15 West Kellogg Blvd.

Saint Paul, MN 55102

City of Saint Paul

Minutes - Final

Legislative Hearings

Marcia Moermond, Legislative Hearing Officer

Mai Vang, Hearing Coordinator

Joanna Zimny, Executive Assistant

legislativehearings@ci.stpaul.mn.us

651-266-8585

Thursday, April 10, 2025

9:00 AM

Room 330 City Hall & Court House/Remote

Garbage Tax Assessment Hearings

9:00 a.m. Hearings

Special Tax Assessments

RLH TA 25-139

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 611

MARSHALL AVENUE. (File No. CG2501A2, Assessment No. 250112)

Bowie

Sponsors:

Delete the assessment.

No one appeared

Staff report by Jillian Barden: property owner, Nathaniel Khaliq, paid the bill over the

phone for 611 Marshall, 63 Milton Street North, and 796 Hauge. The hauler, Republic

Services, agreed to remove the Quarter 4 assessment for $12.34.

Moermond: that seems reasonable. You have a note saying that Republic Services

agreed to remove the Quarter 4 assessment and Republic will pay those costs. That

applies for all 3 of those addresses.

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025

RLH TA 25-142

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 63

MILTON STREET NORTH. (File No. CG2501A1, Assessment No.

250111)

Bowie

Sponsors:

Delete the assessment.

No one appeared

Staff report by Jillian Barden: property owner, Nathaniel Khaliq, paid the bill over the

phone for 611 Marshall, 63 Milton Street North, and 796 Hauge. The hauler, Republic

Services, agreed to remove the Quarter 4 assessment for $12.34.

Moermond: that seems reasonable. You have a note saying that Republic Services

agreed to remove the Quarter 4 assessment and Republic will pay those costs. That

applies for all 3 of those addresses.

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025

RLH TA 25-144

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 796

HAGUE AVENUE. (File No. CG2501A1, Assessment No. 250111)

Bowie

Sponsors:

Delete the assessment.

No one appeared

Staff report by Jillian Barden: property owner, Nathaniel Khaliq, paid the bill over the

phone for 611 Marshall, 63 Milton Street North, and 796 Hauge. The hauler, Republic

Services, agreed to remove the Quarter 4 assessment for $12.34.

Moermond: that seems reasonable. You have a note saying that Republic Services

agreed to remove the Quarter 4 assessment and Republic will pay those costs. That

applies for all 3 of those addresses.

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025

RLH TA 25-145

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 1686

RACE STREET. (File No. CG2501A1-1, Assessment No. 250115)

Jost

Sponsors:

Approve the assessment. Layover to LH April 15, 2025 at 9 am for follow up after title

company outreach.

John Lopez, Spanish interpreter, appeared

Jose Morales, owner, appeared

[Moermond gives background of appeals process]

Staff report by Jillian Barden: property owner requested a Legislative Hearing and

purchased October 7, 2024. The bill if from the previous owner for a 32 gallon every

other week cart. Staff emailed Mr. Morales on February 18 recommended he talk to his

Title Company and received no response.

Moermond: why are you appealing?

Morales: I want to know why the bill is from July through September when I bought the

house in October. I bought October 7 and moved in October 26. That’s why I’m

appealing.

Moermond: did you try reaching out to Omar Novak, the closing agent?

Morales: the loan officer?

Moermond: he would have been at your closing and the one to hand you the

documents. Not your realtor, the title company.

Morales: no, I haven’t talked to him.

Moermond: in preparing for today’s hearing, I did ask staff to pull that information and it

has the information for the title company who submitted the paperwork. Ms. Vang gave

you a copy I believe. Ms. Barden, can you explain how you update the addresses.

You’re looking at the entire Quarter 3 bill and you moved in during the 4th Quarter.

Barden: the bill is paid at the beginning of every 3 months. At the end of those 3

months if it is unpaid, it is sent to us for assessment. We put the new owner’s name

on the bill because it stays with the property, not the person. That’s how you ended up

with the bill, it goes with the property not the person. That’s why we say you should

contact your title company.

Moermond: it is a legitimate bill you are stuck with and the seller didn’t disclose. It

hadn’t yet gone to assessment. They knew they hadn’t paid the bill but they didn’t tell

you.

Morales: they told me about putting the electricity in my name but not the garbage.

Moermond: Ms. Barden, can we get copies of those late notices so Mr. Morales has

evidence those old owner’s received notice?

Barden: bring them to the title company and it will help prove the previous owner didn’t

pay. I can email to those to you [verifies email address.].

Moermond: perhaps Ms. Zimny can send an email to the title company that this bill

wasn’t disclosed in the closing that this wasn’t paid. If we send something to the agent,

copying Mr. Morales he will be able to deal with it in writing and have that. Hopefully

they will do what they should as a title company and send you a check. I’d like to

check in with you next Thursday, we can do that by phone, we could also follow up by

email. What’s your preference? A phone call or translated email into Spanish.

Morales: easier in writing.

Laid Over to the Legislative Hearings due back on 4/17/2025

RLH TA 25-210

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 272

RICHMOND STREET. (File No. CG2502A1, Assessment No. 250113)

Noecker

Sponsors:

Approve the assessment.

Paul Mulcahy, owner, appeared via phone

[Moermond gives background of appeals process]

Staff report by Jillian Barden: this is a bill for Quarter 4, 2024. One of the property

owners passed away in 2025, and has now filed a Unoccupied Dwelling Registration

Form on the property as of January.

Moermond: my understanding is Colleen passed late December 2024?

Mulcahy: it was January 26.

Moermond: and you talked to Public Works in April saying you didn’t need service

anymore?

Mulcahy: correct.

Moermond: this quarter your sister would have still been alive. What are you looking

for?

Mulcahy: I ended service and will be paying from the time period she passed onward. I

guess if there’s bills for her I would just prefer not having to pay them because I didn’t

live there and they’re her bills.

Moermond: your name was on the property at the time and she was around at the time,

so if service was provided if left unpaid the bill attaches to the property as an

assessment. I understand this is hard when you have your sister passing away but at

the same time I can’t look at her having passed away at the end of January impacting

the service provided during Quarter 4, 2025. I know you don’t want to pay a bill in her

name, but it is still a bill that needs to be addresses.

Mulcahy: so it goes to the property then?

Moermond: yes, it would go onto your property taxes. It would show on your 2026 taxes

but does accrue interest.

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025

10:00 a.m. Hearings

Special Tax Assessments

RLH TA 25-206

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 2060

4TH STREET EAST. (File No. CG2502A2, Assessment No. 250114)

Johnson

Sponsors:

Reduce assessment from $190.18 to $93.20.

No one appeared

Staff report by Jillian Barden: property owner paid the hauler Jan 9, 2025 and sent

Quarter 4 and Quarter 1 bills together not knowing how garbage billing works in St.

Paul. Republic agreed to reduce assessment amount by $96.98 (the current refund

credit due to property owner) instead of issuing a refund check to the property owner.

Staff recommends reducing the current assessment of $190.18 to $93.20.

Moermond: this is the Quarter 4 bill, which went to assessment to the City and the

owner paid the Quarter 1 bill and tried to pay a Quarter 4 bill. Due to timing of the

contract it didn’t make sense to credit his account.

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025

RLH TA 25-205

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 1931

FREMONT AVENUE. (File No. CG2502A2, Assessment No. 250114)

Johnson

Sponsors:

Delete the assessment.

No one appeared

Moermond: deletion of this small assessment is recommended because the payment

was processed after the due date but was received in time. Recommend deletion.

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025

RLH TA 25-208

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 1122

JACKSON STREET. (File No. CG2502A2, Assessment No. 250114)

Kim

Sponsors:

Layover to LH April 17, 2025 at 10 am to find out due process requirements for the

deceased.

Staff report by Jillian Barden: property owner passed away after they appealed this

assessment. He originally reached out because he didn’t want to pay for service he

didn’t use saying Waste Management took his cart 8 months ago. While working on a

resolution he fell ill and passed away.

Moermond: because this was a dispute happening during which the property owner

passed, I’d like to speak to the City Attorney about due process for a deceased

individual before making a recommendation. Layover one week.

Laid Over to the Legislative Hearings due back on 4/17/2025

RLH TA 25-209

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 901

WELLS STREET. (File No. CG2502A2, Assessment No. 250114)

Yang

Sponsors:

Reduce assessment from $283.90 to $246.87.

No one appeared

Moermond: owner isn’t attending, what is staff’s recommendation?

Staff report by Jillian Barden: she was only receiving notices, but not the bills. The

property owner purchased the home in March 2024 and attempted to put Waste

Management bills under her name but was not successful. Waste Management sent

all Notice of Non-Payments to previous property owner. Property owner is upset she

has been paying late fees. Staff recommends reducing assessment to $246.87

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025

Special Tax Assessments-ROLLS

RLH AR 25-39

Ratifying the assessment for the City’s cost of providing Collection of

Delinquent Garbage Bills for services during October to December 2024.

(File No.CG2502A1, Assessment No. 250113)

Noecker

Sponsors:

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025

RLH AR 25-40

Ratifying the assessment for the City’s cost of providing Collection of

Delinquent Garbage Bills for services during October to December 2024.

(File No.CG2502A2, Assessment No. 250114)

Noecker

Sponsors:

Referred to the City Council due back on 5/14/2025