Abu Obaid, female 22. Honest Muhammad Hassan Al Azanin, male 22, Shahima Mahmoud Yunasad, male 22, Sha'ima Mahmoud, Yunus Sa'ad, female 22, Ahmed Mahmoud, Omar Ghandaya, male 22, Muhammad, Salel Assam, Abraham, Se'ad 22, Hamza, Ramir, Nasir Abu, Obed, male 20, Kasim Majid, Atta Sa'ad, male 20, Hamza Jamil Hassan Al-Zanine, male 20. Cassie Majid Atasad male 20. Hamza Jamil Hassan Al Zanin male 20. Ahmed Anwar Yusef Mekehimir male 20. Muhammad Yusef Nasir Abu Obaid male 20. Rami Bilal Raba Saad male 19. Nasir Rami Nasir Abu Abed, male 19. Safa Muhammad Kamel Junday, female 19. Karam Yusef Nasir Abu Abed, male 18. 30 seconds. Foon Muhammad Khassad Saad, Hassan Saad, female 17. Saja Muhammad Kamas Abu Nima, female 17, Sajja, Muhammad, Kamas, Abu Nima, female 16, Malak, Muhammad, Nasir, Abu Uveid. In the 18 seconds that I have left, I will say to you that while this seems like far away, these are our dollars. Every one of us is contributing to this devastation, this killing, this genocide, don't stand by. Thank you. And the next speaker is Charlotte Gardner. Good evening. Good evening. I'm Charlotte Gardner. I live at 1411 East Knight Street and I am a member of Grand Mothers for Peace. I am also part of the vigil that meets on the corner every Friday, Lake Avenue and Superior Street, and to stand in silence to mourn and honor and stand for Peace and Justice and to the general site in Gaza. We've been doing this for over a year now. These names are names on the list from the state of Palestine, Ministry of Health. They are the names that have been verified. They're not the names that are under the rubber, not the people that are under the rubble because they haven't been able to identify them. You see a lot of young children's names on here. It's because 50% of the people in Gaza are children, children under 12 years old. So before I start with the names, I'm just going to read some statements and questions from Palestinian children in Gaza. One question to the doctor was, doctor, will my legs grow back? A mother in Rafa asked, can anyone tell us where to go so we don't die? So our limbs aren't torn apart, so I don't lose anyone else. Where do we go? Tell me. Someone answer me, please. Where should we go? Question even stones in Gaza-esque. And there was a poem by Shadias Ingaza. Truth be told, I thought the apocalypse would be a free fall into an abyss. I abrupt and immediate, but I was wrong. It's already here. A giant unfurling of inhumanity reaching all corners of earth with crimson fangs, ravenous for expansion at all cost. I never imagined a difference would be the thing that destroyed us. But I see now that I even a livestream genocide isn't enough to stop what is unfolding in irreversible trajectory. This decent from what it means to be, dissent from what it means to be decent from what it means to be human right here right now, a slow demise, swallowing us whole. In 1994, Mata Samaramey, Nost, Abu Abed, 16-year-old boy, Ayam Muhammad, Kamalouabade, 16-year-old boy. Ayam Muhammad Kamal Junti, 15-year-old girl. Resan Muhammad Hassad, 14-year-old girl. Basil Thayer, Ayad Junti, 14-year-old male. Sandos Muhammad Nast Abouniqmah, 14-year-old male. Santos, Muhammad Tast, Abou Niqmah, 14-year-old girl, 30 seconds. Billah, Muhammad, Kami, Sabdu, Nima, 13-year-old male. Muhammad Hassam, Jamil Azani, 12-year-old boy, and Khaled Mahir Khaled Abdulabad, a 12 year old boy. Thank you. Next speaker is Kathleen Spencer 55806. I'm on the temp to read the names of some of the many, many people of Palestine who've been murdered. Ah, here we go. Khalid, maher, Khalid Abu, Abu Abe. A male 12 years old. Farah Muhammad Kamel, Jediah, a female 12-year-old. Ghazal Hassan Kahleid Abu Abel, a female 12-year-old. So, time to the year, the year, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June Zanin, a male 12 years old. Rawad Muhammad, Awani, al-Malawi, a male 11 years old. Nagam, Walid Abdel, Ha Al Malawi, a female 11-year-old. Jaffar Ahmed Ahid, Camel Zendaya, a male, 11 years old. Kamel, Muhammad, Kamel, Jandiah, a male, 10 years old. Nadah, Walid, Abdel, Haq, Al-Malawi, a female, 10 years old. Obaidah, Muhammad Jamil Al-Zanin, male 10 years old. Retail, retail, Samir Salama Sad, female 10 years old. I noticed a lot of these people have the same endings to their name. What do you suppose that means? I mean, Khaled Muhammad Jamil Zani in a mail eight years old. Thirty seconds. But to Al-Ambed Nasr Al-Din Abu Nimah. Sorry. Oh, I better mark where I'm at. So thank you very much to the Councillors that voted to make a statement against the genocide and I don't know what's up with the rest of you guys. I really don't get it. Thank you. The next speaker is Laura Terman. Good evening. My name is Laura Terman, 2209 West Forest Street, Duluth. I would like to continue the names and of those we wish to mourn and pay respect to who's been murdered. Tala Omar Kamal Ghandaya, female eight years old. Maria Malik Basum Ghandaya, female eight years old. Abdullah Samir Salam, Sad, male eight years old. Tala Samir Salam, Sad, Male, Eight Years Old. Tala Samir Salam, Sad, Female, Eight Years Old. Zina Hassan, Jamil Alza, Sunin, Female, Seven Years Old. Omar Ahmed, Nasr, Alton, AbuDima, male, seven years old. Me and Omar Kamehla, Gendaya, female, seven. Hodeum Walid, Aftel Haq al-Mawaboy, female, six. Anis Mohammed Kamehs Abou, Nima Nima male six years old. Nadamar Khalid Abu Obed female six years old. Habiba Muhammad Ali al-Malah, what are you? Female six years old. Yara Samir Salama Assad, female six years old. Sham Muhammad Hussein Abu, who paid female six years old. Meiz Hosseim Jamil Al-Sanin, female five. You've said Muhammad, after al-Din Abu Nima, male five. Samah Omar Jamil Al-Sanin female five. Amir Muhammad Jamil al-Sanin male four. Abdul Rahma Muhammad Ali male four. Sadil Mansur Nasir Aldin Nima, female, four years old. Minat Alak, Maher, Kalid Abou, Obed, female, three years old. Shan Muhammad Nasser, Alden Abou, Nima, female, three years old. Omar Jamil, Al-Zanin, Bum, female, three years old. Omar Jamil Alzandin, bomb female three years old. Moaz Walid Abdel Haq Al Malawi, male two years old. Lana Omar Camila, Ghandeye, female two years old. Hala Hassan Jamil Alzandin, female one years old. Hala Hassam Jamil, Al-Sunni Female One Year's Old. Muhammad Mansur Nasir, Al-Din Abou Nima Male One Year's Old. Ilina Muhammad Nabeel, Mechkimur Female, Less Than One Year's Old. Thirty Seconds. Abdul Rahma, Samir, Salam, let's mail less than one years old. Subya Muhammad, all Rahma, female 86. Farhana Kohi, Salamah, Faraka, female 81. Jumber, Muhammad, Abdul, Am, Faraka, male 75, none of these people deserve to die. Pada, Pazzi, perhaps Abdul, Jude, Mail 72. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is John Krom. Good evening. John Crome at 36.45 East 3rd Street. Last March, Dulles citizens called upon you, our elected leaders, with phone calls, emails, and packed testimony to pass a resolution in favor of a ceasefire. Just some words on paper, but words that mattered, words that expressed our desire for peace. The majority voted it down, saying it wasn't city business. Aisha Muhammad Ibrahim al-Lu, female 72. Ibrahim Sukri Suleiman Qadir, male 72. Madhya Abdul Kareem Abdulb Hussein Abu Hilal Mell 70 Zaki Nasr Muhammad Zanun Mell 70 Naima Hussein Sukdi al Batini female 69 Mazra Abdel Salim, Al Ramlawi, female 64. Jazeea Farhan Salama, Alu, female 63. Hodak Kamal, Wussad Alu, Female 62. Mahmoud Hussein Hassan Baraka, Male 62. Nama Muhammad Shaban Salman Zanun, male 59, Adli Hussein Hassan Baraka, male 58. Fazia Ibrahim, Yusef, Gabein, female 58. Munir Muhammad, Yusef, Gabaian, male 58. Bilal, Muhammad, Muhammad, Al, Ram, Blawi, Muhammad Al-Ram-Lawi, male 57, Rafat Harb Hussein Abu Ilal, male 55, Ahmed Redwan, Muhammad Al-Lamdani, male 54. 30 seconds. Atamad Sami Mahmoud Zanoon, female 53, Gamal Mahmoud Ali Mansur, male 52, Wajran Yusef Deep from LaWee, female to what? This is our business. It is your business. And the next speaker is Thor Paulson. Good evening. Thor Paulson, 114 West 7th Street. Wajdan Yusuf Diab al-Ramlawi, 51. Ibrahim Redwan, Muhammad Al-Lamdani, 51 years old. Wisam Abdul Qadir Ibrahim Abu Judeh, 50. Samat Taseer Faraz Abu Judeh, female 47. Kitam Muhammad Mansur, female 47. Jamal Salim Muhammad Al-Ramlawi, male 47. Ranan Jabur Muhammad Baraka, female 46. Muhammad Abdel Qadir Ibrahim Abu Jude, male 46. Muhammad Hassan Hussein Baraka, male 44. Suleiman Kamel, Suleiman Baraka, male 43. Iman Sala Raba Qadir, female 43. Elham Hamdan Muhammad Al-Alamdani, female 41. Alah Abdel Qadir Ibrahim Abu Jude, male 41. Mamdu Abdel Hamid Khalil Zainai, male 41. Mamdu Abdul Hamid Khalil Zino, male 40. Fadwa Salama Ahmed Baraka, female 40. Muhammad Ishan Sad Al-Din Al-Lamdani, male 40. Samat Taseer Nehif Al-Lu, female 40. Samatisir Nehav Alu, female 40. Shadija Burmohamed Baraka, male 39. Hayas Subri Hamdan Baraka, female 39. Gazi Hussain Muhammad Alu, male 39. Mahmoud Darwish-Lu, male 39. Mahmoud Darwish Mustafa Gabayin, male 39. Sabrin Isan Saad Al-Deen Al-Lamdani, female 38. Rose Khaled, Muhammad Gabayin, female 38. Ahmed Jamal Khaled al-Batini, male 37. Muhammad Abdul Halim Ali Qadir, male 37. Feda Nafez Shaitazano, female 36. Muhammad Saeed Hussein Al-Rumlawi, male 36, Adel Musa Hussein Zanoon, male 36, Ahmed Isan Sad Al-Deen Al-Lumdani, male 36, Islam Arifat Khaled Al-Batini, female 35. Nasar, Salim, Nasar, Zanoon, male 35. Thirty seconds. I mean, we could keep going all night, really. I just want you to think about if we took 30 seconds every two weeks and read through 40,000 names it would probably take years and I hope that's how long you guys consider what you've done in the past year, which is nothing except for three of you Thank you And the next speaker is Nick Van Deely. Good evening. Good evening. Nick Van Deelyne, President Randolph and counselors. I'd like to just speak in support of the City of Duluth Resolution in favor of construction of the new Academic Health Sciences Center in the Duluth Regional Exchange District. I'm speaking on behalf of Aspirus St. Luke's. Aspirus St. Luke says, a long history of supporting the education of multiple students, especially medical and pharmacy students. We value our relationship with the University of Minnesota. We work closely with them and trust the process that they've established to move this project forward. We're a proud member of the Duluth community, and we know that we join with multiple other community stakeholders in support of this project. We know it will be a magnet for the downtown and will spur additional growth. Most importantly, as noted in the resolution, this is really about our patients and the region. And it will help us develop a workforce that if we train here, they'll stay here. So thanks again for consideration of that resolution. Thank you. And the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. Cynthia Carlson. Cynthia here. Cynthia here. I guess the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm going to go by the United States. I was raised in Duluth, and I grew up very proud. I live at 200 Rockridge Circle, and I grew up very proud of Duluth's progressive politics, and I volunteered for the DFL as a high schooler. And I feel really ashamed about the lack of resolution about the ceasefire from the Duluth City Council and from the City of Duluth. The estimate is 42,227 people, 16,000 of whom our children are dead in just Gaza for reference. The population of Duluth, Minnesota is 86,619. So that'd be half more than half of homes in Gaza destroyed 87% of school buildings, just for an example. And now I'm going to quickly read some of the cities in the United States that have passed resolution. And I'm just going gonna read the M's Portland, Maine Chevrolet, Maryland to Koma Park, Maryland Medford, Massachusetts Somerville, Massachusetts Cambridge, Massachusetts Kalamazoo, Michigan Lansing, Michigan Isplanti, Michigan Washington, Michigan Ann Arbor, Michiganhagen, Washington, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Misshagen, Canton Township, Misshagen, Wayne County, Misshagen, Dearborn Heights, Misshagen, Dearborn, Misshagen, Hamtrak, Misshagen, Detroit, Misshagen, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hastings, Minnesota, Red Lake Nation, Minnesota, Hastings, Minnesota, Red Lake Nation, Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, and St. Louis, Missouri. And those cities believe that that is their city business, especially the cities in Minnesota, especially the cities of a similar size. I am disappointed and feel betrayed that Duluth is not on that list. And now I'd like to read one of the cards that have been created by the Palestine Solidarity Group. It is against the law for some businesses in Minnesota to boycott Israel and Israeli products. In 2017, Governor Dayton signed into Minnesota statutes 3.226 and 160C.053, which prohibits state contractors from doing business with and doing business as companies who with any companies that Boycott Israel, which is a clear violation of our free speech rights. These anti-boycott laws are on the books of 38 states. The far right organization, Alec, provided anti-boycott legislative language to most of these state governments. These laws violate our long held understanding as Americans in our right to free speech and association. 30 seconds. Guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, we can demand an understanding as Americans in our right to free speech and association. 30 seconds. Guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. We can demand an immediate repeal of these laws if you go to ACLU.org slash news slash free speech slash it's time to reaffirm our First Amendment right to boycott. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next speaker Sarah Curleen Good evening Good evening. Thank you President Randolph vice president Tom Nick and honored counselors My name is Sarah Jorleen and I live in the zip code 55805 in the Hillside neighborhood I'm an educator in this community and I know there is a lot of important business on the agenda tonight. Someone is very exciting for our city and I thank you for your time this evening. I once heard a book about a couple who bought a home next to a waterfall at first it was too loud to cope with but over time they stopped hearing the water and that worked okay for them but then when they went to town they found that they were yelling at everyone. They had adjusted to the noise of the waterfall. Over the past 12 months we have been living next to a deafening genocide. We have been seeing beheaded children and families burned alive, senior starving to death. If it seems like we're yelling it's only because the pain is so loud. Thank you for this space to grieve and raise awareness for the deaths of these people. Nasar Selim Nasar Zanun, 35. Nasab Abdel Khameid, Khalil Zainah, 35. Amani Muhammad Hassan Agahalal, 35. Abdul Minir Muhammad Gabyan, 35. I'm 34 for reference. Hamza Bader Khaled Al-Battini 34. Ala Abdul-Kareem Muhammad Abdul-Jura 34. Masha'a Mardi Ismail Abu Ghal, 34. Dawa Falsi, Muhammad Albatini, 33. Louis Ibrahim Shikri, Qatar, 33. Ismail Abdel, Qatar Ibrahim Aburjude, 33. Muhammad Sabia Abid Faraka, 32. Al-Munir, Muhammad Gabaian, 32. Al-Munir, Muhammad Gaba Yen, 32. Al-Hen Mustafa Badawi, Zainal, 32. Muhammad Musa Muhammad Zanoon, 32. Abdullah Magdi, a smell of a Hula, 32. Fada Adnan, Zain Al Hussein Alul 31. Yaha Khaled. Ha'am Bahulullah 31. Maryam Bala Muhammad Aurohwami 31. Rajahamid Salamizano 31. Hebo Asama Khalil Rahmameh 31. Ibrahim Salama Salman Faraka 30. As Aldin Khalid Harba Al-Halal 30. Sabrina Sad Ahmed Al-Halal 30. Adulqir Immanir Muhammad Gabbian 30. Mariam Darwish. Darwish. Mustafa Gabbian 29. Nadal Jamal Mahmoud Mansour 29. Abdullah Dunein Kamal Mansour 28. Nadu Khaled Musa Abghul Khilal 28. 30 seconds. If you've ever lost someone, you know that every single one of these names was someone's entire world. I almost lost it. Well, I was reading these because I saw a last name Darwish, and I used to teach a family with that last name. Earlier, I heard the first name, Lujain. And I taught a student named Lujan who went by Lulu. These are all real people and there's someone's entire world. There's no way we could give them enough time. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Becca Mullenberg. Good evening. Good evening. Just so you know Cindy Carlson is back. You called her before to speak so she's back. Okay. Thank you. Becca Mullenberg, 1649, West Page Street, Duluth. Good evening, President Randolph and counselors. This is in regards to item number 37, 24-049-0, changes to the vacation dwelling unit ordinance. Counselor Forzman. Last December, when you were asked by former Councillor Anderson about changing the vacation dwelling unit ordinance, you said, quote, I would also abide by the wishes of the planning commission if they ultimately took up a hearing and voted against it or voted for it. In February, the planning commission did vote on this and they voted it down. They voted it down, Councillor Forzman. You also said, quote, this is a little bit clunky because I'm not trying to strong arm our planning commission. I respect their autonomy and their thought process unquote. Do you respect them, Councillor Forzman? And if you're not trying to strong arm planning commission, then what are we doing here eight months later? What's changed? Bad zoning has a domino effect on neighborhoods, and I'm referring to the hotel at Sunby Road where mixed-use commercial was allowed next to rural residential, a scenario that sadly was the first of its kind in Duluth. Changing an ordinance for four homeowners solely on account of one bad zoning decision is an overreach. It's the epitome of a domino effect, because it would continue to fray our neighborhood's edges and could allow Osage Avenue to be developed into an unlimited number of vacation homes. After all, that's how the proposed changes are written. They quote would be exempt from the maximum number of permits that may be issued unquote. Permits without limits? Well, who knows what could end up there and whatever it is would then be next to me and my neighbor's properties and on and on it goes. One of the Osage homes by the way is owned by the city attorney. I think it's difficult for my neighbors to see how it changed like this would affect them, but this is how neighborhoods disappear, death by a thousand cuts. Before they know it, development comes knocking on their doors. Duluth currently has a process for homeowners wanting to convert their property into vacation rentals. We are not opposed to the current process. Considering it's been two years since the hotel madness began, it is time for it to stop. it's been two years since the hotel madness began. It is time for it to stop. We are asking for no changes to the vacation dwelling unit ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Cynthia Carlson. Good evening. That's great. Good evening. Hi. I'm Cynthia Carlson. I live at 1413 Holland Avenue. I have three acres that border at least one. Cynthia Carlson, I live F-1413 Holland Avenue. I have three acres that border at least two of the residents on Osage Street that are asking for the vacation rental situation. I would just like to voice that I disagree with that. I would like to see our neighborhood stay as close to a neighborhood as it is so far. So I would just like to state that I disagree with the moment to our vacation rampels on Osage. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Isaac Murray Stark. Good evening. Good evening. Isaac Murray Stark, 1431 E. Superior Street. And if you'd like to move that lectern up, you can. There's a button right there. There you can. There's a button right there. There you go. Thank you. I have limited times like I cannot include all the details. I'll focus on the most pertinent. On August 23rd of this year, I was re-rendered by a Duluth police officer while stopping to let a pedestrian cross the street. My vehicle was declared total. Since then I've had to spend dozens of hours finding and purchasing a new vehicle, communicating with city staff and waiting on hold to talk to another insurance agent. Today I am $5,000 poorer than before. I was re-rended and my new vehicle is worse than my old one. This is because the blue book system we use to determine the value of vehicles does not work for 20-year-old cars, or for people for whom a vehicle is a required tool in a car-dependent country in city, rather than a toy or a status symbol. The blue book is what we have used in our legal system to determine the value of vehicles for a long time and arguing with insurance agents over the phone about it yields no results. My total vehicle was a 2007 Toyota Prius. I was given $5,000 for it, the exact Blue Book amount. I purchased a 2007 Toyota Camry, same year, same maker, for $10,000, the exact Blue Book amount. I failed to understand how two vehicles so similar could be so different from each other in value. The day the Duluth Police Officer re-rendered me my life was completely upended. I am part of a single income no no kids family when my partner is in medical school and we are a single car family. I was re-rended on a Friday I was supposed to drive to the twin cities that weekend to help my sister move into her new place instead I was supposed to drive to the twin cities that weekend to help my sister move into her new place. Instead I was stuck for the entire weekend without a car waiting for Monday to roll around so I could speak with city staff about next steps as the city is self-insured. My car is a required tool that I need to live my life. It's a piece of my livelihood. I do not have the freedom to be patient in purchasing a new vehicle. I do not have the money to waive this problem away. I had to do the best with the circumstances I was given. Circumstances I was put in due to the negligence of a Duluth police officer while operating a motor vehicle. 63% of American employees can't afford an emergency expensive $500. The city of Duluth caused me an emergency expensive $5,000. I've been in contact with two people at the city discussing a claim for the $5,000 to make up what I've lost. One stop to responding is as soon as I expressed that I wasn't going to accept the $675 I was offered and the other responded to my first email promptly but doesn't seem likely to respond to the second. I'm surprised that the city of Duluth hasn't done more to preserve its image in this situation, especially considering the recent scandal in the mayor's office. The City of Duluth has a grand opportunity here to show that it does right by its constituents when the police officers who are the face of the City of Duluth organization to civilians damage your constituents' lives. I repeat, I was re-rended by a police officer while stopping for a pedestrian. That's a comical level of incompetence in my opinion. The police officers' fairly unacceptable mistake caused significant damage to my life. I was then perfectly legally financially shafted by insurance. 30 seconds. The city of Duluth is supposed to serve its constituents. Yet so far, it has hurt me far more than it has helped me. I am asking for your help in making the situation right. Thank you. I'm not going to be able to serve its constituents yet so far it has hurt me far more than it has helped me. I'm asking for your help in making the situation right. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Jill Crawford-Ninkels. Good evening. Good evening. Jill Crawford-Ninkelols 1505 West Morgan Street. I'm speaking tonight in regards to the proposed VDU ordnance amendment. Councillor Forceman, on December 15th, you stated during a public hearing and I quote, I would also abide by the wishes of the Planning Commission if they voted against or voted for it. Counselors, your Planning Commission denied a change to this ordinance three times in October, November, and in February. Because of these statements made in the public, I assume we can hold you to your word and you will vote in alignment with your Planning Commission. Following that February hearing, I asked a Planning Commissioner why he voted no and his answer is really all I should have to say tonight. I quote, because they have other options, exactly. These properties continue to have all the conventional means at their disposal. I also want to highlight statements made by Councillor Forstman in the Planning Commissioner letter and I quote, it is my belief that this proposal is consistent with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan is reasonably related to the needs of the community, can be considered good zoning practice given the history of this neighborhood and will continue to create a material adverse impact on nearby properties. Counselors, just because you say something is true or you believe it to be true does not make it so. You actually have to execute the due diligence and satisfy the four requirements to amend an ordinance. In that statement, counselor first been you stated, given the history of this neighborhood, the history of this neighborhood. The history of our neighborhood, our historically rural neighborhood, continues to be rural. And I find it offensive that because this council allow for a humongous hotel to be built on the edge of our community, which many of you said was the outcome of bad zoning, that suddenly the history of the neighborhood is now an alignment with tourism. Or were you referring to the history of zoning abuse towards our neighborhoods integrity and value? A quick history lesson for you, and the same amount of time that that hotel has been constructed, three different properties have had to replace their septic systems. We are still very much a rural neighborhood. So please stop telling yourself that you're solving the problem, because you're not. You're using the problem. To what gain? It is my belief it is financial gain, and financial gain is not one of the four criteria to amend an ordinance, which brings me to my final point. Counselors, most, if not all of you, campaigned on Duluth's housing needs. If your solution to housing is handing out tiff funding like it's Halloween candy, but then converting single-family homes into Airbnb's, none of you deserve to represent this community. Thirty seconds. And in case you're not aware of what a single family affordable home looks like, it's on Osage Street. Thank you. Thank you. You next speaker has been five. Good evening. Good evening, Councillors, President. Thank you for having me. Ben Fie, 1504, O Sage Avenue. I got three minutes, so here we go. With my limited time, I'll get right into it. I have and will continue to be the ambassador representing the 4 of us on O Sage Avenue. Troy, John, Devon, and myself. The 4 of us are not mad at the hotel. They are legally built on the proper zoning. Our frustrations lie with the city. Many of you have not been here for the duration of this debacle, so I will lay it out in a bullet point format. The zoning mistake, the city created, has been going on for over two years. This marks the sixth meeting between planning and City Council I have attended in regards to this. It was learned from City Council members in the mid-2000s that the 23 year was rezoned during this rezoning a few spots and Luther never got addressed and fell into the we're working on a category. This area is one that was left out. Deputy Director Adam Fulton has noted that it is a very unique situation that we ended up with RR1 against MUC. Fulton also cited that this asked for their VDU variants is not a big ask given the situation. We have contacted a local attorney who is versed in local zoning. He provided a letter also explaining that this is not ideal. And the two zones should not be against each other citing it as bad zoning. There was an email string between Mayor Larson and the city administrator Noah Schuckman with Schuckman citing that the V.U. variance in this situation would be a decent way to address it. I filed a $407 appeal at the recommendation of planning and zoning and then was told by city council that it did not need to do that in order to ask for help costing these $407. During this process planning and zoning, request an environmental study of the hotel lot, the city council overruled them and this frustrated planning and zoning. I sat in meetings where planning and zoning members were enraged and angered and stated that this exact issue is for City Council to figure out, and since City Council doesn't want to work with planning and zoning, they can deal with it. Unfortunately for us, City Council and planning and zoning got into a power struggle, and the four of us ended up in the middle of it. It's embarrassing that we are still dealing with this issue two years later. The four of us have patiently been waiting on the sidelines with facts supporting the poor zoning. The city administrator admits it. The deputy director of planning and zoning admits it's an issue. The local attorney admits it's an issue. Everyone seems to know it's an issue. Our ask is small in regards to the privacy we have lost, the security we have lost in our diminished home value. I live in a rural residential setting and now I have a hotel in my front picture window. So we are asking for a small resolution to resolve the problem that the city made. Respectively, we don't want to hear that we should have checked the zoning before we moved into our homes. When a majority of our us-botter homes that were houses on the hotel lot. It's the city's job to ensure proper zoning and buffering zones. We are here with a resolution unlike most people that just come here and complain. This is a very unique situation and we would like to be part of this unique response together with the city. And reference to the neighbors that have concerns, one more thing. There are one requirements to not allow for multiple structures and dwellings to be built on it. I think they're confusing the way the ordinance is written. They seem to think that the tiny home village can be built. We are simply looking to have an additional option to rent our home if we choose to move. Thirty seconds. Again, there's no villages being built. There's no big companies coming in. It's not allowed by the current zoning or with the ordinance change. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next speaker is Demon Ang. Good evening. Good evening. I am Devon Ang, 1560 Sage. I'm in full support of the vacation homes. I'm not sure if there's a difference between long-term or short-term. So it's okay for us to do long-term residential for our neighbors, but it's not okay to do a short-term for us. I don't understand that. They're not the ones affected by this. We are, you know, Ben, my neighbor, he can't even have his curtains open. You can see right into his bathroom, if you're on the top floor of the hotel. Our privacy is violated. Our neighbors behind us is not. I don't know about our property value, but I can only assume it has decreased due to the hotel. And if we were to get the short term, it's not we don't have to use it. If we choose to, we can, but we don't have to. And I think that's another thing our neighbors behind us don't really understand is we may or may not use it. What's the difference between having somebody else live there versus having us live here? We kind of got a crappy deal. We got a hotel in our front yard. We got people that are gonna be looking at us like no private barbecue, there's no private birthday parties, watching TV and Ben's living room with Elton Curtains. Like that's not okay for us. That's embarrassing. I just asked that you consider this and we appreciate it. Thank you. The next speaker in the last speaker currently signed up is Dr. Krista Skarupo. Good evening. Good evening, Councillors. I'm Christa Scoruba, 2836 London Road. I'm a essential health, essential health's East Market President, and I'm speaking on behalf of essential health. We'd like to thank Councillor City Councillor Eric Forstman for advancing the resolution in support of a new University of Minnesota Medical School campus here in downtown Duluth. Thank you, Councillor Forstman. In addition to enhancing the important mission of training rural providers, a new medical school campus provides an exciting and historic revitalization opportunity for downtown Duluth. Ascensha has agreed to make the former site of our former St. Mary's Medical Center available for the University at no cost. A new medical school campus on the Forest Street corridor has the opportunity to result in new student and professional housing, retail, restaurants, childcare, and so much more. Ascensha partners with the University of Minnesota to train close to 250 medical, nursing and health science students each year. Presently, essential provides more than 70% of the total clinical rotations to the Duluth Medical School. This includes 100% of the training in critical care, OBGYN, pediatrics, hospice and palliative care, ENT, sports medicine, orthopedics and pediatric clinical care. Ascension joins the University of Minnesota and the City of Duluth in their commitment and dedication to building a world-class downtown academic health center. This will serve students, patients, and our communities, region and tribal communities for decades to come. I want to thank you to the City of Duluth for supporting a new medical school campus downtown. Thank you. Thank you. Our final speaker is Lauren Martell. Good evening. Good evening, Consul. Thank you. Lauren Martell 623-7th. I've been doing these three minute commentaries for a long time. So I know where three minutes are on a piece of paper. I usually read from paper to stay within the three minute window. I was barely halfway through what I had written. When I received the three, thirty second warning at the last meeting, I knew something was wrong, but I decided to just accept it at the moment and look at the recording after. Sure enough, I'd only spoken for about a minute and a half when it should have been two and a half. I started speaking at 13603 and was given the warning at 13738, just five seconds over a minute and a half. Obviously the timer shouldn't start until a citizen begins to speak, not while he or she is walking to the podium or making adjustments to the podium in microphone. Three minutes is precious little time, and I'm asking not to be shorted. I'm also going to add that I suspect some of you would like me to be short and more that you would prefer I not speak at all. This whole experience feels like history repeated. You've got this big grand plan called incline village and you're convinced it's clothed in perfection. Just like the school board was convinced the red plan was a flawless gift to the city and wanted to hear nothing else. We even have the same person promoting both plans. Time has shown that my concerns about the red plan were correct and the people in power were wrong. The entire establishment of this city was wrong. The former superintendent of ISD 709 once lamented that he wished he'd had a time machine so he could go back and undo some of the decisions that were made. A time machine was not required for some of us. I and other sub mistakes clearly in real time, but were ignored. I believe someone in a power position will make a similar time machine statement 10 years or so in the future. When the traffic scheme that handled 13,000 vehicle chips a day, two in from incline village, is fully revealed in reality. That's an untenable mistake. Apparently none of you agree, but I'm asking not to be shorted in my time at this podium. There has been no public input in this process. Please grant me my full, lauded three minutes. The voice might concerns publicly and put them on the record. Thank you for your time. Thank you. That was our final speaker. Thank you, Clerk Johnson. Okay. We will move on for the evening. Next we have, we'll go to table resolutions. Counselors, we have items 3, 4 and 5 that are table resolutions on my committee asking for a motion to remove it off the table. And that would be item three, Resolution 742, a resolution providing for the imposition of service charges within the downtown waterfront special service districts. Do I have a motion to remove it? I have a motion by Kennedy. Do I have a second? A second by Der Wockter. All those in favor of roving resolution 742 from the table. I any opposed. That motion comes off the table with a vote of eight with one absent. Okay. We will now go back to that same item and we'll vote on that item. So we're voting on item 3, Resolution 742, a resolution providing for the imposition of service charges within the downtown Waterfront Special Service District. Do I have a motion to approve? I have a motion by Kennedy. Do I have second? I have a second. Was that a swing? Okay, Council Councillor Swenson. All those in favor of resolution 742. Any opposed? That motion carries again 8-1-1 Councillor absent. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you so much. I'll do it. All right. We'll take another stab at this one. Okay, we've got another item table. It's resolution 743, resolution authorizing entering into a service contract with a greater downtown council to provide services to implement the downtown waterfront service district. Again, this is just taking it off the table. Do I have a motion to remove it? That was moved by director. I've got motion by L. Do I have a second? A second by Kennedy. All those in favor? Any opposed? Same sign. And I still didn't. Oh, that's right. Okay. Okay. Now we're going to move on this one. We're on item 4. Res resolution 743 as a resolution authorizing entering into a service contract with the Greater Downtown Council to provide services to implement the downtown waterfront special service district. Now we'll open it up for Councillor Discussion on this one. And I'll go ahead and we'll move that out of the table. We don't need it. We don't need a first and second for that. So I'll go ahead and move it. Open it up for discussion. Nothing seen none. We'll go ahead and dig right into that one. Resolution 743. Do I have a motion to approve? I have a partner. Yeah, please. I'll second it. The motion to remove from the first. Okay. Is that what you like? I'm just reading the language from our attorneys. Okay. Sounds good. So Randolph moves it, which I really shouldn't be, right? Okay. So that's why I call for one. So can I call for a motion? President Randolph, Council, yes. You can request a motion to remove it from the table. That should be a motion? President Randolph, Council, yes. You can request a motion to remove it from the table. That should be a motion which is seconded. Then you can open for discussion and vote on the resolution once it is pulled from the table. So that's where we're voting. On the resolution we already removed it from the table. I couldn't, I did not hear a motion and a second to pull it from the table, but perhaps I missed that. And put Johnson, who did we have for the motion in the table on that one? We had Owl first and Kennedy second. Thank you. That's okay. Yep. And then open for discussion and move to vote. Open for discussion. Can the president then move it? That's what we were asking right now is. President Ander, I mean, I think as a point of order, it should be moved by somebody else. I got it. I would also note just for the record that Vice President Tamanik has joined. Excellent, thank you for that. Okay, so we've now have, I'll call for motions on this before we open it up for discussion then. Is that the order? We're on discussion, then we'll do the motion for we're opening up for discussion at this point and then we'll move to motion it Yeah, please president Randolph did you call for the vote on three seven forty three and not seven forty two We already did seven forty two. We just didn't talk about it. Okay. And so I didn't open it up for discussion, but that one vote in that one passed. Okay. I guess I was assuming, again, I was confused. I had thought we'd taken it off the table, and that was the vote. I had to realize we had already moved it. Yeah, so we, and then we dug back into that one to vote on it. for not opening up for discussion. Did you want to say something on that particular one? No. Okay. President Randolph, if I can just clarify. Yeah, so once the motion to remove it from the table is moved, seconded, and voted or approved, the motion is effectively, it's back in play. Yeah. You don't have to read it again. Correct, you can. Okay. We can just open up for discussion at that point. Open for discussion and then take a vote. Wonderful. That's very good. Okay. Now we're at the discussion point on resolution 743 item 4. Thanks, the audience for tracking with us on this one. I've got Councillor Forzman in the queue. Sorry. That was just a point of order. Okay. Any final discussion on item 4? All right. Seeing none, we'll go ahead. I'm looking for a motion to approve Move by was that all dear rocker. Thank you. Was that all our director? Be louder you guys that was Wendy. We've got a motion by derroctor. Do I have a second a Second by all okay all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Same sign. Motion carries. Nine to zero. And we've got Vice President Tumonic back. All right. We are now on item five. Again, this one's tabled. This is Resolution 744. Resolution authorizing, entering into a memorandum of understanding. With the Greater Downtown Council, doing business as downtown Duluth, setting forth the established level of services for the downtown waterfront, special service district. Looking for a motion to take this off the table. Moved by Dominic. Do I have a second? Somebody open the text. Second by Derroctor. Again, call it out, you guys. And we'll open up for discussion. Oh, no, we're gonna vote on this first because we're taking off the table. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so that is off the table. Now we're gonna open it up for discussion on R744. Seeing no one in the queue, we'll go ahead and take it to a vote all those in favor I any opposed that motion passes 9 to 0 Okay, now we're on the consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve consent? Move by Swenson do Do we have a second? Second by Tamanik. Thank you all the favor. Point over. Yep. Sorry president or just FYI wasn't updated on the agenda But 815 is pulled from consent. So it's not on the consent. Just we can save you comments Item six Six Okay item six was pulled from consent Ian did you get that Mr. Johnson? President Red or V.S. that was indicated to me. That was indicated earlier. Okay sounds good so we'll have that read later. Excellent. Any other comments on consent before we vote? All those in favor? Hi. Any opposed? Consent passes 9 to 0. Okay. So now we'll go on to since that's the first one, right? We'll do 9 to 6. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Let's do item 6. Councilor Forrestman. All right. Thank you, President Randolph. Resolution 815. Establishing support by the City of Duluth for a newly constructed academic health science center in the downtown regional exchange district. And if I may. Yes, you may. Thank you. So first of all, I want to say thank you to counselors and FU and President Randolph, who also are co-sponsoring this. And Council President Randolph in particular, has been very active. This is her district, and we both had a chance to walk around and do some visioning of what this medical district could look like in the future. So I wanna make sure I call that out first and foremost that this is a team effort, and certainly, I think the point of this resolution is first and foremost, call attention to the issue. And I think that's exactly what we're doing here. I wanna also thank representatives from Ascensha and St. Luke's Aspirus who were here earlier. We appreciate your partnership and all that you bring to our community and as well as the University of Minnesota and UMD. Just a couple of quick words on this. I'm not going to belabor it. We've been here a long time already, but the purpose of this is to show unified support for a new medical school in our downtown and all the benefits that would come from it. We've had a medical school in our community for 52 years and we want to make sure that it continues to provide all of the benefits that we get from it and then to grow that. And we know that we also are lucky to have a med school that focuses on both rural and Native American training for physicians right here in our community. And I wanted to just note counselors on one of the things that this resolution has already been successful with, which is that last week there was a subcommittee hearing at the Board of Regents and the dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School Twin Cities, Dean Toller, actually presented the concept for their 2026 funding as part of their capital planning and noted this resolution in his comments as part of the evidence of how much this community supports where they're headed. And so we're certainly hoping that that leads to a new investment within our downtown. And I think a unanimous vote tonight shows that that is exactly what we're looking for and that's all I've got. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, Councillor Forrestman. Next in the queue is Councillor Alla. Thank you, President Randolph. Thank you, the authors of this resolution for bringing this forward. Thank you to the representatives from Ascension, St. Luke's being here today, showing their support. And I also want to thank Dr. Mary Owen, who was here, who teaches at the medical school at UMD on actually genocide on indigenous communities and how that intertwines with providing medicine and indigenous medicine. So thank you for everyone who was here today for this and I really appreciate Councillor Forseman bringing this forward, really wanting to push this and show that the City of Duluth has supports this and we need to see this happen. Speaking with individuals, my partners at the Med School doing collaborative work between my office, the Office of Diversity Inclusion and the UMD Med School. There's been many times that meetings have been canceled or rescheduled because they were flooding in our Med School. There have been times classes have been had to move, things have had to change. I think folks are out growing that space. They need a bigger building, more collaboration with the current health structures in infrastructure, in our downtown Duluth and potentially seeing, allowing for more innovation of the current med school and the space at UMD. So thank you again and I'll be in full support of this resolution. Wonderful. Thanks. Thanks so much, Councillor Elle. Next thank you, is Councillor Mayo. Thank you, President Randolph. I wanted to thank the authors of this and representatives as well. One of my concerns early on was just making sure that we were being neutral about the site of this. And I think I was able to establish that by connecting with some folks from especially Aspirus St. Luke's over the weekend and I'm glad to see that Mr. Van Dillen was here today to express that support from Aspirus as well. And I know that there's very strong support from our state legislature, especially our local delegation here is very supportive of this. And as someone who is connected with the university community, I know that the University of Minnesota has always wanted to get downtown and this is a big priority for them is really connecting with the community a little bit more and knowing that they are kind of located a little bit further away from the core area. So when we were talking about our downtown district today, I think that's really, really important to the continued growth and vibrancy of our downtown. And so I will be supporting this kind of staying consistent with my viewpoint around resolutions of support. And I know we've had discussions about that, but I think it's important for council to recognize that resolutions of support can have impact. And this is one of those ways that we're doing that and we're bringing this to the legislature and really making an impact here. So thank you. Thank you, Councillor Meil. Heelswind Neffu. Thank you, President Randolph. And thank you for the representatives of Ascensha and Aspera St. Luke's who came here tonight and speaking in support of this resolution. I as well had the opportunity to walk around the site and take a look at how much land and what that can do and from someone who comes from a housing background redeveloping that corridor I think will be really key for that neighborhood. Bringing what used to be a neighborhood before 6th Avenue East was really chocked it up. Obviously they have hilt fest every year to celebrate the reuniting of the two sides of the neighborhood. I think this is an opportunity to really connect them and connect that business district in a positive way. You have Brewer Creek that was just finished, which I know essential health was a big part of. So I want to thank you for that. And the further development is going to bring a lot of life to a neighborhood that has experienced some blight in the last year. So thank you. Thank you, Councillor Neffiou. Vice President Tumonic. Thank you, President Randolph. I'd also like to point it's my understanding that this would be encouraging the building of a four-year med school instead of a two-year med school, which will really help to keep people in our community. They don't have to go to school here for two years and then go down to the cities for another two years. I think that would be a big boon to the university. And I also would like to echo what Councillor Mayo said that I think it's really important that we're just stating that we want to have a med school built here, not necessarily where that med school will be, so that we're not giving preferential treatment to one hospital or organization versus another. Thank you, Vice President Tamanik. Seeing no other counselors in the queue, I'll go ahead and make the final comment on this one. I think this is fantastic. Councilor Forzeman did all the heavy lifting on this. I want to thank Dr. Scroop, who was here, and all the knowledge that she really gave me as we did our tours. So glad to see a Spyrus St. Luke's here as well. This project is good for both hospitals. It's good for the students. It's good for Duluth. It's good for all of our citizens. So I'm proud I get to ride along this extremely smart and I can't wait to see the project come to fruition. So we have, looks like we have a motion by Forzman. Looking for a second. Do we have a second on this one? Second by nephew, all those in favor. Aye. Any opposed? This carries 9-0. Okay. Next we are on... Let's see here. Looks like we are on item 29. This is finance under Councilor Forzeman. Thank you, President Randolph. Resolution 785 relating to a tax abatement, granting the abatement for the Enger Park Golf Course Project. I will move for approval. Thank you, Councilor Forzman. We'll open that up for discussion. Councilor Forzman. Oh, that was just the motion. Sorry. Okay, excellent. Any discussion on item 29 resolution 785? Seeing none, I've got motion by Forzman. Do I have a second? I have a second by Swenson. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Same sign. That motion carries. Do I have Councillor Awele? I'll just walk down. Okay. So that motion carries eight with the, I will step down. Next we're on item 30. All right, item 30 resolution 786 providing for the issuance sale and delivery of general obligation bond series 2024 B in the approximate principal amount of 7,790,000, establishing the terms informed thereof, creating a debt service fund thereof, and providing for awarding the sale thereof. I'll move for approval. Thank you, Councillor Forzman. Opening that up for discussion. Seeing none, we have a motion by Forzman. Do we have a second? I have a second by Kennedy. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Same sign. That passes. Eight with L. Absent. Item 31. All right. Resolution 787 authorizing Interfund loan from the general fund to the Capital Improvement Fund for the Spirit Mount Restoration Project in an amount of $13 million to provide financing for the SpiritMillen Restoration Project. Move approve. Thank you, Councillor Forzman. We'll open that up for discussion. We'll give it a minute. Opening item 31, Resolution 787 up for discussion. Seeing none, I've got a motion by Forzman. Do I have a second? I have a second by Kennedy. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 9 to 0. We've got owled back. Now we're on planning and economic development. Councillor Neff you. Thank you, President Randolph. Item 32, Resolution 795, Resolution authorizing a cleanup grant application to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development for the Duluth Paper Mill expansion. And if I may. Yes. I know that myself, Councillor Kennedy and possibly I forget. What other Councillor Schrad brought up questions about the PLA and where we stood with that and in my conversations I see Jack Carlson from the building trades in the back. The PLA was resolved today and it sounds like there is an agreement on that so we can set that aside. Thank you and I take that Councillor Neufy as you've moved it out of the table. Yes, excellent. Sounds good. We'll open this up for discussion. Resolution 795. Councillor Kennedy. Thank you, President Randolph. I just want to thank Sulfidell for working with our local unions, it's really important and it's a strong value of ours and I know that you're going to like the work that they do. There's a reason that we have the PLAs and the folks that are working in our community and our unions, you're going to get the best work that you can and they'll do a great job. So thank you and thank you Jack to all of your folks as well. Thank you Councillor Kennedy. Next on the queue is Councillor Mail. Thank you, President Randolph. Thank you to administration, to Stofidel for your commitment. This was for me a deal breaker. I would not have voted to support this today without the PLA in place and I'm glad to hear that it came to a resolution and I don't know Mr. Montgomery did you have any other updates from the city's perspective on the PLA or did Councillor Neffey's comments kind of summarize it? President Randolph, Councillor Mayo I think Councillor Neffey's comments summarized it in response from Sofidel and the trades fantastic. Thank you. So again, thank you for your commitment It's an important value as councilor Kennedy mentioned for our community for quality of work for assuring that The folks that work on these sites are protected in many different ways. So thanks again Thank you, Councilor Mayo Any final comments on resolution 795? Seeing none, we have a motion by nephew. Do I have a second? I have a second by Kennedy. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Same sign. Motion carries 9-0. We're on item 33. Councillor Neffey. Councillor Randolph. Resolution 796. Resolution authorizing a development agreement between the Duluth Economic Development Authority and South Fidel America Corp for the development of the Duluth Paper Mill. So moved. Thank you, Councillor Neffey. We'll open that up for discussion. Councillor Forzman. Thank you, President Randolph. Since this is the development agreement resolution, I just wanted to note that Dita approved this unanimously at our last meeting. And just thought I would take the opportunity as well to thank Sofidel via Mr. Giacamelli who's here tonight, representing. And also I'll throw my bouquet of Mr. Carlson in the back as well. Appreciate the work you all do. But very excited. Yes, and our staff, Miss Hobbes in particular, has done a lot of work, including our attorney's office. So thank you, Councillor Kennedy, for whispering in that in my ear. This is super exciting. I mean, this facility I've said it before was shuttered, and we had no idea what the future of it was going to be. And I think we were starting to worry about, do we need to protect it from scrapers? And then we had SC paper come in and give it a new life. And now, soft-addels here, and I think it's our long-term partner. And so we're really excited to have them in this community and 160 new living wage jobs as somebody who grew up with a father who had one of those types of jobs means a lot to families and so appreciative for what you're doing here and what you will do in the future and I would recommend approval. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Forzman. Next on the queue is Councillor Derr-Walker. Thank you, President Randolph. I'm very glad that Sophie DoAl is here operating in our community, providing jobs. I do think they are a very healthy company. And as I had stated in a previous meeting, I don't approve of the TIFF being issued for them, because they, for example, the EBITDA report shows that they have profited 21% in the last couple years as a company, which is a very healthy report to say the least. And so I believe issuing a TIFF to Sophie Dell is an active corporate welfare. And while I am glad that they're here providing jobs and I support those jobs, I support the PLA agreement, I support prevailing wage. I don't believe that we should be operating on a development agreement or approving a development agreement that uses a TIF subsidy like this. Another issue that is very important to me is I'm very disappointed that Sophie Dell is not committing to using their recycling equipment that already exists in their plant. I did a little research. I was disappointed to hear on Thursday that they believe other concern about the chemicals used for recycling and I did some research and there are best practices that are able to be used and are used all across our country on recycling paper. It works very effectively for tissue paper, especially. In the Pacific Northwest, they use perroxide instead of chlorine. And so it is possible to do recycling in a way that the benefit environmentally is greater than the detriment of using new pulp. Using new pulp requires a ton of chemicals as well to break down the pulp so that you can recycle it. And so Duluth is known for being a very green city. We're known across the country for being a very green city. And so for us to issue a tax subsidy to a company that won't put forward the expense of using the recycling equipment that they already own. And I'm not convinced that it is too expensive to do the recycling, I think there are ways. Certainly other companies are, including a paper company in Nina, Wisconsin, which is only a half hour away from Soapidel's Green Bay Plant. I find it disappointing that they wouldn't invest in this option and that is the other reason I'll be voting no today. Thank you, Councillor Durr-Walker. Next to the Q's, Councillor Mayo. Thank you, President Randolph. I want to thank everyone here who helped make this agreement happen for Sofidel for your investment in our community, I certainly weigh the investment and the tax abatement are the tiff agreement I should say heavily, but looking at some of the mechanics of it and the benefits to our community by having this facility here is so vastly important, especially as someone who sits on the Public Utilities Commission. I know for our water utility that having that facility occupied has a huge impact on ratepayers across the city. So that is something that I consistently look at, and obviously with this expansion that will continue to grow there. And I do want to reemphasize again, Councillor Durwalkter's comments. I really think the importance of recycling as we discussed on Thursday and knowing that the technology exists along with some of the local manufacturers like Sappy, for example, in Cloquet. There's close proximity of other partners that can really be worked with here in Duluth. And I think that's part of the benefit, obviously, of being located here along the port and having access to all of the different facilities that we have here but that is something that is very important to this community and I think if we're investing really seeing that come back as well on your end in that commitment. So we just strongly urge and continue to look into those opportunities that exist to recycle pulp and use it in your production and manufacturing process and whether Duluth is the pilot for that across your entire system or you want to try something new here, I think this is a great place to start and we have a lot of benefits here as well. So Thank you again. Thank you, Councillor Mayo. Any final comments on this? Did you, Councillor Director, I see you in the queue again. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you, President Rendorf. I also forgot to mention a third reason. My third reason is that in the development agreement unfortunately the fine print only requires that the jobs be created in the next two years. It doesn't specify how long they will last or how many will be created as a whole. It just specifies that they need to be created within the next two years. And that's a whole that I find problematic and if anybody can prove me wrong I would be very grateful but unfortunately that I haven't found anyone to do that yet so I just wanted to state that thank you. Thank you Councillor Derr-Walker. Any final comments on item 33 before we take this to a vote? Seeing none I'll go ahead and make a final comment. I want to welcome Sofidel to Duluth. We are extremely happy to have you here. I trust Ellers when they do our research on our TIF agreements. They lean into the butt for. I have no doubt that this is a good use of TIF. This was a good plan and we're excited for the jobs and the opportunity that you're bringing to Duluth. So I will be supporting this. We have a motion by nephew. Do we have a second? A second by Kennedy, all those in favor? I, all those opposed, same sign? So you're opposed, okay? So we've got eight approve, one opposed with the erocter on that one. Okay we'll move on. We've got item 34. Thank you President Randolph. Resolution 813 resolution authorizing minister of investment, fund sub grant agreement with Sofidel America Court so moved. Thank you Councillor Neff you will open that up for discussion. Seeing no discussion I've got a motion by Neff you do I have a second? I've got a second by Vice President Tamanik all those in favor. I any opposed same sign. I is the sign for that so do you have an I on that one? Okay. So I've got eight with one, with one nay on that one. And that passes. We are now on finance. We're on item 35, Councillor Forzman. Oh, wait a minute. We are on ordinances to be read for the first time. We've got a slew of them. Clark Johnson, I'll let you go ahead and take those. Item 35 ordinance 45 is an ordinance authorizing the issue and sale and delivery of general obligation to spare mountain bonds at the city of Duluth and an amount not to exceed $13,500,000 upon terms and conditions to be provided by resolution of the city council and providing for the payment thereof. Item 36 ordinance 48 is an ordinance authorizing the issue and sale and delivery of taxable grant anticipation revenue notes and amount not to exceed a million 218,000, $142 of the city of Duluth for the improvement of the municipal water utility upon terms and conditions to be provided by resolution of the city council and pledging revenues for the payment thereof. Item 37, ordinance for denies and ordinance amending sections 50-20.3, U10 and 50-20.5, M14, to provide an exemption to the cap on vacation dwelling units and accessory vacation dwelling units in RR1 and RR2 districts within 300 feet of an MU-C district. 38, ordinance 51 is an ordinance repealing ordinance 10908. And item 39, ordinance 43 is an ordinance amending chapter 33, article seven, section 97.197.297.297.397.597.6 of the Duluth City Code and repealing chapter 33, article seven, section 97.7 of the Duluth City Code relating to a snow emergency to carry out snow plowing. Thank you, clerk Johnson. And those are all first reads. So those will come back at us on our next council meeting. We are now on ordinances to be read for the second time. Committee the whole, that's me. We're on item 40. It's ordinance 42. And ordinance renewing the downtown waterfront service district. As chair, I won't move this. Do I have someone that will for me? It's moved by Vice President Tamanik, so we'll open it up for discussion at this point on item 40. Seeing no discussion, I'll say something. I am so excited and I'll talk to the other motions that were passed earlier tonight as well. I just want to thank Christy Stokes. I think she's probably gone. She held out for a long time and then she left. Christy Stokes, the downtown waterfront district board, which I'm a part of, property owners, and all the work that they did. It's a tremendous amount of work to petition the downtown residents to really pass this three year service district agreement. And when Christie talked about it tonight, the 19 years that it's been in motion, I can't imagine, I can't imagine the downtown Duluth without it. So I'm so grateful for all the work that it took. And so I will, I'll be, and, I've been in support of this whole thing. So I just wanted to say that this evening before it passes. So we have a motion by Vice President Tamanik. Do we have a second? Second? Second by Swenson. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That passes 9-0. That's it for tonight, you guys. We're now on to Councillor Questions and comments and review of upcoming business. Vice President Monick. Thank you, President Randolph. Two comments, please. One is I'd like to excuse myself for not having been at the listening session for the community as they were speaking. Because of the change in nights, I was attending a special session of the Red Cross. I'm involved in their spiritual support for disasters, and I needed to be taking some special training with them that couldn't be altered. Second, I want to thank the Duluth sister cities. We just returned this afternoon. I just flew in from Tokyo. We had an incredibly important sister city's delegation trip to Asumi City and we were talking about housing, we were talking about economic development and we were pleased to have both Dev DeLuca from the C-way Port Authority and Rachel Johnson from APEX on that group. And so we will be summarizing report for the mayor on that. So thank you. Thank you so much, Vice President Tamanik. Next in the queue is Councillor Dere Wockter. Oh, thank you, President Randolph. I would just like to thank Jim Philby Williams and also John Lindgren, who is the principal planner for the DNR on the heartley dam issue. And I'd just like to thank them for doing such due diligence on involving the community to find a solution that really seems to benefit all parties. And I think that is a really beautiful thing. So yeah, I know they're not here, but anyway, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Derewakter. Next in the queue is Councillor Mail. Thank you, President Randolph. Just first an item of note. So we had an ordinance that was read under Councillor Swenson's committee tonight, the Snow Emergency Ordinance. And for members of the public that might have been attending today to see a vote on that resolution or ordinance It's actually going back to a first read because of some Consistency things and we wanted to make sure from a legal standpoint that we were doing at the right way So it will have a second read at our upcoming meeting here and Secondary note is voting is now open. I mentioned this at our last meeting But for folks that want to early vote, clerk Johnson and his team are helping people early vote here at the city. And Mr. Johnson, are we still looking for election judges? Councilor Mayo, no, we are not. We are pretty much stuffed up. Well, that's fantastic. So no, yeah, no news on needing election judges and that's good news. So Thanks to members of the public for stepping up for that and helping out and that's coming up pretty soon. Thanks Thank you, Councilor Mio. Councilor Swenson. Thank you I wanted to thank local 101 our Duluth Fire Department Union for hosting fire ups 101 this past weekend It was extremely eye-op it's very, very difficult to do the work that they do. I realized I am not as strong as I thought I was. But if anybody is ever invited or has the opportunity to attend that session with them, they did an awesome job putting it on and it was something I'll remember forever. So I thank them for that. Thank you, Councillor Swanson. Councillor, oh. Thank you, President Randolph. I want to say thank you to the folks who came today to speak regarding the genocide that's happening in a glazza and keeping us accountable. It's been a rough 12 months, and I'll keep my comments short just because I know we've been here, and I'll post my full comments, just because I know we've been here and I'll post my full comments on my socials later. While I was listening to the community members speak, my heart has been heavy the last 12 months and I've been losing hope and I constantly feel like finding light, seeing brothers and sisters, siblings, children die, get murdered, just seeing tents being burned alive and humans being burned alive just recently, it does something to the soul. And it calls into question our humanity and how we can advocate for peace and for liberation and freedom. And I was thinking this while we were standing for the pledge of the legions few days after Indigenous people peoples day hearing from an Indigenous doctor in the community who teaches on genocide of the Indigenous community, the Native American community here, and how we're all intertwined in each other's liberation. And it's funny to me that we take a pledge to the flag and say Liberty and justice for all. And I feel like justice is not being held in our current day. We are not standing up for the lives that are being lost and we are not elected officials, politicians, individuals with power, myself included, we're not doing enough. And it's important to hear from our constituents that we need to do more. We need to speak up. This is not okay. 22, more than 22 billion dollars from US taxpayer payers. And I think about the hurricanes that are coming through. I think about what's happening in the South. Are people need those funds? More than we need to send weapons across the sea. And I have so many thoughts, but just wanting to reiterate that our liberation is connected. And thank you so much for everyone who showed up, who spoke, who challenged us, and continues to challenge us. Hearing those names, knowing that the first 14 pages of the list of martyrs is babies, knowing that there's just innocent lives continuously being lost right now. Thank you for saying their names and I'm sure that wherever they may be, they're grateful as well and thank you for saying the names of not just the children but also the women and men and humans who have also lost their lives. It's been challenging for me to see in the last 12 months how do you humanizing it has been? How the US propaganda, how national news portrays individuals who look like me? Black and brown, Muslim, Middle Eastern, Arab, it's so dehumanizing. To be put in a box where Muslims we only make the news when we're the villains but not when we're murdered and constantly murdered. So thank you for humanizing my siblings today. I appreciate it. I don't mind with that. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Elle. Next, the Q. It's Councilor Nethi. Thank you, President Randolph. So I would like to add to what Councilor Swenson said about the fire apps. I was lucky enough to get to participate this weekend and I have a new respect for our firefighters and the work that they do and I would agree that if you're larger than a 10-year-old child I am not the firefighter for you if you want your life to be saved. But to add to that I think that our business community I would reach out to you and encourage you to touch base next time they do it I think it's something that they should participate in. So that would be my first comment and then secondly I want to extend a huge congratulations to our city attorney, Jessica Freilich, who has been appointed to the bench of the six judicial district. It's well deserved. I'm someone who has a lot of deep connections to the legal community over 20 years ago I did work in it in the court system so I understand the importance of the bench and Governor walls could not have picked a better person for that so congratulations. We are so proud of you Thank you so much Councillor nephew last the queue is Councillor Kennedy Thank you I will try to land this plane. No. So thank you, President Randolph. I want to just remind folks that this weekend was a big weekend. I was at the fire apps as well. But I also had an opportunity to be at the G&D wreck when it was open. We've worked really, really hard on this council and the county, but the community worked super hard on getting the skate park. I see it and imagine maybe the next Olympian coming out of there. It's a project that's going to really change western Duluth. So what I keep saying is western Duluth is open for business. So just to recap, G&D Park, we have the Morgan Park, the estuary is cleaned. If you have not been down there, get down there before the snow comes, but also get down there during the snow. It's a beautiful place to go. It's like right down from the Good Fellowship Club. There's even a bigger area that's gonna be opening up soon. We did our lead lines. We did the River West Project. Spirit Mountain is doing well. That was a big deal. When I came on to this commission and a councilor for resummon and I work co-chairs of that, if they're not coming back here and asking for undue money or money that they probably shouldn't be asking for, that's really, really big. And one other thing is revisioning spare valley business district. We did sort of the walkabouts just last week. That's going to be a big tax boost for our community. And like I said, West Outh is open for business. I've been working hard, and I'll continue to work hard. And so I just wanted to share all of those things that we've been doing collectively as Councillors to build our Western community. It's great to see some of these other projects downtown or in Lincoln Park but we need to make sure Western Duluth is what we need it to be competitive and to build our city. So thank you. Thank you so much Councillor Kennedy. And with that I see no other Councillors in the queue. I'll take a motion to adjourn. So moved by May, second by Swenson. All those in favour? We're done. Okay.