The Eagan City Council held a special meeting on November 12, 2024, at 5:30 PM at the Eagan Municipal Center. The meeting covered the canvassing of election results, discussions on Local Affordable Housing Aid (LAHA) programs, approval of the 2025 Eagan Convention and Visitors Bureau (ECVB) budget, and a review of enterprise and special revenue budgets.
City Clerk Beth Van Hoose presented the results of the November 5, 2024, general election. Two council seats were uncontested: Councilmember Sibena and Councilmember Fields ran unopposed. Out of 46,453 registered voters, 41,236 cast ballots (83.2% turnout). Sibena received 21,849 votes (49.57%) and Fields received 22,230 votes (50.43%). There were 38,383 undervotes. The council unanimously approved a motion to certify the results. Van Hoose thanked election staff and judges for a smooth election with no significant issues.
Community Development Director Jill Hoopmacher, joined by representatives from the Dakota County Community Development Agency (CDA), presented three potential programs funded by state LAHA dollars (approved in 2023).
Councilmembers voiced strong support for preserving affordable housing stock and noted the necessity of these investments.
Brent, CEO of the ECVB, along with Marketing Director Shana Keon, presented the proposed 2025 budget with a 3.7% increase. Key highlights included: record investment of over $500,000 in marketing; new partnership with Placer AI for data analytics; a new website; and planned events such as the Vikings Training Camp (generated $5.6 million in economic activity, 41% of attendees from outside the Twin Cities) and the Minnesota Ice Festival (expected 200,000 visitors). The ECVB plans to use data to target markets like Duluth and possibly Saskatoon. The council praised the efforts and indicated the budget would be forwarded as a consent agenda item for the December 3, 2024, meeting.
Finance Director Josh Feldman reviewed several funds. Council provided feedback on policy questions.
Okay, it looks like we're up. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the November twelfth special meeting of the Ugin City Council. Uh let's go ahead and jump in and start with the adoption of the agenda. Diane, are there any changes to the agenda? No, Mr. Acting Mayor. The motion to adopt the agenda is presented. Second. Made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. All right. Any opposed? Abstentions? Motions carried. We have an agenda. And first item, uh, canvas the election results of the recent election. Diane. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Appreciate you being here tonight. We have Beth Van Hoose, our city clerk, who's going to come up to go through the results of the election, and then when you are completed, provided everything goes through, we'll have you sign this with your signature for the vote. Okay. Um, come January. So what's that? January, whatever. Sorry. Um, and those two seats, um uh we had two affidavits of candidacy filed by two current council members, Councilmember Sabina and Council Member Fields. Uh they did run unopposed, um, and no more than four filed, so there was no primary needed. So they went straight to the general election ballots. Um the count the county prepared uh the following abstract, which is um on the screen here, and you have in front of you. Um see, it looks like it went skipped one. It's very tiny. I can't try to make it as much bigger as I could, but um looks like we had uh forty-six thousand four hundred and fifty-three registered voters on election morning. Um 41,236 voters cast ballots, whether that was by absentee or in person on election day, which is about 83.2% turnout, which sounds great, but even 2020 was still at 93.48%. So we're still shy of that. 2020 was known for a lot of things, and that was one of the one of them. So as we can see then that because councilmember subpoena and council member fields ran unopposed, they of course won with council member subpoena receiving 21,849 votes, and council member fields receiving 22,230 votes broken down on the memo is 49.57% and 50.43% of the votes. Because it was a um vote for two office, not everyone cast uh uh vote for both offices. Um so that left 38,383 undervotes, um, whether they didn't vote at all or they only voted for one or none. So um I think that's all I have for the results. Um if you have any questions. Any questions from the council? Uh if not, then I will make a motion to certify the results of the November 5th, 2024 City Council election. Is there a second? Any further discussion? Can you um allow me just to allow uh say a few thank yous? Oh, please do with my election staff. Uh the elections team consists of um Angela Fais on the deputy city clerk. I uh hire two election assistants, Jesse Boland and Anita Oakman, who um help tremendously uh in this process.