Buffalo City Council Meeting, May 17th 2021

00:02:45 - Meeting Start - Councilman Anderson is not present today
00:03:40 - Planning Commission did not meet due to lack of quorm
00:04:05 - Farmer's Market is back
00:04:20 - Buffalo Days is on again. Carnival, Parade, Fishing Clinic, Beer Garden. June 13th - 20th
00:07:35 - Car show and Flying Breakfast will not be happening as part of Buffalo Days
00:07:50 - Concerts in the Park are back on as well
00:08:05 - How the Agenda will work
00:08:30 - Open Forum
00:08:50 - Liz Ardnt - Councilman O'Rourke's Comments from last meeting about Extremists
00:10:10 - Council Reports
00:10:30 - Councilman Enter - New Radar at the Airport
00:11:00 - Consent Agenda, Motion to Accept - 4 YAY 0 NAY
00:11:38 - Public Hearing - Past Due Accounts
00:12:10 - Motion to Accept Past Due Accounts - 4 YAY 0 NAY
00:12:45 - Johnsonville Appeal
00:13:00 - Susan Dege, City Attorney - Administative Appeal
00:13:50 - Background Information (powerpoint slide)
00:14:28 - Johnsonville LLC purchased these properties in 2013, city annexed the properties in 2016
00:15:50 - Properties is zoned as A-1 (Agricultural)
00:16:08 - Summary of Violations
00:18:12 - Presentation of correspondence
00:18:27 - Violation - Old Fence
00:19:48 - Recommendation - Dismiss penalty for fence
00:20:04 - Violation - New Fence
00:20:50 - Current Fence from Road
00:21:10 - Recommendation - Table New Fence issue to see if parties can negotiate
00:21:30 - Violation - Storage of Construction Materials/Equipment
00:22:24 - Recommendation - Site Inspection and possible negotiation
00:23:00 - Violation - Wood burning furnace
00:23:27 - Johnsonville severed connection, cost prohibitive to update, grandfathering?
00:23:45 - Recommendation - Tabling for mutual agreement
00:25:06 - Objectives of Sign code
00:26:20 - Specific City Code Provisions
00:27:10 - Why is a flag a sign?
00:27:50 - Permitted Unlicenced Signs
00:28:10 - Prohibited signs attached to equipment
00:28:36 - Permitted Signs in Agricultural (A-1) District
00:28:50 - Non-Commercial Speech may be subsituted for any permitted commercial speech on a buisness sign
00:29:20 - Picture of Flag
00:29:49 - Jay Johnson flag interview (WCCO)
00:31:05 - Rally Notification (notes flag size)
00:31:50 - Recommendation
00:32:15 - Chief Budke confirms that the presented pictures are accurate with regard to the size of the flag
00:33:06 - Mayor Lachermeier - Have you spoken to the property owner? Yes
00:33:35 - Chief Budke - Conversation about deadline with regard to flag
00:34:05 - Chief Budke - The flag was taken down that day, but the flag went back up
00:34:51 - End of Presentation by Susan Dege
00:35:10 - Recommendation - Flags are signs, violations are in force
00:35:41 - Douglas Chin - Attorney for Jay Johnson
00:36:03 - Right to private property, privacy
00:37:10 - No section of the code regulates flags. Flags aren't signs
00:37:40 - No violation of the code because flags aren't signs
00:37:55 - If you move forward, how will you apply that fairly to everyone in the city?
00:38:15 - Perkins American flag, other American flags
00:38:35 - We ask the city council rescind the fines with regards to the flag
00:38:50 - For other violations we are willing to table or negotiate
00:40:00 - Jay Johnson - We're going to give the city money for a new camera, the police need a better camera to take pictures of my property
00:40:30 - I'm a reasonable guy, but I'm willing to go to court over the flag
00:41:00 - I've resolved all issues that the city has been brought up
00:41:20 - The right of way issue is because of a zoning issue, I've been held hostage by the county on that
00:42:00 - Mayor Lachermeier stops Jay and asks him to focus on the flag
00:43:08 - Jay Johnson - You have the choice to back away or fight. I'll fight you in court.
00:44:15 - I'm not breaking the law, it's in your hands
00:44:49 - Councilman Downer - You said we're trying to punish his viewpoints. We're not doing that. There are other Trump signs in town which people have not complained about.
00:45:20 - I told Mr Johnson I wasn't interested in his sign, the flag was going too far
00:45:40 - I think if the flag gave a different message, we'd still be here trying to take the flag down
00:46:12 - Interruptions, Councilman Downer says that we will have order in this town
00:46:30 - Councilman Enter - Views are in the eyes of the beholder. All we can do is enforce our ordinances
00:47:00 - We ask for everyone in town to follow the same ordinances
00:47:50 - Jay Johnson - I haven't had any complaints. Councilman Downer says that he did
00:49:23 - Sue Johnson - 8 square feet is the ordinance for a sign without a permit
00:49:58 - I fly an American flag, 5x7. I don't have a permit. If you enforce this on one property owner, your code officer is going to have a lot of work to do.
00:50:53 - Anthony Grody - Section 13.06. There are more specific definitions of advertising signs and other signs as well
00:52:20 - How can a sign be commercial and non-commercial sign at the same time?
00:52:59 - Jesse Henderhoff(sp?)
00:53:18 - You claim that he's not a criminal, but the chief said if the flag didn't come down, it wasn't a crime.
00:53:50 - Susan Dege - Civil procedure means it's not being pursued in criminal court
00:54:15 - What about all the other flags in town?
00:54:42 - Susan Dege - Flags on city property, state and American flags are all allowed by state law
00:55:07 - Susan Dege - State law exempts State and American flags from city ordinances
00:55:46 - Shelly Held - I haven't seen so much anger in Buffalo in so long
00:56:26 - Was his property grandfathered in?
00:56:44 - Mayor - It's a rental property
00:57:23 - I'm trying to figure out, those sheds have always been there. What's changed?
00:57:37 - Mayor - There have been some infractions on our codes. We've issued warnings.
00:58:00 - Mayor - The last issue is with regard to the flag
00:58:48 - Administrator Bodin - Larger parcel was not annexed until 2017
00:59:30 - Mayor - There is no grandfathering on ordinances
00:59:45 - I don't understand what's happened to our freedoms.
01:00:10 - Mayor - We're in a city, we've got an ordinance about beautification
01:00:40 - I don't see a lot of beautification. I'm very sad. That flag doesn't bother me one bit.
01:01:30 - Freedom before safety
01:01:50 - Councilman Downer - We don't want disorder
01:02:10 - PEOPLE - What about the windows being shot out?
01:02:37 - Jeff
01:02:45 - I have 3 flags up. Do I need to get permits for the non-American flag?
01:03:04 - Mayor - We're not picking on you. We've not been asked to change the ordinance
01:03:45 - Councilman Downer - I've been on the planning commission.
01:04:15 - Councilman Downer - I'm not going to tell people to take down a POW/MIA flag
01:04:35 - Councilman Downer - This particular sign which dominates that section of town and is oppressive to many people. We're recieving a ton of complaints
01:05:10 - Administrator Bodin - We've gotten 200/250 emails about the email. Half were complains
01:06:06 - Councilman Downer - It's huge. Perhaps we need to look at our sign ordinance. It might be a foot here/there,
01:06:30 - Person - I'll put forth a motion that we take down all flags in the city
01:07:30 - Liz Ardnt - We brought forth a property
01:08:30 - Jesse Henderhoff - The area is zoned as Agricultural, was zoned as industrial by the county. CUP was issued
01:09:09 - I feel like the city of Buffalo doesn't want buisnesses
01:09:46 - Jay and I cleaned that property up from how it was
01:10:15 - Mayor - We're only talking about the flag right now
01:10:48 - Councilman Enter - Whenever a property changes hands, the expectation is that the property is brought into compliance with the ordinances
01:12:05 - Mayor - What are our options?
01:12:15 - Susan Dege - Recommendation: three penalties about the flag. $600 penalty
01:12:54 - Councilman Downer - Motion that Jay is in violation of the three notices about the sign. Councilman Downer seconds.
01:13:24 - 4 AYE, 0 NAY
01:14:06 - Old Buisness - Federal COVID grant $13k - Approved 4 AYE, 0 NAY
01:15:46 - New Buisness - Authorization for New Equipment in 2022
01:16:23 - 350k for general, 90k for electric fund. They're trucks with a high lead time.
01:17:38 - Motion to Approve 4 AYE, 0 NAY
01:17:53 - Liquor Licence for new J's Down Under
01:18:35 - Want to open on June 1st, but no city council meeting before then. Recommend approval contingent on Food License from state and approval from Fire Chief
01:19:10 - Fire Chief John - They're doing a lot of work that they've said they would. I think they'll follow through with getting up to code
01:20:30 - Motion to Approve 4 AYE, 0 NAY
01:21:00 - Jennifer - Jason Mix is resigning
01:21:24 - Mayor - Will you have a lack of quorum without him? No, last time was a rare occurance.
01:22:58 - Motion to Accept Resignation 4 AYE, 0 NAY
01:23:27 - Resignation from Assistant Administrator Allison Matthees
01:24:00 - Councilman O'Rourke - Will you change your mind? Allison - No.
01:25:30 - Motion to Accept Resignation 4 AYE, 0 NAY
01:26:15 - Administrator Bodin - This is Utilities Director Joe's last meeting. He retires at the end of May
01:27:50 - Joe S - Speech
01:28:38 - Never underestimate your utility crews
01:30:10 - Mayor Lachermeier - Thanks to everyone. Difficult topics are hard to bring up before council, and staff works well with us. Freedom of speech is great, and I want everyone in this community to feel as though they can come up and speak to us before that podium. I never want anyone to feel that they can't.
01:31:40 - Motion to Adjourn 4 AYE, 0 NAY