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Attachment A <br />Regular City Council Meeting <br />Monday, January 4, 2021 <br />Page 18 <br />759 <br />760 Mayor Roe asked if there were any Council questions related to the items on the <br />761 Council legislative priorities from this past session, anything that could come off <br />762 the list, or questions on anything on the list. <br />763 <br />764 Mayor Roe explained one of the items on their existing other priorities list was full <br />765 reimbursement for Presidential Primary costs and he wondered if that issue is ripe <br />766 anymore or something staff believes can remain on the list or ought to remove from <br />767 the list. <br />768 <br />769 Mr. Trudgeon indicated that is not something that is ripe right now because it will <br />770 be three to four years before there is a primary and he thought that could come off <br />771 the list. He knew the League of Minnesota Cities and Metro Cities have some <br />772 policy positions on that and there has been some discussion on making sure that the <br />773 costs of those primaries are borne by the political parties. But he was not sure that <br />774 it got anywhere this last session, and it might not get anywhere this session due to <br />775 the lack of urgency and the other concerns with COVID and the economy. <br />776 <br />777 Mayor Roe thought it would help the Council in terms of looking at additional <br />778 funding for the OVAL if the Council could have a recap as to where the existing <br />779 awarded funding is being applied towards the costs that were identified, what the <br />780 remaining costs are, and how they look to be covered by existing funding. The City <br />781 has the facility fund and while staff identified a big hole because of the OVAL, now <br />782 there are some funds applied and some projects that have been taken care of. He <br />783 would like to know how that stands with the facility funding, the remaining work <br />784 on the OVAL, and what it looks like in terms of what the City would need to go <br />785 back to the Legislature for or if that is something where there could be another <br />786 funding source. <br />787 <br />788 Councilmember Etten agreed with thoughts on approaching the Legislature. The <br />789 Council needs to look at what the $3.9 million is going to cover, where does that <br />790 leave those other projects, and how will the Legislature look at those projects as far <br />791 as asking the City reps. He thought that would bounce to the top of a pile in a <br />792 special smaller package, if that were to happen in this odd year cycle. He also <br />793 agreed with not having the local option sales tax right now but look for a staff re- <br />794 port, maybe in the second quarter to start looking at what could be on that list and <br />795 then start going through a process with the community, Council, and staff over the <br />796 next nine months preparing for something potentially in 2022. <br />797 <br />798 Councilmember Groff explained Cedarholm Community Building has a liquor li- <br />799 cense so that can be removed from the high priority items. He would like more <br />800 information on that sales tax option and identify what kind of projects they could <br />801 possibly fund. He agreed with the other Councilmembers that transportation infra- <br />802 structure seems like the most likely one and is also one the Council could make the <br />803 best argument for at the Legislature because that is used by people from a greater <br /> <br />