##VIDEO ID:2wQL-9X7jJE## e I was gonna ask him and then he left before I got chance all right we all set good evening ladies and gentlemen I'm going to call to order this November 26 2024 meeting of the Richfield city council it is 7M if you're able please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance IED Al to of the United States of America all next we'll move on to the open Forum residents can share their comments in person by voicemail or email or may also request to participate virtually for more information on submitting comments you can refer to the city website go to the council agenda and minutes page and then you'll be able to have the instructions right there it's Richfield mn.gov city council is there anyone here that wishes to speak to open for open forum anyone here that wishes to speak for open Forum all right since there is no one um rising to speak for open form we're going to move on to approval of the minutes of the city council work session meeting and the city council regular meeting from November 12th 2024 U Move the minutes second it's been moved and seconded to approve the minutes are there any changes or Corrections all right all in favor please say I I I all opposed we've approved both sets of minutes our next order of business is the report of or the annual presentation of the Human Rights Commission so I'm going to call chair Tyler Olen up to the podium and then just make sure the green light is on the on the microphone if not looks like we're good to go all right awesome uh first first I would like to thank the council for hosting us this evening uh given the opportunity to talk through our accomplishments this year as well as highlight um some of the great Commissioners uh that we're doing some great work this year uh for those who are unfamiliar uh the purpose of the Richfield Human Rights Commission is to secure for all citizens equal opportunity in employment housing public accommodations public services and education and full participation in the Affairs of the community we achiev this by taking action consistent with the Minnesota Human Rights Act and by advising the city council and staff on program and strategies to improve human relations in the city uh this work is best done grounded in community so I would also like to take this opportunity uh to make an appeal to anybody here in the room tonight um if there's any issues that you would like to see discussed please feel free to to bring those forward to the commission uh we're always looking for any suggestions and ideas um you know ways that we can engage with the community um we have our meetings the first Tuesday here in City Hall um first Tuesday of the month every month um you can also reach out to us on the city commission's page or reach out to the equity and inclusion coordinator Britney Bartlett um all right so recognition uh 2024 our officers this year was myself was the the chair we had Tiffany bigley as Vice chair and Valerie Hurst Baker was our secretary um members this year were caly Dennis Tim Garvey Mara glupa Carol Kelly anstead Dana spec matd vsen and Michael zazar um as you're all aware you know the the commission is turning over of decent amount each year just based on the nature of of terms um it it just really varies wildly The Experience from year to year and this was a just want to highlight this is a really great great group this year we had a lot of fun working together a lot of great ideas brought to the table um and some things that are setting us up for future future successes um activities to highlight from this year uh the legal aid clinic uh so this year we continued our series of legal aid clinics aimed to serve underprivileged community members uh with free legal advice on subjects like immigration family residential law and more um this is done with pro bono attorneys um those are just looking to you know donate their time to to help know residents in need um the latest was just held this past Friday on the 22nd uh with a particular Focus this year on immigration law given some of the you know rhetoric nationally that's kind of you know really Target uh this demographic uh in the years ahead um this included a translating Service uh so we look forward to a full debrief from those in attendance at our December meeting and again extend an invite to any of those that are interested in hearing about how that clinic went um or just you know to see what we have going on or to provide some ideas um these clinics are becoming a staple um in our lineup each year um an event that we all really look forward to and we do see it as an opportunity to partner further with both the city council and staff as well as community members just to to continue to make more impactful um you know events into the future uh eight proclamations were drafted and approved this year uh Black History Month asian-pacific American month juneth Pride Americans with Disabilities Act month Hispanic Heritage Month lgbtq history month and Indigenous people's month uh these proclamations serve as a vehicle for our community to declare values and promote greater understanding connectedness on subjects important to us um the HR recognizes that this is an opportunity to align more closely with the communities in question and in the future we we want to continue to work towards you know having more Community representation in these in these proclamations uh Gina and Mary Jacobson outstanding Citizen Award uh from a crowded group of applicants the Ridgefield Human Rights Commission was pleased to select Scott Ramsey as this year's recipient Mr Ramsay's passion for his work during his many years as the be guy at Wood Lake Nature Center brought Joy and Enlightenment to countless community members throughout his career um he was a fantastic recipient for this year's award um this year we formed an Outreach and engagement subcommittee um just to Aid again you know going back to trying to engage more directly with the community uh we wanted to form a group that is specifically focused on you know that very end goal of um just drumming up ideas Avenues to prer to reach out to people as well as starting to develop you know reusable you know things for social media or you what have you to to just kind of really accelerate down the path of getting the the community more involved uh with the commission um and legal aid kiosk which Mary I'm glad that you stopped over to talk about that we're very happy with the progress over the past year with the kiosk um this is something that a couple years back the commission was was involved in in trying to bring to the city successfully did so and then you know there was maybe some stagnation in its usage um that finally started to turn this year um you know Word of Mouth that critical mass has reached where people now are aware that the the service is available um so we look forward to continuing to learn further into um you know the usage of of that that resource um looking ahead to 2025 um in addition to continuing these established initiatives uh the Human Rights Commission is exploring additional opportunities uh to further the cause of human rights in Richfield um we've been discussing holding an immigration citizen event in conjunction with the US District Court in neapolis um we are resuming a partnership with just deeds and eliminating racial covenants to kind of help see what we can do to you know bust up some of the red tape preventing you know faster progress in that regard and then um you know other avenues that you know maybe we can do educational events and things of that nature to kind of keep it at the front of people's minds um and again just closer Community cooperation and engagement across all of our initiatives um really want to focus and emphasize on you know just getting more direct buying and ownership from the communities that we're serving rather than just bringing our own ideas to the table and trying to you know Farm them out we want to make sure that we're hearing from those impacted um again I just want to highlight this year's this year's group is really a lot of fun to work with um I had as chair some some personal stuff that kind of kept me out of commission for several months worth of of meetings um and the group just didn't miss a beat it's a very active active group um very engaged very intelligent and and you know wanting to contribute to their community and they did a phenomenal job I'd like to say that there's more of an impact of me being gone but they did wonderfully in my absence um and finally I just like to to close by thanking the council um for you know just it's very apparent and City staff that that um you all are very caring about these rights um and want to work closely with us to to help secure them for all citizens um some of our national discourse right now is going to have in the years ahead direct impacts on on human rights so there's never been a more crucial time for these conversations so uh we look forward as the HRC to continue working more closely with you and and secure these rights for all Richfield citizens thank you do any of the council members have any questions or comments council member Troutman is the leaz on to the Human Rights Commission and he's unable to be at the meeting this evening but I'm sure from what I've heard from from him in the past that you guys have been a great group to work with so thank you for everything that you've done and it's always fun to see the new initiatives that you put forward thank you thank you next we'll move on to the sustainability commission annual presentation and we'll turn it over to chair keeper thank you mayor council um again my name is Amanda keeper I am the chair of the sustainability commission um I just want to start by thanking uh our city sustainability staff Rachel Lindholm and Zach mccardy um our Council liaison council member Ben whan um and all of our sustainability Commissioners Matt dobratz Craig Heinen Adam bernside Amanda mcnight Helen Burke and former Commissioners Logan Ty and sanana dasca for all of their hard work this year uh this was our fifth year as a commission which I think is a good one for the sustainability commission I think in wedding anniversary terms five years is your wooden anniversary we talk about trees a lot at the commission so it's a good year um we had a productive year we met 10 times and our meetings are always very full so um at the sustainability commission we do something a little unique we have a commissioner Le annual work plan process where kind of talk about our hopes and dreams at the beginning of the year and then throughout the year Commissioners will lead different um activities and action items that are on the work plan and we discuss them um you know we discuss at least one or two at each meeting to give ideas and then Commissioners lead different activities related to those um work plan initiatives so I'll just highlight um some of our accomplishments from our work plan um we had a couple main focus areas our biggest one was community outreach and engagement and probably our biggest accomplish ment there was we were able to um finally complete our sustainability digital guide for residents um so that's been a multi-year effort that was initiated by Commissioners it was largely written by Commissioners and of course we relied heavily on City staff to edit and format it and bring it together but um we were so excited to finally be able to share that with residents online as kind of um a resource and a landing page in a way for um uh residents to come to if they had any kind of question about sustainability in Richfield whether that's you know how to sort their waste how to reduce their waste um how to make their home more efficient how they can have a more sustainable yard or use more sustainable Transportation methods in Richfield all of that stuff is in the guide um and we're really excited um for that to be available so that's on our website um Bridgefield mn.gov SLS guide so please spread the word we're excited to to get that done um some of our other accomplishments are that we started a quarterly sustainability newsletter the sustainability scoop I thought that was very clever of one of our commissioners to come up with um so we're pretty excited to be Distributing that now um we also created a sustainability recognition program that's going to launch in q1 of next year through our sustainability newsletter and that's just a way of kind of um recognizing residents that participate in certain uh programs uh city or county sustainability programs and efforts to kind of celebrate them but also call attention to some of those opportunities for residents um we did some Organics program education and Outreach at the Pumpkin Smash this year so we did some tabling there to teach residents about uh our curbside Organics collection program that's available to try to encourage people to sign up to get their curbside bin and and teach them how to use it um a lot of people already were enrolled so that's good but we'll continue to try to get the word out to increase those numbers so we can have more and more people using that great program that Richfield has available um we did some Community or some youth commissioner Outreach um we had our first our first youth commissioner this year so thanks to Helen for that it was really great to have her perspective on the commission um and some of our commissioners didn't an Outreach of event at rhs and at aha um and they had several students come up to them afterwards who showed some interest in the commission so we're hopeful fingers crossed maybe we'll have two youth Commissioners next year that would be really great um so that was kind of our community and uh Community Education and Outreach Focus area our other Focus area for the work plan this year was on City policy um so one of our commissioners Craig uh helped lead worked with staff to lead revision of the city's foul code um so we're talking about birds there like chickens geese ducks um there that code only allowed a very small number of birds this revision is going to allow people to have a few more but it also puts in place some um kind of protections and guidelines for for people to get a permit so that they uh can learn a little bit more too through that process of how to safely keep their birds so we're hoping that that's kind of a win-win um for the birds and for people who love them and when I have them in the city um so that is going to have some readings uh to you all in January so that process is almost complete and we're really uh excited and proud of Craig for seeing that through um we also discussed some opportunities to reduce plastic waste that escapes into richfield's environment talked about different potential policy and educational opportunities um to work with businesses on reducing plastic waste so that's something we'll talk more about in 2025 as well um yeah so that's kind of our work plan and again we'll we'll carry forward some items into next year and and keep working on some of those in progress things but that's something that um we're always proud to share as our work plan successes uh we also use our meetings to hear from staff different reports and updates to keep us up to date on the city's sustainability work um so some of the reports we got from Rachel and Zach this year included um updates on County and Federal grants uh different City events like our annual tree sale and rain barrel sale um solid waste and Energy Efficiency updates um and the commission also had the opportunity to provide some feedback on the city's work with a consultant to develop a sustainability uh Communications plan and brand so I guess like we got to uh provide some feedback on the logo and the banner and some of the kind of Aesthetics around that but um you know it's always a good opportunity for us to hear those staff reports to just be able to ask questions and provide feedback on what the city's doing with sustainability efforts so we always appreciate that work from staff um and the last thing that we do in our meetings is sometimes you have special guests and guest presentations and we had a couple of those this year so we did have um a presentation from City Bella residents who came to share with us about um their sustainability team their Green Team uh did some work with University of Minnesota's students to uh learn about some potential sustainability options for uh improvements to their buildings um and they were just sharing with us some of the plans that they have to pursue some of those Energy Efficiency and and other uh sustainability improvements um and it was a good connection to make too because one of their uh residents who was pres at the meeting um decided to apply to the sustainability commission and will be joining us next year as a commissioner so it will be great to have her perspective uh the city manager also came and uh presented on the sustainability act uh aspects of the three local sales tax referendums that just passed so we're excited about that and um excited to keep working with the city next year as some of those begin to to roll up um and some of our members attended a joint meeting this year with the community services or the yeah the Community Services Commission back in April to learn about the storm water Pond priority plan and to get an update on forest ring Parks from City staff so we take those opportunities when we can to um you know do a joint meeting with one of the other commissions and get some of those um staff updates about some key sustainability issues so again um it was a productive year and uh we're excited about our work we're excited to continue it next year and we appreciate the opportunity to share it with you all tonight thanks for the invitation thank you do we have any questions or comments council member whan thank you mayor uh yeah as the the lon liaison to this commission um would just Echo the the thanks to the whole commission uh to you chair keeper to staff that um this is uh also true of the Human Rights Commission though I have less firsthand experience with it but it uh both of these are really topics that are just huge and uh could do any number of things and it's pretty easy to sort of get in a loop where you do a lot of talking and not a lot of uh doing and and so I've really appreciated um from the sustainability Commissioners the the work plan ideas the willingness to you know pick pick one that you're going to lead on and another one that you'll partner with someone else on or whatever people however it lined up but the people have really taken a lot of initiative um and it shows with some of the uh good things that are coming out I don't I don't think um the sustainability guide the the foul code um other things that I'm forgetting like I don't think some of these things would have happened without Commissioners deciding that like yeah that that matters enough that we're going to see it through so thank you um and I look forward to continuing to see what the commission comes up with in the future yeah me too thank you thank you so much for all your work next we have approval of the agenda I move approval of the agenda second it's been moved and seconded to approve approve the agenda is there any discussion all in favor please say I I all opposed and we have approved the agenda moving on we'll go on to the consent calendar and so I'm going to turn it over to assistant city manager Tongan thank you mayor Supple the consented calendar contains several separate items which are act upon by the city council in one motion once the consented calendar has been approved the individual items and recommended action has also been approved no further Council action on these items are necessary however any council member May request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and place on the regular agenda for Council discussion and action all items listed on the consent calendar are recommended for approval you have a consider the adoption of a resolution accepting grants and donations received by the Richfield recreational services in 2024 the authorizing staff to administer the funds in accordance with with any applicable Grant agreement and terms prescribed by the donors B approve a resolution from Counting registered right in votes for local elective office C consider approval to set a public hearing to be held on December 10th 2024 to consider the renewal of the pond broker license for 2025 for Metro pwn and gun Incorporated D consider the acceptance of a quote from Northland recreation in the amount of 175,000 for the replacement of the play equipment at Donson Park and the authorization of the recreational service director to proceed with the project and E consider approval of the first reading of the new ordinance establishing a local sales and use tax in Rich field thank you I would make a motion to approve the consent calendar second it's been moved and seconded to approve the consent calendar is there discussion council member hey Larry um just two comments one exciting to have our first reading of the sales tax item since that's been such a big item for so long and excited to discuss it more at our next meeting the other one is I was just uh glad to see this thing about the right in votes I was actually kind of surprised when we got the itemized sheet that we even did that and I was this does make a lot more sense so I'm glad we're saving a little bit of time even though it is kind of a fun novelty to read through them so thank you other comments or questions I would like to thank all the people that donated and all the grant um funders that provided all this for the recreation department um I think also The Donaldson Park was partially done by a henpen county Grant so thank you to them and thank you to the voters for authorizing that sales tax so lots of gratitude all in favor of approving the consent agenda please say I I I I'll opposed we have approved the consent calendar next we move on to item six and I'll turn it over to council member Hayer thank you uh this item is to consider approval of the second reading of a new ordinance regarding registration of cannabis and hemp businesses and related regulations uh in 2023 the Minnesota Legislature legalized adult use cannabis the state recently established the office of cannabis management um as responsible for overseeing this new industry through the implementation of a still developing regulatory framework that will include both cannabis and hemp derived products because the city's moratorium on cannabis sales will expire on January 1st 2025 the city has developed an ordinance related to registration and renewal for cannabis and hemp related businesses licensing by the office of cannabis management is expected to begin in 20125 and then I would maybe just read the bullet points of the unless staff would prefer to do it of the policies covered I'll just go ahead and just read those so people are clear about what this is about so uh we will process for pre-licensure certification uring our zoning requirements which we previously passed are met uh we are allowing three dispensaries which is compliant with the state's requirement of one dispensary for two 12,500 people um we have registration application process denial and enforcement penalties uh we have local compliance checks requiring at minimum one check a year in addition to the pre-license check uh proposed hours um largely mirror what Richwood liquor stores do um and they would not apply to low potency hemp retailers and there are some definitions related to liquor to stay consistent that are also updated does staff have anything else to add that they want no uh we're here for questions um I'll just go ahead and move the motion and we can discuss that I move that we approve the second reading of a new ordinance regarding registration of cannabis and H businesses and related regulations and a resolution and summary publication of set ordinance second it's been moved in seconded and we're now open for discussion um council member here for lry I would say thank you to staff for getting getting this done in time and I know that this was kind of dictated by the state and our own limits on the moratorium so I appreciate everything being in order and I feel really good about where we landed on these rules I also want wanted to thank everybody that was involved in the discussion I know The Advisory Board of Health weighed in the Planning Commission weighed in we had several work sessions and so and we heard from residents that had concerns and questions about this so I appreciate everybody that was involved in the process and thank you to staff for answering all the the Myriad questions that we had because I know we peppered you and the Planning Commission with a or the community development director with a lot of questions about this I think though with all of that input we've come up with some good regulations and ordinances any other questions all in favor please say I I I all oppose and we have um approved the new ordinance and the summary publication next we will move on to item number seven uh just want to do a point of personal privilege um we had a really fun Saturday where we interviewed people from 8 am. till about 5:00 pm and it was just very uplifting to hear all of the energy and people talking about what they wanted to do to make Richfield better and so we just had a really great time at the commission interviews so now I'm going to turn it over to council member Hayford ly to do the formal appointments all right thank you mayor and yes it was really it was the hardest thing was was picking between great candidates and it's a really good problem for Richfield to have um so yes this is to consider the appointments uh to City advisory boards and commissions terms of several City Advisory Board and commission members were set are set to expire on January 31st 2025 uh in addition due to resignations there are midterm vacancies that need to be filled the terms of the advisory boards and commissions the full terms are three years and then I will read off the list of appointments uh after this city council directs the city manager's office to conduct an annual recruitment seeking applications to fill the vacancies uh this recruitment includes a press release and information on the city's website and social media platforms uh as the mayor mentioned applicants were interviewed at a special work session held on November 16th 2024 and I will read the list of our appointments now and thank you to three of our new members for coming to the meeting although we don't expect it it's it is really nice when you come so thank you so much for being here uh to The Advisory Board of Health we will be appointing Marcel Johnson Rebecca case and Rachel Decker and an alternate identified of Jim Mahoney should a vacancy arise for the Arts commission uh Christina Clawson Stephanie Jacobson and Eric banuk uh civil Services Commission will be reappointing Jeffrey brusek community service commission David Sperling Susie lutenegger Grace bronan McCarthy Tessa Johnson and husia Dent Bradley and an alternate of Kimberly land Human Rights Commission Michael Zera uh Dana spec Timothy Garvey and Chris axelon alternate of Tyler burbach uh Planning Commission we will be reappointing two current Commissioners Ben surma and Eddie Hol Johnson with an alternative identified of Kelly witell sustainability commission Craig Heinen Katie Boon Christopher Donner and the alternate of Alexa wnac Transportation Commission uh Lou Zac uh Stella Yang and Brenan Kista with an alternate of Jacob Olen so again thank you all for being willing to serve and I will move the motion that we appoint the list I just read I'll second that it's been moved in second and any further comments or questions council member Wayan uh just again want to Echo a thank you um we have a lot of very uh very eager and very talented people um and uh sometimes you get one or the other but it was great to see both and yes is a very um uplifting uh conversa set of conversations to be part of when we interview everyone um and this year having this is my fifth or sixth year doing this uh this year was one of the harder ones to decide uh who who could fill the limited spots so uh thank you to everyone who applied and as commissioner heord said it's great to see three of the Commissioners here and we also have an alumnus commissioner that was on the Arts commission earlier so thank you all for being here any further comments or questions all in favor please say I I all opposed and we have appointed the Commissioners congratulations next we will move on to to the city manager's report no additional updates all right claims and payroll I would move claims and payroll second it's been moved and seconded to approve claims and payroll is there any discussion all in favor please say I I I all opposed and we have approved claims and payroll we'll start off hats off to Hometown hits by turning it over to council Mt Christensen who has a report for us from the league of Minnesota's League of Minnesota cities or the national league of cities so is for the National Convention go ahead thank you mayor uh I just wanted to give a hats off to the uh to my colleagues who approved my um and voted favorably for me to attend this conference down in Tampa Florida a few weeks ago uh it was very interesting to see uh not only cities of our size um but smaller cities and larger cities and everybody coming together and talking about varying issues that were very similar to what we're dealing with here whether it be the unhoused uh immigration human rights uh just different things like that and we had a very commonality of what was going on in the cities together so we're looking forward to this next four years with the um with the elections that had just happened recently and to see what the um things that were going to be happening with that if it's going to be changing in cities and as Richfield we considered a first tier City I always thought of it as a first ring City first ring suburb but they were talking about the first tier City like we are in Richfield here where we need to protect our infrastructure our housing our you know immigration all sorts of different things to keep people um staying in the city without moving further out into other suburbs so so I would highly recommend that you know in the future that um perhaps some of our new Council people might be interested in going to this when they come in in January to be involved in that because they the national league of cities also has um many training programs they have different uh programs a lot of different areas that they work with to help come alongside with the cities thank you does anyone have any questions thank you for that report council member whan uh just to say Happy Thanksgiving everyone that's all I got today all right council member heyer lri I was going to give hats off to the participants in the safe roads to school like afternoon long know was called conference um virtual Retreat uh we got to talk about a lot of safe routs to school issues we're finally starting to see some of that concrete stuff on the ground very literally because it's a concrete sidewalk um on 71st Street that's one of the funded projects but we're looking at other projects that are are Midway through like on 70th Street we'll be cleaning up some of the stuff by uh dual language and yeah it's just great to see um I was only in attendance for the infrastructure part of it but everything from how they're teaching you know bike safety in fied um to encourage programs like you know rewarding or having celebrations for kids who walk to school to the physical infrastructure to make it safer so it's just great to see a bunch of people both from the city and the school district and a couple community volunteers at that event thank you I'd like to do a hats off to a group called every meal and all of the Richfield residents that have been part of this so um what happens is residents from a lot of different groups here in Richfield got together and packed um bags with meals and then those same residents will go to various schools and they'll leave the meals in the children's lockers on Friday so if a kid is only getting fed when they're eating their school lunch they have something to eat over the weekend and so they go to several Richfield schools to pass out the lunches and it's done quietly while the kids are in class it gets left in their locker so nobody knows it's there so it was really cool to see there were three Richfield churches that got together and were packing things things at the Mall of America and it turns out when they started listing off that there's several schools that were were affected by that so hats off to all the volunteers and to every meal um the other thing I wanted to talk about is we've had several um Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops come through here and we see the younger kids and they're working on their um democracy Badges and things like that but I was able this past week to go to an eagle scout ceremony for two of our field residents and so it was really cool to see the kids at the end of that journey and all the service projects that they had done so hats off to all the boys and girl scouts that are out there and with that we um have finished our business is there a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second it's been moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting all in favor please say I I I all opposed We Stand adjourned thank you