Is anybody here from Councillor Olive?

She's out of the country, I think.

I just lost my agenda.

Do we have to sign up for it?

Yeah.

Yeah, can Aldis assign us all up?

Good evening.

We will begin our agenda session.

We will start uh with personnel.

Councilor Durwachter, would you re-in for Councilor Owell?

Uh sure.

So item number five.

Uh resolution three twenty-five confirming appointments to the City of Duluth boards and commissions.

Item number six, resolution three fifty-three, approving proposed specifications for the new civil service classification of senior landscape architect and specifying contract benefits for SAM.

Item number seven, resolution three fifty-four, approving proposed specifications for the new civil service classification of water plant maintenance operator and specifying contract benefits for SAME.

Item number eight.

Wait, can we hold up for just one minute?

Uh councillor Sandy questions on items five through seven.

Oh, my bad.

Seeing none.

Uh Councilor Durwalk, do you want to continue with purchasing and licensing, please?

Sure.

Item number eight, resolution three twenty-four authorizing an agreement with Duluth Amateur Hockey Association in the amount of $75,000.

Counselors, any question on item eight?

Seeing none, we'll move on to planning and economic development.

Vice President Nephew.

Thank you, President Tamonic.

Resolution amending, I'm sorry, number nine, resolution 278, resolution amending res amending resolution 89-0323 establishing the Duluth Economic Development Authority, modifying council approval thresholds for DITA expenditures from 100,000 to 150,000.

Item number 10, resolution 328.

Resolution authorizing an agreement with the Duluth 1200 fund inc.

to transfer 1,400,000 for the purpose of administrating a historic program fund.

Item number 11, resolution 338.

Resolution approving DITA resolution 25D-20, authorizing a First Amendment to a professional services agreement with AMI Consulting Engineers, PA to increase the contract amount by 59,319 for a new total amount not to exceed 133,419.

Number 12, resolution 340, resolution accepting a grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and the amount of 2,399,086 and further authorizing a sub-recipient agreement with Sofidel America.

Item number 13, resolution 358, resolution authorizing a containment cleanup grant application to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development for the Goodwill project.

I'm just wondering um it talks about uh buildings, but we also had discussed the Clayton Jackson Ghee Memorial, which is not a building, uh, but the impacts to uh the blight that had uh come to them and uh wondering how they would be able to access some of this fund and if they would be eligible.

I did look through some of the wording on that.

It goes back and forth between buildings and historic um projects or um buildings, but there is language in there that might uh lead to believe that they would be eligible for this fund as well.

Council President Monik, uh Councillor Kennedy.

I'm going to invite our economic development director, Tricia Hobbes to come forward to address that item.

And Councilor Swenson is uh a member of our 1200 fund board, so I'd invite her to chime in.

There's additional comments, but um, as a reminder, the settlement agreement was focused on buildings and building owners, and so that was a clarification that we had made at that point.

And what we had discussed was engaging the Clayton Jackson McGee Memorial organization and board when we started to talk about redevelopment opportunities.

And so per that settlement agreement that you all approved back in January, that 1.4 million dollars was focused on buildings and areas within that first street corridor.

And so the program guidelines do reflect that I may follow up.

Yes.

Um so when you say that you will be engaging with the Clayton Jackson McGee Memorial, and I I just want to uh express that they were like significantly impacted all of these years because of that building blight.

Um while I hear that and understand that they may not be eligible because it talks about buildings.

It also talks about commercial horse historic districts, and there's other languages in there that may be able to help them be eligible, unless you're stating that there may be some other eligibility for funding for them through another DITA program.

President Tomonic, Councillor Kennedy, we do not have a DITA program or fund that would be available to support what I think you're describing, but as we had discussed in the past, we do want to make sure that they are an engaged partner in any redevelopment to make sure that that's reflective of uh the vision that they'd like to see on that corridor as well.

So I think I want to pull this one because I want to have a little more conversation on that to make sure this is equitable.

And I understand it is for buildings, but we have maybe the ability to move it forward for that specific um historic site.

President Tomonic, Councilor Kennedy.

I do want to clarify that the historic fund guidelines are actually approved by the 1200 fund board.

The action ahead of you is just to approve the transfer of funds.

So any modifications to the guidelines would actually need to be initiated and completed by the 1200 fund board of directors.

Um certainly uh I could also ask for this to be held off for a bit so we can maybe talk with the 1200 fund committee to see if there's other um actions that we can move forward to make sure that Clayton Jackson McGee um has some sort of compensation if needed.

They may not need it, but um, I feel like this needs to be possibly amended, or there needs to be some other compensation that goes parallel to this for them since they're not a building, but they are really a historic uh piece of Duluth.

President Sponic, Counselor Kennedy.

I believe Counselor Swenson and myself would be happy to have a conversation about that.