This transcript has been formatted with speaker names based on the context provided and the dialogue within the meeting. **Note on Identities:** * **Chair Kath** and **Commissioner Ron/Jensen** are members of the Public Services Commission. While not on the specific "City Staff" list provided, they are identified by name in the dialogue. * **Brad Petersen** is referred to as "Captain Peterson" in the transcript but is listed as the Acting Director of Public Safety in the official records. * **Dave Thiede** is the Councilmember liaison present (referred to phonetically in the text as "the"). *** [00:00:00] **Chair Kath:** I’ll call to order the Cottage Grove Public Services Commission for um January the 8th. Thank you, Lisa. Um, pledge allegiance. [00:00:10] **Group:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [00:00:25] **Chair Kath:** Roll call taken. Thank you. Approval of the agenda. [00:00:28] **Commissioner Ron:** I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. [00:00:30] **Commissioner Jensen:** Second. [00:00:31] **Chair Kath:** Any questions or comments? So moved. Oh, all in—I'm sorry, all in favor? [00:00:35] **Group:** Aye. [00:00:36] **Chair Kath:** Opposed? Motion moves, thank you. Um, approval of the minutes. [00:00:40] **Commissioner Ron:** I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. [00:00:42] **Commissioner Jensen:** Second. [00:00:43] **Chair Kath:** Any comments or questions? All in favor? [00:00:45] **Group:** Aye. [00:00:46] **Chair Kath:** Motion moves. Oh, I should probably gavel in and um, let's go right on to presentations then. Ryan, you up? [00:00:52] **Ryan Burfeind:** Good evening chair, members of the commission. So tonight I'm here to talk about a handful of requests that we've gotten for two different locations on Ravine Parkways for some enhancements to crosswalks um and this is the uh section of Ravine Parkway from Jamaica Avenue to Keats Avenue. So that was the part that was built in 2018 and opened up in 2019 um and what the specific request is for is rectangular rapid flashing beacons or RRFBs, we call them. [00:01:24] **Ryan Burfeind:** We have these at a few locations around town. I have a picture of the installation by Woodridge Park on 90th Street. We also have one on Hinton Avenue just south of 70th and then on Jamaica and 80th as well. So this is uh like I said an enhanced version of a crosswalk just to draw more attention and help kind of make those drivers obey those laws of of stopping when that pedestrian is in the crosswalk. Um they are fairly expensive; they can range between for us and our time 10 to 20,000 we've seen, and that kind of depends on you know what is those existing concrete pedestrian ramps like. Are there specific ADA requirements? Once you put in an RFB you have to meet so sometimes we find those pedestrian ramps don't meet that so we have to do all the concrete work in addition to buying and installing um the device. [00:02:18] **Ryan Burfeind:** They have gotten a lot easier over the years because now they're solar and Bluetooth so they have to be connected and they need power so we used to have to run power to them and then have a wire under the road to connect them so that's been a good improvement over the years with new technology um but they still come with quite a cost. So with that, when we find locations that you know we get the request and there's an initial kind of Staff review just to make sure you know what is this look like, does MnDOT really recommend something like this be considered or not um and if it is, we do want to bring it to the commission to get more feedback because typically The Next Step would be to talk to city council at budget time about trying to you know budget something like this. That would be the the next step if the commission has some recommendation to move forward with with one or both. [00:03:07] **Ryan Burfeind:** Typically we'd look to do about one per year. Um obviously if it's something is you know very important, very um needed, we can always talk to the council about more, but that's kind of what we'd look to do. Um and when we look at how we'd install these, it's all about the roadway characteristics and Ravine Parkway um actually right now the traffic isn't um extremely high; it's about a thousand vehicles per day. Um for like a neighborhood collector that is a little bit on the lower end but we know it's going to grow over time, right? The area is developing um and that's definitely not the the highest it'll get. Other roads in town like Hillside Trail, Indian Boulevard um those range from like 2 to 4,000 for like a collector roadway so that's kind of gets to be the more the higher traffic amounts but it is a higher speed limit. [00:03:57] **Ryan Burfeind:** So um a lot of our collectors um when there's like homes on them, which Ravine Parkway doesn't have, are 30. This is 40 mph posted speed limit. It is a two-lane design so just one lane in each Direction with that median and then there is turn Lanes at every intersection. And the two locations that have been uh requested; uh one is the first one by the new glacial Valley Park and you can see I've actually got an updated aerial here that shows that Park actually under construction this summer. Some of the driving factors for those requests have been kind of twofold: one, you can see uh those Town Homes to the South being built, there's even more homes south of that, so probably several hundred units of housing that may want to walk there um especially because they are town homes and they don't really have a large space to use right around their their home that maybe they're more inclined to go to the park to play. [00:04:54] **Ryan Burfeind:** Also the parking lot at glacial Valley, even though it's as big as we could fit with all the needed amenities, there's some concern that if you have overlap of let's say a bigger rental at the new building plus maybe a tournament, uh there may need to be some parking on Joliet Avenue where actual users of the park would cross Ravine Parkway potentially in those busy times. The other location is at number two and there's really two spots because of that divided section there, and that's where the Military Trail we call it crosses Ravine Parkway um and that's that trail Corridor that'll run from um Keats Avenue uh up to kind of where Military Road and Jamaica Avenue come together for that kind of historic Military Trail Corridor that we're developing as Military Road is removed. [00:05:41] **Ryan Burfeind:** So those are the two locations in question and as staff uh one of our tools we use is from the MnDOT traffic engineering manual um and it's for pedestrian facility treatment. There's a lot of numbers and different things on here um so just as a as a kind of showing of what we look at, you don't need to look at all of it right now because there's a lot going on, but it looks at what's the speed limit, what's the vehicle ADT, how many lanes are crossing, and that's where it talks about you know considering doing something like an RFB. It doesn't mean you shall put it in um but MnDOT says you can consider it. So this is what we look at. So for that first location at glacial Valley Park, I took an image out—I actually took it out of street view because that works pretty handy. So obviously it's not that sunny and green as it is right now, but this is what it looks like. This is from this summer um and you can see um it's got that median but being at an intersection um it does have a marked crosswalk today um and state law says at an intersection pedestrians can cross um so you don't see like the signs here because it is already a legal crossing point and we typically don't do those signs at intersections. [00:06:51] **Ryan Burfeind:** There is four lanes to cross technically because you have the two turn Lanes. Um it it kind of acts like a three Lane section in terms of having you know two left turn lanes and a through Lane in each Direction, but there is four lanes of traffic to cross here um and based on that MnDOT guidance and the traffic counts—so this is under that first kind of uh box of of lettering that vehicle ADT under 9,000, 40 mph speed limit—so it does say that a RFB could be considered. You know that would be a something that would work here and and could be justified. You actually see on those greater than 45 or greater than equal to 45, they're actually not recommended to be installed on roads like that. We have some older ones—yep, there's safety issues—yep, there's some older ones we have that are still there so they're kind of grandfathered in, but if it's 45 or greater MnDOT says to not install that type of device. [00:07:44] **Ryan Burfeind:** So this is one to consider you know this was kind of the details of it. You know one unique thing is the park isn't really fully open yet, it will be this year um so we don't know what that use is going to be. Um we don't know will there need to be parking on the South Side—there's a lot of thought that there will be, but that hasn't happened yet. So this is maybe more of a trying to be proactive instead of reactive if something like this were installed. The other location is at that trail Crossing. I show one image; the other side is is very similar to this um this is what we'd call a midblock Crossing so it's not at an intersection so it does have the markings and one sign you know showing that the crosswalk is there um and because it is only the one lane in each Direction, MnDOT guidance wouldn't necessarily recommend—it's not that you couldn't put one, it's actually because there's only one lane it it kind of considers an RFB maybe to be a little a little too much, right? It's more than what you need at this type of location. [00:08:44] **Ryan Burfeind:** So um but we have gotten several requests and questions about it that's why I still want to bring it to the commission to consider. Um some of the recommendations are that like pedestal style sign um those are quite often put on like a Center Line though of a road potentially because there's only the one lane of traffic um you can really see those signs, you can see the marking. So um even though that's something MnDOT says you could do here, a lot of times that would be two lanes that are right by each other and you'd put that right on like the yellow stripe in the middle. Um another thing that could be done is maybe adding another pedestrian crossing sign just on the other side so they see two pointing down instead of just the one. So that would be another option that we could do as well here but based on the MnDOT guidance that RFB would maybe be a little above and beyond at this location. So those are the two locations in question um and that's kind of the information I have but I'd be happy to get any feedback or discussion from the commission. [00:09:44] **Commissioner Jensen:** I have a question. When is the plan connection for Ravine Parkway to connect between Jamaica over to like Hinton? [00:09:54] **Ryan Burfeind:** Hinton, yep. That’s a good question. We do get that one a lot, Commissioner Jensen. So that is really dependent on development. So there’s two undeveloped Parcels there; one owned by Waltersdorf, another by—name’s blanking at me now—but really it’s development-driven. So you’d see that right away obtained and that road built when they develop. So I know for obviously the Waltersdorf parcel, there’s always been a lot of interest in that parcel over the last 10 years. It has a lot of Bedrock on it, a lot of other challenges that have made it difficult to develop, but that’s when you’d see that happen. [00:10:33] **Commissioner Jensen:** Okay, I assume the traffic volume would definitely increase. [00:10:36] **Ryan Burfeind:** Yep, that definitely could be when you get more connectivity for sure. [00:10:41] **Commissioner Ron:** So, not a question just my my own feedback. I I can certainly see having the one by the park for sure. Yep. But the other one—first of all, you have the MnDOT recommendation that it really isn't needed, and my fear is if you were to put one there, there's a lot more Crossings as you continue West on Ravine that are kind of similar to that, then why we're going to get more and more requests and you're going to have them all along Ravine the whole way then. So I I would not recommend one at that second Crossing, but certainly would support the one at the park because I could certainly see the need there. [00:11:15] **Ryan Burfeind:** Yep. And one thing I should have mentioned actually: if this Trail Crossing was picked, you would actually need two because that installation is at each spot, so you'd actually have to install two of them just to serve this one section of road as well. [00:11:27] **Commissioner Ron:** I would say definitely add a second um—the second pedestrian sign on the other side would be very helpful. Okay. It would definitely draw more attention to that but you—I mean, you also don't have any passing; it's one lane, you're not worrying about any passing traffic. I think there's a lot less, if you will, risk there than than the other location. [00:11:46] **Commissioner Jensen:** I agree that that would definitely be an area and I think we're going to see a lot of traffic at that Park, so for sure. Okay. I like the idea of being proactive as well. We know that there's going to be more housing and more people and it's going to take time to implement and be budgeted for, so I think it's a good idea. And obviously I'm biased but uh because I live right by it, um one of the things with the second intersection is uh when if you're coming left to right on that trail, often times traffic either direction doesn't look for you. So if you're running it, they don't stop. Um how much is a a—how much is a stationary sign like the one that's there? [00:12:30] **Ryan Burfeind:** So stationary signs—those we actually do ourselves. So the sign itself is—I'm trying to think if we make those or buy them—if Gary knows. [00:12:38] **Gary (Street Dept):** Those we make. Yep. [00:12:39] **Ryan Burfeind:** Some we make, some we buy um so that's not a huge cost. It's probably only $100 in material and then we install that with our own staff. [00:12:47] **Commissioner Jensen:** Cool. Yeah, I would—I would certainly say like I said, even though I'm biased, I would still say that putting a stationary sign in there is at a minimum, yep, should be done. But um, yeah the park—that's going to be because the parking lot like you said is is smaller than it wanted to be, uh I think you're going to have a lot of people parking on the other side of the road. Um so yeah I would say that one is probably the the primary marking that you should do. [00:13:16] **Ryan Burfeind:** Okay. I really like the state law signs. They prove to be effective because the pedestrian law, quite frankly, is very hard to interpret and as a pedestrian and as a driver um it just means different things and it's um at the liberty of who is reading it. Yep. So when you see a sign like that I think it reinforces that okay I need to yield. If I see a person... that is hard. I do get a lot of calls from the public I will say that they say I stood you know back on the trail for 3 minutes and no one stopped, but technically state law is you have to be in the crosswalk. Now that's hard because cars need to be stopping if you're getting in that crosswalk, but how many people do you see sitting on their phones these days where maybe they're just waiting there for a minute to send an email or something and obviously don't want cars stopping in a road for no reason so it's it's tough. [00:14:04] **Commissioner Jensen:** Well you also have people that choose to let traffic go, you know I see that a lot driving bus, you know they don't—they'd rather stop and have you go before they go even though they do have the right-of-way, which also can create confusion you know and misinterpretation. [00:14:18] **Ryan Burfeind:** So, yep, that’s a good point. Yeah, one of the probably the most risky situations is actually when you have two lanes in each Direction because if you have one car stop and one car not, they can't see the pedestrian. That's where these single lane in each Direction, but even with the turn lanes, is a much safer situation. [00:14:38] **Commissioner Ron:** Mm. Yeah like I said, I would say that the park is the first priority. This one I think uh you're probably going to have an issue down the road once the—that connection's built, yep, once traffic increases, but uh that was just something I wanted to bring up to like down the road maybe you'd need to have the the flashing ones but presently I'm not sure that it's required. [00:15:02] **Ryan Burfeind:** One thing we can definitely do is keep this area in mind, right? Not just kind of cast it off to the side, but just let's monitor it. We do the traffic counts every other year at a minimum just for our state aid funds that we get um and just kind of monitor everything as well. [00:15:18] **Commissioner Jensen:** Well it's interesting there because I know, you know I live on this side over here on Jensen—I know it's a County Road—but you know talk about an issue where we have 55 miles an hour and we're—we got a crossing for Park, you know getting from Woodridge up to Ravine, and there's people coming along there all the time. So it's interesting we have a lot of opportunities throughout our community to to find safer ways especially as these Parks develop and developments start coming in. As that new development starts coming in uh just off of 19 or 19 and 90th. [00:15:53] **Ryan Burfeind:** Yep. Any other questions for Ryan? I think based on that we'll you know we can kind of refine these costs and what we'll do then is when we have you know good numbers we—we go to the city council. We actually just approved our last budget, you'd be surprised we'll start in our next budget before you know it at a staff level, so we can do that work and kind of move it forward. All right, thank you. Thank you. [00:16:15] **Ryan Burfeind:** No—and next up is commission terms. Thank you. A little bit here... so really this is more of just an FYI—get off mute—this is more of an FYI um Carrie did reach out I think and let Commissioners know where they were at um in their terms. So um this just shows you know the Commissioners that are in their first or second terms and obviously you can serve um you know up to the the four terms. So um at this point no one's you know terming out and and everyone will be moving ahead that actually goes to city council um I think at our next meeting or the first meeting in February just to kind of reaffirm uh reappointment of Commissioners. So um everyone on this commission um will be reappointed you know for another year. Any questions at all? [00:17:11] **Chair Kath:** Sounds good. [00:17:12] **Ryan Burfeind:** Great. It's a fast meeting. Officer appointments, that'll be me too. We—we have some new new Liaisons that they can you know take the weight off my shoulders as they get into the commission but um so for officer appointments obviously last year we had a chair and vice chair that had termed out so we—we did have to do kind of go through the voting and determining a new chair and vice chair um I spoke with council member Thiede um and kind of what we typically do so if if those officers are still remaining on the commission which uh Kath and Khan are both staying on um as long as you're still you know interested in doing that um typically you can serve you know another term in that role um as long as you guys are open to that um unless you have any concern. [00:18:04] **Chair Kath:** Good. [00:18:05] **Ryan Burfeind:** So that's what we'll do for—for 2024 and discuss it again in a year. So, good. [00:18:11] **Chair Kath:** And commission comments. Any comments, concerns, commission? [00:18:15] **Commissioner Jensen:** Yeah actually I was going to ask: how did that uh—did anybody attend that snowmobile event on Saturday? [00:18:22] **Chair Kath:** Yeah that was—it was, you go ahead Ron. [00:18:24] **Commissioner Ron:** Yeah it was well attended again with—actually you know for a snowmobile this is not very good weather—but for the people that went to it it was actually a nice day out there and got to enjoy and so it was I had a really nice time. It was kind of weird to see everyone in sweatshirts but um it like Ron said it was well attended and um they donated an AED to Lamar and and just good things really came out of it. [00:18:53] **Commissioner Jensen:** Yeah. [00:18:54] **Commissioner Ron:** Yeah they did a nice job. I—I do have one thank you to—I don't know if it was public service that did it or it was the parks—but I know where I live by Woodridge there they came into that woods that goes along 90th and really did a nice job of cleaning that up. It looks like they might still have a little bit more to go but it's like night and day now when you—when you drive by that uh—well—well done. [00:19:15] **Zac Dockter:** That was Parks in there. [00:19:16] **Commissioner Ron:** Okay, nice. [00:19:18] **Chair Kath:** Any other comments from the commission? All right, staff updates. Would you like to start, Ryan? [00:19:24] **Ryan Burfeind:** I can go first. So um touching on some engineering and Public Works projects, probably the biggest one is is always thinking about PFAS and our PFAS contamination of our wells um I think I've talked over the last year at random updates about there's kind of two new things coming out: there's Federal standards that'll be coming out that were supposed to come out in December of 2023, they've been delayed um until probably February March of 2024. Um and those what we call MCLs—that's like a hard number, maximum contaminant limit that we can't be over—it's going to be set very low so it's going to be very very restrictive for two different types of PFAS that um have been looked at for many many years and that'll be the first time that there'll be a new rule like that at a federal level in a long long time so it's a big deal. [00:20:17] **Ryan Burfeind:** Um what cities have is is three years to be in compliance with that level um which we're obviously actively doing with our permanent treatment plants. We obviously broke ground on the one in September that's south of 100th Street and actually they just started uh pouring footings uh this past week so that was actually very exciting to see. The weather's been pretty cooperative so they could actually get all their grading done and now they'll pour footings actually all winter long. Um they'll actually have to pour concrete almost all the way through next fall; there's so much concrete in that facility so... and that'll be operational in 2025. And then we have a second larger one um that'll be kind of by the central fire station—actually behind the central fire station—um that'll serve all the homes north of the highway essentially um and that one will be operational as our goal by you know end of 2026 or early 2027. [00:21:11] **Ryan Burfeind:** We do the temporary treatment plants of course set still serve the entire community so I—I always like to make sure people know that even though that first permanent one's being built first, all those temporary treatment plants are in place and you know we're actually providing 100% treated water to our residents even today, which I think is a really big deal. Um the state's also going to come out with some new values and that'll really be we assume any day now um you know there's—they don't ever really give any notice of that but there's been a lot of talk about it um so we're building actually two more temporary treatment plants this spring which is kind of hard to hear because we're building permanent ones too, but with the new values we have to have more temporary treatment um to do that. What's nice once again: they're very small, very cost-effective, and the big treatment vessels that actually do the work actually will move into that permanent treatment plant behind the fire station. So that's not any kind of wasted money; 100% paid for by that 3M settlement so our residents pay not a dime for that but um we're very cost effective in how we reuse actually the treatment tanks for that. Um so that's another big deal. We're actually got some quotes um a few weeks ago and they came in good and we'll be looking to move ahead here soon and have those operational before summer. [00:22:36] **Commissioner Jensen:** Man, did the state usually typically mirror the feds or are they—stay a little stricter than the feds or how does that work? [00:22:43] **Ryan Burfeind:** So the anticipation is, based on some different comments of public meetings, they will be stricter than the feds. Okay. Um now the state—the state rules, it's interesting, they're not technically a mandate, they're technically a guidance, but every city follows them. I mean we—we follow them um that's really what caused the watering restriction in 2017 so um so that—those we anticipate to come out soon um and we do want to follow those. That's always been our goal, it's been the council's strong goal and—and and kind of standard that we meet those State rules which we have continued to do. [00:23:23] **Commissioner Jensen:** Then you're ready for the feds. [00:23:25] **Ryan Burfeind:** We are. Yep. So we'll be pretty well set. So—so that's our big one. So you'll probably see that—I mean to be honest on the news and such—that uh it's—it's going to affect a lot of communities. It's going to affect a lot more communities than just Cottage Grove because it's so restrictive, but um we'll be providing 100% treated water um which is a really big deal with all the work that's been put into that. So so that's my biggest one because really from a construction standpoint we met in November and you know really a lot of the construction had wrapped up by then um we had a couple developments finish up some work, one right across the street here um by 19, and there's another one called Greymont Village down south of uh 100th Street kind of by that new 105th Street we built by Ideal Avenue, and that one wrapped up work as well so um not a lot of work happening. Um and I will let Gary talk as well about streets although it's been a little different than last year because not as much plowing as we had last year. So... [00:24:34] **Gary (Street Dept):** So good evening and not good for the snowmobilers like you said but it's been a good break for our plow drivers. Uh we have been out about five times but just salting, we still even haven't dropped a blade yet this year. So with that, what that brings us to remove trees. We have 85 diseased Boulevard trees we're in the process of removing. Uh we're also like Parks—that's the reason they had a hard time with their rinks so they've been out in their Parks cleaning a lot of trees down in deadfall. We're in our ponds—a big one we just completed would be over by Hardwood and 70th Street; if you look down by them Town Homes you can see in there pretty clear, there was—it was a disaster look in there, but now it looks really nice and clean. [00:25:21] **Gary (Street Dept):** We did have one of our street guys transfer over to utilities so we interviewed uh 14 people, we have it narrowed down to two during the second round interviews. We had one today, one tomorrow, so hopefully we can make a decision by the end of the week and get one on within the next month or so. Uh the other thing with development we're making a lot of new Street name blades so we've been making them, installing them in, replacing some damage signs. Um other than that it's pretty much like I said we're whole big group of Foresters right now removing a bunch of trees in town. [00:25:57] **Chair Kath:** Nice. Any questions for me? [00:26:01] **Gary (Street Dept):** Hopefully we'll get some... enjoy it while you can. Yes, thank you. [00:26:05] **Ryan Burfeind:** Actually I will go one more time before I turn it over to Captain Peterson just because um we have our new fire liaison new Chief John Pritchard who was at the last meeting, because we moved the meeting tonight he had a a standing thing that was a conflict um but he will obviously be here at the next moving going forward but he did send me some updates um just that he asked me to pass along. So um he did say it now that we're into 2024, uh fire is preparing their year-end statistics. Uh they had just over 4,600 calls last year um which is a 43% increase in the last 5 years since 2018. Um they had 445 calls for service in December of 23 which was their busiest month ever uh as a department um and they are working on their year-end statistics overall which John is planning to present at the next meeting uh to the commission. So that'll be good and then they are also recruiting five firefighter paramedic positions and um they have three uh vacancies to fill for additional positions being added in April of 2024. So so that's the update from fire. Thank you. Captain Peterson? [00:27:32] **Brad Petersen:** All right, good evening Commissioners. As you can see, I am not Captain Rinzel, so I'm your newly promoted Patrol Captain. And so I'll start tonight's brief with uh updates on Personnel. We've had a lot of change in the last few months um so Captain McCallister announced his retirement a few months back and uh so we started the process of replacing him and um then with my promotion that—that opened up a new sergeants uh position. And so we started that process to promote the new sergeant and in the middle of that process we decided to implement some organizational changes. We wanted to add two additional sergeants and um move some of our other chess pieces around um and really take a look at the entire organization and see um how we could best provide the services given the current Staffing we have of of 46 authorized officers. [00:28:28] **Brad Petersen:** So we shook things up and um promoted those three additional sergeants so we had that swearing-in this past week: Sergeants Shown, Bailey, and Young were promoted. And then from there there was even further trickle-on effect because they vacated specialty positions with which they needed to be backfilled, and so we filled our community engagement officer or case management officer, some rotating detector position—detective positions. Uh there's probably others that I'm forgetting but there is a big trickle-down effect and so there's a lot of officers in new positions and so we've spent the last couple weeks in the first week of this year just getting everybody acclimated into their new positions, learning their new responsibilities and roles and so that's going to take a little bit of time um but we're still delivering excellent service. [00:29:17] **Brad Petersen:** One of the big changes that I wanted to comment on was our how we restruct—restructured our investigations division. In the past we had a captain um who oversaw the division, underneath him there was a sergeant, and then underneath that sergeant there was 10 detectives. As you know, that's—that's too many people to supervise effectively and so we've now broken that up into two branches in that investigations Bureau. We've got the general investigations which handles your traditional investigative work; they do case follow-up, charging, uh some of our task force operations—excuse me—so the traditional investigative work that you think about. The other branch we—we’ve branded our "Community Impact Team" and so that is more of our community-oriented problem-solving unit. [00:30:10] **Brad Petersen:** Um so that involves our school resource officer, Community engagement officer, case management officer, additional sergeant and some others um and they've each got their own lane, but in reality they're going to operate as a team to accomplish multiple missions: is to get out in the community, form relationships, address um quality of life issues, solve problems, be proactive um and try to prevent a lot of problems before they even happen. So we're really excited to—to see that come to fruition and start to address some—some problems uh before they even come problems for that matter. So looking forward to that. [00:30:49] **Brad Petersen:** Um the other thing I'm really excited to let you guys in on is that we've started work on a new 5-year strategic plan. Um so we—we've got a really good start on it, I would say we've got a solid 90% solution on that. I'm excited about that because we're finally going to have a document that we can use um to bring everybody together with a shared mission and clearly define our roles and our vision for the future. Um so by the time we meet next, I'm hoping that I can share that with you. I just—still want to put the cart before the horse and uh let the cat out the bag before Council and the rest team has had the chance to see that and approve that. So looking forward to sharing that with you. Um is that something that's new? Very new, yeah. We’ve—we’ve had a strategic plan in the past but it was kind of document that sat on the shelf and um this is envision it to be something entirely different. [00:31:47] **Chair Kath:** Good. [00:31:48] **Brad Petersen:** Um am I missing anything? Yeah, so the end of that trickle-down effect is we had to hire four Patrol officers. So um we've offered four conditional job offers; uh two of them are laterals—so they're currently police officers with other departments—one of them—actually the other two are—are CSOs. So all four come with some prior law enforcement experience, so the train-up should be pretty quick and—and easy with them. So they'll be starting on February 5th and I would be confident that all four of them will be on solo patrol probably early summer if not before. [00:32:31] **Commissioner Ron:** Congratulations. [00:32:32] **Brad Petersen:** Yeah, lot of—lot of stuff in the hopper and I've got even more to share with you next meeting. So, pending your questions, that's all I have tonight. [00:32:41] **Commissioner Jensen:** I just have a general question: where are we at community-wise with school resource officers? Do we just have one in the high school? [00:32:51] **Brad Petersen:** That's correct. [00:32:52] **Commissioner Jensen:** And not—not one at the middle school? [00:32:53] **Brad Petersen:** Correct. Okay. [00:32:54] **Commissioner Jensen:** That's by the school districts used to, right? Because didn't they recently remove one from Woodbury and Eastridge? [00:33:02] **Brad Petersen:** Or Woodberry chose—chose to come out with the new legislation that's still murky, to say the least, in regards to a school resource officer and um the liability surrounding use of force. So Woodbury, on the request of their City Attorney's Office, removed these school resource officers due to the liability. Then the Attorney General let out two or three different his recommendations in regards to his interpretations of the law, which are different—each one's been a little different. So it's—the law is still murky and we're still working through that. But we uh as a department and city chose to stay in that. Um we would be more than happy at any point in time that the school district wanted to engage in conversations to add school resource officers back into the middle schools. It's something we'd like to do, but that would be a staffing increase that we would have to accommodate to get that because we don't have enough with the current Staffing uh to fill those roles unless they fund that obligation. [00:34:04] **Commissioner Jensen:** Yeah, and I—I mean I just—I think long-term that's something that they're going to have to seriously look at. I mean, you know, today alone there was issues at one of the middle schools and you know it's not something long-term I think is going to work. So was just curious where—where we were at as a community. [00:34:23] **Brad Petersen:** We'll be able and ready to go when they want to engage in those conversations. All right, thank you. [00:34:29] **Commissioner Jensen:** In the absence of a—of a—excuse me—of an SRO in the school right now, is there any stop-gap like a security guard or...? [00:34:39] **Brad Petersen:** That’s—School District's problem. They've hired um a couple different interim—and maybe Captain Peterson can talk about that—but they hired some internal um security measures. Um but as far as law enforcement, if they have immediate 911 service that comes through the Patrol Division and—and like any other call for service. There's no direct radio communication between either of the middle schools or any of the elementary schools with our officers like there is at high school where it's direct. Someone there, they radio is internal, they talk to our officer then on our radio system so there's a seamless transition of information. [00:35:19] **Commissioner Ron:** Sounds like uh the School Board needs to develop a task force for this. [00:35:24] **Brad Petersen:** Let that be a commission question that raised. I do have one more uh one more thing: so with all the change that's on the horizon, um one of the things we're considering is following suit with a lot of other communities who already have a civilian oversight uh committee in place for their—their uh Public Safety uh departments. So the idea we're kicking around is using the commission as our sounding board and our mechanism for soliciting Community feedback on all these different ideas that—that we have in the hopper. And so um if that's something that you were willing and able to do, we can have that discussion ne—not necessarily tonight, we don't have to do it tonight, it's not what I'm saying, but maybe a future meeting that's something that we can put on the agenda to—to discuss. [00:36:17] **Commissioner Jensen:** So I think that would be a great agenda item. [00:36:20] **Commissioner Ron:** Agreed. [00:36:21] **Brad Petersen:** Yeah, perfect. [00:36:23] **Commissioner Ron:** See, you're not going to miss me at all. [Laughter] [00:36:25] **Brad Petersen:** And uh any other questions or concerns? All right. [00:36:31] **Chair Kath:** Um, Council comments welcome. [00:36:34] **Councilmember Thiede:** So hi gang, welcome, glad to be back. I see some familiar faces, some—some new that I—that I haven't really met too much before but uh so um let's see. A couple things—I I think you've been well-informed with—with some of the things I'm hearing. Uh if anybody is you know noticed some—some lights out along uh East Point Douglas, uh we did have—I don't know if you ever mentioned that—but we did have some theft of copper wire out of the—out of the street lights. So that's why they're out. Uh so uh uh you know that's being taken care and followed up on, but if anybody asks that's—that's what happened. [00:37:18] **Councilmember Thiede:** Um let's see what else. We uh just Saturday we—we H—got together with a lot of the staff and so forth and had our annual strategic planning meeting, and we actually had it out at the uh glacial park building. Very nice building um and so forth, everything worked well too I guess that that's—that's a good thing, get get used a little bit. Uh um I would say that uh in that meeting nothing drastically new in terms of vision or direction; uh you know kind of you know talking about different things, reinforcing you know some of the things that were already you know working toward and looking at. [00:38:00] **Councilmember Thiede:** And um let's see uh anything else from—from that uh you know we talked some about focus on the pavement management and uh you know looking at Jamaica and—and all the ruts and so forth and comparing that to some of the other areas and so and and such. Uh you know just—just some of the reiterations too of uh you know two of the areas that we—we get most of the comments coming back from people: of especially this year B—the snow plowing has been great. Uh but—but it's—it's—it's every—every year you know it's—it's people you know commenting on how—how uh how good the—the snow plowing happens in the winter and so forth and and just the—the service level out of of Public Safety and and things like that. Uh so it's a—it's a real pleasure to—to really uh you know get some a lot of that feedback and it all comes back to—to all of us you know because uh everybody's part of that—that effort and and bringing that feedback back from citizens and things like that and and helping Council, helping the city make things uh happen safely and—and uh um and comfortably or—or—or accommodating in—in nice services and things like that. So um otherwise that's all I have right now because I think you—you kind of covered... I looked over the—the agenda items from the other meetings there wasn't too much but uh if there's any other questions that you may have of me I can try to answer. [00:39:34] **Commissioner Jensen:** What's the damage on the uh the street light copper theft? Because I know copper obviously while expensive it's not that—it’s rewiring the entire light. [00:39:46] **Ryan Burfeind:** Yeah, so we're still kind of—we know the extent of the damage but we're working like with our insurance and and looking at what that cost is going to be. You are right though because even though copper has gone up significantly prices and doubled apparently in the last few months—you probably seen St Paul's gotten hit a lot—um you know if—if the damage is you know 50,000, the value they took in scrap is probably only a couple thousand. But um we don't quite know yet but uh we did have some uh messaging on Facebook just to have the public help you know look—look out for this. Um you know basically our staff really only work on street lights during the day. You know we're not—there's never really usually a street light emergency; if a light's out, a light's out and we fix it the next day. So anytime you see anyone by a street light especially overnight to call that in because that really shouldn't be happening. So I'd rather air on the side of caution and have the police you know come up on Tyler or Jeff and utilities than uh give them a hard time rather than—rather than wait. [00:40:48] **Brad Petersen:** This is not a St. Paul/Cottage Grove issue; this is a Metro-wide issue. It's the newest precious metal. Catalytic converters kind of got uh stamped down a little bit and I think they've—our friends that are in the salvage business, if you want to call it that, are finding new ways to salvage from perfectly good and operational equipment. Biggest one—if you ever been out to the State Fair, I happen to work out at the State Fair too and the entire road in front of the State Fair was stripped of all copper and they're talking like $250,000. So if you've ever been to the fair and wonder why it's so dark, they literally stole all the copper from St. Paul street lights in that whole entire area and that was a big safety concern with Fair and other things. I learned about it then and it's now like other things continues to spread outside of a a ring and then they find us on 61 somehow. [00:41:45] **Brad Petersen:** Any other questions for Councilmember Thiede? One thing before I leave the commissioner completely is um we are going to do some—we’d like to get your feedback and um Recruitment and Retention. As you know this last go around we did well with having initially 30 applicants, which is good. I kind of talked about this last meeting where that—that's good for today's day and age; it's horrible in law enforcement in general. I'm still in Recruitment and Retention so if you think about with neighbors or whomever, you know what is it that we can—can do to recruit and retain officers and how far is the city willing to go? What are we looking at? Just kind of think of those other things because I think Serge or Captain Peterson will um eventually come to you and say hey we're kind of looking at this or this. [00:42:37] **Brad Petersen:** So just kind of put that on your radar right now as you know what do we do as a city of Cottage Grove to recruit and then not only recruit but then retain the best possible uh law enforcement officers uh that we can. Um just a new hire—if somebody were to leave you're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it's the—the retention of the people that we currently have. But you take an officer that's been around for three to five years and you're—you’re walking off with $200,000 of training, education, experience and equipment that just walks out the door and it's not replaced that easily. [00:43:18] **Brad Petersen:** So um we are going to look for new initiatives, so kind of think about that with other people and friends and neighbors and that's going to be my push before I leave is you know I—I have some ideas, but these are you know internal and this is a commission that would be great to see you know what are other organizations doing. Um you know I've been steadfastly against bonuses to get people in the door because then the 46 people that have been here um diligently working on a daily basis feel as if uh the people that are coming in are more important than the ones that are already here and then you end up playing the now we're replacing and we're paying out this money and losing and the other money on the... so it's really the retention and how do we keep people. What's the culture, the wellness? Uh whether it's pay, benefits, equipment—what is it that we have here that we can keep them? We do a good job, don't get me wrong, but the minute you relax and you decide that mediocrity or just a little bit above is good, someone's going to come by and they're going to steal your talent and we need to stay at the cutting edge and at the very forefront of how do we keep our people and how do we keep them happy, how do we keep them safe. Um and then how do we get the new ones in the door that are going to replace us because we're going to have turnovers. [00:44:40] **Brad Petersen:** I have a few years left, there's another sergeant—I mean there's a succession plan and this is going to be a constant in and of itself with growth. Now you have the other people leaving for retirement and—and we're going to be filling... I think Captain Peterson, what—how many have we—what's the average in the last 10 years? How many do we hire every year? Three per year. And that's with minimal growth. So as our growth continues the increase will be more per year. [00:45:10] **Commissioner Jensen:** Mm-hm. [00:45:11] **Brad Petersen:** So that's three every year. I mean and what's your retirement projection? What's that? What's the retirement projection? [00:45:16] **Brad Petersen:** Uh we have for sure one probably in 24 and then a number in 25—higher than that, yeah. Um so in addition to growth, so that's a lot of turn. That's a lot. I mean you're looking at a city our size—I started in Cottage Grove in 1995; I was the 33rd officer. 1995. We have 46 now. [00:45:39] **Commissioner Jensen:** So we went from 33 to 46. [00:45:41] **Brad Petersen:** Yeah, it's not that many, right? But if we've on average done three every year for the last 10 years, that's 30 people in 10 years—remember we only have 46. And I was the 33rd, right? So it's a constant grind. Um and the numbers aren't getting any better. The skills Department um for—as I think filled this last time which not—would we had a little transition where hopefully people are getting back into it. I think the military is kind of picked up a little bit too. So in five years it might not be an issue but boy if we don't arrange our uh our cards, the deck right for the next 5 years we could be in serious problem and there are cities not far away from us just North that are short over 10 people and they can't get more—they hire as many as they get and they still can't fill the ranks. We're very fortunate, but I want to keep that fortunate true. That be my only answer for the commission: come up with new and exciting ways of—of keeping the people that we currently have without giving people money to start here. [00:46:53] **Commissioner Jensen:** Is there a portion of the budget set aside specifically for that piece? [00:46:58] **Brad Petersen:** Yes and no. I mean we already do a good job with equipment, we're looking for other ways of doing that. Um so we don't have a line item for "retention" per se, um but we're definitely something we need to uh consider. The recruitment end I think we do a pretty good job. You know this last hire-in is half lateral and half CSO/Reserve. Over the last 30 years, that's basically half of come from one, half of come from the other. We very rarely have somebody with zero law enforcement that comes here um it just doesn't happen that goes back to my time. Wow. Those are the two categories: we steal from someone else or we get them from the reserves or CSOs from within. It’s kind of the two tracks. But if you want diversity and other candidates, you need to look even further. So, right? How do you recruit the young ones? How do you get into that area where we have CATS or whatever it might be from our community? [00:48:02] **Commissioner Jensen:** One of the things we've done in the military to—to try to—I'm sure the Army knows this too—but um asking the people why first of all why they came and then also why they're staying because we can use that to our advantage like to to appeal to new people and also to keep the people we have and quite possibly lure some people from other departments. Uh I don't know what that looks like for us um but it seems to be pretty—a pretty valuable tool to the military anyway. [00:48:35] **Brad Petersen:** I think one you see the five-year plan, Captain Peterson's done a really nice job of laying out those specific things: what is your purpose for being here and what—how do you keep it? How do you keep people to want to be a part of your community? Yeah, the big thing is is you know we say "local talent's best talent." There's a lot of people I think right now there's over half that currently live in the city and at least that are—that are from originally from Cottage Grove, graduated Park, have ties to— [00:49:09] **Councilmember Thiede:** I think—I think just as might mention that a big big part of it that—that I hear too is—is just some of the community involvement; uh you know the respect; uh you know and and some of those kind of things. And I think—I think that's what would draw you know officers and things like that into our community where know some places uh where the—the attitudes are you know really stink, right? And—and uh I'm not a big social media person, but—but you know more—more of the message getting out and—and you know either—either coming around you know squelching some of the—the—the negative comments out there and and continuing to promote some of the great things that—that uh our city and Public Safety and—and—and so forth do uh definitely helps too. So any—any type of things there in that—in that area too so... [00:50:09] **Brad Petersen:** DOJ just put out a white paper on recruitment retention and we hit—what do you think Captain Peterson? 90%? 90% of everything that they say you should do for recruitment retention we are—we're already there. And then there's a few of the other things, the anomalies that we have to look at and go maybe that would work, maybe it wouldn't. Um you know money's not always the shiny object that people are looking for but you have to be competitive, right? You can't pay $10,000 less than the neighbor agency um and expect the people not to leave nowadays especially when there are many agencies right now it's $10,000 to start on with them and they're paying lateral pay and they have all the other stuff. New generation is not afraid to hop around um in the past that's not how it happened. I don't want to be just like every other agency and just expect people to come and go, I just want to be the—the landing place that everyone stays. So, thank you. [00:51:14] **Chair Kath:** Well with that, are there any further comments, questions, concerns? [00:51:20] **Commissioner Jensen:** I'll move we close the meeting. [00:51:22] **Chair Kath:** All right, do I have—I have a motion to close the meeting. [00:51:25] **Commissioner Ron:** Second. [00:51:26] **Chair Kath:** And a second. Second. Any other questions? All in favor say aye. [00:51:30] **Group:** Aye. [00:51:31] **Chair Kath:** Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.