HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-15-25 - City Council Closed Meeting MinutesLino 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.
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Absolute confidentiality is necessary so that members of the Council are able to make an
informed assessment of the available legal options and to provide guidance to us, as the City's
legal counsel in that case, regarding some of those options. The need to have confidential
discussions with specially appointed counsel and to discuss strategies regarding the pending
litigation outweighs the purposes of the Open Meeting Law, and is permitted by the attorney -
client privilege and Section 13D.05, subdivision 3(b), of that law.
So, I would now welcome such a motion.
4. Motion to go into Closed Session at 6:35 p.m.
By Mayor Rafferty: On the grounds just stated by the City's appointed legal counsel, I hereby
move to close the City Council Meeting under Section 13D.05, subdivision 3(b), and the
attorney -client privilege, to discuss the lawsuit by Zikar Holdings LLC as described more
specifically by Mr. Baker in the request that he just made.
RESULT:
Carried [4-01
MOVER:
Stoesz
SECONDER:
Ruhland
AYES:
Rafferty, Stoesz, Lyden, and Ruhland
NAYS:
None
ABSENT:
Cavegn
5. Closed Meeting Discussion with Attorney
Discussion with legal counsel regarding the lawsuit by Zikar Holdings LLC as described more
specifically by Mr. Baker.
Motion to return to Open Session at 9:12 p.m.
RESULT:
Carried [4-01
MOVER:
Lyden
SECONDER:
Ruhland
AYES:
Rafferty, Stoesz, Lyden, and Ruhland
NAYS:
None
ABSENT:
Cavegn
6. Adjournment
Mayor Rafferty adjourned the meeting at 9:12 p.m.
These minutes were approved at the regular Council Meeting on January 12, 2025.
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Roberta Colotti, CMC
City Clerk
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Ro fferty,
Mayor