The Shakopee City Council met on July 7, 2026, at 7:00 PM at City Hall. All council members were present. The agenda was modified to move the elections update to item 4B and add a legislative update from Representative Bakeberg as item 4A; the modification was approved unanimously.
4A – Legislative Update from Representative Bakeberg Representative Bakeberg provided an overview of the 2026 legislative session. He noted the House was tied (first time since the 1970s), requiring bipartisan support for any bill to pass. Key achievements included: governance reforms at HCMC to address financial issues without raising taxes; technology modernization for county systems; funding for an innovation hub; one-time property tax and car tab fee relief; and bipartisan fraud prevention measures (creation of an Office of Inspector General, increased statute of limitations, and a "take it back" tax on fraudulently obtained funds). He discussed workforce and education finance priorities: grant management oversight, school safety through anonymous threat reporting (coordinated with the BCA and local police), and a pass-through entity tax change that allows business reinvestment. Council members asked about the threat reporting system’s community access and the impact of property tax relief on the general fund.
4B – Elections Update from Scott County Julie Hanson, Property and Customer Service Manager for Scott County, presented the 2026 election schedule and changes. Key points: the late filing period runs July 14–28; primary is August 11; early voting begins July 24; general election is November 3. County-initiated improvements post-2024 include a new SharePoint site for daily ballot balancing reports (accessible only to clerks), in-person and virtual balancing training, and default spreadsheets to standardize processes. Legislative changes include: a chain of custody plan due June 1; streamlined candidate filing forms and private address options; a later late-filing period no longer coinciding with primary day; a codified errors and omissions process for ballot errors; early voting using poll pads with barcode scanning; and a 5 P.M. deadline for in-person absentee ballot returns on election day (8 P.M. for mail/courier). She also discussed federal proposals (SAVE Act, executive orders on citizenship and voting), noting that non-citizen voting is extremely rare (0.0001% in one study, 77 cases over 24 years per Heritage Foundation), and that the SAVE Act would eliminate online/mail voter registration and impose documentary proof of citizenship requirements. A council member asked about public access to balancing data; Hanson agreed to explore making daily numbers public.
The City Council recessed to convene as the Economic Development Authority (EDA). The EDA approved Resolution E2026-005, authorizing a Contract for Private Development for the former Shakopee Gravel site. The resolution establishes a TIF district and a note of $44,575,582 to be paid from future tax revenues generated by the project. The vote was 4-1. The EDA meeting then adjourned to August 4, 2026.
Council members reported on recent community events and meetings: Qdoba ribbon cutting (June 19), Superior Shores Water Park ribbon cutting at Valley Fair (June 22), Rolling Suds ribbon cutting (June 23), Main Street downtown meeting (June 25), League of Minnesota Cities annual conference (June 24-26), MVTA Connect pilot project (ride-share integration with Uber/Lyft), MVTA regional solicitation for transit projects, Mystic Lake Amphitheater soft opening (June 20), a legislative update (nuclear moratorium continues), a DEED data center webinar (distinction between hyperscale and enterprise data centers), Shakopee Public Utilities meeting (continued support for the community garden), and the 250th Independence anniversary celebrations.
Let's call a Shakapee City Council meeting for July 7th, 2026 to order. The clerk could please take the roll. Councilmember Delaney? Here. Councilmember Whitey? Here. Councilmember Contreras? Here. Councilmember Laura? Here. Mayor Lehman? Here. Item number three. If you want to join us, a pledge of allegiance. Pledge of the institution of the United States. Okay, we're gonna change up this agenda just a little bit. We're gonna take uh we're gonna change 4A to a presentation of legislative uh overview from Representative Bakeberg, and 4B will be uh presentation by elections update from Scott County. Mr. Whiting, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as modified. Is there a second to the motion? Councillor Contra discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Proposed motion passes. Item 4A special presentation by Representative Bakebury. Welcome, Mr. Bakeberg. Thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. I don't know how special of a presentation this is going to be, but um yeah, uh I just wanted to come and give uh a legislative update uh to the council and and to the community of Shakapee. But I just want to begin by saying thank you. Um really appreciate the partnership with with the council uh with uh administrator reynolds and and just the uh the staff, just a fantastic partnership to work together to serve our community and and really Scott County as a whole. So appreciate that. Um just as a a reminder, uh we had a tie in the house. So first time since the 70s that there was a tie in the house. And basically what that meant is that anything that passed had to have bipartisan support. So the um the floor debates, frankly, were were pretty tame and pretty um, you know, lots of of you know very strong votes with with large majorities, a number of unanimous votes. Um but just a reminder that that that is the makeup. So a lot of the work during session was done behind the scenes um in committee, in conversations, talking uh to colleagues about about different items, and really had had a lot of good work done. Going into session, uh into the 25 session. Frankly, I I think there was a lot of uneasiness about what was going to happen. Were we gonna get a budget? We were able to pass a budget, and then coming into the this 26th session, there's a lot of issues that we hear about from our constituents that needed to be addressed. And there was a lot of questions. Well, are you gonna even do anything? Are you gonna get anything done for us? Uh and I'm I'm happy to report there's a lot of uh a lot of noise, a lot of talking, and a lot of the things that that were priorities for me did not get done. Um and and that's okay. Uh but some of the highlights that we um that we did get done is HCMC. So uh HCMC is is one of the the critical access hospitals.