Here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker identifications and timestamps based on the context provided. [00:00:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Good evening everyone. It is Tuesday, February 10th at 7 PM and I'm calling to order this meeting of the Richfield City Council. Um, if you're able, please rise and join us with the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. [00:00:15] **Council/Audience:** ...and justice for all. [00:00:18] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Um, our next item is approval of the agenda. Council member Hayford Oleary. [00:00:23] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Yes. Um, I would move that we approve the agenda moving item 7B, the resolution about Nicollet Avenue off the consent calendar to be item eight. [00:00:33] **Council Member Walter Burk:** Second. [00:00:35] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Being that council member Christensen is remote, we need to do a roll call vote. So, city clerk Friedrich. [00:00:46] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Yes. Thank you, Mayor Supple. Council member Burk. [00:00:50] **Council Member Walter Burk:** Aye. [00:00:51] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Hayford Oleary. [00:00:53] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Aye. [00:00:54] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Christensen. [00:00:55] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Aye. [00:00:56] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Coleman-Woods. [00:00:57] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Aye. [00:00:58] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** And Mayor Supple. [00:00:59] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Aye. [00:01:00] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Thank you. [00:01:01] **Mayor Mary Supple:** So, the motion passes. Um, our next item is approval of the minutes from the city council work session from January 27th, 2026 and the regular city council meeting from January 27th, 2026. [00:01:13] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** I would move to approve the minutes from both the work session and the regular council. [00:01:17] **Council Member Walter Burk:** I'll second that. [00:01:19] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Um, clerk Friedrich. [00:01:25] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Yes. Thank you. Council member Burk. [00:01:27] **Council Member Walter Burk:** Aye. [00:01:28] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Hayford Oleary. [00:01:29] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Aye. [00:01:30] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Christensen. [00:01:31] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Aye. [00:01:32] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Coleman-Woods. [00:01:33] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Aye. [00:01:34] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** And Mayor Supple. [00:01:35] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Aye. [00:01:36] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Thank you. [00:01:37] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Okay. The minutes have been adopted. We're now moving on to open forum. There are a number of people wishing to speak tonight. So, we will strictly follow the three-minute time limit. I'll hold up a yellow card when you have 30 seconds left and the red card when your time is expired. I would like to remind you to please listen respectfully and quietly to all, even those you disagree with. When you approach the podium, state your name and city of residence, and then I will start the timer. Please keep in mind that anything you share becomes part of the public record. Thank you. At the moment, I have six cards. Are there any more? I'm just trying to figure out timing. Okay. So, doing the math, if we have 8 * 3 is 24 minutes. So, I don't think we need to extend the time at this point. If some more come in, we can always extend the time later. All right. So, Yep. Thank you for that reminder. Just trying to get the timer up here. All right. So, our first speaker will be Burgett Johnson and on deck is Betsy Stark. [00:02:40] **Burgett Johnson:** Burgett Johnson, Richfield. Um, my granddaughters were playing Polly Pockets in the living room with a neighbor's child. My sister called me while I was in the kitchen preparing lunch. Suddenly, there was a loud—there was a lot of yelling coming from the living room. My sister asked if they were fighting. I went to check and see if they were okay. They were very animated. I asked what was going on. "We are playing ICE is outside" was the answer. Apparently, when talking to other caregivers of children, that is what is happening. Let that sink in. Children have added ICE to playtime themes. We are allowing ICE to intimidate elementary school kids. I was angry and sad at the same time. Here's an observation. Who put a roof on your house? Who takes care of our elders and our children? When I was in the hospital, an immigrant helped me to the bathroom and helped me retain my dignity. Who plans and harvests our food? Farmers can't do it alone. Could it be an undocumented person or what is newly termed illegal immigrant who did your roof or provided care and service? And why is there work for these immigrants? Could it be that immigration is vital to our economy? Or who else would do their jobs, those jobs that we apparently don't want to do? What about the immigrant businesses hindered by the raids with closing or reduced hours? Have the smart people who think this is all good thought about the loss in tax revenue? Here is a thought. Before I became an American citizen, I was already a human being. These people who are being persecuted by ICE for simply trying to attain the American dream are human just like you and me. [00:04:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Next we'll have Betsy Stark and on deck is Ava JT McKnight. [00:04:22] **Betsy Stark:** Hi, my name is Betsy Stark. Richfield has been my home for 67 years. I'm here tonight to ask the city through its police department to help document the removal of our neighbors by ICE when called upon by city members for help. I'd like to tell you about an experience I had last Friday at the intersection of a busy street in Richfield. A friend of mine saw ICE agents chase a man. My friend texted for help, but the man had already been taken away by the time I got there. There were about three other observers present at this busy intersection. His car was left there blocking traffic. One of the observers called a towing service and we directed traffic as we waited for the tow truck to arrive, but it didn't arrive quickly. So, someone called the police to ask for help. A Richfield police officer arrived. Along with the officer, we tried to move the car out of the way, but the gear was locked. I asked the officer if he was going to file a report. He said, "No, they don't do that for this." His response was hard for me to comprehend. In the city I know and love, this actually would have been absolutely criminal. One of the observers found an address in his car. We drove to that address and discovered that he lived with a relative. We told the relative what happened. We learned what his name was. I'll call him Tony. He was here on a work permit. He was injured when he fell off a roof. Later, after Tony called his relative, we were told that the way Tony was physically apprehended by ICE caused even more pain. The relative also reported that while detained, Tony felt forced to sign voluntary exit papers. This story makes me so sad. As a longtime resident, I have personally observed how our immigrant neighbors enrich our community. The city can and should document when someone is taken away and document each abandoned car. We owe it to our residents to document this disruption and costs that our community is incurring right now. Because of the federal immigration enforcement, these costs are real. Please ask the police department to start creating reports when they are called to assist at the scene of enforcement activity. Thank you. [00:06:40] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Next we have Ava JT McKnight and on deck is Jacob Poppy. [00:06:46] **Ava JT McKnight:** Good evening. I also am a resident of Richfield and actually, thank you Betsy. That was my impetus to speak tonight. I feel like the dispatch and police's duty is to document the rights that are being taken away. And so what has happened though—I offered to collect stories of neighbors. I'm gonna read something from one of my neighbors. They have had issues in the past, but she didn't write about that. We also want kids to be protected and that police actually help. This is one person who is at home with her family, too scared to come to this city to speak: "Nothing has happened recently, but we can tell you that we are afraid. They are kidnapping people and we are not sure if they are going to accept our papers or if they are only going to assume that because we are brown they can take us." [00:07:32] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. So we have Jacob Poppy and on deck is Landon McKay. [00:07:38] **Jacob Poppy:** Good evening. My name is Jacob Poppy from Richfield, Minnesota. I want to voice my concerns this evening on the use of the Flock camera system and other automated license plate readers in our community. Automated license plate readers or ALPRs are AI-powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like our cars' locations, dates, and times. They also capture our cars' model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers, often turning these into searchable data points. ALPRs are a serious risk to our privacy and civil liberties. These systems continuously record our movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion. Our driving history is rarely confined to the town or city where the cameras are installed. It's typically shared with thousands of other agencies nationwide, often secretly. Once the data is out of our community, we have no control over how it's used or what rules apply, leading to instances of misuse. These cameras collect data on millions of vehicles, regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime. These systems are marketed as indispensable tools to fight crime, but they ignore the powerful tools police already have to track criminals, such as cell phone location data, creating a loophole that doesn't require a warrant. Specifically, the company Flock has faced significant scrutiny and scandal recently regarding data privacy, misuse by law enforcement, and security vulnerabilities. Some of the notable controversies involve allegations of tracking individuals for legal reproductive healthcare, assisting in immigration enforcement, and allowing unauthorized access to camera data. I ask that the city council seriously consider removing cameras from our community and barring future ALPRs from our community. Thank you for your time and consideration. [00:09:20] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. So, we have Landon McKay and on deck is Brianna Darling. [00:09:25] **Landon McKay:** Landon McKay, Richfield. Uh, guys, I'm tired and I think everybody's tired and I think we'd have more people here if we weren't so tired. We're out here every day doing laundry, delivering people to school so they don't get kidnapped. We're doing everything in the community to support it. And we're asking the city to do the bare minimum, the cops to do the bare minimum, and we're being failed by both the city and the cops on a regular basis. We're asking you, just like he said, let's—how about we don't have Flock cameras that track us down and are enforced by ICE? I sent you documentation. I sent you well-researched independent studies that also spurred a US representative and US senator to have an FTC investigation on Flock because they are lying and they lied to you. I'm disappointed at the last meeting because we have public outcry about this; just basic research could have been done. Instead you asked Flock, "Are you guys the bad guys? Did you do anything bad?" And they said, "No." The people you spend money towards—well, that money could be going towards, I don't know, rental assistance, anything else to help our community instead of spying on us, instead of having ICE take that data, which they have, and I've highlighted it many times. And I'm tired. I'm tired of doing this and coming here. I'm going to come here every single city council meeting to reiterate the independent studies that were found on it. All Flock models are easily hacked. All Flock models capture and retain images and data. Again, they lied to you about that, right? There's little to no data or security. And that again is why the US representative and US senator said, "Hey, this is a big problem. This is a huge problem for data security for our entire country." Instead, we keep them up. They are basically out-of-date Android cameras that we have up that a child could hack into—and they have people do all the time—and also Flock gives that data. The city of Denver and multiple other cities have found that Flock gave them backdoor access even though Flock told those cities that they didn't. To me that is a problem. That's a problem that you do business with this company. You're exposing all of us and our vulnerable community to a huge problem. So, I'm asking you please to remove those cameras, listen to reason, listen to the independent studies that are out there, listen to our US senators and representatives please. [00:11:45] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Next, we have Brianna Darling and on deck is John Lennon. [00:11:52] **Brianna Darling:** Hi, I'm Brianna Darling. I'm a Richfield resident. Um, and I am just here tonight because I had a friend ask if I could tell his story. Um, and he asked me last night for the second time. So, I thought I would just share it. Um, it's pretty short and simple. Um, but he came here from Mexico four years ago. Um, and when he was in Mexico, he had a really cool job. Our secrets keep us safe right now, so like I'm not going to say that much, but he had a really cool job. Like really cool. Then he came here and he couldn't find that same job. Um, so he found a trade to work in and he wasn't super excited about it because before he had had this really cool job, but then he learned how to do it and he learned how to do it well and he became really proud of his work—um to the extent that when he would do his job, people would tell him he was an artist. So, he would go home and tell his wife like, "I'm an artist." Um and he shared that he had been thinking a lot lately about his identity. He's been doing more research on kind of like Mexican history, his own history, and that he's kind of come to the realization that he identifies more as an American than a Mexican, even though he's only been here for four years. And he's really proud to be an American. He loves America. At school, our kids say the pledge of allegiance, but they say it in Spanish. You know, they celebrate our country alongside us on the 4th of July. It's really beautiful. And so, what he wonders is why, as someone who lives here and works here and pays taxes, he doesn't have the same rights and protections of the others who live here and work here and pay taxes. Um, I feel like everyone, what I know of most people in this room, we know these stories. So, I just wanted to give voice to his since he couldn't be here to share it safely. Um, and then also just kind of like put out there that there are so many helpers. There's so many of us doing so much, so many of us are involved that maybe when this is over, we can like take all of these numbers and all of this energy and really push it towards legalization for all so that we have a more sustainable approach and we don't have to worry about this in the future. Thanks. [00:14:10] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Um we have John Lennon and is there anyone else that wants to turn a card in? [00:14:15] **John Lennon:** Hi, my name is John Lennon. Um, I also get "John Lennon," which is fine. I am a—sorry about that—I'm a Beatles fan. Um, I'm a Richfield resident as well. And I just had a couple of short points. Uh, I wanted to propose that more funding, if possible, is given to the VEAP organization, which is Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People. Um they are fighting primarily the increase in suburban poverty which we've seen a massive surge in recently due to the anti-immigration activity. They are providing food and other essential items to people who are impoverished in general and as a result of ICE and border patrol. And then in addition to that, um, and kind of along the same line, I'd like to see our representatives also put pressure on Governor Walz to enact some sort of eviction moratorium so that those who are not able to get to work, to make money, to pay rent as a result of some of this surge we're seeing, that they have the ability to stay in their homes. That's all. [00:15:20] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? All right, thank you. Then we will close out on the open forum and we'll move on to the consent calendar. Uh, city manager Rodriguez. [00:15:32] **City Manager 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. On tonight's consent calendar, item A, approve disbursements claims. We have moved item B to be considered after the consent calendar. Item C, consider the approval of a resolution authorizing the lawful gambling premises permit by Richfield Lions Club to conduct lawful gambling at Sandy's Tavern, 6612 Penn Avenue South. And I submit these two items for your consideration on tonight's consent calendar. [00:16:15] **Council Member Walter Burk:** I will move to approve the consent calendar. [00:16:18] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Second that. [00:16:20] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and second. Is there any discussion? Um, city clerk Friedrich, could you call the role, please? [00:16:26] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Yes. Thank you, mayor. Council member Burk. [00:16:29] **Council Member Walter Burk:** Aye. [00:16:30] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Hayford Oleary. [00:16:31] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Aye. [00:16:32] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Christensen. [00:16:33] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Aye. [00:16:34] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Coleman-Woods. [00:16:35] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Aye. [00:16:36] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** And Mayor Supple. [00:16:37] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Aye. [00:16:38] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Thank you. [00:16:39] **Mayor Mary Supple:** So, we've passed the consent calendar. So, now we're going to move on to consideration of items removed from the consent calendar and I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Hayford to read the report. [00:16:50] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Thank you. This item is to consider a resolution authorizing the mayor and city manager to finalize and execute Hennepin County Cooperative Agreement number PW221925 for the 2026-2027 Nicollet Avenue reconstruction project. Hennepin County has planned for a full reconstruction of Nicollet Avenue for 2026 to 2027. Public engagement and outreach began in August of 2023 and consisted of four phases of engagement following Richfield's public engagement policy for public works projects. City council adopted a resolution supporting the project layout at the October 8th, 2024 city council meeting. Staff have been collaborating with Hennepin County and their consultants throughout the final design process to ensure that the final plans are in substantial compliance with the layout that was approved by the city council in 2024. Staff have been negotiating the city's cost contribution, payment schedule, and maintenance responsibilities with county staff and have agreed upon the terms of this cooperative agreement. Does staff have anything to add prior to a motion? [00:17:55] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** Thank you, council member, city engineer Joe Powers. Um, I do have some clarification on questions that were asked by council prior to the meeting. Um, a note on what is remaining outstanding to be negotiated in the agreement and some news to share on the cost share. I'm happy to share that now or wait for additional council discussion. [00:18:15] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Um, if you want to go ahead and do your report. [00:18:18] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** Great. Thank you, mayor. Um to address the couple of questions that we received from council members on landscaping: The agreement outlines a landscaping plan that is fairly detailed. However, the city does have leeway to change that plan. We are responsible for letting a separate contract to install that landscaping and we will be taking into account past experience with median landscaping on projects throughout the city to make sure that we're doing our best to plant plants that are going to be easy to maintain and stay healthy and hopefully avoid some of the issues we've had in the past. So, I hope that answers the questions on that front. [00:18:55] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Can I ask one question on that? Um, do you anticipate that our workers will be doing that or is that going to be something we'll contract for? [00:19:03] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** I anticipate that we'll have a private contract to do that work. [00:19:07] **Mayor Mary Supple:** So, I know there had been um questions about like when mulch was applied that people made like cones or it was bad for the trees and so you said we've learned from past things. So, will some of that be put in the contract to make sure they're doing it correctly? [00:19:22] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** Yes, it will. [00:19:24] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. All right. Other questions on that before we move on? All right. You had other parts to report. [00:19:30] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** Yep. I'd like to clarify why we're not asking council to execute the agreement tonight. Uh there is one area that we are still negotiating with the county. It applies specifically to the rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs) that will be installed at a couple of the roundabouts and 72nd Street, which is not a roundabout. Um, we're still negotiating the terms of what the county considers major maintenance and minor maintenance. Um, the city will be responsible for the cost of maintenance on the RRFBs. However, we are negotiating with the county to have them perform that maintenance and invoice the city. So, we're just working through the details on that. I think we're very close to having that um having that determined and agreed upon with the county. Anticipate we'll be able to have that finalized by next week and then we would execute the agreement at that time. [00:20:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** So, do we have any input on which company they get the devices from? Because I know there's been problems in the past with certain manufacturers um that the equipment is not reliable. [00:20:25] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** Yeah, we have been discussing that with the county. Um we haven't determined exactly what company it's going to be. One of the things to note there is the systems that we have in town primarily are supplied by a company called Tapco. Um and in discussing with other cities and with the county, it's primarily been the solar powered systems um that are having the majority of issues. So we are planning to install a hardwire system on Nicollet Avenue for those RRFBs to hopefully avoid some of those issues, whether that is with the Tapco product or another product. Hope that's going to be one step to address that. [00:21:05] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. And then some of the ones that we've had issues with, are they planning to retrofit some of those or just try and fix them as best we can? [00:21:13] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** Yeah, we're trying to maintain those as best we can for now. Uh staff recently have been in discussions separate from this project with some other manufacturers um to see if we can retrofit parts or replace major components of those systems to hopefully have them operating better. But it's an ongoing and frankly frustrating problem that we're trying to solve. [00:21:35] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Oh, go ahead. [00:21:38] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** One last update I just wanted to share. Um this is reflected in the agreement in case you hadn't picked out the details. Um typical Hennepin County cost share policy requires that the city pay the full upfront cost of our portion of the project when the project contract with the contractor is awarded. Uh we have been able to negotiate with the county such that the city will pay $2 million this year in June of 2026 and the remainder of our project cost in 2027. So we're substantially deferring a large portion of our cost from their typical policy. [00:22:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Any other questions? Um Council Member Hayford. [00:22:18] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Um a couple of questions. So the median landscaping—they're going to chip in 30 like a third of the initial cost. I thought their cost share for landscaping was 50%. Are they doing less because they're doing the boulevard trees or why is that? [00:22:33] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head. That's something I can follow up on. [00:22:38] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Okay. Um and then also just—this is kind of exciting for me because of course the last time we saw this was almost a year and a half ago. So seeing the more detailed plans. I am curious, the lighting indications sort of in the background of the plan—are those accurate of—it looked like approximately eight or nine streetlights per block? [00:22:58] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** I believe so, yeah. We—that was one of the final items that we've been working through with the county. Um so there may be some minor changes to that, but those are substantially correct plans. [00:23:10] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Yeah, overall I'm just going to say I'm just excited about the state of the plan. I still wish it cost us less money, but it is a—it's a really exciting street and I know it's going to be awesome. One other detail I noticed and I'm just curious if this is firm: that the south end of the corridor would be the first year and the north end would be the second year? [00:23:30] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** Yes, that's correct. [00:23:32] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Okay, that's good to have some expectation as people know sort of what to expect in this coming year. Um, and then I just want to—you know, I want to thank staff for doing everything they can to reduce our cost share. I do want to just reiterate our ongoing concern that many of the features of this project, like the protected bike lanes, like landscaping, like the lighting, all further county goals and what the county says they want in these projects. And that's only possible because we're agreeing to pay 100% of the long-term costs of those. So, I think it is great that we are doing the county's policies for them, but it would be even better if the county paid for their goals. Um, so thank you staff for making the best of this. I know the county is working on changes, but I think this contract, unfortunately, is still an example where they're really not paying everything that they should towards their projects. [00:24:20] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Um, other questions? I did want to bring up one. You've already answered it for me, but I thought for people that are watching: um when the intersection of Portland and 77th was constructed, we ran into some issues because MnDOT did not talk to the garbage haulers and people's garbage wasn't being taken away. And so our staff had to intercede and mediate to make sure that that got taken care of. So I was just wondering what we're going to do ahead of time to prevent that from becoming an issue on Nicollet during the construction. [00:24:50] **City Engineer Joe Powers:** Yeah, thank you for the question, mayor. Um, I've talked directly with the construction project manager for Hennepin County who will be managing the day-to-day operations. Um, there will be meetings with the contractor selected for the project and with all of the waste haulers along the corridor prior to construction beginning and we have communicated the waste hauler map and collection schedule to the county already, so they are aware of it. Um, I do expect there will be some hiccups here and there. That's not uncommon, but I think we'll be on top of that and hopefully have that coordinated well and communicated out to residents throughout the project. [00:25:30] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Did you want to go ahead and make the motion? [00:25:34] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Yep. Uh, I move that we approve a resolution authorizing mayor and city manager to finalize and execute Hennepin County Cooperative Agreement number PW221925 for the 2026-27 Nicollet Avenue reconstruction project. [00:25:50] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** I'll second that. [00:25:52] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All right, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Um, I just wanted to thank both the county staff and the Richfield staff and Commissioner Goettel. I know that there was a lot of effort put into this and also all of the residents that participated in the engagement process as we were going through the planning. So, thank you to everybody that was involved with that. All right. Um, city clerk Friedrich, could you please call the role? [00:26:20] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Yes. Thank you. Council member Burk. [00:26:22] **Council Member Walter Burk:** Aye. [00:26:23] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Hayford Oleary. [00:26:24] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Aye. [00:26:25] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Christensen. [00:26:26] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Aye. [00:26:27] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Coleman-Woods. [00:26:28] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Aye. [00:26:29] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** And Mayor Supple. [00:26:30] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Aye. [00:26:31] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Thank you. [00:26:32] **Mayor Mary Supple:** So, the motion passes. All right. We don't have um any business coming forward other than that. So, I'm going to go to the city manager's report. City manager Rodriguez. [00:26:42] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Thank you, Mayor. Um I just wanted to start out with some updates and I am asking city attorney Tietjen to provide an update on the amicus brief that we had joined and then also the ongoing lawsuit. [00:26:55] **City Attorney Mary Tietjen:** Thank you city manager, mayor and council. So before I talk about the amicus brief, I want to just give a brief summary of the lawsuit that was initiated by the state of Minnesota and cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. That case was started on January 12th of this year and the plaintiffs—the state and Minneapolis and St. Paul—sued DHS Secretary Kristi Noem alleging that the federal government's Operation Metro violated the 10th and first amendments of the Constitution and lacked proper procedural implementation. The plaintiffs in the case requested several forms of relief in the lawsuit, including a preliminary injunction. This was a request to the court to immediately stop the operation and certain actions by federal agencies. On January 30th, the court denied the request for the preliminary injunction. The denial reflects the high burden for preliminary injunctions, but it is not a ruling on the merits of the case. So, the case will continue to move forward. Preliminary injunctions require that a party immediately cease actions before the court determines on the merits whether that action violates the law. So because of that, preliminary injunctions require the plaintiffs to meet a very high legal burden, including that they are likely to succeed on the merits of the case. So the court determined that it was not able to issue the emergency order given that the case involves very complex constitutional issues. Um but as I mentioned, the case remains active and will move forward. So the court will eventually rule on the merits of the plaintiff's arguments, including the constitutionality of the government's actions. Currently the parties are engaged in discovery in order to better present evidence in support of their arguments. So that case will proceed through the courts. With respect to the amicus brief, the city of Richfield and I believe nine or 10 other suburban cities have joined in an amicus brief, which is called a "friend of the court" brief, which is something that parties—or people who are not parties to the case—can file such a brief in support of the case. And this is done really to present additional policy arguments that the judge can consider in a case. And in this particular amicus brief, Richfield and the other cities have put forth policy arguments about how Metro is affecting municipal prosecution operations. Um that brief is available if any members of the public would like to read it. Um and so those arguments and those policy considerations will be in front of the court and the judges as they continue to review and eventually rule on the issues matter. Thank you. [00:29:45] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Um, yes, thank you. Um, then I guess I have some other updates. So, the city—we received some questions regarding the recently adopted emergency ordinance that prohibits federal immigration staging activities on city property. And that staging is defined in the ordinance; it's a ban on assembling, mobilizing or deploying vehicles or equipment or materials on city-owned properties. The ordinance does not prohibit federal vehicles from being on the property, but rather from using it to stage their operations. Um, we still ask that residents call—they should call 911 if they believe that immigration agents are using our property to stage. Our dispatch will let Richfield [Police] know and we will send an officer out. Um the officer will document to determine if it's staging or is happening on the property and then that documentation will assist us in evaluating potential sanctions. Um also wanted to provide an update: we've added website pages focused on the federal immigration surge in Richfield. The links include community updates, how to help, your legal rights, legal resources, housing and utility resources, food resources, business resources, and healthcare resources. There is a link currently on our homepage. The website will continue to be updated as needed. Um we've also added regular updates to our weekly Richfield Recap e-newsletter and we're exploring other channels to make sure that the residents that are most impacted are getting information. Um so, we've got time scheduled on La Raza radio this week and we'll continue having updates through the rest of the month. Um, I wanted to give an update on assessing the business impacts. CD staff—and they were joined by Mayor Supple—had a meeting with local business owners to understand the issues that they're facing. Anecdotally, it appears that the impacts are as bad or worse than during COVID. Staff is working to send a metro-wide survey to collect more detailed information. And in the meantime, business resources have been shared on the city's website, in the business newsletter, and staff continue to explore additional options to support the business community. I know this is a small gesture, but I do know that staff are doing their best to personally support these businesses. And I know that members are doing it as well—I went to [restaurant] and saw the mayor's husband there this weekend. So... um new community request from the last meeting: there was the request to have a resolution to urge the governor to declare a state of emergency and impose an eviction moratorium. This did come up at our legislative breakfast and our legislators believe that it's unlikely that a statewide eviction moratorium would be passed at that time. Um we also do have some concerns that the COVID moratorium had unintended consequences. Um the balances grew to such an extent that the tenants were not able to—once the eviction moratorium was lifted, they weren't able to pay the rent and then there's always a pretty big spike in evictions. So the city focused on additional rental assistance with the $50,000 contract with VEAP, and the [HRA] will be considering additional support. Also community development staff and the city attorney are working to engage with partners and review statutes related to an emergency ordinance to temporarily extend a pre-eviction notice for nonpayment of rent in Richfield. And we hope to bring something to the council later this month. Um there was a request for City Hall to close during the general strikes. Many of the functions of for Richfield operate 24/7 like police, fire and water treatment operations. Also, the residents depend on other less critical but still important services like renewing tabs, answering questions about water bills or business licenses. Um, the other thing is we've also been really focused at trying to respond to the community during this crisis. So, if we close City Hall, those office staff that are working on those efforts wouldn't be able to—they'd miss a day of being able to do that work. Um, the other thing is that VEAP has office hours here and their food shelf. So, we don't want to limit that access. Um, and our community center is another—it provides a vital service. It's a daily hub of support and programming for people in our community and we don't want to limit that. Some of the programs that they provide is meals and other services that residents rely on. And then we were asked to provide more information on the multi-city effort. It has a name now: it's a Cities for Safe and Stable Communities. It's a nonpartisan coalition and it formally launched with 12 member cities including Richfield. We are growing quickly. We have another 15 cities that have either joined or are considering joining. The coalition is scheduling interviews with national policymakers; they have a plan to engage with state legislators and has already started that work. Um and we've been sharing resources the cities do—and so for example when we were looking to update our web pages we were able to look at a variety of web pages that other cities had and then were able to move more quickly, and we've been doing that with the emergency ordinances as well and so that just helps us to speed up our response. Um the coalition is also developing a process to collect city impacts for future communications and advocacy. And then finally there was a request to provide trauma-sensitive safe community spaces for residents, specifically children, to heal. Um we did pass that suggestion on to Recreation Services staff and actually reached out to—well, I reached out to Jennifer Anderson who is our main liaison with Bloomington Public Health and they had already been planning to coordinate with local schools on the idea, so I don't have specifics yet but they are already working on it. And that's all I have for tonight. [00:35:45] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Are there any questions for city manager Rodriguez? Um go ahead council member Burk. [00:35:50] **Council Member Walter Burk:** I've had some residents ask concerning the lawsuit: why was Richfield unable to join as a plaintiff? Perhaps someone could explain why it was not possible for Richfield to join as a plaintiff. [00:36:00] **City Attorney Mary Tietjen:** Mayor, Council Member Burk, I think for one thing, the lawsuit—the timing of everything was on a very expedited process and so I think that factored in. Um and I also think there was some discussion—I was not involved personally but heard—that I think there was discussion about there being more impact cities joining together in and presenting those impacts, the policy impacts that cities have been feeling, that that could be particularly useful to the courts. The legal issues, the constitutional arguments were thoroughly and extensively briefed by the existing parties in the case. And so having the unique perspective of the cities and the impacts that cities are feeling outside of those just purely legal issues, I think is a way to have a different kind of impact and useful. I do want to thank those who were involved to get our involvement in—that was quite a quick turnaround. Having read the [amicus brief], it really does express very clearly how Richfield is being impacted and I like to think that some of the community comments that we heard here even before—you can see it reflected in that brief. So definitely great to see that all together. The only other comment or question I would have is: understand it's unlikely for there to be a statewide eviction moratorium. Hopefully we can still look and see if there's some kind of defense that can put in its ordinance that for people who are being evicted for non-payment of rent due to direct involvement of ICE in their inability to pay their rent. Hopefully the city can consider some kind of an ordinance that we can provide that defense so that if someone is brought to a housing court and are about to be evicted, they can say, "Well, you know what, in my city, this is not allowed in this situation." So, hopefully we can continue to look at that. So, thank you. [00:37:45] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Council member Burk, I just wanted to mention that we are discussing that and hopefully going to be incorporating that language for the council's consideration. [00:37:55] **Council Member Walter Burk:** Excellent. Thank you. [00:37:57] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Any other questions? Then we'll move on to Council discussion. Um, Council Member Christensen, did you have anything you wanted to add? [00:38:05] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Uh, no, I do not. [00:38:07] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Council Member Burk. [00:38:10] **Council Member Walter Burk:** Um, no. I've heard some concerns about Flock cameras, and I do want you to know that I'm sure many of us—and I can definitely guarantee myself—that I have looked at most of the things that have been sent to me. Um some of the things that I find less persuasive are some of the YouTube videos and people anecdotally saying that this happens and that happens and they can do this to block cameras and they can do that. What I find more persuasive is the research, for example, by University of Washington. I found that very interesting to look at. Um but what I find in a lot of this research is that it's usually by user error. It's as if the person in charge of deciding who that information is going to be shared with—the more that they share it, the more it's like backdoor ways for that information to get out. My understanding is that Richfield is very careful in limiting with what organizations or what other law enforcement agencies the information is being shared with. I know that we'll continue to look into that to see and verify again with whom that information is being shared. But it seems from a lot of the reading that I've done, for example, if a police force decides to share information nationwide—well, obviously then many organizations are allowed to use that information. But if you're only sharing it with one other organization and it's a local organization, then it makes it more difficult for that to occur. I also know that there's a state law that makes it very clear where that information can be shared. And so I would encourage people to look at the state law and see what that state law is talking about as far as what's happening with that information. I just want to comment some feedback on what I've received from citizens. Thank you. [00:39:55] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Council member Hayford Oleary. [00:40:00] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** I just want to share a liaison report from the Transportation Commission also related to ICE. Um there's a lot of interest from the Transportation Commission in us looking at a gentler approach to towing and tagging—the possibility that somebody has been taken and their car is left—and just in general sort of creating extra duress at this time. So I understand that staff are looking into what they've discussed, both research how much this has really happened and what our sort of options are to do that wouldn't impact public safety or other issues. So, I think that is forthcoming, but wanted to let you know that there was a lot of interest in that from the Transportation Commission. [00:40:40] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Council Member Coleman-Woods. [00:40:44] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Thank you. And thank you to everyone who came out tonight and advocated for change and for justice. I have been thinking a lot about our children during this time of crisis and what their future is going to look like and the future we want to build when this is all over. And I know we all work each and every day across the community for our neighbors and for justice. It's true we make mistakes, but we also do a lot of good. So, please give each other grace because everybody's doing the best they can and we are determined and we won't give up. Our community has been working to provide food rides, rental and mortgage assistance, and so much more. One thing I want to talk about right now is the long-term goal to help stabilize the local small businesses so families have jobs to go back to when they get back—and a way to get back on their feet. And it was very telling listening to the small business owners and how it's affecting many people. And so we want to keep those small businesses and find ways to assist them so that families do have jobs to go back to. Um, if you are a business owner or know a business owner, I would encourage people to please sign up for the Business Bulletin. If you go to the city website and you just put in the search "Business Bulletin," it'll sign up a way for you to get to the form for that. Like in the last issue, it had a list of resources and grant programs to help local businesses survive. And so there's a lot of different things in there and I know I was out in the public last week and people had asked can we make sure that all that information gets shared. So spread the word; if you look for that Business Bulletin, that's where we're condensing and putting a lot of that information to help people. Um, another long-term effect of this crisis that we need to start thinking about now—and I was pleased to find out that Bloomington Public Health has already started on this—is how our community will heal from the trauma because there is trauma going on caused by Operation Metro Surge. And we need to find ways to support our children especially, but all of our residents because it's affecting everyone. So, we're going to have—it's going to take a while to work through that as we go through the aftermath of this siege. So, please continue speaking up and sending your ideas because we need those ideas and I appreciate everyone who came out and all the people that have been contacting us. So, with that, I would accept a motion to adjourn the meeting. [00:43:10] **Council Member Walter Burk:** I'll make that motion. [00:43:12] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Second. [00:43:13] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. City clerk Friedrich, could you please call the role? [00:43:18] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Yes. Thank you, Mayor Supple. Council member Burk. [00:43:21] **Council Member Walter Burk:** Aye. [00:43:22] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Hayford Oleary. [00:43:23] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Aye. [00:43:24] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Christensen. [00:43:25] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Aye. [00:43:26] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Council member Coleman-Woods. [00:43:27] **Council Member Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Aye. [00:43:28] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** And Mayor Supple. [00:43:29] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Aye. [00:43:30] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Thank you. [00:43:31] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Meeting stands adjourned.