This transcript has been formatted with speaker names and estimated timestamps based on the context of the meeting proceedings and the list of officials provided. [00:00:00] **Mary Supple:** Good evening everyone. I'm going to call to order this regular city council meeting for the city of Richfield. It's February 25th at 7:00 p.m. If you're able, please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:00:15] **All:** 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. [00:00:30] **Mary Supple:** Thank you. Next, we'll move on to open Forum. I have one card. Did anybody um call in or leave messages or anything ahead of time? [00:00:40] **Michelle Friedrich:** No, no messages. [00:00:42] **Katie Rodriguez:** No messages. [00:00:45] **Mary Supple:** All right. So for the open Forum, participants can share comments in person, by voicemail, or email and may also request to participate virtually. For more information on submitting comments, refer to the city council agenda and minutes page at Richfieldmn.gov/citycouncil. Um, we have one person who has requested to speak and you'll have three minutes. So I'd like to welcome Kathleen Balaban. [00:01:10] **Kathleen Balaban:** For what I gave you is uh the first page is actually a cut and paste from the city code and it talks about the city council agenda. I'm not going to—oh, I handed off the wrong stuff so I don't have my sheet. Okay, I don't need it. Um, bottom line is what I have attached are your agenda sheets for all of the council meetings in the beginning of the year to current. And what I'm speaking to in these is the consensus calendar and how much money is on it. And I'm primarily addressing the grant money as well as high-cost equipment items, but it's on the consent calendar. And the consent calendar doesn't—you really don't discuss anything, you just say yes to it. On the first page on the council agenda, the last sentence says that the city manager decides what's on the consent calendar and it shall be those which the manager deems to be of routine and non-controversial nature. Well, I find that these consent calendar items are more than slightly deserving some attention. They're million-dollar items. Millions here, and they're going into the future years '25, '26, '27. I don't need to address each and every one of them. What I'm asking you to do is look at them because we don't seem to have what I would refer to as one area for grant funding because I've seen job openings and they come from different departments and they're grant writers. So we seem to be working in a silo or some type of environment where we're not communicating and we don't tell each other how many how much dollars... and you know, I'm looking at these $12 million things and they're going into the future debt. We seem to be taking from Peter to pay Paul and sending Mary out for funding, and it's in these documents, it speaks to that. I'm asking you to be cognizant of what you're saying yes to without discussion and what it does to the future. I mean look at what's going on in our federal government and we're asking for more money. I haven't heard one thing out of the city staff that says okay, we can cut this from the CIP—you know, our Capital Improvement Plan—or we can do these reductions over here. We don't have to do these projects in 2025 or 2026, we can send them out to '27 and '28. We don't know what the future is going to bring, but yet we're still spending money. So I'm asking you to look at your code, see if you can put a parameter on how much goes in the consensus calendar where we can discuss it, so that we can hear that you discussed it when we read and/or listen to your council meeting. Thank you very much. [00:03:40] **Mary Supple:** Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to address the council? All right, um, seeing no one else raising their hand or coming forward, we'll move on from the open Forum. Thank you to the commenter. Next we'll move on to approval of the minutes of the city council work session from February 11th, 2025, and the city council regular meeting from February 11th, 2025. [00:04:00] **Sean Hayford Oleary:** I move approval. [00:04:02] **Sharon Christensen:** Second. [00:04:05] **Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of approving those two sets of minutes please say aye. [00:04:12] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:04:15] **Mary Supple:** All opposed? We've approved those two sets of minutes. Our next agenda item is a proclamation celebrating Women's History Month and I'd like to invite HR—or Human Rights Commission—commissioner Maddie Von to join me up at the front. So first of all, thank you to the Human Rights Commission for preparing this Proclamation. This is a proclamation of the city of Richfield: Whereas Women's History Month is for celebrating the achievements of all women including women of color, women of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, women of all abilities, and women of all religions; and whereas women of the indigenous nation of the Dakota people have lived on this land now known as the city of Richfield for thousands of years; and whereas President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 7th Women's History Week and later the United States Congress declared March Women's History Month in 1987; and whereas women have served courageously throughout our history in all aspects of our society and deserve to be recognized and respected for all their contributions; and whereas the city of Richfield was honored to have the first Latina mayor Maria Regan Gonzalez in the state of Minnesota; and whereas Melissa Poehlman is the first woman director of the city of Richfield Community Development Department; and whereas Kristen Asher is the first woman director of the city of Richfield Public Works Department; and whereas the city of Richfield is in Minnesota's fifth congressional district and is represented by the first Somali American congresswoman Ilhan Omar; and whereas the city of Richfield confirms its commitment to supporting and uplifting women of all races, abilities, and religions to ensure a better future for all members of our community; Now, therefore, I, Mary B. Supple, Mayor of the city of Richfield, do proclaim the month of March 2025 as Women's History Month in the city of Richfield and call on the people of Richfield to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies and continue to honor the contributions of women Americans throughout the year. Proclaimed this 25th day of February 2025. And then Commissioner Von, if you would like to say a few words, and I think eventually they were going to get a picture, but perfect. [00:06:40] **Maddie Von:** All right, good evening everyone. Um, I just want to say thank you Mayor Supple and the City Council um for having me here tonight. Um, although this is my fourth proclamation, I'm always very humbled and honored to be here with the City Council, um particularly on behalf of the Richfield Human Rights Commission. Um, I would just like to make one quick announcement about the proclamations: I do feel that although they are really important that we honor and acknowledge all the different communities and genders and religions that we have in Richfield, that it's really just opening a door to more action that really represents our values as we go throughout this year. Thank you. [00:07:20] **Mary Supple:** Thank you, and I think we—again, thank you to the Human Rights Commission. Next we'll move on to approval of the agenda. [00:07:25] **Walter Burk:** So moved. [00:07:27] **Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Second. [00:07:30] **Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of approving the agenda please say aye. [00:07:38] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:07:40] **Mary Supple:** All opposed? And we have approved the agenda. Next we'll move on to the consent calendar and I will turn it over to City Manager Rodriguez. [00:07:50] **Katie Rodriguez:** Thank you, Mayor. The consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the City Council in one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved. No further Council action on these items is necessary. I just have two items on tonight's consent calendar: Item A: Consider authorizing the City Manager and Mayor to enter into a right of entry agreement with the owner of real property located at 7221 Lindale Avenue South for the removal of a privately owned dead oak tree by a city contractor. Item B: Consider the approval of the 2024-2025 Law Enforcement and Fire Department therapy dog grant program. And I submit both of these items for your consideration as part of the consent calendar. Thank you. [00:08:40] **Mary Supple:** Thank you. Are there any items that council members wish to pull off the consent calendar for further discussion? All right. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? [00:08:50] **Sean Hayford Oleary:** So moved. [00:08:52] **Sharon Christensen:** I'll second that. [00:08:55] **Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent calendar. Is there any discussion? All right. All in favor please say aye. [00:09:02] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:09:05] **Mary Supple:** All opposed? And we have um approved tonight's consent calendar. Next we'll move on to item number five, and I'll turn it over to Council Member Burk. [00:09:15] **Walter Burk:** Thank you. The item for Council consideration: public hearing and consideration of the adoption of a resolution specifying the use of funds from the Urban Hennepin County Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocation for 2025 and authorizing execution of a subrecipient agreement with Hennepin County and any required third-party agreements. The executive summary: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding is annually awarded to Hennepin County on a formula basis from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The county, in turn, allocates a portion of these funds to the city of Richfield to address local needs relating to affordable housing, community development, and public services. The city has historically allocated the funds to the Housing and Redevelopment Authority for programming. Staff is proposing to use the city's 2025 direct allocation of $171,801 as follows: $79,301 to the Deferred Loan Program, $80,000 to the single-family acquisition and rehabilitation, and $12,500 to the first-time homebuyer down payment assistance program. The Deferred Loan Program provides no-interest 30-year loans up to $30,000 to low-income homeowners to address health, safety, and property maintenance needs. The Deferred Loan Program is administered for the city by Hennepin County. There's currently a significant waiting list for the funds. The HRA will work with a nonprofit developer to purchase and rehabilitate an existing home (single-family acquisition and rehabilitation). The rehabilitated property would be sold to a household earning 80% of the area median income or less ($97,400 for a family of four). The first-time homebuyer down payment assistance program is aimed at low and moderate-income first-time homebuyers who are looking to buy homes in Richfield. It provides no-interest deferred loans of up to $20,000 to use towards down payment and closing costs. Anything to be added by city staff? [00:11:15] **Julie Urban (Assistant CD Director):** Council Member Burk, Mayor, members of the Council, I'm Julie Urban, our Assistant Community Development Director, and no, I have nothing to add but I'm happy to answer any questions. [00:11:28] **Mary Supple:** Recommended action is to conduct and close the public hearing and by motion um to adopt a resolution. I'll open up for public hearing. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak on this matter in the public hearing? Did we receive any comment that was sent in? I'll ask again if there's anybody here that wishes to speak on this. Right. It does not look like anybody's coming forward to speak in the public hearing. So a motion would be in order to close the public hearing. [00:11:55] **Walter Burk:** I'll move. [00:11:57] **Sharon Christensen:** Second. [00:12:00] **Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion? All in favor of closing the public hearing please say aye. [00:12:08] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:12:10] **Mary Supple:** All opposed? Okay, the public hearing is closed. So now it would be in order for someone to make the motion and then we can ask if there are any questions or if there's any discussion. [00:12:20] **Walter Burk:** I'll make that motion. [00:12:22] **Mary Supple:** Could I clarify which motion you're making? [00:12:24] **Walter Burk:** Um, I would be making both motions: to adopt a resolution authorizing the use of funds for the 2025 Urban Hennepin County Community Development Block Grant program and also part of that motion is to authorize execution of a subrecipient agreement with Hennepin County and any required third-party agreements. [00:12:42] **Sharon Christensen:** Second. [00:12:45] **Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Now there's time for Council discussion. Are there any questions for staff or any discussion? Um, I do believe we've talked in the past that Hennepin County is changing how they're going to do this. Can you explain—this is the last year when we're going to be doing it separately? Could you go through that? [00:13:05] **Julie Urban:** Mayor, members of the Council, that is correct. I sent out a memo last fall detailing that the County was not meeting expenditure goals or requirements—I shouldn't say just goals, requirements—of HUD and so had to come up with a plan. Their response is they feel they can be more efficient by having all the money themselves and then offering it out in a request for proposals. They currently have some cities that they do that with, and some cities get direct funding, and they wanted to have it all in one pool and deal with it that way. So we will have the ability to apply competitively going forward, but we'll have to see how that goes. The HRA staff are currently in the process of evaluating all of our housing programs and that's one of the things that we'll take a look at is how we might access some of those funds in the future. It's unfortunate; we've had these funds since the late 1970s and done a lot of really great programming with it. So we're working on how to how to make up for that loss. [00:14:05] **Mary Supple:** All right. Are there other comments or questions? The motion is before us. If there's no further discussion, comments, or questions... all in favor please say aye. [00:14:15] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:14:18] **Mary Supple:** All opposed? And we have passed the resolution and authorized the execution of the subrecipient agreement. Next we'll move on to item number six, Council Member Coleman-Woods. [00:14:30] **Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Okay, before us is an item for Council consideration to consider the approval of agreements with nonprofit organizations to provide social services to the city of Richfield and authorize the City Manager to execute agreements with those agencies. In November of 2024, staff distributed a request for proposals for social services to nonprofit agencies serving the city of Richfield for services to be provided in 2025. The 2025 City budget includes funding for organizations that provide social services that are deemed to be a benefit to the city and the community in general. The 2025 budget includes $91,400 for this purpose. A total of eight proposals were received from the following agencies: Cornerstone Advocacy Services, The Family Partnership, VEAP (Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People), Loaves and Fishes, Senior Community Services, Reach for Resources Incorporated (formerly TRAIL), Uable Emotional Health (formerly Headway), and ICNA (the Islamic Circle of North America). The proposals represent a wide variety of social services offered to Richfield residents. The organizations requested a total amount of $130,221, exceeding the city's available funding by $38,821. One Richfield resident and three staff members comprised the committee that reviewed the proposals and made funding recommendations. These recommendations took into account the type of services to be provided, the target population to be served, and past performance of the social service agencies. Seven of those eight proposals were recommended for funding. The following table details the Review Committee's recommendations: - Cornerstone: $22,000 proposal; $21,200 recommendation. - VEAP: $25,000 proposal; $25,000 recommendation. - Loaves and Fishes: $8,000 proposal; $8,000 recommendation. - The Family Partnership: $30,000 proposal; $12,600 recommendation. - Senior Community Services: $10,500 proposal; $10,500 recommendation. - Reach for Resources: $5,000 proposal; $4,500 recommendation. - Uable Emotional Health: $10,000 proposal; $10,000 recommendation. - ICNA: $1,712 request; not funded. ICNA is not being recommended for funding because its food shelf services are limited, duplicative of VEAP, and not physically located in Richfield. A complete overview of all services to be provided by the various organizations is attached. I move to approve the agreements between the recommended nonprofit organizations and the city of Richfield and authorize the City Manager to execute agreements for services with those agencies. Are there any—is there any discussion from staff? [00:17:35] **Jennifer Anderson:** Council Member Coleman-Woods, Mayor and Council Members, no I have nothing to add. I'm happy to answer any questions. [00:17:42] **Mary Supple:** Do we have any questions for staff? Great. So if you want to go ahead and make the motion. [00:17:50] **Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** I move to approve the agreements between the recommended nonprofit organizations. [00:17:55] **Sean Hayford Oleary:** Second. [00:17:57] **Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? [00:18:00] **Sean Hayford Oleary:** Oh, go ahead—just a quick comment. I... this is the first time being new on the Council to see how the city is supporting some important social services, and it's great that the city is increasing in that support. Definitely appreciate—not just definitely appreciate—the efforts that these organizations are making, and truly great that you're out there. So thank you. [00:18:25] **Mary Supple:** And I see in the audience we have um some representatives from those organizations, so I also want to add my thank you and to anyone who's watching online for all the work that you all do for our community. It's very valuable and very, very appreciated. If we had unlimited money, we wish we could fill all the requests, so it's a really tough job trying to figure out, you know, which ones we can and cannot fund. So thank you all and thank you for the services that you provide. Any other comments or questions? We have a motion before us. All in favor please say aye. [00:18:55] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:18:58] **Mary Supple:** All opposed? And we have passed the recommended action. Thank you. Next we'll move on to the City Manager's report. [00:19:05] **Katie Rodriguez:** Nothing to report tonight, thank you. [00:19:08] **Mary Supple:** Thank you. Claims and payroll? [00:19:10] **Walter Burk:** I move approval of claims and payroll. [00:19:12] **Sharon Christensen:** Second. [00:19:15] **Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to approve the claims and payroll. Are there any questions, comments, discussion? All right, hearing none, all in favor please say aye. [00:19:24] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:19:27] **Mary Supple:** All opposed? And we have approved the claims and payroll. So next we'll move on to the Hats Off to Hometown Hits, and we'll start off with Council Member Hayford Oleary. [00:19:35] **Sean Hayford Oleary:** Thank you. Um, I just wanted to take a moment to thank staff. I submitted Richfield for a potential award or recognition from Strong Towns: The Strongest Town. And I did a lot of the writing for the application and the selection of pictures. But basically, Strong Towns is an organization that supports um kind of traditional city building, by which I mean mixed-use development, walkable neighborhoods, streets that prioritize people outside of cars as well as in cars, and just good financial resilience. So a lot of people helped with this application, so I just want to thank them. I'm probably going to forget some folks but Mayor Supple, our communications director Kate Aitchison, Katie Rodriguez, Karl Huemiller, Melissa Poehlman, and I think I think one of the—another director—so whoever I'm forgetting, I apologize and thank you everyone for your time. Um, you know, even if we don't get recognized, it was just really fun to be able to write up all the cool things that we're doing because it was—yeah, we're doing a lot of great stuff. [00:20:45] **Mary Supple:** All right, thank you. Um, Council Member Burk, did you have anything? [00:20:50] **Walter Burk:** Go ahead—Hats Off to Public Works. They came out to my ward; there was a tree that needed to be taken down and I was really impressed with how swiftly and thoroughly and just very considerately took care of the issue. Definitely heard it from a few of my neighbors also, so Hats Off to Public Works. [00:21:08] **Mary Supple:** Thank you. Council Member Coleman-Woods? [00:21:12] **Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Absolutely. Um, so Hats Off to one of my neighbors who I've lived on the same block of my entire life, um who reached the honorable age of 100: Joanne St. Pierre. Uh, I have um... I was a little girl growing up on my on this block, so she's literally existed my entire life on my block. So I have the honor of presenting the proclamation on Friday as she celebrates her 100th birthday. [00:21:40] **Mary Supple:** I thought that that was really amazing that you've known her your entire life. [00:21:45] **Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Whole life. That is—that ages me too. [00:21:48] **Mary Supple:** Well, that just means you're less than a century. [00:21:50] **Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** That I mean, that's true. This is true. This validates my age. Thank you. [00:21:55] **Mary Supple:** All right, um, and Council Member Christensen, you said you didn't have anything? [00:22:00] **Sharon Christensen:** Um, I... well, this past week I'd like to give a Hats Off actually to the League of Minnesota Cities. They hosted a um wonderful, wonderful two-day learning seminars about different things about City Council and leadership. And it it provided a really good insight that uh to consider that what we're doing here in the city is um really good. And we uh compared small cities to large cities and we're pretty much all on the same page of how we run our meetings and things like that. We all attended that meetings—or those two days of meetings—and I thought it was awesome to meet other representatives from other council members and other mayors that are been newly elected. It definitely showed um quite a lot of diversity. Thank you. [00:22:50] **Mary Supple:** Yeah, and I appreciate the taxpayers funding that so we could go for the training. That was really great. I want to do a Hats Off to Patricia Ione and she um helped organize a visit from a group of powerful women: the Mujeres Latinas Unidas came to Richfield. And um we—the Police Department—did a presentation and we talked about how all of the services that the city provides and the various programming that we do. And it was a really great event, so I want to thank Patricia and the Mujeres Latinas Unidas for joining us. It was a great out—um, a great um meeting. I also want to do a Hats Off to one of our social service funding organizations that is now coming to City Hall. So VEAP—the food shelf—has hours at City Hall now every Monday and Wednesday. They come from 10:00 to 1:00 and it's right out behind the information desk is where they'll meet with people. They can help people with past-due rent and utilities, accessing food, and other general needs. So I thought it was really exciting that if someone didn't have transportation to get to their site in Bloomington, that they are coming here to us in Richfield so people right on the bus line can get to them. So Hats Off to VEAP for coming to us and reaching out to people. There are no further Hats Off? I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. [00:24:15] **Sharon Christensen:** Second. [00:24:17] **Mary Supple:** Well, somebody has to make it first. [00:24:20] **Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** So moved. [00:24:22] **Mary Supple:** It's been moved by Council Member Coleman-Woods and seconded by Council Member Christensen to adjourn the meeting. All in favor please say aye. [00:24:30] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:24:32] **Mary Supple:** All opposed? We stand adjourned.