Here is the transcription with the speakers identified based on the context and names provided. **Note:** Since the original text did not provide numerical timestamps, I have used a sequential timestamp format. [00:00:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It is 7:00 PM on September 10th and I'm calling to order this regular meeting of the Richfield City Council. If you are able, please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Um, we are now at the Open Forum portion of the meeting. If you are listening online, you can call into the Open Forum by dialing 1-415-655-0001, use webinar access code 263 4781 8135 and password 1234. Is there anybody currently online? All right, we'll leave the information up there so people know how to call in. I have two people that have submitted requests that are here in the room, and I believe the City Manager has a number of emails that were sent in requested to be read. We'll be timing all of these for three minutes, whether it's an email or whether it is an in-person resident giving feedback. First of all, when you're giving your feedback, can you please state your name and your address and you'll have three minutes. I'm going to welcome Kathleen Balaban first. Thank you. [00:01:30] **Kathleen Balaban:** Do you want me to sign in or you have my card? [00:01:32] **Mayor Mary Supple:** I have your card. So as long as you fill out the card, you're good to go. [00:01:35] **Kathleen Balaban:** Okay, thank you for checking. My name is Kathleen Balaban. I live on 65th and Stevens Avenue South. What I'd like to talk about today is on your computers: you have the agenda, you have the packet, and I have pages 330 through 336 here and it's the audit report. What it says here is our material weaknesses where we lack segregation of accounting duties due to a limited number of office employees. We go down further and it talks about the material audit adjustments detected as a result of this audit procedures. The next page—oh, it talks about the Ice Arena and the receipts don't match the revenue accounts. It talks about—the next page it talks about other deficiencies and the next page talks about further deficiencies. Talks about not having procedures, major losses. These things that I've talked about to you over the years about lacking procedures, policies, processes—it's here. You know, it shows up here. It goes on to page 333: "While our audit provided a reasonable basis for our opinion, it did not provide a legal determination on the city's compliances with those requirements." It goes on through six pages of poor management of our accounting systems. I clearly now understand why our new Finance Director doesn't want to work here anymore. Plain and simple. We have some serious issues, serious issues in our accounting process and how we read our budgets and it states it in the audit. Please look at that, please think about that and think about how we're going forward in the future because this is not it. Thank you. [00:03:05] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Next, we will welcome Larry Ernster. [00:03:10] **Larry Ernster:** Good evening Council. My name is Larry Ernster. I live at 6727 Elliott Avenue South. Tonight, Item B of the consent calendar is a resolution approving the budget for the affordable housing. I am in support of this fund because I support homeowners and home ownership. However, at the August 14th meeting, my wife and I posted a series of questions to the City Manager that seem to conflict with the goals of the affordable housing trust. Specifically, while the trust fund is wanting to help individuals purchase homes, the city is systematically destroying homes, destroying whole entire neighborhoods, eliminating opportunities—in fact, eliminating the possibility of home ownership by eliminating over 30 single-family homes. I must again point out that homeowners pay the majority share of property taxes in the city and that homeowners fund the majority of the city budget which is on the docket tonight. It has been nearly a month since August 14th when we first posed these questions to the City Manager and they are: Question number one, what documentation declares that the state-level micro-unit ordinance 327.30 specifically applies to home-ruled cities? Question number two, three supportive building developments at Penn Station—MICC compound, Aster Commons—require 14 buildable lots. My questions are: after they are built, which ones will be paying property taxes and which ones will require additional taxpayer support and assistance, and how is that additional support going to be budgeted and generated? Question number three, the 2040 plan intends to rezone 33 residential homes at 75th and Morgan to MR2. What is the city's authority to rezone these residential homes and have you notified the residents of these homes of the intended rezoning? And lastly, does the City intend to destroy the market value of these 33 homes by rezoning and destroying the neighborhood so that some developer can swoop in and buy them at fire-sale prices? I will again provide the City Manager a copy of these questions and I await her response. Thank you, and I'll be leaving early to watch the debate tonight. [00:05:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Um, just since you're leaving early, I believe the City Manager was planning to answer those during her report. So make sure you watch online; it was my understanding she was going to answer your questions. So if we're not to that point by the time you get there, I want to make sure you get the answers to your questions. [00:05:30] **Larry Ernster:** Good, thank you. [00:05:32] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Is there anyone else here that wishes to speak? This is our one chance for people to speak if anyone wishes to come forward and say anything. Is there anybody online? I believe that City Manager Rodriguez has a number of email submissions and I'll do the same for those as far as timing and that type of thing. [00:05:50] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Thank you, Mayor. The first email is from Carrie Seely-Deik. She writes: "Good evening Richfield leaders. I'm reaching out with some concerns about the balance of our public safety budget. I know we have excellent police and safety officers in Richfield, but I would like to see more funds being allocated for social workers, mental health responders, and crime prevention. Based on what I understand, it appears that only 25,000 is being spent on mental health and prevention out of a million dollars. I would like to see a better balance in this funding. Could this be increased to 300,000? This would be a more balanced allocation of prevention and reactive measures. As a former teacher and school administrator, I know how important these services are for children and parents who are struggling in our communities." The next one is from James Jaffy. His message is: "Hello, my name is James Jaffy and I live at 6900 Blaisdell Avenue South. I am very interested in the conversation around the upcoming City Public Safety budget and I would appreciate it if my comments could be read at the open forum on Tuesday. I have been a Richfield resident since 2019, first as a renter and now as a homeowner. I appreciate the professionalism of the Richfield Police Department and the hard work that officers put into maintaining a positive relationship with the community. I support the 700,000 in the proposed Public Safety budget as endorsed by the police union. The city must show our officers that we need them and will compensate and equip them appropriately. However, I would like Richfield to consider alternative uses for the additional 300,000 in the public safety budget. The police are faced with an ever-growing number of calls for mental health crises and medical emergencies. More and more of the officer time is taken up with calls that may not require an armed officer. I would like to see an expansion of the department's paramedic, social worker, and mental health professional staff. I think that these resources would help relieve the current heavy call load and continue moving Richfield Public Safety towards a more holistic approach to policing. I love living in Richfield and I look forward to what we can accomplish together for our shared future. Thank you for your time." The next email is from Megan Paul: "Dear Mayor and City Council Members, my name is Megan Paul and I am one of your constituents in Richfield. As someone with an interest in public safety, I am hoping that the Richfield city budget, while still supporting our police, can also invest in alternative models of Public Safety. Alternative models may include investing in the mental health of our community with trained Behavioral Health responders, taking a preventative approach to violence and crime by investing in the needs of our community, and providing rehabilitation efforts for those with prior offenses. Please consider a joint investment in alternative models for Public Safety alongside investing in our police. Alternative models also serve as a form of support for the work our police officers already do. Thank you for your time and reading this email." Our next email is from D. Erickson at 6718 Clinton Avenue: "Good evening Mayor Supple and esteemed members of the city council. Thank you for the opportunity to express my opinion on an issue that is being discussed. I come before you not only as a concerned resident but as someone who deeply believes in the power of collaboration and constructive dialogue. A group is proposing to take the money allotted to hire two more officers and instead hire a paramedic and social worker. I'm opposed to this. While I respect and value the roles of paramedics and social workers in addressing critical social and health issues, I firmly believe that our first priority should be enhancing Public Safety. Our police officers are already stretched thin. Law enforcement officers are uniquely trained to handle dangerous and unpredictable situations that can't always be addressed by social services alone. I would like to point out that we have a full-time on-duty fire department who have excellent response times for emergencies. I urge the council to reconsider this proposal and retain the resources for law enforcement as initially intended. Thank you." Our next email is from [Council Member candidate/resident] Rory Coleman-Woods: "I am writing to provide my comments as a potential council member regarding the city's budget reallocation for Public Safety. While I holistically support the need for our Public Safety officers, our traditional model of Public Safety needs to progress with the state of the community. We are in great need for alternative responses. From my understanding, the Alternative Response Team only has an available one shift out of four shifts and is shared with Edina. I believe we need to invest in more shifts in order to meet the greater needs of the community. I would agree with other council members that are leaning towards the allocation of 300,000 to the behavioral crisis response and alternative response teams. I also agree with the need to keep the good officers that we do have and to retain that good talent. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend tonight's meeting and would please request that these comments be read." The final comment is from Gina Van Arnam on behalf of a group: "We have received the Axel Group's Richfield Department of Public Safety organizational and staffing assessment report. It notes that while the population and crime in Richfield have remained steady, the demands on the city's police officers have increased significantly. Officers are responding to a growing number of mental health calls. The report goes on that while the RPD has adjusted its services, staffing and scheduling have remained largely unchanged for decades. This has led to many of our officers frequently issuing their own vacation time to respond to this increase in volume. With this comes stress, mental health fatigue, and adverse effects on retention. To address the concerns, the preliminary 2025 Richfield budget includes funding for wage increases for current officers. The public safety budget increase also adds officer positions, and while it is understandable that this is one suggested solution, there are other ways that this approximately 300,000 could be used. Research and experience show the high value of having additional embedded social workers. Since Richfield is basing the Alternative Response Team pilot on Brooklyn Center's successful approach, we know that it is very likely going to call for funding of at least one additional embedded social worker and EMT. Research is also showing nationwide that stopping people for low-level traffic violations is not contributing to a reduction in crime. Is there an effort to discontinue this practice in Richfield, thus freeing up time for our overworked police officers? We believe that this remaining funding could be used to increase the number of embedded social service workers and to continue to provide training to dispatch and officers on how to handle the growing number of mental health calls. Thank you, Richfield for Equitable Public Safety." And that's the final one. [00:13:30] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Has anyone else logged in online? Okay, and I'll do a last call if there's anyone in the room that wishes to speak. Okay, we will then close out the Open Forum. Thank you, and thank you to everyone who participated. Could you hand this over to the City Clerk? Thank you. All right, now we're going to move on to approval of the minutes of the City Council Work Session of August 14, 2024, City Council meeting of August 14, 2024, the special City Council meeting of August 15, 2024, and the special City Council work session of August 20, 2024. [00:14:15] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** So moved. [00:14:16] **Council Member Sean Hayford O'Leary:** Second. [00:14:17] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to approve those four sets of minutes. Is there any discussion? All in favor please say aye. (Group: Aye). All opposed? All right, we have approved those. Next, we'll move on to approval of the agenda. [00:14:35] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Approval. [00:14:36] **Council Member [Troutman]:** Second. [00:14:37] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Been moved and seconded to move approval of the agenda. Is there any discussion? All in favor of approving the agenda please say aye. (Group: Aye). All opposed? We have approved the agenda. Next, we're going to move to the proclamation celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and I would like to welcome Miguel Hernandez to join me to receive the proclamation. [00:15:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** [Reads Proclamation text regarding the history of Hispanic Heritage Month and its significance to Richfield.] Now, therefore, I, Mary Supple, Mayor of Richfield, on behalf of the Richfield City Council, do hereby proclaim September 15, 2024, through October 15, 2024, as National Hispanic Heritage Month in Richfield. Proclaimed this 10th day of September 2024. Thank you. [00:18:15] **Miguel Hernandez:** Well hello and thank you for having me. It's good to see new friends and old. My name is Miguel Hernandez and I have worked at El Tejaban since I could. I would like to restore this honor, this proclamation to my parents. I think about heritage and honor and what being Latino or Hispanic is, and I think about the immigrant class that has brought all the great heritage and culture to Richfield, to Minnesota. Without them, we wouldn't have great culture; we wouldn't be able to be who we are today here. So it's with a great honor to celebrate my parents who have been here for 16 years at El Tejaban Mexican Grill. Without their support, I've seen them not only hire and work with the community but also mentor and be leaders. Thank you for having me and this means a lot. [00:19:30] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. I just want to thank Miguel and his family for being incredible community members. We appreciate your leadership. Thank you again for joining us and thank you for all your contributions to our community. All right, next we'll move on to our audit review and so I'm going to turn it over to City Manager Rodriguez to introduce the presenters. [00:19:55] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Actually, I'll turn it over to Finance Director Kud Verma. [00:20:00] **Finance Director Kud Verma:** Thank you, Katie. Good evening Mayor and council members. I'm pleased to inform you that the 2023 annual financial audit has been successfully completed. The city engaged audit firm Bergen KDV to conduct a comprehensive review. The auditors have provided an unmodified audit opinion. Today we have with us Caroline Stutsman from Bergen KDV to present the audited financial results. Caroline is an audit shareholder with Bergen KDV; she has been with the firm for 24 years. With that, over to Caroline. [00:21:10] **Caroline Stutsman:** Good evening Mayor, members of the Council. I'm Caroline Stutsman. We do have a PowerPoint presentation to walk through tonight with a summary of the results. [Walks through Audit results, explaining the "unmodified opinion" and highlighting general fund balances, tax capacity, and enterprise funds like liquor and utilities.] [00:30:45] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Before we go on, does anyone have any questions? I had one for the City Manager. I had asked you earlier—and I think it should be stated publicly—with regard to the findings that were made, what have we done to correct those? [00:31:00] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Finance Director Verma can correct me at any time, but in terms of staff turnover, we have stabilized our staff and we are fully staffed. We actually have a proposal in the budget to add an additional person to help with the segregation of duties until we can modernize our processes. Also, we hired a really key position, a new payroll accountant who is very adept at our current accounting program. And then with the Ice Arena, they are going to do an Excel program to track it so we don't have that problem again. [00:35:10] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Any other questions? All right, thank you. At this point, we will come back to this item later to approve it. [00:35:20] **Finance Director Kud Verma:** I just want to mention that this will be, as the Finance Director, my last audit submission and also my last budget submission. I will be leaving the city at the end of the year to spend more time with my family. I have enjoyed my last two and a half years here at Richfield. My colleagues have been wonderful. I wish the city and all my colleagues and my team the very best of everything. Thanks. [00:35:50] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Yes Mayor, I had a thank you for after the budget because Director Verma has two big things on the agenda tonight and she actually is staying with the city until the end of the year. But I do want to thank you very much because we had a lot of turnover and you have stabilized that and we are going in the right direction. Thank you. [00:36:30] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Next we move on to the Consent Calendar. I'm going to turn that over to City Manager Rodriguez. [00:36:40] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** [Summarizes Consent Calendar items A through I, including the affordable housing trust fund budget, USDA forest service grant, and various resolutions.] [00:38:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? [00:38:18] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** So moved. [00:38:19] **Council Member [Troutman]:** Second. [00:38:20] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? I did want to point out the affordable housing trust fund information—it's a very good program. And thank you to the American Forests and the USDA for the grant we're receiving. All in favor please say aye. (Group: Aye). All opposed? We have approved the consent calendar. Next, I will turn it over to Council Member Whalen for the receipt of the City of Richfield annual financial report. [00:39:15] **Council Member [Whalen]:** Thank you, Mayor. As required by state law, the city's auditing firm Bergen KDV has completed the annual audit. Staff presents to the city council the annual financial report for fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. I would make a motion that we accept the annual financial report of the City of Richfield. [00:40:00] **Council Member Sean Hayford O'Leary:** Second. [00:40:01] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. All in favor of accepting the annual financial report please say aye. (Group: Aye). All opposed? All right, we have accepted the annual financial report. Next, we will move on to a discussion regarding City Council attendance at the 2024 National League of Cities City Summit conference. Council Member Troutman. [00:40:30] **Council Member [Troutman]:** Thank you, Mayor. I would move that we designate and approve City Council Member Christensen to attend the November 13th through 16th, 2024 National League of Cities Summit in Tampa, Florida. [00:41:00] **Council Member Sean Hayford O'Leary:** Second. [00:41:01] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. All in favor please say aye. (Group: Aye). All opposed? We have approved the attendance. Next, we'll move on to consider a request by Brixmor for a conditional use permit at 1406 66th Street West in order to retent a building with a new grocer. I'm going to turn that over to Council Member Hayford O'Leary. [00:41:30] **Council Member Sean Hayford O'Leary:** Thank you. The former Rainbow Foods building has been closed for six years. A new grocery store, Loma Bonita, would like to now occupy the 52,400 square foot building. Staff finds that the proposal meets the intent of the comprehensive plan. The Planning Commission voted 5-0 to recommend approval. [00:43:00] **Community Development Director Melissa Poehlman:** I did want to mention that we have continued those discussions about the relief on that north wall and that I believe that Brixmor and staff have come to an agreement on the design of that. [00:44:00] **Lauren Robinson:** Good evening, my name is Lauren Robinson and I'm a Project Director with Brixmor Property Group. I wanted to highlight a few things. We have a signed lease with Super Mercado Loma Bonita. The family's been targeting Richfield for a while. Our application has a $3.7 million spend, but we're now projecting to spend closer to $4.2 million. The facade will be significantly upgraded. Regarding the EV item, we are going to use our best efforts to realize this requirement. [00:49:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** I will make the motion to approve the proposed conditional use permit, planned unit development, and development plan amendment. [00:49:10] **Council Member [Troutman]:** Second. [00:49:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All in favor please say aye. (Group: Aye). All opposed? All right, the motion has passed. Moving on, we will be moving to consider the 2024 revised and 2025 proposed budget resolutions. I'll turn it over to Council Member Christensen. [00:50:00] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Thank you, Mayor. [Reads the preliminary tax levy details and the truth in taxation hearing date of November 26, 2024.] The proposed levy is an increase of 5.45% over the 2024 levy. [00:52:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Is there a motion to approve the resolution adopting a proposed budget and tax levy and setting the truth in taxation date? [00:52:20] **Council Member [Troutman]:** So moved. [00:52:22] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Second. [00:52:30] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** [Addresses public feedback regarding public safety staffing vs. alternative models, explaining the need for both traditional and alternative programs.] [00:58:00] **Council Member [Whalen]:** I continue to have some reservations... roughly 93% of the additional investment is going to our traditional officers and only 7% to alternative models. I would like to see us explore more about how it can be a greater balance. [01:01:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** I support adding those two positions because we need to add those two positions to make sure we have the staffing that we need. Research indicates that working 12 hours per day is associated with a 37% increase of risk or injury. It's both-and, not either-or. [01:06:00] **Police Chief Jay Henthorne:** [Provides updates on hiring progress.] We have five positions to get back to full staffing; three are filled. I believe we'll have those five positions filled hopefully sometime this year or early 2025. [01:08:45] **Cassie [Social Worker]:** My name is Cassie, I'm the alternatives response social worker. Even though we may not always need a full handful of officers at a call, we're still taking away from public safety's ability to respond to other calls until we clear the situation. There was a lady with an 8-inch butcher knife... had I answered that door alone, we don't know what could have happened. I think it is really early in the process to look at adding another team. [01:18:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** [Calls for a vote on the four separate budget resolutions.] All in favor of the 2025 preliminary property tax levy please say aye. (Group: Aye). All opposed? Passed. [Next, budget revisions for 2025 and 2024, followed by City Fees for 2025 are moved, seconded, and passed.] [01:21:00] **Council Member [Troutman]:** This item is to consider the adoption of a resolution approving the contract with Teamsters Local 320, the Lieutenants. I would move we adopt the resolution. [01:23:00] **Assistant City Manager Sack Thongvanh:** I wanted to thank the work of our HR manager and the police department leadership. There's a lot of dedication and professionalism. [01:23:30] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. All in favor please say aye. (Group: Aye). All opposed? We have adopted the resolution. Next, the City Manager's report. [01:24:00] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** [Provides formal answers to Larry Ernster's questions regarding micro-unit ordinances, property taxes on new developments, and zoning/eminent domain issues.] [01:27:30] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Moving on to claims and payroll. [01:27:35] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** I would move claims and payroll. [01:27:37] **Council Member Sean Hayford O'Leary:** Second. [01:27:38] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Claims and payroll approved. Hats off to Hometown Hits. [01:28:00] **Council Member [Whalen]:** Early voting starts September 20th. Also, this Sunday is Penn Fest. [01:28:30] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Next Saturday the 21st is a gathering of local authors at the Richfield History Center. [01:28:50] **Council Member Sean Hayford O'Leary:** Thank you to the Transportation Commission for the work on Nicollet Avenue. [01:29:45] **Council Member [Troutman]:** Thank you to volunteers for Penn Fest. Also, the new vision for the Wood Lake Nature Center is stunning. [01:30:30] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Again, a thank you to Director Verma for all you've done. Also, Penn Fest is 1 to 5 on Sunday. And a plug for the Farmers Market on Saturday. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. [01:31:00] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** So moved. [01:31:01] **Council Member Sean Hayford O'Leary:** Second. [01:31:02] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). We stand adjourned. Thank you.