12-15-25 - City Council Closed Meeting Minutes

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Lino Lakes City Council Closed Meeting Minutes DATE: December 15, 2025 TIME STARTED: 6:31.M. TIME ENDED: 9:12 P.M. LOCATION: Police Conference Room at City Hall MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Rafferty, Councilmembers Stoesz, Ruhland, and Lyden EXCUSED ABSENT: Council Member Cavegn Staff Members Present: City Administrator Karen Anderson, Community Development Director Mike Grochala, City Clerk Roberta Colotti (left at 6:35 p.m.), and Chief of Police Curt Boehme (left at 6:35 P.M.) Also Attending: Appointed Legal Counsel John Baker and LMCIT Representative Joe Neubauer. 1. Call to Order and Roll Call Mayor Rafferty called the meeting to order at 6:31 p.m. 2. Setting the Agenda: Addition or Deletion of Agenda Items The agenda was adopted as presented. 3. Announcement Request from the City's appointed legal counsel (John Baker). Litigation is currently pending in a matter entitled Zikar Holdings LLC (and two others) against the City of Lino Lakes (and two others), filed in federal court in September 2024. The Court has entered several orders in that case. The most recent order sets a settlement conference for this Wednesday, September 17, 2025, and states that "counsel are ordered to speak by telephone to one another — "prior to the settlement conference" to engage in a full and frank discussion of settlement. Prior to or during this meeting, the parties must exchange at least one round of demand from the plaintiff and a specific offer from the defendant or defendants." The Court's chambers has clarified that the parties must comply with that requirement by 5 p.m. tomorrow. How the City complies with that part of the order should be informed by a confidential briefing of the City Council by me as the City's counsel in that case, under the attorney -client privilege. So, under Minnesota Statues Section 13D.05, subdivision 3(b), I respectfully request that a member of the City Council make a motion to close this meeting to the public, after I'm finished reading my request. To be clear, the closed meeting I request would not include a decision by the Council on whether to settle or continue the pending litigation. Any vote on whether to approve or disapprove a settlement agreement should occur only in a public meeting of the Council, after public notice. Page 1 of 2