Duluth City Council Meeting – February 10, 2025
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The Duluth City Council convened on Monday, February 10, 2025, at 7:00 PM. The meeting began with a Committee of the Whole presentation on the Spirit Mountain lift replacement, followed by the regular session which included roll call, approval of minutes, reports, public comments, consent agenda approval, debate on standing rule changes, and first reading of an ordinance. Key actions included authorizing a new ski lift at Spirit Mountain, amending meeting start times, and hearing public testimony on LGBTQ+ engagement and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Consent Calendar
- Settlement Approval (25-0096R): Approved $33,000 settlement for Lavonne Faye Ellis v. City of Duluth.
- Ebook Purchase (25-0034R): Authorized $60,000 for ebooks, audiobooks, and videos from OverDrive, Inc.
- Appointments (25-0112R & 25-0114R): Confirmed Kathleen Cargill and John Hest to the Heritage Preservation Commission, and Tim McShane to the Housing and Redevelopment Authority.
- HUD HOME ARP Funds (25-0094R): Authorized agreements for American Rescue Plan funds.
- Gary-New Duluth Property (25-0099R, 25-0100R, 25-0101R): Authorized intent to sell tax-forfeit land ($4,000) and sale to Joto, LLC ($4,620).
- Environmental Services (25-0104R): Approved a $250,000 contract with Barr Engineering Co.
- Precinct Boundary Change (25-0091R): Changed boundaries of Election Precinct 35.
- Gravel Contract (25-0047R): Authorized $335,656 annual contract for Class 5 gravel.
- Mailing Services (25-0088R): Extended contract with Business Communication Solutions for $210,000.
- Cold Mix Asphalt (25-0098R): Authorized $60,000 purchase from Monarch Paving.
- U.S. Marshals Agreement (25-0093R): Authorized joint operation and reimbursement for overtime.
- St. Louis River Access (25-0079R): Approved $50,000 subrecipient agreement with St. Louis River Citizens Action Committee.
- Spirit Mountain Ski Lift (25-0081R): Authorized $3,417,190 contract with Leitner-Poma of America for a new aerial lift.
- Boardwalk Replacement (25-0095R): Authorized third amendment with MN DNR for beach dune-crossing boardwalk near Lafayette Community Center.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Chance Wells (Outfront Minnesota): Introduced himself as a Duluth organizer for LGBTQIA2S+ advocacy and requested meetings with council members to discuss community issues. Distributed business cards.
- Brandon Parker (District 4): Argued for removing the Pledge of Allegiance from standing rules (Rule 6A), citing its historical origins (Francis Bellamy, 1892), connections to nationalism, native land theft, and the addition of “under God” during the Red Scare. Suggested alternatives like singing “This Land Is Your Land” or reciting an Ojibwe hymn to be more inclusive and acknowledge native sovereignty. He noted his military service and stressed that critiquing power is patriotic.
Discussion Items
- Spirit Mountain Lift Replacement (Committee of the Whole): Director Ann Glumack presented a detailed update on Spirit Mountain’s progress since the 2021 task force report. The council authorized a $13 million capital investment (half from city bonds, half from tourism tax and Spirit revenue). Glumack highlighted completed improvements: LED lights, snowmaking runoff control, new rental gear, signage, and trail additions. The new lift will replace the 50-year-old Summit and 49-year-old Gandhi chairs with a single four-person chair, reducing maintenance and operating costs. The contract with Leitner-Poma (current vendor) was approved via consent. Council confirmed debt service would come from tourism tax funds. No construction impacts expected on disc golf; minor mountain bike trail rerouting may occur.
- Resolution 25-0097R – Amending Standing Rules: Proposed changing regular meeting start time from 7:00 PM to 6:00 PM and updating notice language/order of business. Councilor Mayo moved an amendment to retain “Reports of Boards and Commissions” (item 7) on the agenda, which passed 9-0. The amended resolution then passed 9-0. The new meeting time takes effect at the next full council meeting (February 24, 2025).
- First Reading – Ordinance 25-001-O: Authorized conveyance of property in Gary-New Duluth to Joto, LLC for $4,620. No discussion; will be voted on at a future meeting.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Agenda: Approved 9-0, including the Spirit Mountain lift contract.
- Resolution 97 (Standing Rules): Passed 9-0 after amendment to retain reports of boards and commissions. Meeting start time changed to 6:00 PM.
- Ordinance 25-001-O: Read for the first time; no vote taken.
- Emergency Purchasing Justification (25-007): Noted for aging infrastructure; no vote required.
- Councilor Previews:
- Nephew: Celebrated Spirit Mountain investment, noting economic development and youth alpine/Nordic competitions.
- Forsman: Announced upcoming Skywalk resolution with councilors Randorf and Swenson.
- DeRocher: Called for applications to Duluth Public Utilities Commission and Public Arts Commission.
- Awall: Welcomed new Human Rights Officer Dr. Marsha Liu and noted departure of Sustainability Officer Mindy Granley; thanked speakers and urged engagement with Outfront Minnesota.
- Kennedy: Promoted Lake Superior Community Health and Wellness Center project (planned 36,000 sq ft center in Memorial Park) and encouraged lobbying at the legislature.
- Mayo: Discussed climate goals and transition from natural gas; announced Feb. 12 public meeting on London Road/Hwy 61 construction.
- Awall (continued): Honored Black History Month, recognized Councilor Kennedy, and highlighted local Black community events.
- President Tomanek: Emphasized replacing sustainability officer quickly to maintain momentum on $56 million in grants.
- Reports from Administration: Introduced Dr. Marsha Liu as new Human Rights and Equity Officer (first day). No further questions.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. We will begin our committee of the whole presentation on the Spirit Mountain lift replacement. Miss Glumack, would you come up and uh start your presentation, please, Director? Yes, thank you. President Tomonic and Council members, thank you for the opportunity to make this presentation. My name is Ann Glumack. I'm the executive director at Spirit Mountain, and with me today is Michelle Dressel, who is the chair of the Spirit Mountain Board of Directors, as well as Ryan Abel, who is our general manager. So I get to operate my own clicker. Thank you, Mr. Young. Um, what I'm going to be talking about today is first giving you a context and some background for how this project is before you tonight, because not all council members were here when this started. And then I will spend some more time on the lift proposal before you. It was part of the bonding bill, and the bonding bill didn't pass that year. So moving into 2023, the Walls administration told proposers that had been in the bonding bill, if you want, you can increase your request to address the fact that inflation is nibbling away at your buying power. So the city decided to pursue $13 million in capital investment in this facility, and the legislature agreed, appropriating $13 million, 13 million of which has to be matched locally. And last fall, you passed a number of resolutions that will allow the city to issue bonds for the local match, the $13 million. The city will pay half of that back with tourism tax proceeds, and Spirit Mountain will pay the remaining half. You'll recall that the Spirit Mountain Task Force report had an economic model that said based on 2018 revenues. Spirit contributed at that time 22.4 million dollars into the local economy annually. Our budgets have gone up since then, so we know that has increased. So that was the task force report. The lift was part of that report. But I don't want to start on that right now. I want to talk a little bit about what else has happened at Spirit so it's put into context. The task force had a number of recommendations, as I said, and one of them was Spirit Mountain reduce your debt. We had a 1.2 million dollar line of credit that had been outstanding and owed to the city since 2014. We repaid that thanks to a resolution that the council supported. We had we owed $365,000 on a groomer that we purchased in 2019 and hadn't made any payments on. We have repaid that. The task force said you guys have to strengthen your leadership. And Spirit, as you know, is owned by the city. So our leadership is really the city and the board and the upper management. And the task force found that sometimes they didn't work well together. And so we have made strides at making that stronger and more consistent leadership. It's an ongoing effort, it's not a one-and-done type of thing. But I think we've made a lot of progress on that because we all speak with the same voice. We're moving forward together. They told us Spirit, you need to engage more with your community. And again, not a one and done, but we have. I give tons of presentations. We are working with our partners to do things with the Duluth Cross Country Ski Club or Team Deleuze or the COGS, the mountain biking club, as well as informal groups, welcoming new users to Spirit and allowing them to use our facilities safely. And I'll point to the people who like to go up the hill on their skis and come down. They call it skinning. We're one of two resorts in the state that allows that because we worked with our user group to figure out a safe way that they could do that. They said increase your revenue generation. That's an ongoing challenge for us, but we've made great strides. We have done far better in the last three years in terms of our net operating profit than we had in the prior three. They said, Spirit, your guest experience is lacking. So we have worked very hard on having our staff be better trained, our expectations higher, making them more visible so that they can't interact with our guests, as well as things like improving your food service. I recall a colleague saying, you know, you can't get much worse.
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