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The Babbitt city council met on Tuesday evening with just three members present, Andrea Zupancich, John Fitzpatrick and Jim Lassi. Both Duane Lossing and Joe White were absent.
Included in the two-hour meeting was to return the old state flag outside of city hall.
Zupancich started the meeting by questioning clerk-treasurer Robecca Jaeger on various numbers in the financial reports in the council packet. Zupancich asked about negative balances in some accounts. Jaeger said she would need to show Zupancich on her computer and that she had asked the city auditor as well.
Zupancich noted the city overspent in 2024 and the total fund balance dropped by over $500,000, from $5,120,100.12 to $4,655,230.93.
With that, the motion to approve the consent agenda, which included the summary of funds, ended in a 2-1 vote with Zupancich voting no.
City attorney Joel Lewicki pointed to the recent Minnesota Supreme Court ruling requiring three yes votes to pass since that would be a majority of the five council members.
”So what happens, we don’t pay the bills?” Asked Zupancich.
“That would be the result,” said Lewicki.
Since the motion didn’t pass, Zupancich brought up more questions, this time on the overtime report.
“Becky you had received a significant amount of overtime,” said Zupancich.
“Elections for sure, we had three elections this year,” said Jaeger. “The power pole collapse. The last couple weeks we were short-staffed. I do try to flex my hours. I have six kids I don’t want to stay here longer than I have to.”
Zupancich said the admin department has had the most overtime of the city departments.
“Your overall overtime was four times larger than other departments,” said Zupancich.
“Also in this first year it’s been a big learning curve for me,” said Jaeger. She also said the city has had a lot of projects going on in the past year.
Zupancich asked to take the summary of funds out of the consent agenda.
Lewicki suggested taking the consent agenda and breaking it into individual votes.
With that Zupancich made a motion to approve each item separately including approval of meeting minutes, bills and payroll.
Zupancich made a motion to approve the staff overtime report, but not the clerk’s overtime.
“I think there needs to be a little more maybe I don’t want to say verification. I just have concerns there is so much overtime,” said Zupancich. “I want to be able to look into that a little more.”
"If she worked it, she should be paid for it," said Lassi.
“So the overtime is not pre-approved, it is just paid no matter what,” said Zupancich.
Zupancich dropped her objection and the motion passed.
The council did approve tabling the summary of city funds.
Fitzgerald said he has been approached about the increase in garbage fees. Lassi said the contract expires in 2026.
“Another question I had was why can’t we pick our own garbage company?” asked Fitzpatrick.
Lassi said the council decided to go with one company.
“You want the garbage cans put away by noon but a lot of times the garbage isn’t picked up by noon,” said Fitzpatrick.
Lassi said his concern was for people who leave their garbage cans out "for five or six days or even a week.”
Fitzpatrick suggested 6 p.m. would be a better removal time.
Lassi said Babbitt’s garbage costs are in line with other cities in the area.
The council discussed when garbage cans have to be removed from the street and went with having the cans out by 7 a.m. and brought back in by 8 a.m. the next day to account for people working shift work.
Backontheagendawasarequest
from Jaeger and deputy clerk-treasurer Sara Powell to attend a clerk’s conference Mach 18-21. Lassi asked if both Jaeger and Powell were gone, would Kirsten Traut be able to handle the office by herself?
Zupancichsaidshehadthesame concerns and asked for a motion.
Fitzpatrick made a motion to allow only Jaeger to attend. Jaeger said she would recommend allowing Powell to go instead of her. Lassi said he was all for sending staff to training to keep up with recent trends.
Fitzpatrick changed his motion to allow Powell to attend. That motion passed.
Tony Chamberlin spoke to the council about dock purchases. He presented three quotes, one from Minncor Docks through the DNR, Docks on Wheels and Jimmy Z’s Sales. Chamberlin recommended going with six-foot-wide steel docks instead of the four-foot-wide alumi - num docks from Jimmy Z's Sales which were $7,627, compared to the $23,960 from Docks on Wheels.
Chamberlin said the docks at the landing are floating and the new ones would be on wheels that the city could remove at the end of the season. He said the city had previously budgeted $30,000 for docks.
Lassi noted the Minncor docks are 45 feet long while the Docks on Wheels are 40 feet. "Forty feet is adequate, we measured it out,” said Chamberlin.
The monies for the docks were not in the budget for 2025 so the council tabled the decision. Chamberlin said Docks on Wheels wouldn’t even be able to install them until July.
Jaeger gave an oral update on city administration accomplishments for 2024 including setting up online bill pay for utilities in January of this year. Previously each department submitted a written list of accomplishments for the past year.
Jaeger said the IRRRB may look to phase the city's request of $1.5 million for housing development over two years. City engineer Jason Chopp said the city’s request should be considered by the IRRRB at the end of February.
A ban on feeding deer was on the agenda as well. Traut said the city of Silver Bay has a permit system for feeding deer while Aurora has a deer feeding ban in place.
“I think we need something simple, we don’t need to go and out-think ourselves,” said Lassi.
Lewicki said the council will need to develop an ordinance and recommended direction from the council for the planning commission to consider.
Lassi said he will bring it to the planning commission with a plan to put a ban in place by the fall.
Whether the city should fly the new Minnesota state flag was discussed. A year ago the council passed a motion opposing the new flag. Cities are not required to fly it.
“I detest that flag I think it’s totally unnecessary I think it was done by the woke people down in the Twin Cities who couldn’t give a rip less about us,’ said Lassi. “The cost to change the flag over is phenomenal, millions and millions of dollars. I’ve not heard one good comment on the new flag. Everybody that’s approached me has said, ‘Why are you flying it? Take it down.’” Lassi made a motion to remove the new flag and return to the previous state flag.
“I just think it’s got to go,” said Lassi.
The motion, which was seconded by Fitzpatrick, passed unanimously.
Several people in the audience said they agreed with the decision.
In other business the council:
• Appointed Mike Rhein to the public safety committee.
• Raised wages to the state minimum wage of $11.13 per hour for recycle center employees Martin Vaughn, Joe Adkisson and Michelle Hoffman.
• Hired Michael Jenkins and Alex Antonio for the ambulance department.
• Discussed maintenance of heat pumps in the Municipal Building.
• Heard that council member Joe White was “snowed in in the Arctic Circle” but will plan to be at one council meeting a month due to his work schedule.
• Heard from Jaeger on the city’s request to swap land with the DNR for industrial park space. She said the DNR denied the request. The city has two other 40-acre parcels that are under consideration.
• Approved a dress code policy from the League of Minnesota Cities but decided to allow flip-flops as allowable footwear.
• Approved a $ 40-a-month cell phone stipend for city employees.
• Will allow city staff and council members to attend a safety and loss control workshop in Virginia.
• Was informed the city’s Local Board of Appeal and Equalization has been scheduled for 5 p.m. on April 22 by St. Louis County.
• Discussed selling the building at the softball fields through an auction service.
• Reviewed requests for room rentals at the Municipal Building. One request was for massage therapy and retail by Tara DeMaris, the other was for a nutrition/tea shop by Brooke Gruba. The council approved renting the room to De-Maris on a year-long lease at $200 a month. Jaeger said the room is not heated and suggested a March 1 start date.
