##VIDEO ID:qEqaF0-_DoE## e e all right good evening everyone I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Ridgefield city council meeting and the clock in the room is not accurate is actually 7:01 so we're going to go ahead and get started if you're able please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the of the United States of America and the for it stands one na indivisible and justice for all thank you um I did have one statement I wanted to read before we started our the rest of our official business there have been recent media reports of racist text messages being sent out this past week across the United States including in our area I want to be very clear that here in Richfield we will not tolerate bigotry discrimination or violence of any kind richfield's diversity is our strength and we will continue to work together as a United Community our message is clear that we stand as one and will not tolerate hatred together we are Richfield strong thank you all right now we'll move on to the open forum do we have any um forms that have been turned in for the open forum is there anybody online all right I'm gonna read um mayor are we gonna are we we've changed our policy can you explain the new policy for the online part yes thank you mayor so we did not have people that were asking or participating in the WebEx um offerings and so we are we have changed that and if anyone needs to join the meeting and wants to provide the their any kind of comment they can do it virtually through WebEx but um they need to give us notice of that and the language is on our website all right thank you council member ha L could we include the instructions on how to do that on the agendas kind of like we used to include the call-in instructions just saying email this person at this state sure thanks all right thank you so is there anyone here that would like to comment on open forum all right then we will move on at this point to approval of the minutes of the city council meeting of October 22nd 2024 so moved a second okay it's been moved and seconded are there any comments or questions all in favor of approving the minutes please say I I all opposed all right so at this point we've approved the minutes and we're going to go on to a c uh celebratory part of the meeting the 19th annual Great Pumpkin giveaway coloring contest winners so I'm going to be joined by Steve schneberger and he's going to tell us all about the program thank you members my name is Steve schneberger um I'm a local business person here and um Lisa hintermeister is one of our business partners and we are excited to once again um award three young winners of our uh annual pumpkin giveaway coloring contest it's it's become quite a tradition over the last few years that the mayor actually gets to judge these entries and award the prizes tonight we had 150 people draw her color and in three different age groups so we're going to be giving an award for each of the three age groups but before I turn the microphone over to uh mayor Supple I'd like to first of all thank the the sponsors and our team uh players that helped us um kind of continue to help us make this a success every year so uh Carl Herman with State Farm in Richfield BJ scoo with Richfield leadership Network DAV and Lisa hintermeister L Lisa who's here uh they're with Luminate home loans and then I'd also like to thank the city partners that have been um helpful to us over the years City uh Parks and Recreation has helped facilitate and promote the event and this year we're we're very excited that visit Richfield uh gave us a grant to help um buy gift cards from local restaurants to give away as door prizes and then finally Richfield Arch commission stepped up this year and they actually helped facilitate the coloring contest they were there volunteering and they they uh provided these beautiful trophies which is the first time ever so these young winners are going to be super excited but um thank you to the city of Richfield and thank you for the the partners and the teammates and thank you mayor Supple for being there as well so would you like me to um would you like me to announce the winners sure okay so in our our age group of five and under we have Chase fisic Chase would you like to come up and Mary May mayor Supple will give you your trophy congratulations I really like congratulations and then in the age of six to8 category we have Everett cinet Everett [Applause] and then in our uh nine years niney year and older category we had tatsuo Bond all [Applause] right thank you thank you again to all the sponsors and to all the participants next we'll move on to our commission reports and first we'll have the Civil Service Commission from president Jeffrey brusek good evening mayor good evening Council I'm Jeffrey bruach the president of the Civil Service Commission for the city of Richfield and I'm here to report uh as required a couple things happened this year was very exciting uh we had a new firefighter process we hired three uh firefighters Rodriguez be and Olen uh we are now technically up to nine firefighters on each shift the extra third position allows us to cover an extended military leaves that may happen happen with our crew we've also established intern positions for the captain and Lieutenant positions we filled the vacancy for Captain Ewald over his year-long uh deployment we should all congratulate him for that extra time he took away from his family uh we also use different eligibility lists in order to split the time with all the candidates uh we also had a promotional process for the lieutenant and Captain positions uh now we just have one process for both positions um just more for the captains obviously uh we also established eligibility rosters for the captain and Lieutenant uh positions uh if we need to fill them in the future each one of those lists uh go on for two years unless we remove and update them uh regarding the fire department we uh completed our strategic plan plan and a standard operating procedure uh for the ongoings of the department we codified our mission vision and values of the Richfield fire department as well uh and more important to the nuts and bolts of it all we had a record number of calls for 2023 of 4,989 different calls uh thankfully less than 10% of those actually have to have fires uh and we're on Pace to set another record with already 4 th000 with already 5,000 calls in 2024 with that that as a report uh it's an honor to pleasure to serve the city of Richfield thank you thank you president brusek does anyone have any questions appreciate all the work that you do and I we always hear good things from staff member Kelly W who's your liaison so thank you next we'll move on to the Transportation Commission and chair Bradley hello and thank you for having me here today um the Transportation Commission has met seven times in 2024 the highlight of the commission work this year was providing a recommendation to the city council to advance the County's design proposal for nicholet Avenue reconstruction the commission welcomed five new members this year who have all provided great New Perspectives that have led to productive discussion on agenda items the commission hosted two open houses for the nicholet Avenue project and discussed the project design at five meetings including a joint meeting with city council members in June the commission is proud of the collaborative effort with County staff to develop the preferred concept and is excited to see the final product in a few years the commission has also been involved in hosting four open houses and having discussions about the designs for two upcoming safe routes to school projects these projects are on 70th Street at the stem and RD LS elementary schools and on 73rd Street at Centennial Elementary School both of these projects were recently recommended to continue forward with a preferred design by the Transportation Commission at other meetings this year the Transportation Commission has received presentations from mindat on their 494 construction from Metro Transit on their route for better bus routes project and from City staff on the city's speed limit reduction plans um the pavement Management program local sales tax referendum in ongoing construction projects the commission has also discussed Grant applications for the safe routs to school and reconnecting communities programs recommended the active Transportation action plan to the city council for approval and discuss Metro transits fut plans for future Transit service in 2025 the commission the Transportation Commission anticipates discussion items about mot's Phase 2 plans for I 494 the early stages of public engagement for the plan pin Avenue reconstruction and other Citywide Transportation items as they come up thank you thank you you have a lot on your plate when you start listing it all off wow um council member here for Lia you Le liaison did you want to add anything I just wanted to say uh grateful for the work from the whole commission um particularly nice that you know you have these opportunities in these open houses to connect with the community um on Nicolet Avenue and of those topics and it's just been great to see so many Commissioners there that are there for some of them the entire meeting and talking with residents talking about you know why what's in front of them is what it is getting their ideas um and it's been really iterative and I'm also just really excited about nickolet and can't wait to see it break around all right council member Troutman thank you mayor I just wanted to say a special thanks to commissioner um who's Nia uh uh D Bradley uh Daniels and I'm sorry um but uh we the when I grew up in Richfield one of the things that you can see so so clearly are the the changes and improvements in our roads and when I walk down our streets and we went like they're better they're safer they're more just they're more it's never it's never done but it's it's one of the the yard sticks that we can really look at we've made a lot of incredible uh Investments and um and so I just want to and it's also a commission where you get a lot of direct Community feedback and so you just hold the the passions of our city too so I just want to say thank you for that yes thank you so much chair Bradley and please express our thanks to the rest of the commission you you all do really great work well thanks we enjoy um serving the city thank you all right thank you next we will move on to a proclamation celebrating small business Saturday and I'm going to be joined by business owner Travis paski who's from bodyx RX wellness and he's going to join me to receive the presentation for the proclamation thank you this is a proclamation of the city of Richfield whereas the city of Richfield celebrates our local small businesses and the contri contributions they make to the local economy and community and whereas the small business administration as well as other public and private organizations have endorsed that the Saturday after Thanksgiving as small business Saturday and whereas the city of Richfield has partnered with hanapin County to support small business Saturday with the multi-jurisdictional love local Campaign which encourages residents to support local independently owned businesses and the business districts that create jobs boost the economy and make our community vibrant and liable now therefore I Mary Supple mayor of the city of Richfield on behalf of the Richfield city council to hereby Proclaim Saturday November 30th 2024 as small business Saturday in the city of Richfield and urge the residents of our community to support small businesses and Merchants on the small business Saturday and throughout the year Proclaim this 12 day of November 2024 thank you Jan wanted to take a picture so did you want to say a few words yeah I just want to say thank you for having me and it's an honor uh to represent all of the small businesses um it's been happy to see a lot of small businesses around Richfield starting to grow and and boom and lots of new restaurants in the area so it's exciting I love this small community thank you thank you thank you our next item is approval of the agenda and move the approval of the agenda second it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda all in favor please say I I all opposed the agenda is approved we'll next move on to the consent agenda and I'll turn it over to city manager Rodriguez thank you mayor the consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the city council in one motion once the consent calendar has been approved the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved no further Council actions on these items is necessary on tonight's consent calendar item a consider approval of the ice time rental agreement between the city of Richfield and Minneapolis Hockey Association for the next 5 years Item B consider the approval of the first reading of a new ordinance regarding registration of cannabis and hemp businesses and related regulations item C consider approval of the Intensive comprehensive peace officer Education and Training 2025 Grant between the city of Richfield police department and the Min and the Minnesota Department of Public safety's office of Justice program programs to fund non-traditional police officer candidates item D consider the adoption of a resolution determining the results of the city general election on Tuesday November 5th 2024 item e consider approval of the purchase of two 2025 aerial lift trucks from Altech Inc for $389,962 under $175,000 without further city council consideration and I submit these items as for your consideration as part of the consent calendar thank you council member he for L uh just a question on the canvas item it mentions the unofficial results are attached does is the resolution updated from what's in our packet or does that just refer to the page the print out Pages after the resolution it would have the unofficial results first that was included with the packet and then the resolution and the abstract of the election would be the attachment that was added okay got it so the the resolution is correct and that's what we're passing okay um and it's minor but Walter Burke's last name I believe is misspelled in it do we no there's no e or there should be any removed so is that a change we need to action makeer can we can you just edit that okay but like we should should I move it with that change or kind of okay okay um well I'll just if there further amendments you can do that but I will move the consent calendar with a change to item D to correct the spelling of Mr Burke's last name second it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion council member whing uh just with the uh general election results in want to congratulate uh Rory and Walter as our uh future council members uh and congratulate uh council member Troutman an eye on being fellow lame Ducks now um but and then also want to thank uh all of the voters Who weigh in on our um ballot questions around the uh local sales tax to fund our Recreation needs that'll come up in a future item tonight but just want to thank everyone who had conversations about that and wait in on that um was a robust Community discussion right any other comments council member Troutman thank you mayor I just wanted to make uh two brief comments one I wanted to thank uh our Police Chief Jay henthorne um I the see the uh the approval of the i poet uh grants and you say well what's a grant well Grant is not nothing you have to have a vision to to see how you can utilize it and then aggressively pursue it and um that's probably one of the first conversations we had talking about this program and through your leadership we've been able to expand it and through even the last couple of months um you've really um been a regional leader in in using this program in a great way so I just want to say thanks to all our law enforcement but specifically to your leadership and then um I also did just want to say thank you uh to our our residents um every time democracy works I just find it amazing and I'm so grateful and I've lived in been in countries where it works less well and um it's extraordinary and to have lived in Richfield and now see us on the on the on the verge of being able to make uh some really significant investments in our community um it it just I'm my heart's full of joy so so so thanks Richfield right any other comments or questions um I wanted to comment on Item B about the the first reading of the new ordinance I was listening to a report on um MPR and they were talking about how it's really important to do enforcement of these ordinances in order to give the legal businesses a fair shot that if you don't do a really good job of enforcement that hurts the legal businesses and so I wanted to really put that out there that I was really happy to see that we were going to do compliance checks and then we're going to really work on the enforcement because if we're trying to build a Le legal economy and we want to make sure that those businesses have a fair chance and that that they're not being undercut by somebody who's doing something illegal so we have those I also would like to thank the voters of Richfield for passing the three Parks amendments I'm looking forward to the projects as we go forward and I really appreciate that um the voters decided to invest in our future and to to leave a legacy for the future Generations from that system um congratulations to your re for your reelection council member heord alir and welcome to council member Burke and council member Coleman Woods we're looking forward to working with them both with that we have a motion on the floor to approve the um consent agenda all in favor please say I I I all opposed and we have approved the consent calendar we'll next be moving on to item number eight and I'll turn that over to council member Hayford delir thank you and we don't have much of an executive summary for this but this is to consider a resolution providing for the sale of $10 million of General obligation sales tax revenue bonds series 202a and these will finance the Improvement of wood Lake Nature Center building project uh the staff have anything to add we are available for questions okay um I will move the motion I move that we approve the attached resolution providing for the sale of 10 million of General obligation sales tax revenue bonds series 2024a second it's been moved and seconded is there any further discussion um council member whan could I just ask I'm sorry if I missed an email today but I see that we do have a pre-sale report is there anything of note to summarize from that um I believe our Financial Consultant yeah Rebecca kurts from ERS our financial advisor is here is this on oh there's the light okay sorry good evening Rebecca Curts from Ellers um as as um alluded to there is a pre-sale report that does highlight um again these bonds will be issued um per the approval from the referendum for um this is the first in probably three but um to be determined in the future future uh different Bond issues to finance the various Park projects um so there will be more to come one thing that I do want to note with this is that these bonds while we do um anticipate all of The Debt Service being paid solely by the sales tax revenues they will be General Obligations of the city which mean in any um unlikely event that the sales tax revenues are not sufficient you would be promising your full faith and credit to Levy taxes for any shortfall um we have structured these with a term of six years and with that um we are structuring it so all of the sales tax the first year would go to pay debt service on these bonds and then based on the projections from years the final five years after that first year of principal the final five years um we have anticipated about 50% of the sales tax will go for this bond which leaves um additional revenues for the next issue that you would be doing um with that we are looking at having money available on December 30th so they would close still this year and I'm happy to go into more detail or answer any additional questions are there any additional questions I appreciate the thorough information right any other discussion okay so the motion before us is to approve the attached resolution providing for the sale of $10 million in general obligation sales tax revenue bonds series 2024a all in favor please say I I I all opposed all right we have approved those next we'll move on to item nine council member Troutman thank you mayor um item nine is to consider a resolution approving the contract with the International Association of firefighters local 1215 for the contract period of January 1 2024 through December 31 2025 uh the recommended settlement provides a cost of living wage adjustment of 3% with an additional 3.5% Market adjustment effective the First full pay period of January 2024 and a cost of living wage adjustment of 3% with an additional 1% Market adjustment effective the First full per period of January 2025 a high level summary of the other Provisions uh the tentative agreement include this is an addition of funds to members covered by the agreement for annual Wellness screening and exams an agreement to the same level of contributions that management and general Services employees will be receiving in the same period of time a $50 increase to clothing and Equipment allowances in 2024 to$ 750 annually and another $50 in 2025 an increase in Severance uh pay out of sick time and employees with under 10 years of service will receive 25% of accumulated sick leave upon hire new employees will be provided with 143 hours of leave in their sick leave bank and during the employees first six months the employees will not acrw any additional sick leave if the employee terminates employment during the first six months the employee will not be given Severance for any of the remaining leave in the six the the sick Bank um paid parental leave will be provided for for all firefighters who are in line with the paid uh who are in line with the paid parental leave City policy um and employees shall receive 312 hours of holiday leave per year holiday hours shall be incurred at the rate of 12 per hour bi-weekly payroll um employees shall also be allowed to sell back up to 120 hours of their holiday time during each calendar year and the option to sell back holiday time must be exercised between January 1 and November 15th of each year employees will also be provided with a $40 dollar per month for communication and use of job related applications on personal cell phones while on and off duty and so I would move that we adopt the resolution providing the provisions of the 2024 labor agreement with International Association of firefighters local 1215 bargaining unit and authorized the city manager to execute the agreement second it's been moved in seconded is there any discussion I would like to thank both parties in the negotiations both um the representatives from the firefighters local 125 and the representative from the city of Richfield management um I I know that it was a lot of hard work and I appreciate that you all work together and figured out a solution so thank you any other discussion Council M Troutman thank you mayor I just wanted to acknowledge and just let our our residents know um I think a lot of folks appreciate uh our firefighters um but what folks might not know is that especially post pandemic the amount of calls that they've been going on has increased significantly am I am I right uh and so um when we are uh increasing their pay it's not just because the cost of living is going up which we know it is but also I just want to acknowledge and recognize and say thank you that the volume of work you're doing has gone up and we as as residents we want to say thank you so thank you thank you so the motion is before us all in favor please say I I I all opposed and we have adopted the resolution thank you next we'll move on to item number 10 council member whan thank you mayor uh this item is to consider approval of a contract with fractional Head Start CFO LLC to provide fractional CFO Finance Direct dor services and authorize the mayor and city manager to execute the contract the city's current Finance director is separating at the end of the year the city recruited for the position but did not find candidates to fulfill the position's needs at this time the recommendation is to contract with fractional Head Start CFO to provide the services the contracted Services would be primarily provided by Mary aogi I apologize if I mispronounced your name who has 35 plus years experience in the government governmentpublic sector in financial leadership and executive roles the proposal is for fractional Head Start CFO to provide services for an average of 20 hours per week um this scope of services includes Financial Planning and strategy training developing and supporting Finance staff budgeting and forecasting General accounting and financial services financial reporting risk management and uh yeah and uh continued Improvement initiatives uh through all of that so uh does staff have anything to add on this item I just want to point out that Mary bogie is here tonight she's uh the owner and will be providing our fractional CFO services so if you have any questions for her but you uh I guess I will make the motion and then can open it up for conversation uh so I'd move that we authorize the mayor and city manager to finalize an execute the contract with fractional Head Start CFO LLC to provide fractional CFO and Financial finance director Services second it's been moved in second are there any comments or questions thank you for attending the meeting tonight and we're looking forward to working with you this is a very important um part of our city government and I'm glad that we have we're moving forward on this is there anyone else that wishes to comment all in favor of the motion please say I I I all opposed and we have approved the motion thank you next we'll move on to the city manager's report city manager Rodriguez yeah thank you mayor um I wanted to add my thank yous to the voters uh for their support and uh we're excited to get going on those projects and uh deliver them up to their expectations um I was reading the league of Minnesota cities had something where they uh looked at all the referendum questions and only well only it was a majority but 58% of them passed um and I really believe these projects will be transformational for Richfield so excited about that um also wanted to add my thanks uh to Chris faint who is the president of local 1215 um it's a lot of hours that you put in negotiating these contracts and um so we are pleased to uh get it done and approved and we will implement it and looking forward to getting back on track so that we're not um we are not negotiating and passing them into the year um and that's all I have tonight thank you thank you are there any questions or comments for the city manager then we will move on to claims and payroll I'd move claims and payroll second it's been moved and seconded to app roove claims and payroll are there any comments or questions I did notice um the number of escros that were being cleaned up and I know that was a a project that you've been working on and so it was good to see that that was being implemented any other comments or questions all in favor please say I I I all opposed and we have approved claims and payroll next for hats off to Hometown hits council member whan thank you mayor uh would just one quick one want to say thank you to everyone who has applied to be part of a city board or commission uh and looking forward to uh hearing from those folks on Saturday uh reading through the applications um but have a lot of interest in playing a role in our city and heard from a few of our commissioners today about the work that they do and it's incredibly important so thank you thank you council member Heyford aliri um yeah I just also wanted to give my thanks about the vote um well first off thank you for re-electing me voters who might be watching but uh also thank you for the votes on the park referendum that was really important to the city um it was great even tonight to be issuing this Bond uh to be V by by that sales tax and I'm proud not only are we the 58% the past we passed by huge two to1 margins so it's great to see that this is not something that's just squeaking through but something that community's really excited about so thanks go ahead council member Troutman thank thank you mayor um I also wanted to say again thank you for everybody that participated in in our elections and um and this is my last time to say it that um Minnesota has some of the highest voting turnout often the highest voting turnout in the country in Richfield has some of the highest voting turnout in the state in W one has some of the highest and consistently has the highest voting turnout in the city of Richfield everybody votes and uh I think it just bespeaks the level of participation and connection that people have to our community and um for folks that may have not supported the the the referendum this is just a reminder that and and again a thank you to our staff for getting the funding from the federal government and the funding from the state government and now with the sales tax a majority of that of that sales tax revenue will come not in the form of property taxes but from taxes paid by people coming to to Richfield and so the the reason we're going to be able to have uh incredible new facilities is because of really St smart strategic thinking and a ton of hard work and um and I just want to say thank you to everybody I believe it was 89% for the um voter participation which is incredibly high I would like to thank the um St students and faculty of the stem school and also the um honoring all veterans memorial committee for the two programs they had yesterday for Veterans Day to honor our veterans it was just very heartwarming to see all of the students thanking the veterans that were there in attendance and and talking about the importance of what they had done for and their service to our country and then last night at the um honoring all veterans memorial they were um some more names were inscribed and we almost have filled up the whole inside portion of the memorial so we'll start working on the the other outside ring and there are plans I found out that if those all get filled up they can add another row of of slabs to it so it was just very exciting to see all of the people that were honoring our veterans again thank you to everyone who participated in the um election and I want to say a thank you to the election judges because it wouldn't be possible without them and without our city clerk and City staff to hold that election so thank you to everyone that was involved in that with that if we have no further um business I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second it's been moved in second and to adjourn the meeting all in favor please say I I all opposed We Stand adjourn thank you right