##VIDEO ID:sBcg7ukga8Q## e e good evening everyone I'm going to call to order this regular city council meeting of the city of Richfield is September 24th 2020 24 and 7 p.m. um if you are able please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands indivisible andice all thank you next we have the open Forum if you are watching online you can call into the open Forum by dialing 1415 655 00001 use webinar access code 2633 038 2260 and password 1234 so is there anyone that is online at the moment all right and I have one card we have our new registration cards here and we have one card so I'm going to invite Heidi gyore up to speak and please state your name and your address and since we have the card you don't need to sign in and thank you um Heidi gyore 6915 Wentworth here in Richfield uh good evening I'm here to speak on the topic of the sales tax referenda in this election while it's true that there are maintenance issues and improvements that need to be addressed at the three locations proposed to benefit if this tax is passed as council person Hayford oi pointed out on a community Facebook post we've spent too long neglecting our Parks assets I agree so my questions are why have they been neglected how long has it been since money earmarked for maintenance has not been used for such and why is it thought that tens of millions of dollars will keep that from happening in the future the fact that our Parks assets haven't been cared for and maintained as they should have been seems to be status quo for Richfield do we not have a budget which includes maintaining our City properties one would expect that that's a given and a basic line item to have an up City budget speaking specifically about the community center I'd like to see if the current I'd like to see the current building remain receiving necessary restoration and if needed possible rethinking the distribution of the spaces within if indeed more space is needed for some activities I suggest utilizing buildings which already exist in our Parks my husband and I frequently walk through Augsburg Park and on a whim I looked through the window of the warming house and found the building to be empty it's usually closed up and unused it's a sturdy building and good size we were thinking what a perfect space it would be for something like a teen dropin center or a meeting space for any number of organizations and this is only one building in one Park how many other empty buildings does our city have which can be used for some of the reasons reasons that have been suggested to tear down a sturdy brick Community Center which has been the heart of our community since I was a child some updates could be beneficial but that doesn't mean that the entire building must be demolished to do it our current Community Center serves all ages in our city with a variety of activities just a few yards away from it is an enlarged skate park and the library only a block away is being remodeled with even more meeting spaces if an athletic center is what's being wished for besides school gyms and activities and Community athletic opportunities there are also fitness centers in Richfield Bloomington and on the border of Richfield and Idina and the new Adventure Park and other remodeled parks for outdoor alternative activities Richfield is a small community both in Geographic size and population why would we even need larger and more complex venues to maintain when we apparently cannot maintain what we already have finally in this world of tax hikers and those who want to have what communities to and three times our size have let's be original thinkers and come up with ways to preserve the wonderful assets we already have without tearing them down and building all new let's maintain the City properties and buildings we presently have instead of pipe dreaming ways to make bigger spaces which require even more maintenance and staff meaning an even larger budget with more taxes thank you for listening thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak and it doesn't look like anyone has come online so we'll close out the open form if you can hand this down to the city clerk thank you next we'll move on to the approval of the minutes of the special city council work session of August 28th 2024 the city council work session of September 10th 2024 and the city council meeting of September 10th 2024 so moved second it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion all in favor please say I I all opposed all right we have approved those minutes next we'll move on to the approval of the agenda so moveed second okay it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda is there any discussion all those in favor of approving the agenda please say I I I all opposed we have approved the agenda next we have a presentation from our Richfield beacons youth researchers and I'm going to have them come up to the podium and introduce themselves and turn it over to you all thank you and welcome uh hi thank you for being here uh we are youth participatory action action researchers from Richfield High School beacons program and my name is Linda and I'm in 10th Grade my name is Fatu and I'm in 11th grade my name is Felicia I'm in 11th grade my inade and our big question is what community spaces do the youth need to have a strong and involved community and throughout the summer we've been collecting data for that and we went to the fire department Taff Park uh sandies and our Beacon office uh the Richfield Community Center and Target and resta perspective upon uh the youth and we want to create a positive change within our Richfield Community how our data was collected so throughout the summer we've met with city leaders um community members and um we've made surveys which we've um gotten 134 responses from and um we've made focus groups and um basically what was asked in those meetings in those surveys in those focus groups was um what do youth need what do youth want um what are some barriers to those involvements and um why do you feel that way um we've been to different places we met with different people and we got different perspectives on how people feel um we found out a lot about the current involvement um of Youth in Richfield um as you can see on the first graph um there's a lot of Youth that say they feel involved in the Richfield Community but there's still like 20.5% of Youth that say that they don't feel involved um along with involvement um we found out where they are going um they said that they're spending their time at school after hours so like sports and um different after school clubs um for example beacons um and that's where they're going um but we also found out that there's barriers to participation in Richfield um to start Transportation um I did just get uh something on our school website saying that we can um tell put in a form our like roots to school um to improve those um but along with Transportation there's also like not opportunities for us to be involved in the Comm Community um for example our Recreation services program guide I look through it I look through it every year but I'm finding a lot of stuff for younger kids um like ages under 12 but 14 to 18 there's like a Zumba class you can go to with all ages but I don't think teens want to go to a zumba class um yeah we also found out with this what youth want that's our big question what do they want what do they need they want a community center with access to open gyms food comfortable seating and fun activities want a place to go besides the school and clubs because you can only be at the school until like 5:30 and then you're kicked out because there's no adults there um fun activities we want stuff to do we like playing Connect 4 in the Beacon's office um gotten really competitive it's gotten pretty bad here but uh we also want um events in Richfield coordinated for youth by youth we know what we want best um in events around the city but we don't really see that um cultural based programming and events um at the high school uh Richfield High School we had a powwow um and it's become will become an annual thing and it was really popular um everyone had a lot of fun um we also had a culture day um and that was honestly like the most unified I've ever seen the school cheering for different cultures yeah um and again increased opportunities for summer programming I'm board during the summer want to hang out doing stuff that my friends can do with me or as to the Richfield um city council is we'd like y'all to create a city a teen Council and ranging from the ages of 14 to 18 uh for example the Minneapolis um youth congress they have a youth they have a team Council that helps uh then plan events um we'd also like yall to increase the signages to include teens within the parks because for example augsberg Park their science is very vague and confusing so we would like you all to make it more clear more welcoming more concise um we' also like you to encourage um Hangouts gym spaces and Wi-Fi within a certain spots where a team can go there and hang out and enjoy themselves we' also like you to create more facilities that are centered for team um in the community center uh what we've accomplished is we've unlocked some soccer nets at three different Parks uh such as Washington Christian and Donaldson Park and we did that by talking to one of our city leaders named Jill and we've made connections with city leaders uh we met Jill and Simon and uh we increased our confidence in talking out in public spaces about what we have done during out the summer and we also presented at pennfest to the rich community um our future plans uh include a PSA video about youth uh present participations we' like to stress that because youth don't normally participate um nor are they involved in the activities events or anything uh really they usually feel welcome but stay at home so we' like them to go outside more and feel like they can feel welcome um we'd also like to put letters in the park uh to increase um encouragement uh through the community and uh so other people can help uh the community in any way and maybe they could help uh with the parks maybe they could help with the kids uh anything questions all right do we have any questions can you tell me more about the letters in the park like how would that work yeah okay so um the idea for the L of parks were actually my idea because I remember going to a park one time and um just feeling not welcome and um there is this group going around giving out letters and I found a letter that says like you're you belong your included and that just really inspired me and I want other people to feel the way that I felt when the group came up to me and gave me a letter so I remember there's like stickers and like little Staples I so we handmade bracelets to put with the letters um just put them in an envelope with one of our cards that we made by hand a few weeks ago put them in the park somewhere I think we planned on putting it in uh four parks and the high school yeah so you would put those out for people to find all right thank you other questions that people had council member Hayer lry first off thank you for your um your presentation is very timely with with the questions about the um Community Center particular on the ballot um I I did want to ask just uh followup specifically the comment about the sign improvements is that about like the like rule signs like when the park is closed or what what did you mean there um God okay um in Augsburg Park uh the first thing you see is it says inclusive Park um and then you turn and you see a sign that says um ages six to 12 recommended and you know it's right by the high school and you know I walk home sometimes and if I'm feeling adventurous or wanting to have a little bit of fun go to the park sit on a swing for a little bit you know have fun with my friends but you know with that sign there there's adults that sometimes think like oh teenagers what are they doing at a park it's made for tiny little kids but oh especially in our focus group a lot of teens mentioned being looked at weirdly or uh think kicked out of the park um by parents who didn't want them there so just wanting something that says hey people can be here to park thanks all right council member Troutman hey thank you mayor and welcome folks it's so good to see you and I just want to tell you how grateful I am that not just that you took the time to come here but I think you see I feel like everything we talked about this summer you guys just blew it out of the water you came you did the homework you did all the homework on the front end you are sharing your opinions but you're not just sharing your opinions you're sharing the community's opinions because you did the hard hard work um to to organize and to listen and then to record what you heard from community and so I just want to reflect that your power when you come here is not just your voice but it's the voice of the people that you made a connection with this summer and one that's just to be applaud like great great joke can we just give you a round of applause like I just think that's great so excellent excellent job as uh the father of Richfield high schooler get playgrounds are fun uh for high schoolers I can attest that that's and but that's actually a really great observation and that's only one of maybe a dozen great observations that you made so you're not just amplifying your voices for your own benefit but I'm reminded of that even though I have a Richfield high schooler in my home so you're just you're shining a light on things that we need to see and we need to hear so thank you great work I think it's a great idea to have a commission also um I'll just mention this I think I might have mentioned this before all of our commissions now that have all the powers that every commission has has at least two spaces for teen Commissioners so that we just had a planning meeting talking about what are we going to have a Starbucks and is that Starbucks going to have a third space is that going to be available for Community your voices would be welcome there not just as teenagers but as residents but it's specifically there for for youth so it's great idea I want to receive rece it but I also just want to send that message to you and the other youth that you're talking to to just say we have a space and your voices do matter and I just can tell you that that the youth that have participated have added Great Value to our commissioners but without without reservation incredible presentation really good content and really good work coming up to this moment this moment could go well or poorly you guys did all the work this summer and it's just this is just the the fruit of that so thank you you other comments or questions council member Wayan um thank you I um I agree with everything that was just said and I want to make sure that this isn't just kind of a a one-off thing that doesn't go anywhere um you mentioned having met with uh Jill who for folks who don't know us on our Recreation staff is that a um was that just with her do you have an ongoing conversation with our Recreation staff to follow through on some of these things um at first it was a onetime thing to like yeah we met with a once at the community center for uh current problem but we'd like to meet with her more in the future to solve more issues within the community yeah I guess I would um I would just reflect back to staff I know our Recreation folks aren't here but this seems like a really powerful opportunity um certainly for you all to know um if there uh if the city does move forward with planning a new community center um that there would be there's like a a super it's a little more than like drawing on a napkin but it's like a super General Vision of what that could be um so that we could get a general idea of how much it might cost but there would be a whole robust like Community engagement process that I think it would be wonderful if there were a specific like youth-led youth input Gathering process um and so if you all wanted to be part of that that could be really meaningful um the other idea you had that I had a specific question um I uh must admit at this point I'm old enough that I don't remember all of what it was like to be a teenager but I I remember both the value in spaces where adults saw me as like a my own person with my own ideas and also there were times where I just really didn't want to be around adults um do you in terms of the idea around creating events that youth have more of a more of a space that's created for them um it seems like a route of least resistance the easy route would be if you all were interested in partnering as we and sometimes Community groups plan things like pennfest or the 4th of July or events that are for the whole Community how much are you interested in that and how much are you interested in events that are specifically just for teens um extremely interested in helping the process of like planning stuff out because as we said uh youth coordinated and youth for youth um would be very interested in helping out with that because that's something that's really important to us okay um I don't think we're going to figure that out here but let's keep the conversation going of like who all you should be in touch with um and if you ever feel like oh this would be a great opportunity and I have no idea who to talk to uh we can definitely help with that so thank you again city manager Rodriguez you wanted to add something yes thank you mayor and I'm noting um that I have Rec follow up but also I did want to um tell you all that we have had this presentation before at the director's meeting so we we had the beacons researchers out and they made also a wonderful presentation to our staff um so that work has started but I will make a note to follow up with Rec as well thank you and I was thinking about um what council member Troutman said about vacant positions on um commissions and we currently for the Community Services Commission have two vacant youth positions and that would directly relate to Recreation and Parks and all the different things in the community the things that you were talking about so if you can spread the word to people for that in the meantime if we we can talk about like a teen Council and stuff but let's take advantage of the vacant spots that we have open now I was very excited to hear um all the work that you guys did and I appreciate the presentation thank you so much and please come back to other Council meetings I hope this is not your last council meeting that you attend yeah thank you thank you um we would also like to credit um we'd also like to credit um Alex and Antoine and naah for not being here they also massively contributed to this project and and um van and BJ and Nikki and Haley and Roz oh my [Applause] God thank you all next we'll be moving on to our Proclamation celebrating lgbtq plus history month so if commissioner um GLA could join me at the front here you're on you're on camera where' Simon go he'll be back here he comes here he comes all right thank you this is a proclamation of the city of Richfield whereas the path towards lgbtq plus equality and Liberation has been paved by courageous persons who have fought for the rights to love and Beloved the right to be who they are and their positive societal contributions of advancing areas of diversity inclusion equity and respect deserve recognition and whereas LGBT TQ plus History Month celebrates and commemorates those who fought for equal rights and services for the lgbtq plus community and is a means of educating others promoting a culture of acceptance and inclusivity and advancing equality for all and whereas the teaching of lgbtq plus history has been historically suppressed and currently books about lgbtq plus history are being banned the city of Richfield stands with its lgbtq plus community members and all of our citizens in support of the accurate teaching of history and honors the champions of lgbtq plus equality and the importance of their contributions and whereas the city of Richfield is proud of its diverse Community committed to equality of individuals of all sexual orientations gender identities and expressions and fully supports the compassionate and respectful treatment of our lgbtq plus community members and whereas the city of Richfield Endeavors to eliminate Prejudice wherever it exists recognize the multitude of identities that make each of us unique and envision a safe inclusive world that allows all members of society to live openly and truthfully now therefore I Mary Supple mayor of Richfield on behalf of the Richfield city council do hereby proclaim the month of October 2024 AS lgbtq Plus History Month in Richfield and call on the people of Richfield to observe this period with appropriate programs activities and ceremonies and continue to honor the contributions to our Collective history of the lgbtq plus Americans throughout the year Proclaim this 24th day of September 2024 and here I'm going to ask you to receive this Proclamation and if you'd like to say a few words go for it thank you Mary I appreciate richfield's consistency in supporting the lgbtq community um but since this is about lgbtq history the history is kind of sad really I mean history of lgbtq people is that people have tried to kill us over the centuries and uh for me one of the biggest moments in lgbtq history happened at the University of sexology back on May 6 1933 that's when the Nazis three months after Hitler became chancellor of Germany ransacked the the most advanced research facility in the world on people like me uh and then took all the books out on the street and burned them put thousands of people actually maybe more than thousands uh into concentration camps and all of that was six years before things started to get really bad for the Jewish people in in Germany so um right now we've got got a presidential candidate uh who has pledged to erase people like me everywhere in the United States government and uh so in this country the history is uh up in the air right now and it's going to depend a lot on what happens on November 5th um I know people who have fled states that have passed laws against their children and uh they had to sell everything at a loss and just get out so that they could uh protect their children um because they're like me so anyway um I do appreciate Richfield and I just wanted to say a couple of things about how it is out there thanks very much thank you yeah is there anyone else that wanted to add anything all right um go ahead council member whan thank you mayor um yeah I just whenever we do these proclamations we we always include the uh the call on the people of Richfield to observe this period with appropriate programs activities and ceremonies um and I even before Mara you had mentioned it I just am struck by it's this being October and I I cannot imagine a more appropriate activity than voting um that some some C Cates are more clear than others about their stance on this issue um but we are definitely um the history of this is not settled that it's very much in in process and um there are some some people running for office who want to take us what I would consider backwards and so just uh there's a lot of reasons to vote this year but certainly would encourage people to be part of creating the next stage of of history in this regard this country is founded on equality Freedom inalienable rights so and there's nothing in there about except for some people so I'll leave it that well thank you thank you turn on the microphone here next we'll move on to the consent calendar 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 calender has been approved the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved no further Council action on these items is necessary on tonight's consent calendar item a consider a resolution supporting the Richfield Economic Development authorities application to the hanban county business district Initiative Program Item B consider the approval of an agreement with the city of blomington for the provision of food pools lodging therapeutic massage and body art establishment Inspection Services uh for the city of ritual for 2025 item C cons under approval of the 2024 2025 emergency preparedness agreement with the city of Bloomington using public health emergency preparedness Grant funds distributed by a Federal Grant from the Centers for Disease Control to provide services in the area of Public Health emergency preparedness biot terrorism and the development of a response system item d a resolution endorsing the Constitutional Amendment to reauthorize the dedication of State Lottery proceeds to the environment and natural resources trust fund item e consider a resolution accepting a grant from Great River Greening in the amount of $15,100 to provide habitat restoration services at Wood Lake Nature Center item F consider the adoption of a resolution appointing election judges for the general election on November 5th 2024 and I submit these items for your consideration as part of the consent calendar and move to approve the consent calendar second it's been moved and seconded to approve the consent calendar is there any discussion council member hey fori I just wanted to call attention to the first item I already discussed and vote on voted on it as a member of the Eda but I am excited about the grant that we are pursuing to help with uh branding and placemaking for downtown Richfield and particularly the staff report has a nice little background of the various plans and history of uh the the concept of down or L Lindale or Nicolet tub anyway the various names that's gone over hopefully we'll come up with a really cohesive brand that helps us build that area out in the future any other discussion I want to do a big thank you to everyone who's volunteered to be an election judge so we're we're um passing our um authorization on a whole list of people and and they all deserve a great deal of thank you and I'm very excited about the Great River Greening Grant that's going to help with the o Savannah at wood at Wood Lake Nature Center any other questions or comments all right all in favor please say I I I'll oppose and we have passed the consent calendar moving along we'll go to item number six the public hearing and I'll turn it over to council member whan thank you mayor on this item is to consider the second reading and hold a public hearing for an ordinance Amendment to the Richfield city code appendix D the Fe schedule related to building Planning and Zoning fees City staff annually review fees to determine if charges for permits and services are appropriate staff want to ensure the costs of issuance for fees and permits reflect the staff time and costs related to performing the services associated with them staff also worked to ensure that costs for City Services are in line with our peer communities are not excessive and are in compliance with State Statute fees related to building permits zoning and other land use permits are established by appendix D of the city's code but unlike other fees included in the a the budget agenda item charges for building Planning and Zoning are required to be set by ordinance not by resolution the staff have anything to add on this item we're available for questions thank you um at this point then I would open the public hearing um and I believe the call-in option is still available if we could add that to the screen thank you um same call and information as earlier we'll give people um there's no one currently there no one currently in the room but we'll give folks uh 30 seconds to a minute to see if anyone is currently calling in and while we're waiting can I ask City attorney uh is summary publication aot is that able to be added in one motion to the other part of this or should those be two separate motions uh council member Wayan you can do it in one motion okay thank you um not seeing anyone online or anyone in the room I would make a motion that we close the public hearing second all right it's been moved and seconded to close the public hearing all in favor please say I I all opposed public hearing is closed thank you um then I would make a motion that we approve the attached ordinance amendment to Richfield city code appendex D the fee schedule related to building Planning and Zoning fees and approve a resolution authorizing summary publication of said ordinance second it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion all right all in favor of approving those two motions please say I I I all opposed okay we have approved the attached amendments to the appendix D and approve the the summary publication next we will move on to the city manager report city manager Rodriguez yes thank you mayor um at our last meeting we had two residents that spoke at the open Forum um one of the residents had some concerns about the audit and we discussed those concerns as part of the audit presentation um the other resident Mr erster was wanted answers to his questions which I provided during the city manager's report I also emailed those questions or I'm sorry those answers to him um a few days after the meeting and then we had several residents that contacted us via email and I read the their um comments and it was related to our budget discussion particularly about the recommendation to add to um police officers and so we had a long discussion about that um and I also wanted to as everybody knows but I'll just Echo it um early voting has started um it is uh off to a rapid clip already and I do want to thank our city clerk Michelle Friedrich for all her work it's been going very smoothly um but already I think you said 170 uh ballots that were um were we've taken in and processed so all right well hopefully people will continue voting we'll have a high high voter turnout moving on to claims and payroll I would move claims and payroll second it's been moved and seconded to approve claims in payroll in any discussion all in favor please say I I I all opposed claims and payroll have been approved we'll go to hats off to Hometown hits council member Troutman thank you mayor um two hats off I know I already shared that but for for the the the beacon um researchers I just think they did an incredible job and um they they did what they said they were going to do they did great research um they put the hours in and um hats off to our high schoolers for being so involved in our community I also well I imagine other people will also have this hats off but for everybody who came out and everybody who helped put on pen Fest this last week uh huge huge thanks and and um really grateful really proud of our city and uh well I'll just uh well I I one more one more hats off uh for our election judges um it it is uh not a highly paid and not a glamorous job but they they really are keepers of democracy and in in a moment where people say things like election judges are winning or they're fighting for us I really appreciate I I look down the list I know there are folks from multiple parties who are our election judges but they're not there in their party capacity they're there as residents that we trust to to ensure that we have integrity in our system so hats off to all of our election judges thank you council member Heyford liri I have no items for tonight but I will also share the thank you for pen Fest which was was a great time council member Christensen yes I just want to make mention a reminder to people that uh the Richfield Farmers Market is still in session and the hours are 8 a. till noon every Saturday and a great time to come out to see different vendors and to see what the uh Autumn produce and flowers and everything else that's involved is is there council member Wayan uh nothing to add just would Echo all of the thanks um for those who enjoyed and those who made happen pennfest um and then yeah just want to lift up early voting again and celebrate that um we in Minnesota uh we have I mean across the country have uh reliable trustworthy secure elections but that uh in Minnesota we have especially made a point of um making voting easier for everyone who's eligible um expanding some of that eligibility uh restoring voting rights to people who are um have finished their time and are out in the community uh pasted now a year and a half ago um that the uh if you are someone who absentee votes most times there's now a permanent absentee voter list you don't have to re-register for that every year um if you are a 16 or 17-year-old uh excited about voting in the future you can pre-register to vote um and so uh just want to lift up the the work of our secretary of state Steve Simon all the way down to every single um election judge our city clerk here in town um that we we have a good process and um it's very approachable and accessible uh while being secure and trustworthy so just encourage people to uh take advantage of that and make your plan to vote sometime in the next 40 some days I didn't count 41 or something like that thank you I'd like to do a hats off to the Richfield League of Women Voters they have have been going out and explaining to people how the process works they were at pennfest they had a meeting that went over the ballot measure questions um this weekend today they were out at um village Shores and were answering questions like how to register in person um what documents you would need if you needed to register how to do absentee voting how to do early voting how to do early inperson voting going through all of the different things and answering all the questions that everybody had so um I think it's really important that we open up the process and make sure everybody understands how it all works so my hats off is to the richeville League of Women Voters thank you with that we have no further Vis business so I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second been moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting all in favor please say I I I'll oppos we stand a journ