I hereby call to order the Roseville Special City Council meeting for Thursday, January 22nd, 2026 to order. Uh, Mr. Tre, would you call the role, please? >> Council member Graph, >> here. Council member Stron >> here, >> council member Schroeder >> here, >> council member Bower >> here, Mayor Row >> here, and with us at the DEIS, we have our city attorney, Rachel Tierney, who's on my right at the end of the day, and our city manager, Pat Trean, who's on my left at the other end. Uh, we have other uh staff and uh folks here who will be participating in the meeting, and we'll certainly make introductions uh as those folks do participate. Um, I want to start uh with a little bit of uh uh background information, especially for folks who may be here uh at their first city council meeting. Uh, and I and this will be a little bit of a repeat of what I said at our last meeting only because that was what I had available to refer to. Uh, and so I'll start by saying thank you uh for being here this evening uh and taking the time from your busy lives uh primarily maybe at this point trying to keep warm uh to engage in local decision-making in your community. Uh for a lot of you, this may be your first time at a city council meeting. Uh and a lot of this may be new to you. Uh and we understand that it can be intimidating. Uh and so we will be understanding of that through the course of the evening here. Uh and we want to make sure that you feel as welcome to make your comments that you may want to make to the council as we can. Um, I want to let you know that uh that uh it's a part of my job that I take very uh uh seriously uh to make sure that our meetings are productive and that the points of view that are brought to us are heard and respected as part of the meeting. Um I do believe as I've often said that better decisions are made uh when the discussions are robust and all ideas are weighed and included. And to that end, uh, I will work to be sure to describe what is happening in the meeting, uh, and provide instructions, uh, to folks in the public, uh, as we go through the meeting, uh, so that everybody, uh, hopefully has a pretty good understanding of, uh, what we're doing and how it's going. Um, so just some initial housekeeping matters. Uh, this is a city council meeting. It's conducting official city business here this evening. Um, and it is not sort of an entertainment venue. Uh so we want to uh and uh I have varying degrees of success with the with enforcing this but we certainly want to encourage people to uh limit uh cheering or heckling or any of the positive or negative feedback that uh people sometimes feel inclined to provide to uh members of the public who are speaking uh or to anyone else involved in the meeting. So I just want to uh discourage that at the start because it does uh detract from uh the uh process of conducting business here at this meeting. Um, also, um, uh, we're certainly, uh, um, want to make sure we encourage everybody to participate. Hopefully, you've, uh, had a chance to, if you wish to speak tonight, sign up. We do have staff that are kind of roving through, uh, making sure that they reach out to people who may be coming in to see if you want to speak and get you signed up. Uh, we will try to make sure and accommodate folks who may not have signed up uh, at the end of the public comment or when we run out of signed up people. Uh, but just want to make sure that you're aware of that process. We don't normally do that because we don't normally have that many people at a council meeting. Uh but it works so well at our last meeting that we're going to do it again this time. Um I do also want to note that you should be sure and silence your cell phone or otherwise make sure that it doesn't disrupt our proceedings this evening. Um and also there are extra copies of uh the agenda and there may I think we're trying to make sure there are enough copies of some of the meeting materials for folks uh at the table in the back of the room under the big clock by the door. Uh we do also have one uh three- ring binder with a complete set of all the materials that's there for folks to share as well if you need to go back and refer to that if you weren't able to get your own copy of some of the meeting materials that we've got back there for folks. We only have one agenda item on the uh the agenda this evening. So it should be pretty easy to follow along with the agenda hopefully. Uh with that I believe that is sort of the initial uh item. Um, oh, I do do also want to note um that u as part of the admonition about sort of the cheering and heckling part of it um if you uh brought any kind of noise maker with you this evening and we're planning on using it uh we really discourage you from doing that. Not the least of which because it is disruptive but also there may be people in the room uh for whom that is uh not a good thing to have happen. Uh they can be uh concerned about the noise, they can be concerned about the sound uh being made. Uh and so we do want to be respectful of everybody who's here this evening in that regard as well. So with that uh we do always start our meetings with the pledge of allegiance. So we'll ask folks to stand if you're able for the pledge. >> 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. Thank you. Next on uh tonight's agenda is uh approval of the agenda, which once again should be a fairly straightforward process because we do have just the one item. Um I'm presuming there are no changes that anyone on the council is requesting. No changes from a staff perspective. Uh is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? >> Second. >> It's been moved by council member Gra, second by council member Schroeder to approve the agenda. Uh any discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I opposed. That passes unanimously. We do have our agenda this evening. Uh because this is a special meeting and we're only uh permitted by state law to cover the uh topic of the meeting. Um the general public comment portion of the meeting will not be undertaken this evening. Uh that would be comment on items that are not on this evening's agenda. Uh certainly every other meeting that we have that's a regularly scheduled meeting, we do provide that opportunity at the start of each meeting. Um I'm sure most everybody here is here to comment on the agenda item. Uh and so we'll have the opportunity to do that as the agenda item comes up in just a few moments here. Uh so with that um I would talk a little bit about the process uh of an agenda item. Um because at our last meeting we did the public comment as I mentioned at the very beginning as part of the general public comment because we didn't have a specific agenda item uh to take action on this topic at our last meeting because that is the topic of this meeting. We will do the public comment as part of the agenda item and it works a little bit differently than maybe what folks who were here last time might be familiar with and that is is that we begin with a presentation of the information from the staff uh and then uh there's an opportunity for questions and answers uh between staff uh maybe our attorney maybe other staff and the council. uh and once that process is completed then we open it up for public comment uh and then we proceed once the comment is done to the consideration of various items that are before the council this evening. So it will be receive the presentation uh answer questions from the council uh back and forth with staff and and uh others uh that are uh like our attorney uh and then the public comment and then uh consideration of the requested actions by the council. So with that uh we'll begin uh agendum uh item 7A uh with Mr. Trean uh who I believe is going to the uh table to make his presentation. All right. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Mayor, members of the council, um I am here tonight as a followup to provide you and the general public with an update on the city actions we have done or can do uh regarding the impacts of the federal government's immigration enforcement efforts in the Twin Cities d operation metro surge. As been reported in the media, there are several thousand federal agents assigned to Minnesota to conduct immigration enforcement. Concerns have been raised regarding the tactics and actions of federal immigration enforcement officers through media reports, social media videos, and in-person reporting of due process violations, racial profiling, the wearing of masks, and no-name identification on the uniforms of federal immigration enforcement agents. The actions by the federal immigration enforcement agents have motivated many in Roseville and in Minnesota to come forward and demand that civil rights and the Constitution be respected and adhered to. to that point. Last Monday night on January 12th, we had a crowd between 300 to 350 people here at city hall and provide us with four hours of public testimony and sharing their experiences uh of the federal immigration enforcement officials with federal immigration enforcement officials and to express their strong demand that the city of Roseville take action to stop the current immigration enforcement tactics and actions occurring here in Roseville. First of all, I want to thank the community for coming forward and expressing their concern and anger about what's currently occurring. I know both the city council and the staff appreciate that everyone felt safe to come here and express those opinions uh and also trust that the city will take some action regarding the current events. After the testimony was completed, the city council directed staff to bring back policy considerations around what council member Bower, council member Stron, and public petition received on January 12th advocated the city to do. One note I would say before I turn to the presentation, the city of Roseville, like other cities in Minnesota, are really struggling to find a way to make meaningful impact on what is happening out there as we see uh events happening in Minneapolis and St. call and the challenges that they are having to try to prevent those things from happening. Uh we uh are struggling with the same thing as I talk to my colleagues. Every city is trying to find a way and how they can impact for a positive way and what's happening out there and there are unfortunately limitations. Federal law and authority supersedes the power of cities and to hold the federal government accountable to our community standards and expectations. Therefore, while local action is very important and we'll talk about some items that we can take tonight, we need to understand there are limits to what the city can do to force meaningful and positive changes. Especially in the moment when this is happening, we need to continue to look to our state and federal officials and demand and implement demand them to implement changes as it relates to the current tactics and actions being used by the federal immigration officials. The staff report that's included as part of the agenda. reviews the actions uh that you all asked me to uh and staff to analyze. Staff has analyzed each of those items and it's listed in the staff report. I know that city council has reviewed those materials thoroughly and I imagine most of the public has too. So certainly the report speaks for itself for my presentation tonight. I'm not going to go line by line through the report. Certainly we can u um have a conversation about anything that's in there. However, I look to really summarize the actions the city council I'm the city council and the city has taken so far, clarify what we can and can't do under current law and then discuss specific actions we can take tonight. So, let's first turn to the action of the things that we have done since January 12th. One of the first things we did do was review our current uh Roseville Police Department policies. We started off by reviewing the long-standing policy uh of the Roseville Police Department regarding immigration matters. That policy, last updated in 2017, states that immigration enforcement is done at the federal level and not at the local level. As a result, Roseville police do not inquire about a person's immigration status unless it's directly related to criminal investigation. Since last Monday, staff and the city attorney have reviewed the policy language and updated the policy to clarify for both our officers and the public on how the department will respond to calls regarding immigration matters. Spec specifically, the updated policy continues to state that the police department employees will not participate in immigration enforcement and not inquire about a person's immigration status unless it is directly related to a criminal investigation. The updated policy also clarifies that the Roseville Police Department will, if called, take action to ensure that public safety for everyone uh is maintained during an immigration enforcement activity. Today uh we submitted an updated policy to the council to make it clear that police department will take action if needed to ensure the safety of the observers and protesters at location where immigration enforcement efforts are are occurring. That copy should be at the dis and it should be uh also on the online packet. The changes that we made uh just to clarify that protection of the observers and the protesters and the public is highlighted in yellow uh in that updated uh policy. We also uh reviewed and updated the uniform policy policy 1017 to make it clear that it is the policy of the Roseville Police Department as it's always has been that officers remain identified when carrying out their duties and therefore Roseville Police officers will not be using facial covering intended to hide or conceal their officer identity unless special circumstances exist such as undercover activity in clement weather such as what we're facing today or the use of personal uh protective equipment. We also reviewed and updated the first amendment policy 425 to strengthen the constitutional rights of people exercising their first amendment rights. Then finally, we also reviewed and updated the automated license plate reader policy to clearly state that the city will not release license plate data for the purpose of enforcing civil immigration laws or in assisting im immigration enforcement activities except as required by law or court order. That a wording is reflective of our policy all along. We've never done that, but we want to make sure we strengthen what our policy is and say that out loud. So that is consistent with our past actions, but that has been updated in the policy. So to summarize, the Roseville Police Department does not enforce immigration law, does not inquire about the immigration status unless directly related to a criminal investigation. Our focus as a police department continues to remain on the local level for local public safety and criminal law enforcement. We do coordinate with federal agencies when required by law or related to safety needs. Continuing on what we've done since uh last week, uh uh let's talk about the placement of signs. A week ago, the city placed signage in our parking lots and at our parks and other city facilities. This was done to provide clarity on our long-standing practice on the use of such parking lots on city land, namely that they are used for either park or facility purposes that any other use of those parking lots needs to have permission of the city. This was done uh once again this has been a long-standing practice, but this is done in response to the public's concerns about the use of city property for ice staging. We made it clear when those signs came up that it was going to be very challenging for us to actually enforce and we tried to make that clear to the public. Not only it would be difficult uh impractical as well. ICE is an independent federal law enforcement agency and federal preeemption limits our authority. The city including the Roseville Police Department has no authority over a federal agency and cannot intervene um in their operations. As we saw just as recently as Tuesday, federal immigration uh enforcement agencies and personnel are using our city parking lots as they see fit. With that in mind, we will not be sending our police officers to remove federal officers officials as as it puts our officers in an impossible situation and will only lead to an escalation. I understand that's extremely frustrating for the public uh and something that none of us want to see uh happen and continue but there is really limited options that we can do at this point to to impacted positively especially given the lack of cooperation by ICE. So in order to document uh that use of our property, we have set up an email email address complaint@c cityof roseell.com with the public to provide us information when federal immigration enforcement agents are asking to use our parking lots. We will collect that information forwarded to the Minnesota Attorney General and other authorities for for potential future action. Later tonight, the council will consider an ordinance that among other things will establish a prohibition of federal immigration enforcement agents using our property and requires us to put up signage. Uh so that will reinforce what we've already done. Once again, parts of this ordinance will be difficult to enforce in the moment, but we will document violations for potential future action. We also updated our city website uh with a variety of resources for residents and businesses, and we continue to uh add to that, and we'll continue to stay on top of that. as the situation warrants and this is just a screenshot of what we have uh up on our website. We also have conducted uh training of our employees. Last Friday uh in this room uh we did have about uh over 40 staff members attend uh staff training about the protocols for frontline employees, field staff and supervisors if they interact with federal immigration enforcement agents. The training was designed to provide clear and consistent guidance to our employees regarding legal compliance and what to do if federal immigration uh agents approach them. We will continue to update that guidance uh uh to the employees as the situation warrants. So those are a brief summary of what we have taken uh since January 12th. I would also mention uh wasn't part of the slide that in our park buildings we uh close access to restrooms when there is not an event going on. Typically the lobbies are open throughout the day. Uh but we have closed them when there's not an activity at those park buildings. So uh that's what we've done since January 12th. Let's talk a little bit about a little bit more about more generally about what we can and can't do. As mentioned, federal authority and law prevents us from doing a lot to stop what is going on now. But we've identified some things that we can do. And many of these things I just went over. One of the things we can do is adopt an ordinance uh governing use of city-owned property and resources. We can set internal policies for employees and departments. Require documentation and transparency around our interactions with federal uh enforcement immigration enforcement officials. Have staff training around interaction with federal immigration officials. So, as I mentioned, we've done a lot of these already and we'll be considering an ordinance later tonight to put that into the city code a little bit more firmly. Some things that we can't do is prohibit federal agencies from operating within the city limits. I know we heard a lot that uh the public does not want ICE to operate uh in the city of Roseville. We just can't materially impact that at all. Federal agencies have the authority to do that. We also can't interfere with lawful federal enforcement actions. We can't direct police to violate state or federal law. We also can't create policies that conflict with Minnesota statutes or federal requirements. some more um legal and practical considerations. Roseville Police Department is not being notified about immigration and customs custom enforcement agents or plans in our community. So, we're in the dark as just as everybody else. I take uh solless to know there are a lot of people in the community that are self-organizing that are paying attention to what is happening and um are are rallying to uh where these events are happening to make sure people are notified. But we're in the dark. uh we were not notified uh pre or post and our challenges to get any information what's occurring here has been kind of frustrating on our part as I mentioned uh a constraint is the federal preeemption limits local authority there's also a huge disparity between the personnel and resources of ICE that's here presently in Minnesota versus the city of Roseville there's really not a practical or safe mean for us to enforce local restrictions in real time as it's happening I know that frustrates a lot of people but that That's the reality. There's always going to be an elevated risk of escalation if we don't have meaningful enforcement leverage. The identification requirements uh and enforcement actions are governed by the federal and state law. And we do have a risk of litigation coming uh back to us or the loss of federal funding. And I'll talk about that in a little bit. So, let's talk about what we can maybe do here tonight. We have drafted uh a use of city resources ordinance. The ordinance clarifies how the city resources may or may not be used for immigration enforcement. Uh it also states that city buildings, facilities, and land may not be used to support federal immigration enforcement activities unless legally required. It limits the use of city staff and services for immigration enforcement. City employees may not assist with federal immigration enforcement activities beyond what is required by law or necessary for public safety. Limits access to city data and information by stating that city data records and information may not be shared with for immigration enforcement purposes unless required by law. It also limits the use of city equipment and resources by stating that city vehicles, equipment, technology, and funding may not be used to support federal immigration enforcement activities. Also requires documentation of staff interaction with federal immigration officials and also uh indicates that the interactions must be reported to the city manager so I can disseminate that out to the council and the public. That's in a nutshell of what the ordinance does. We also have uh two other things that we're asking for potential action here tonight. Uh one thing is a resolution affirming the lawful and appropriate use of city resources. This is really a supporting document of the ordinance and kind of the why we are doing the ordinance. Uh kind of the legislative intent of why we are doing the ordinance. It talks about our community. It talks about the right for the federal government to do immigration enforcement. talks about the tactics and actions that the um um uh ICE and other federal agencies are conducting currently right now and as a result about our clarification and our direction uh regarding the use of city resources. This is not necessarily uh necessary to to pass but I would suggest passing this as it does support the ordinance document and articulates why we are passing such an ordinance. We all also are asking uh for the council to consider approving the updated uh policy about immigration matters policy 413. As you know in 2017 the city council passed a resolution stating that that policy can only be changed with city council approval. And so we are asking for official u uh approval of that revised policy here tonight. There may be some other considerations you want to uh have discussions tonight. uh may want to talk about whether or not there should be a city statement uh released on behalf of the city. Uh unfortunately uh how city councils and local government works is very clunky to speak with one voice and try to figure out that word smithing at a meeting. So uh one suggestion would be if we want to do something to ask the city uh manager and the mayor to work on some drafting that we can uh circulate and look to get out if that's something you want to do. We also heard some interest about um the state of Minnesota lawsuit regarding uh against the federal government regarding what's happening here. Um uh as of now the city attorney and her colleagues are researching what possibilities there are for a city such as Roseville to join if you choose to. I would point out that the lawsuit does cover all cities on the state of Minnesota. So it's not needed to be joined as part of that um lawsuit, but that's something that may or may not be a possibility. And I'm not sure we have any information to share directly tonight on how that would work if you want to do that, but we'd like to get an indication where you want to go with that. Then, uh, let me get close to wrapping up here. Um, just want to talk about the funding and other risk considerations. Um, any action that we take here tonight, um, as we have seen, um, in recent times, there often is a reaction to that. So, I think the council and the public should be cleareyed about any action taken tonight uh may or may not lead to impacts on the city of Roseville. And it's really hard to quantify and I cannot put a percentage on that. But for instance, if the use of uh city resources ordinance is passed, we are not sure what that impact would be um to any federal funds receive or any other uh retaliation we may see. As you know, we received $4.5 million this past fall uh from the federal government to fund an increase in staffing for our fire department and our police department. We also received federal funding from our social for our social workers that are embedded in our police department. Once again, I'm not saying that funding will be pulled. I'm just want to raise that as as an issue. That's something that we should factor in as we weigh what to do here. Uh this puts all of us in a very tough position. Uh but just want to make sure that's clear that there may be some impacts that if that funding is pulled, we would not be able to fulfill what we wanted to do with that staffing. So as we as I wrap up, just want to ground um city council uh and all of us in the values that we approved as part of the strategic plan about accountability, community equity, safety, and integrity. Those were all important values that we espouse as part of the community visioning process and in the ultimate strategic plan that's been passed. And as we look for decisions here tonight, it's always helpful, at least for me, to keep those in mind as we're looking to find a way and trying to do what we can. I understand uh you know this report back maybe isn't um uh addressing everything that people would like us to do and like to do us more and and people may feel that um we're not doing enough but as we have exhaustively researched what we can do bring forward for policy we think we have brought forward some very viable options that will hopefully signal at least our intent of um making sure that the immigration uh enforcement efforts here in Roseville live up to the standards that we expect for our community. Um and uh we will continue obviously to monitor situations as they happen, but um this is where where we're at right now as far as what we would propose for the city council to consider and certainly open to other conversations as well. So with that, I will stop and see if there's any questions that I can answer for you. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Trean. Uh questions from the city council for staff. >> Council member Strong. Um, city manager Trean, I know that too you mentioned that there was some signage that had been available made available like a PDF for public businesses in Roseville to be able to replicate and use. So that was another one of the requests, but can you just expound on that a little? Yeah, there was uh we didn't create a template for ourselves um council member Stron, but you know just by searching online and there's probably lots of examples um people better with Google than I could. Um I think I have an example here. Try to put everything on here and not see it. >> Yeah, there we go. Thank you. So, this is just one uh example that's out there uh that I found on the um international immigrant law resource center u I believe. Um and there's other ones too. Minneapolis has some form of signage as well. So, so uh as I addressed in the report, there's a lot of templates that folks can download for free that we can uh certainly look um to have links to uh or we can come back with something um directly uh from the city of Roseville. I think the one thing I would caution is that is that, you know, this is a sticky situation and our city attorney can speak to it more. So, we would want to make sure we're very accurate on if we were to um dispense signs that we were accurate on what the legal compliance actually is, do that. >> Sure. >> I just had one other question um about this. Um one of the requests was to charge and prosecute any individuals who are not upholding the law. Is that something if an ICE agent or one of their acolytes were to be utilizing, what kind of um what kind of support or what kind of resources would we have in that regard? >> So, yeah. So, a couple things I would always tell people if they are seeing something that they believe is a crime that's occurring, if it's coming from the federal agent or whoever, should call 911 and our officers will be dispatched to figure out what's happening and gather the information that we can. uh to the extent there is some um um idea that maybe a law was broken that could be forwarded to our prosecutors um to see if there's anything that can be charged on that. I think the reality is very challenging um as often times when we investigate we get people's names and we get more situations uh situational detail on that and that might be hard um in the moment uh as things seem to happen very quickly. would also mention county attorney Choi is set up a process for a critical incident such as a shooting uh for a a process for local law enforcement agencies here in Ramsey County to follow uh to send forward the information. So there are some protocol in place. I'm not familiar with all the details and ins and outs of that, but so there are are ways uh for um those things to be brought forward. Whether they're ultimately successful in prosecution, you know, we can't say, but we can certainly facilitate the best we can in gathering the information when there's an observed crime. Um, and turn it over to the prosecuting attorneys and see what can be done with that. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for staff? Council member Bower. >> Uh, thank you for all the work on this. Uh, when I brought forward this request, um, the use of prop city property is exactly what I was looking for. So, I really appreciate that work. Um, I was wondering if you could clarify has there been any asks from at the county level, state or the state level uh of the city of Roseville as far as uh assistance or plans or changes or anything that we should do differently. >> Uh, CB, nothing that's coming to mind. Obviously, we're all talking especially here in Ramsey County about what every city's doing and talking to the county administrator and too and what they're trying to do. I think everybody is running into uh roadblocks on what they can do within their authority. So, I think we're all bouncing ideas. So, beyond what uh County Attorney Choy has has been setting up, I haven't heard of any other actionable things that that are happening u per se um um in the county and in other cities. I think every city is trying to figure out what their proper role is and what they can do to impact what is happening out there. >> Follow and just one follow up with that. I I agree with that at looking at what other cities are doing. I think we're kind of out ahead of this compared to a lot of other cities as far as putting it into ordinance. We are well ahead of this already with our 2017 uh 413 policy with police and immigration um which really um served us well to this point. Um but yeah, I have not seen other cities doing more than what this is. I know some other cities have um really only updated their um use of city resources data and whatnot just as we are. Other questions for staff? >> Council member Schroeder. >> Um, yes. Again, thank you for all this and thank everyone for their input, the emails and calls we've been getting. We appreciate that input. Um I did want to ask if if people wanted to and again like you said the city's fairly limited what we can do but if say um people wanted to maybe reach out to county or state or go higher up to express their concerns where would they find that information to be able to um send that information on? >> Uh I know we've talked about it. I'm not sure if it's actually on the website, but we wanted to provide contact information for our elected uh state and federal officials. Uh so people can easily contact them through email or a phone call. So I know we're talking about I'm not sure if it's actually up on the website, but that's they can certainly come to our website and look for that information uh to reach out directly to those offices. >> Great. Thank you. >> Right. Other questions? >> Uh I did have just to to add a couple of things uh to what has been said so far. Um, and I appreciate the city manager mentioning that if people see things, this applies today and what we're talking about here, but it applies more broadly as well. Anytime people see something that doesn't look right or that that is suspicious or that could be an indication of crime happening, always uh, you know, error on the side of calling 911. It should not be something where you should feel embarrassed if you were wrong about something. if you know that that's for the police to figure out when they respond. And and so it's really important that anytime that you see something going on that looks suspicious or feels wrong uh or could be a potential danger to your neighborhood or to businesses that you see uh that you are uh comfortable to call 911 because nobody is going to come to you and say, "Well, you made a mistake and shame on you. Don't ever call 911 again." That's not what it's there for. So I want to emphasize that. But it's especially true in these cases as well. I know the question came up in our last meeting about well will the city uh enforce rules about things like reckless driving and speeding. Um and and I I haven't firmly consulted with the chief on this but I have my suspicions that if if the Roosevelt Police Department has any way to know or understand that it is a law enforcement activity um then uh probably not. Uh however, if there's, you know, not markings on vehicles, there's no indication of that it would be law enforcement activity. If somebody calls 911 and says, "Hey, this person in front of me is speeding or driving recklessly or somebody went, you know, x miles an hour down county road B, it's going to be dispatched. It's going to be responded to. Um, and once again, it'll be sorted out at that point. So, people shouldn't shouldn't feel like they shouldn't call 911 in those instances. Um, and just to the uh the reference to County Attorney Choy that specifically is related to the use of force incidents uh like we very unfortunately had in Minneapolis uh uh now a couple weeks ago uh where there are fatalities. Uh the uh county is got an an agreement with the Bureau of Criminal and Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at the state uh to be involved in investigations. uh local law enforcement agencies are usually the first responders in those situations uh and have responsibilities. Basically, the advice is to treat them as any other situation like that. Uh gather information, secure the evidence, secure the site. Um and that sort of thing. And then there's the cooperation amongst the county attorney's office, the BCA, and the local agencies to try to try to undertake an investigation. And as we've seen, uh there can be some challenges related to that. But the the the idea is that there's plans in place ahead of time to attempt to try to do what we would always do in those situations as as agencies in the county. So I did want to just add a little bit of clarity to that. Um and then uh very briefly uh I know there was a lot of calls over the last several days to uh uh either do an emergency declaration or call an emergency meeting uh and take actions more quickly. uh and part of that role falls on my shoulders and I just wanted to uh note uh that certainly that was something that that I considered. I consulted with our staff a little bit with the attorney on it as well. Uh there are circumstances where uh it's very appropriate to do. It is usually in uh done uh primarily to uh provide the opportunity to avail ourselves of state and federal assistance in cases of disasters and that sort of thing. uh there are some limited things that we can do in a in an emergency situation. Um uh other than that uh but in the weighing of that knowing that we had this meeting coming up uh this evening as a special meeting uh I did uh ultimately conclude that there wasn't uh enough to be gained by doing the emergency declaration uh that we couldn't address with this discussion this evening. And so that was part of my consideration there. Although I was looking at things that were maybe more uh you one of the challenges we have for instance with the parking lot enforcement is knowing who's there and uh the fact that people in the public want to use those parking lots. Um and you know we're trying to keep life as normal for people in our community as we can in terms of being able to avail themselves of our amenities in the community. Uh and so, you know, it seemed that the only effective way to do enforcement of the parking lot uh matter might be to not let anybody park in the parking lots and that just seemed to be um maybe at this point a step too far. Uh but I think we still hold that as one of the tools in our toolkit if we need to see that. Um, and just as a side note, um, you know, totally unrelated to that discussion, of course, in times of great stress and anxiety, um, a wonderful way to deal with that is to perhaps have, uh, a number of your friends and you get together and drive to a park and, uh, use the park facilities. Um, it's a great way to deal with stress and and help with, uh, all of the things that we're dealing with in our lives today. So, like I said, unrelated to the prior discussion, but uh just wanted to put that uh that thought out there. Uh other questions for staff. All right. Anything that we didn't cover that was sort of brought up in other in the previous meeting uh that we wanted to make sure and address as part of our conversation prior to the public comment? >> No, I believe uh staff covered uh what we had brought up in last meeting and in the agenda item. >> All right. Council member Strong. I'd just like to point out that as hard as it is for um city police to respond in real time, it's even harder for city council members to respond in real time. So phone calls and emails and pictures while um are helpful to know, we also lack that enforcement capability. So I know that's highly frustrating um and just because we aren't um maybe where you are doesn't mean that we aren't doing what we can from our end of things. Um, and the only other thing I just wanted to note too is that uh the um the the notion of for instance police officers enforcing the parking uh ban and things like that. Uh as was noted some of the the preeemption uh issues. I think the other thing is as was noted also the the sort of differential in personnel and firepower for lack of a better word. Uh and that's a real factor. Uh certainly the last thing we want is to have our public safety staff reduced because of involvement in some sort of escalation that might happen uh or because uh there has you know they are subject to uh enforcement of limitations on interfering with federal enforcement activities. And so uh we want to make sure that we are providing the safety to the community and we're not short people because of uh you know enforcement of that. And I tried to find whether Minneapolis was using their police to do it. it doesn't appear to be the case. Um, and they would be, I think, the sort of the the the people to look to as to, you know, how that's being dealt with. Um, and so I just wanted to to provide that additional information. I would also say that it may be the situation that um that you know having local law enforcement engage with uh federal agents in terms of these types of things may be something that that certain folks in the federal government may want to have happen because that may be used to justify other actions. Uh so we have to be very careful about that as well. And that's all I'll say about that. Um so we're going to move to then public comment. Um, and I do have uh a couple of moments hopefully of brief instruction. I know a number of people are here this evening that may have been uh here uh at the uh the January 12th meeting. So, this may be a little bit old old to you, but I do want to make sure everybody understands the the rules of the road. So, once again, um for public uh comment at council meetings by council rule, we do have a three-minute time limit per speaker. Um and I do try to be generous uh and gentle in my enforcement of that. Um, but we do want to make sure that everybody who does want to speak uh has the opportunity to do so. Uh, and so that's part of the uh the three-minute time limit per speaker. Uh, everybody gets one opportunity to speak uh for this agenda item. Uh, and so uh we won't uh have the opportunity for people to come back up uh for a second opportunity to speak. Um, if you have more to say than what can be said in three minutes, you certainly can follow up with the city council in writing either by email or if you happen to have written information, you could give it to Mr. Trean and he can make copies for the city council uh or have somebody do that. Um the other thing I wanted to mention is to make sure and direct uh comments and or questions to the city council. Uh we are looking to hear from you and inform our decision-m on some of these matters uh as we're looking at them this evening uh and going forward. Uh and so really we're we want to hear from you what your thoughts are and so please uh direct comments or questions to us as opposed to sort of having dialogues with other people in the in the chambers with us this evening. Um, also I would note uh because of the number of people that we uh have signed up to speak and if you haven't signed up uh and do want to speak uh feel free to do that. Um uh we will uh try to move through as efficiently as we can and we do have the two chairs and the two microphones. Uh and so what works pretty well when we have a number of speakers is if one person is making their comments or asking their questions at one of the microphones. uh if the next person who wishes to speak uh feels free to have a seat at the table next to them at the other microphone and be ready to to begin their remarks uh that will help uh the process move as well. I do have the list of the signup and so we'll be calling people's names off of that uh and so hopefully that'll help the process as well. I usually try to preview one or two speakers ahead uh as we go through. Um, so I think, oh, the only other thing very technical matter is that you really don't have to, uh, move or adjust the microphones on the table. Uh, the folks in the control room are, uh, trained to adjust the the the pickup on the microphone to adjust for softer voices or louder voices. And so really, all you need to do is come up and feel free to begin your comments. Uh, once again, uh, and I don't think I mentioned it yet, uh, uh, please introduce yourself as you begin your comments. Uh, we certainly want your name, uh, for the record. Uh we're uh because of the subject matter, I think we've been relaxing a little bit the requirement to list your address. If you're comfortable listing your street, you can do that. Um but we respect people's desire maybe not to be identified uh too too specifically uh as they make their comments. We do encourage people from Roseville certainly to be uh the commenters or people who have investment in the community as businesses or as part of local organizations. That's the primary um focus of our decision-m is to serve folks in those uh categories of of people. Um and once again uh we want everybody to be respectful and courteous to each other uh because we are conducting the people's business here this evening. Uh and that's what we all try to do and we we try to abide by that rule as as as well. So um hopefully that won't be an issue uh that we'll have to deal with this evening. And once again, if we get through the names of the people on the signup and other people do want to speak, we'll provide an opportunity for that. Uh so hopefully, unless I've missed something, council, I think I think we're ready to begin. Uh and so the first Oh, uh I believe I forgot, we do, I believe, have a representative from Congresswoman McCullum's office with us this evening who did want to read something from the congresswoman. So feel free to come on up uh to the table at the microphone and uh do that. And that maybe will kick things off for us. Thank you. My name is Charlie Hammond. I work in the Congresswoman's St. Paul Local Office, and I'm here tonight to read a letter from the congresswoman. Mayor, city council, community members, I'm sorry I cannot personally attend tonight, but I appreciate the opportunity to address you all. In Congress, I swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Right now, our dem democracy is being tested daily by the illegal actions of the Trump administration that are threatening the cornerstones of our freedom. That's why we all have a duty as motans and as Americans to speak out to defend the civil rights of all, document brutality against our neighbors, protect the rule of law, and preserve our democracy today and for future generations. I refuse to vote for any funding for the Department of Homeland Security while the constitutional rights of motans are being violated. During the Trump administration's invasion and occupation of our state, federal immigration agents have racially profiled our neighbors, apprehended children, killed an innocent mother of three, disappeared community members, injured people, arrested multiple US citizens without cause. Agents of the Department of Homeland Security at the direction of Secretary Gnome have weaponized the federal government against our communities across this nation and they are acting with impunity. Secretary Gnome should be impeached and removed from office for the appalling conduct that her leadership has empowered. Americans are right to be outraged that House Republicans have given their stamp of approval for the Department of Homeland Security to continue their campaign of chaos, violence, and tyranny. In the face of unspeakable cruelty, chaos, and division being inflicted on our community, I'm so proud of neighbors who are uniting and care for one another and are speaking out through peaceful protest. By your actions and lifting up your voices, you are defending our democracy. My pledge is to every resident of the fourth congressional district is to stand up for Minnesota values that show dignity and respect for everyone. Thank you for showing up and standing up to defend our Minnesota values and truth and freedom for all. >> Thank you. >> You >> could you give them information in case anyone here would like to um contact you? >> Yes. I'm going to be here for a little while taking notes if anyone would like to like grab me and go in the hall. Um, as long as it's not a distraction to the proceedings of the meeting, of course. Um, and if you have a pen handy, our district office phone number is 651 224 9191. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh, with that kickoff, uh, the first, uh, signed up speaker, uh, is named Eric with the last initial S. Eric with the last initial S. Uh, and then after that will be Carrie with the last initial G. >> Hi there. >> Hello and welcome. >> Thanks. I'm Eric. I live on Prior Avenue. Um, I've spoken to many of you face to face, including the chiefs of fire and uh the police department. I'm actually meeting with the chief next week to talk about some stuff. I was really hoping to come here to support you all today. I was coming to support the people who last summer spent meeting after meeting to find a way to help the church help people who needed somewhere to stay. You came here time and time again to do that. This time you are literally here to vote on whether or not to put up a sign. That is what has done. That is what you are here to vote on. That is it. Nothing else. There has been nothing else given to you. This is showing again and again that when it comes to asking our city manager what to do, it is always to back the people who have the weapons. They've done this before. During 2020, you guys voted in an emergency meeting to give money to other counties so they can build a slippery wall around their cops. That's what you all voted for. Well, some of you weren't on, but some of you weren't here. Strahan, you were not here at the time or you did not vote for it. >> That's true. >> You were not here, but Mayor Way Gra, person who I have voted for multiple times, who I've spoken with. You are now here to vote to choose to do this. You continuously, at least four times in this meeting, talked about what happens in a parking lot. I live down the street from the old Fairview community center. ICE was there the other morning at 4:30 getting stuff ready. If I had called you up, if I had called up the police department and if you could this question is able to be answered rather than just heard, let me know. If I had called up and said at 4:30 in the morning, there was a group of 16-year-olds sitting in there drinking in that parking lot making a boatload of noise, the cops would have been there in 15 seconds and gotten rid of them. But if I was to call up and say, "Hey, there is a whole bunch of people in there with automatic rifles laring their asses off in the parking lot. What are you going to do about it?" According to this, they can't do anything. They need to protect the other people who are wearing guns. They need to work with the people who have the weapons. We need the people who were here to protect us to protect us. If that means standing up for it, that's why they put the badge on. They have the ability to kill somebody. They should also have the ability to be shot. And it's sad to hear that that's the case, but that's their choice, not the people who were going there. People are fighting with cameras. People are fighting with yellow vests and you are here to vote on whether or not somebody puts a sign up. You're going to spend money on a sign and by the time that signage comes down, they are going to be gone and that's all you've chosen to vote. That's all you're choosing to vote on. I'm asking you to send the city manager and to send the chief back and say, "No, this is not good enough. Come back with something that we can actually vote on. You seem to be proud of it. You asked for this and this is what you're proud of that they came and they tried to find up to give you 15 reasons why they cannot do anything. The city can't do anything. Get some balls. Thank you. Thank you for your comments and once again I have to admonish the audience. The next speaker uh after uh Carrie will be um and I apologize it looks like Malay McInley. Hello and welcome. Hi, I'm Carrie and I live near Dale and 36. Um, lived in Roseville 36 years, longtime community volunteer and I work for the school district. Um, so, uh, I'm a little unclear, um, of the various documents. I'm going to be totally honest. So I don't know if I can ask a question that is looking for clarity as to what is being proposed tonight that will be voted on that's different than we already have and what makes it stronger. That's I guess that is what I would be looking to hear from you all like what language or what pieces of it are stronger that would help me have clarity. Um and I'm I'm hearing about these the enforcement challenges. I get that. I understand. I know you all did not bring ICE here, but you know, we're begging you to do what you can to if you can't get them out of here, protect us from them. And um and I really appreciate Betty's letter to the community or I mean to, you know, in support of all this, well, the community is doing the work that Betty is asking us to do. We are doing the work she's asking. So, what can our city government do for us? Um, and for Betty and for, you know, all of that. And I just want to say, um, if you're not aware of what's been going on, um, like on a day-to-day basis, hour by hour, minute by minute around our children, you're just not physically there. So, um, and maybe you've been able to be comfortable and not be there. Um, if you can't be there, then what it looks like to me is you're not aware that this is disproportionately impacting our communities of color and our communities that are underresourced. So to me, this is racism, this is classism. And if our city fails to act, I mean, just do you want to be on record? Do you want to be remembered as supporting racism and classism, even if it's not about public safety? Um, so I'm asking for clarity, but I'm also encouraging you to think about equity, racism, and classism. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. And, uh, before I recognize the next speaker, uh, the speaker after that would be Angela Burn. >> Hello and welcome. >> Hi. Uh, my name is Molly Mcinley. I live at 1186 Burke Avenue. Um, I'm stunned by the lack of meaningful action. I'm probably going to get emotional. Um, in your response, you've stated that the requested actions are too difficult and impractical for you all to take. Um, I'm angry because me and many other people have been doing a lot of really difficult, really impractical things these last two weeks. We're on community patrol. We're alerting residents to incoming threats. We've been documenting illegal actions by countless unidentified armed men wearing masks. I've personally been threatened at my home by a gang of thugs with rifles. I've been victim to retaliation, privacy violations, intimidation to course my silence. I assume these guys work for ICE, but nobody knows because nobody's checking who these guys are when they're running around with masks and unmarked vehicles with rifles. When I reported these crimes to the Roseville police, they declined to view the countless minutes of video evidence I have to support this and said that there was no need to investigate or collect evidence as these are issues for some other greater authority. If unknown men in masks can threaten violence in broad daylight outside my front door without a warrant, due cause, or even identifying themselves as officers of the law, I'm starting to wonder what services we're paying for. How are you protecting us from these crimes? People are being abducted from their homes without warrants. They are being racially profiled by law enforcement. People are being detained without access to lawyers. They are being beaten and left for dead in forests. Children are being kidnapped from their families and shipped out of state. How many of us have to become victims before you take up your duty to protect and serve? Why are we paying for services that our government fails to provide? Last meeting, you all presented a memorandum advising city officials on how they should engage with ICE. In five pages, the words protect and serve each appeared five times. Never once did they ever refer to protecting citizens or serving public good. All 10 mentions of your civic duties referred to protecting and serving the government. City employees were advised to protect the company and serve by complying with ICE. Who do these systems serve when there's no mention of protecting us? Here are some things that are non-escalating that I do think you can do, even if they might be difficult and seem impractical. You can instruct police to stop and ask the masked men with guns who they are and ask them not to congregate in our parks, even if you choose not to arrest them. You can instruct police to tell ICE agents they are breaking local law by staging military operations in the places where our children play. You can instruct them to write tickets for failure to comply. You can pass a law that states all law enforcement must show their faces and self-identify and then pursue the legal battles such new laws will involve. You can stop deferring to higher authorities that have proven to be anything but great. You can empower police to stand beside us, your citizens, as we express our freedoms of speech. You can facilitate public oversight hearings even if you cannot force the feds to appear for them. You can instruct police to investigate ICE agents crimes as reported by your citizens. You can make phone calls and request federal cooperation. They may deny you, but your efforts matter. When the battle is uphill and each step is harder than the last, it's together that the collective efforts will make or break us. To the community of people who've taken all the risks and made the sacrifices for our neighbors when the government has not. I'm honored to be amongst people with passions such as ours. I know we'll come together to the council. I ask you to take action or admit that your systems cannot simply do the job. In which case, we need to have a discussion that will ensure how this government changes to serve its people rather than to protect itself. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for your comments. All right. And before I recognize the next speaker, the speaker after that would be uh Eric Norin, I believe. Hello and welcome. >> Thank you. Angela Burn, 15-year Roseville resident. Um, the last time I was here, I spoke very quickly. Um, that's how I tend to speak. Um, but I also had a lot of receipts to cover. Uh, tonight I'm really, really tired. Um, so this time I'm here to hold space for us on this side of the Deis. Do you guys know that ICE was at Little Canada Elementary again this morning? Do you know what the other hotspots are in our city? Did you door knock any of those areas during your campaigns? Your because your constituents do. We have. We're there. And they have had observers on site within minutes of reports. This community has stood up and showed out. I wake up to hundreds of signal messages every morning from everyone that has been working, even overnight. I have thousands of messages by the end of the day when I get done working at my school. There are people in high viz vests and whistles that are literally standing between your constituents and being disappeared by armed angry paramilitary goons all hours of the day and night. They are also working full-time jobs. They are parenting school-aged children. And they are still doing this work. The amount of anger, fear, worry, uncertainty, and terror that your constituents are carrying right now are going to scar us and change us forever. And your recommendation to relieve stress in our parks doesn't apply to my students and families that have been trapped in their homes for a month. This community has been asking, recommending, and begging that you care about human rights for at least 10 years. This issue is so much deeper than what we do against ICE right now. I wish I could get you all to understand that if you don't have anything at personal stake, if you have not witnessed any of this, if you do not know anyone that is personally affected by this, if you are not getting hit by the stones that are being thrown at us by the federal government, you are not standing close enough to your constituents that are directly affected by this oppression. I'm going to just sit. I have about 30 seconds left and I'm going to sit here and hold that space because I have done nothing but cry and panic and try to pull myself together for my students that I have not seen in over a month and I think they deserve some space here tonight because they can't leave their homes to be here to talk to you tonight. They cannot be here. They cannot leave their homes. They can barely open the doors to get the grocery deliveries that we are bringing them. That is what is at stake. So regardless of what you do tonight, you don't deserve us. This city is incredible >> and we deserve better. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Right. And once again, the next speaker is Eric Norin. Uh the speaker after that is Dan uh Hoyer, I believe, or Heler. >> Right. Is Eric Norin here? >> No. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh Dan, I'm sorry I already Hoyer. Thank you. Uh and then after that would be uh Jamie Joe Eert. Hello and welcome. >> Thank you for having us all here. Thank you for hearing our comments. Um as you already stated, my name is Dan Hoyer. As I stated 10 days ago, Roseville is my home. Roseville has been my home my entire life. It is my parents home. It was my grandparents home. I am upset because 10 days ago you heard over 70 people tell you the fear that they are living in and as was stated earlier the response has been we will put up a sign. More than that, what I am upset about is when I read the change in policy that you are recommending, I am seeing things that, as was also stated earlier, seem to support the federal government over your constituents, over the people you are meant to serve and protect. I may not understand the law. I may not understand political language. Please feel free to correct me. But when I see in policy 4136, uh that is one of the most expanded sections in the policy proposal. Uh why is it that the uh the policy felt the need to spell out authorized to assist federal immigration officers now? So it is expanded beyond ICE and made it clear that ICE is not the only group that you are willing to actively support. It also says that you are there if a situation arises where federal agents, including immigration officers, are being assaulted. That is brand new language. You are spelling out an explicit protection for the federal government. And as was stated, I see nothing in here that adds to the protections of your people, of your constituents. I am seeing language that with my very basic understanding of words seems to support the federal government over your people. I have many more sections highlighted that appear to just support the federal government. The only thing that you are able to support is scene safety and the safety of federal immigration employees. So, you're spelling out the protection for federal government as was stated. You you can't enforce the signs that you are voting on putting up or you're not willing to. You say it's too difficult. There's legal uncertainty. There's already a challenge somewhere else. So, we can't try it too. Until that challenge goes through, we can try everything. They are doing what they can because they know that the jud the judicial process is slow. They know that challenges are slow and the impact of what they're doing will be felt and it will not go away by the time a decision comes for the people. To summarize because I know I'm going over time and I have way more to say. What I am seeing in here is soft language for the people of Roseville and very strong language for the federal government and that is disappointing and we will remember when elections come back around. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Right before I recognize the next speaker then the speaker after that would be um and I apologize. It looks like Jean April. I think that might be wrong. Um, sorry about that. If you can >> opinion >> this one here. Um, >> okay. >> Oh, okay. And then the speaker after that would be um I apologize again. Um, last name Johnson maybe. Oh boy. >> Um, let's see. >> Gerolene. >> Joe Johnson. Joe's Johnson maybe. I apologize. >> Sorry, I was a teacher. >> I've read kids handwriting. >> Right. Hello and welcome. >> Hi. Thank you for your time tonight. Um my voice is going to shake a little. I'm nervous. Um I've lived in Roseville for three years now. Our kids go to the schools here. Um I'm a mother. I'm a clinician. I'm an educator. I am the descendant of immigrants just like many people on this stolen land. Okay. In the last meeting, you heard from worried mothers. You heard from healthcare workers. You heard from experts in the immigration field. You heard from children at the last meeting. The words of this community have spoken clearly without confusion. We want ICE out. It is this community that needs the help, the funding, the food security, the safety to open our door and feel the warm winter sun on our faces. We need movement in the way of votes towards the protection of all in this community. We need the council to do whatever it can in its capacity to regain our trust. We don't want to be hearing about what cannot be done. We don't want to hear what the limitations are. We know them. We live them. You know your roles, your responsibilities, your capacity way better than we do. You know where there's space for movement, where our community can be lifted, where the resources that we have can be the most impactful to the people who are most at risk. We have elected you for this. If you cannot do it, we will vote for a council that can. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Um before I recognize the next speaker, the speaker after that would be uh Mimi Emilang. >> Hello and welcome. >> Feel free. >> Uh thank you. I'm Joe Ers Johnson. I live on Shorewood Lane. uh this ICE invasion of Minnesota has been from the beginning uh a bad faith political stunt um against the American people that President Trump actually views as enemies and not constituents has never been in any way related to fraud or targeting the worst of the worst and has only ever been about targeting political opponents and destabilizing Minnesota communities. Our strong communities are the result of decades of intentional community building, local democracy, forward-inking policy, strong public institutions, uh you know, things that Trump and his band of loyalists and bad actors have nothing but contempt and disregard for. And these are not targeted acquisitions of violent criminals, but widespread intimidation, harassment, violence, and straight up kidnappings of anyone that President Trump and all pe uh you know, him of all people uh think shouldn't be here. And that thought should really disturb us all. Um, not only are non-violent, non-criminal, undocumented neighbors and community members who have made their homes here and become integral members of the community, but also legal asylum seekers and even American citizens are being detained, kidnapped, assaulted, shot, and killed at the hands of these paid agitators invading our streets with military costumes, masks, and apparently uh complete immunity. And I appreciate that there was an attempt uh you know by the city to clarify that you know they're not necessarily gladly welcoming ICE into our communities. Uh but it's disheartening though maybe not surprising uh to hear that there's apparently just nothing our city can do um to provide safety for the community in the face of unconstitutional immoral nameless faceless paramilitary political violence. Um I could not be more proud of the community members sticking up for themselves and for their neighbors. Um, and I wish the city council, staff, and police could do the same. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Before I recognize the next speaker, speaker after that would be Ruth Ellen Lair or Lure. >> Hello and welcome. >> Hi, council. My name is Mimi Amlang. I'm a Roseville resident of three years and I'm a mom. Um, I'm here today because I'm deeply concerned about the activity of ICE in our community and I need to see my city leaders take action. So, my daughter attends daycare here in Roseville and she's taught by a team of wonderful, caring teachers who are extremely vulnerable to ice. So, I've been spending my mornings and my afternoons uh out in the freezing cold in the hopes that the presence of parents in high viz vests with whistles uh will keep ICE from threatening my daughter's beloved teachers. Uh it hasn't been enough. We have had agents at the center u multiple times in the last week. They haven't gotten inside, thank God, but they have um rolled past. They've taken photos into rooms where there are small children uh we think in the hopes of uh identifying staff. I am terrified that these armed and completely untrained and hateful people are anywhere near my small child. Um, but I know that that fear doesn't come close to the fear that her teachers hold. And even though these are people with legal status to be here and working in the United States, they are terrified. So when I called our non-emergency police line uh to report this incident of photographing uh young children in a daycare, I was told essentially there was nothing that could be done. and I was reassured that ICE has no interest in children under 18. This was a few hours before a 5-year-old was kidnapped in Colombia Heights. So, I get the sense and I had this sense before I came here today. It has only been strengthened that this council feels powerless. I understand that up against this federal government, this particular government, you don't have all the power. You don't, but you have more power than me. And I'll be honest, what I've seen here today, it it has largely amounted to there's nothing we can do. I don't accept that. I'm also hearing a real reluctance to take risks. Um, which sounds like, and this has been explicitly stated, uh, that means you're leaving it to people like me to take the very real risks of protecting our community members. So, we know there are limitations on your power, but this is a moral moment and we are all called to do what we can do to respond to it. And I want to thank my neighbors and community members for everything that they are all doing. Uh, so I have a demand of you, two options. Ideally, you would actually do both. Um, but you can pass and actually enforce strong ordinances that protect the city of Roseville, its residents, and the people that work here. And I'd like to see those be stronger than what was presented today. Or, and again, I hope it's both. I hope it's an and you can come out and you can join me and you can join the countless other community members that are out on the streets in the cold using what little power we have with our vests and our whistles uh to try to keep our neighbors safe. That is the least you can do. You know, you can do more. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Right. Uh the the next speaker uh after this one will be uh I believe Jen Demswith or Jen Demskita. >> Okay, sorry. Uh hello and welcome. >> Hello. I'm Ruth Ellen Lear. I live in Southeast Roseville and have for 30 plus years. Um I'd like to say I appreciate you taking time to listen and hear. You've taken some actions and they are a start a start. Um but I'd like you to take more aggressive action as others have spoken so eloquently already. Um, I recognize that I speak from a point of white privilege and I am embarrassed and ashamed at what has happened to other Rosevilleites of other colors. Whether they've lived here for a lifetime or whether they are newcomers, they are surviving and they are living and barely surviving in fear. for both ch adults and children. I'd like you to take more assertive action as others have stated state publicly as one of the recommendations is and I'd like you to join the lawsuit with other other cities and with the state against the federal government doing illegal actions, not seemingly illegal, illegal actions that are in fact depriving people of life, liberty, and the pursuit suit of happiness. Um I also think that we need to recognize um that we need to identify additional resources to support the people who are being harmed and to recognize that this harm does not last for a short time. This harm will last for a long time and at a minimum every 3 months for the next 2 years to say what are we doing and what can we do better? Time, energy, money, all of it is really needed. The harm also is being done. As people have said, the people who are most vulnerable are in fact our care providers and teachers, care providers of people with disabilities, care providers of our elderly, care providers of our youngest children. They are being are they are afraid to come to work. So how can we in fact support them because they no longer have income? They no longer have sense of security and they no longer in some cases have food. They no longer have money for rent or mortgages. What can we do to surprise to support them even more aggressively? We also need to recognize the people that they are being served are being harmed and are being deprived. So a question that I have and a recommendation is how can we work with other local um uh uh local the most local governments you've already talked about working with counties but the school districts the city the school district and to a lesser extent the county have space have space maybe for using collection of resources and materials that can be distrib contributed to families. Are we using our gymnasiums? Are we using our schools? Are we using our kitchens, you know, in the nicely refurbished um uh parks that we have and in the school districts in fact to support and feed people right now. As again, um I'd like to thank you for your time. I'd like to thank you for your future actions. Thank you for your comments. Before I recognize the next speaker, uh the speaker after that uh would be uh Andy Johnson. >> Hello and welcome. >> Good evening. So my name is Junde Mskita and I have lived in Roseville for the past nine years. I apologize. This is my first time addressing a city council. So forgive me if I'm a little >> No need to apologize. >> So right now members of our community are afraid. That is not hypothetical. That is reality. They are afraid to leave their homes, to go to work, to buy groceries, to send their children to school. And I know that there are limitations to what an individual city can do. But good God, there's something. And I wasn't here 10 days ago, and so my understanding of what was said versus now is limited. But I hear the anger at this community and people who are putting themselves in such risk, in such danger for people they may not even know because they know it is the right thing. And I myself have multiple disabilities. I cannot be out in the streets the way I wish I could. And every day I struggle with am I doing enough? Am I complicit because I cannot go out and march? But even the small things I do put myself in danger. And if the people here are willing to put ourselves at risk, it is not too much to ask you to do the same. We are here tonight to tell you that we know there are risks and consequences. And this whole room is saying we are willing to risk that. We want to stand together. We want to be here for our communities. And we need you to listen to that because the role of our government is to prioritize the needs of our people. all of us. Your job is to serve the people of Roseville, so do your job. >> Thank you for your comments. And before I recognize the next speaker, uh the speaker after that would be uh Mary uh I'm sorry, Grundman, maybe. I hope that's correct. >> All right. Okay. Uh then after that would be Amethyst Okonnell. Hello and welcome. >> Hi. Uh my name is Andy and I live over uh by Acorn Park. Uh I I come here fearing for the safety of my family and mourning the loss of our fourth amendment rights by state sanctioned domestic terrorists. And I'm left wondering like why do we have police, right? Like on your slides right there on safety, you actually list property before people as the things you're trying to do. And I think that's really illustrative, right? I think that sort of brings the focus in on why we do have police, which is to protect property and not really to think about the individual people, right? You know, in this very meeting, right, the mayor, you suggested that people should call 911, but the police are unwilling to do anything. We just talked about how they can't do anything. So, why would you suggest someone waste their time, right? Like, don't call 911. Call your local mutual aid group. Someone with a whistle is doing way more than any cop is ever going to be doing in these situations, right? anyone who offer the modicum of help has done far more than the city has done in this context. You know, I attended the previous meeting and I stayed I didn't make the whole time but I stayed quite a while and I listened to my neighbors sort of give all this pre praise to Roso police and all these pleas and I think it's coming from a place of desperation, right? Like we've monopolized the legitimate use of force with the police, right? And the federal government and people feel helpless, right? And they can't do anything. They can't act. We're used to the police being able to take over this, but they don't do anything here. And you've all established that, right? And it's actually really heartening today to hear people sort of coming in with a lot more skepticism of the police, which is quite warranted, right? Because they say protect and serve. The vehicles say protect and serve, but that's just propaganda. They don't actually have to do that, right? You have multiple Supreme Court cases that have established police have no obligation to individuals unless they've like arrested them, right? You've got Duchani versus Wnebago County Department of Social Services, Castle Rock versus Gonzalez where they didn't enforce a restraining order and some woman died. But that's okay, right? because they don't actually have to protect and serve you. It's just a PR statement. Uh, you know, at the moment, we're seeing unmarked cars filled with federal agents roving our streets, disappearing residents. The place right next to my house has these people. They're in my parks. They're everywhere. And there's just complete disregard for safety. You say call, they're going to break the laws. No, they're they're not going to do anything. The cops are not offering anything right there at all. As of now, honestly, more than anything, the police seem to be getting in the way, right? I see them stopping people from falling. Just this morning, I watched a video where police interfered with someone at the Little Canada Elementary talking about their blinker wasn't used just to kind of bog them down and slow them down. They had a dash cam of them using the blinker. The cop changed his story, right? Think about the January 8th, 2026 statement from the Fraternal Order of Police, which I think is the union many of them are in. I don't know about our cops, but anyway, some kind of Minnesota police organization. And it was titled FOP stands with ICE. Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police condemns rhetoric. And then it comes out against the the vilification of actual villains in my community. And then it goes on to talk about citizens being given the presumption of innocence. No, they're not. We don't have a Fourth Amendment anymore. It's not worth the paper it's printed on. Roseville Police Department makes up 36% of the 2025 tax levy. Why? I want to see that number frozen. I want to see that number down. Why do we have these people? They're not offering anything. I also see a lot of discussion about training and body cams. None of that's any good either, right? Jonathan Jonathan Ross and then the killed Renee Good was a firearms instructor for like 12 years. We're seeing a tr we have seen truly inspiring community mutual aid happening to fill in the gaps where the government has failed us. Our city has the facilities and the manpower to increase material support to our civilians in crisis. I propose that a portion of the budget that is currently funding our law enforcement, an organization unable and or unwilling to meet the community's needs be given to the people in some capacity. Get people food, get people HVAC services, plumbing, anything at all. Do something because right now no one's doing anything. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The next uh speaker uh will be after Amethyst OCO would be uh Matt uh Keaney, I think. Rainy. Hello and welcome. >> Hi, my name is Amethyst Okonnell and I am usually mentoring a local robotics team at this time. Um, and I think that is a true failure of city governance when high school students are afraid of anything. My students are incredibly afraid of being kidnapped by ICE, of their friends being kidnapped by ICE. Um, and I would encourage this you all to have the engineering mindset that my students have. We recently got our first game. They built a robot in about six weeks and the first thing they do is they try to break the game. They try to find ways to skirt the rules that have been put in front of them and build a robot that will dominate every time. The city council has an incredible amount of power that they aren't using. I recall a time when you were talking about uh zoning for weed, not allowing Roseville to be used for weed. As much as we put roses up everywhere, let's be real. Roseville is not a tourist destination. So why don't we ban hotels from Roseville or threaten to ban hotels from Roseville until they get their act together? We can place income taxes as a local city and there are tax credits for railroad workers at the federal level. So what if we income tax ICE agents specifically? There are incredible possibilities that have not been explored by the city council and I encourage you to have the courage of an engineer in this moment. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Uh the next speaker after uh this speaker will be uh Emily Rugles Johnson. >> Hello and welcome. >> Hi, my name is uh Matt Kaney. I live on Cohen Street. I am severely underprepared I think than others in the community as they've presented. Um but at least I'm one of those people that probably has never come to one of these things. But I think the way I'm going to focus on it and especially in my background for my job, the policy 413, it's unclear to me what is prohibited by city members or police officers for their interactions with law with the federal law enforcement. What are the consequences? What is the documentation of requests from the federal government? And really it my hope is to inspire more even maybe it's a rebuilding of trust. I'm ignorant to the fact of um I think the community's police uh relationship, but I'm not endorsing or looking for any violations of federal law, but I just as I don't want the federal agents to be violating the law, which they are. And so I'll just point to a couple points in the policy of 413. The second paragraph in 413.3 says members are not required to include person's immigration status in reports or similar documentation. Why would that not say prohibited? Is that against the federal law to prohibit city members or Roseville the police departments from including immigration status in reports? Again, I'm ignorant to these things, but there's a difference between not requiring and actually prohibiting something from action. Another one would be 413.5, an officer should not notify federal immigration officers when booking arrestes at the county jail facility. And then the second sentence kind of clarifies it by saying any required notification will be handled according to the jail. So why should should not be replaced with prohibited? It doesn't make sense to me because it almost leaves it up to the officer. They shouldn't, but can they? If they do, is there consequences? That is what's missing in my mind from this policy. The last point I'd point out is 413.6, the fifth paragraph. It says members of the department are authorized to cooperate with a task force involving federal agents as long as the focus of the task force is not immigration enforcement. How are we as a citizens expected to trust that that is happening? Every interaction, my recommendation, any interaction with federal law enforcements at this time, maybe on an emergency basis, should be documented and public for everyone to see. So, we know that the police department is at least or members of the department are at least saying what we're hoping to do by the statement that we're not endorsing uh the actions of the federal government. Those are my comments. >> Thank you for your comments. And before I recognize the next speaker, uh the speaker after that would be uh Naomi Dornfield or Dornfeld. Hello and welcome. >> Hi. Um, my name is Emily Rugles Johnson and I'm going to cry because I cry. And I just want to say thank you to everybody that's here. I will say thank you to you guys first, the city council. I will say thank you to the police department. And also, I'm not going to try to replicate all of what has said been said here. It's pretty incredible. Um, I'm going to take a different tactic though in in my few minutes. Um, I couldn't get notes together because I'm exhausted. I um I'm a mom. I have two children. Um, I am a leader. You are leaders. I lead a a a school with young children. Um, I had to navigate decisions about how to handle a potential strike, a strike that's happening. Um, I I have done lots of hard things and I have gone to a Monarch training in our city with 10,000 other people from all over the the metro area and beyond. Um, and there there was at least one city council member there. Thank you for being there. our senator Marty was there, Representative Gotthried who are on signal calls, uh, signal chats and and are participating, um, and leading us in the ways that we can protect ourselves and our neighbors in our in our, uh, in our city. Um, yeah, it's just it's really hard and I understand how hard leadership is. I understand how exhausting it is. I understand how really difficult and frustrating it is to remain calm or to look calm on the outside when people are mad at you and don't think you're doing a good enough job. I have experienced a lot of that recently and and I agree with I agree with the people that work for me and I agree with most of the I mean all really all of the families I serve because my job is to serve them and your job is to serve your constituents and to listen to us. You're doing that. Thank you. Um, I would challenge you, as I'm making an assumption here, but fellow white Americans, to get out of your comfort zone, to recognize your privilege, and to talk about it more. You might be, you are very limited in what you can do. And, as other people have said really eloquently, you have power. All of us here today have some amount of power because we made it here. We're not hiding. We're not afraid. Maybe we are afraid. Actually, I every time I show up to something that is involved in this, I'm like, I don't know. Will I stay? I have two kids. I might leave. But I know that I feel a lot safer than people that look differently than me right now. I would challenge each of you, if you haven't already done it, to get more involved, to consider going to a training. I will email you the Monarch uh upstander constitutional observer training booklet with lots of resources and lots of signs. The first thing I did at work after I went to the training is I hung up signs on the the outside of our school to protect people that work for us, to protect people that that come to us. I'm probably over my time. I'm very time blind. Thank you. And also uh I want to say one more thing. Thank you to the police for not shutting down our totally rad noise demonstration outside of Hometo Suites by Hilton. I assume it was for safety reasons that the parking lot was was blocked off. It we disrupted before we even started. Um we found another space. We remained peaceful. We had a lot of fun. I connected with people from other neighboring towns, some of whom were not allowed to have demonstrations because their police officers shut it down right away. So, thank you police officers for not shutting it down. I at the end felt like you actually probably were protecting me because you were by the door where the ICE agents would have maybe come out and gotten in our faces and that didn't happen. So, thanks. If you want to join band practice, we're probably going to organize more. >> Thank you. >> Mic drop. I'm done. All right. Uh the next speaker uh after this speaker would be uh Laura uh Bortha possibly. I hope I got that right. Hello and welcome. >> Also my first time here. >> Hello council members and mayor and amazing community here. Uh my name is Naomi. I'm a long-term resident of Roseville. I live off Victoria. I'm here to request that you implement a separation ordinance from federal immigration enforcement and put simply rise to the moment the way our community has. I sincerely fear for my neighbors. I fear that any number of people in my community will be targeted by ICE based solely on racial profiling, traumatized, detained, and sent to god knows where. I fear for them, but I recognize and acknowledge the great fear my vulnerable neighbors feel for themselves. My fear leads me to action. And I fear that my action, openly resisting the agency responsible, makes me a personal target. Fearing that I am a target for dissenting is a clear indicator of how far down the authoritarian rabbit hole we've gone. The other day, hanging out with my mom, a deeply conservative woman, I let her know that I was getting more involved in pushing back against ICE presence here. I asked her how much she wanted to know in terms of activity like if I attend a legal and nonviolent protest. She said it's not worth getting killed over. I reiterated my question about how much she wanted to know. Afterwards, I thought about the interaction and asked myself seriously if I was prepared to die peacefully protesting, legally observing, recording, documenting. Three weeks ago, I would have said maybe that's a little bit hyperbolic, alarmist. But after Renee Good was killed in broad daylight by federal immigration enforcement without consequence, I feel that I have to be ready for anything and that's possible. I understand that there are limits to what a city can do and how a city can operate with a federal government agency. But as an unpaid, unelected resident who is out here working daily to keep my neighbors safe, I implore you to find whatever those limits are and push them like democracy depends on it. Be creative. Be proactive. Be insistent. ICE agents who break the law in Philadelphia are arrested. Maybe we pull from their playbook. When residents and regular citizens like me are defenseless against the violence and intimidation of an agency that treats laws arbitrarily, we need local authorities to keep us safe. And if the Roseville Police Department is not going to intentionally and outrightly partner with residents, the absolute least thing they can do is stay out of the way. Either protect us or be neutral, but please do not partner with immigration enforcement. Like Renee Good's wife said, we came with whistles, they came with guns. Vote no to the section of the police department policy update recommended by Chief Schneider that emphasizes Roseville PD's authorization to protect federal agents. Vote yes to the ordinance amendment to add more restrictions on use of city resources. And also side note, please join Minneapolis in passing a resolution calling on Governor Waltz to enact an eviction moratorum. the ongoing crisis, workers are unable to safely go to work to earn rent. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for your comments this evening. >> Right. Before I recognize the next speaker, the speaker after that would be uh Jenny Grilly. Hello and welcome. >> Hello. Um my name is Laura Bodera and I've been a resident here in Roseville for the last past six years. Um I come to everybody here as a mom. Um, I have a junior in the high school here and a fifth grader at at Little Canada. Um, I'm going to try not to cry because it's um I'm an immigrant as well. I just became a citizen about two months ago. Um, >> this is the first time I ever um joined um something like this. I actually promised my daughter who's 17 that I would be more involved once I felt obviously got my citizenship. I'm actually very angry um to hear the response um from the city. Um my 10-year-old school, Little Canada, I heard there's some teachers here um who share my frustration, are very angry that obviously schools are being targeted. I do appreciate the police uh the Roseville Police Department showing up and and patrolling, but my daughter in specific, the 10-year-old, she feels like she needs to protect her friends, her neighbors, and her teachers. Why are we putting that pressure on kids when you guys have power to do some stuff about it? All I heard was a sign going up. Um, I heard how my brain processed it was we're scared to do anything because we might get defunded on money. Um, one thing that I can say, I'm not rich, but when there's a will, there's a way. If you guys are saying that we want don't want to take action because we're scared of funding cuts, I'm pretty sure that there's enough angry people within the community that will say, you know what, we will help. We will help because we need to put a stop to this stuff. I'm so angry right now. Um, another thing too, um, that I that I want to address, um, I obviously, again, I'm off County Road B2. We use Central Park, um, throughout the year, not so much this winter cuz it's been cold. Um, I'm currently also pregnant. And here, I'm telling my kids, you know, when your siblings going to be born, we're going to be able to enjoy the park more. Now, we can't even go down to the park and just do, you know, even take a walk with our dog because I know for a fact that there are ICE agents patrolling our the trailer park down the court, um please, please, I implore you, if little people like me can make a difference, if there's nonprofit organizations that are coming and are helping, you know, people like me are donating money, donating gift cards, I I don't want to speak for everybody here, but I'm saying that the passion is and anger is there where we would put money behind this. I don't It sounds like you guys are taking a stance of a cowardly um attitude of we don't want to do anything because we we're going to face legal action. That doesn't make sense. How can you even come to that conclusion without even trying? That's what I don't understand. Um, please everybody, I I really appreciate the city being as peaceful um as it is. Um, it is very disheartening that I have to go back to my children instead of, you know, reassuring them that we live in a safe city where our officials are protecting, you know, my our neighbors and friends. I I have to tell them, you know what, I'm sorry, but I don't have an update. I have held my 10-year-old um at home um because there's no clear indication on how we're going to get protected. I mean, I have to look where I'm going. I have to plan my trips. I have to look um at the specific app for ICE reportings. There's no reassurance for me as a resident that if I were to get profiled or I get I get pulled over that the police is going to do anything about it. I understand that there's limitations, but come on, guys. Like, let's let's ple I know you're here to listen, but we need more actions. And thank you so much. Thank you for your comments. All right. The next speaker uh after uh this speaker would be uh Kathy Ramont. >> Hello and welcome. And either microphone works, it's okay. >> Can you hear me? >> Yep. Yeah. >> Um my name is Jenny. I'm a Roseville resident and I have children in Roseville schools. Tonight I took an Uber to this meeting because I do not feel safe to drive in Roseville. Today I asked my mother to pick up my children from school because I did not feel safe to drive in Roseville. Today I asked my mother to lie to my children about why she was picking them up from school because I do not want my children to not feel safe in Roseville. Today I took a drive around my neighborhood. I saw a suspicious illegally tinted vehicle with three men inside. They were watching as a school bus dropped children off after school in a local community. Out of concern for my neighbors and their children, I peacefully observed from a distance. I was very dismayed to see them suddenly putting on ski masks. They proceeded to drive into this community despite the clearly posted private property signs. I am connected to this community, so I went in the same direction at a safe distance. As things do when masked men are involved, the situation rapidly escalated. They chased my vehicle and pounded on my windows. One of them was wearing a vest, but the other two were in plain clothes. I fearfully drove away and parked in a nearby parking lot to message these neighbors and to wait for my hands to stop shaking. Please note, this is not the moment that I started to feel unsafe in Roseville. After 15 minutes, I decided that my drive was over and I was going to head home. I was over a mile away when I spotted a Roseville Police Department vehicle in a city park parking lot. Imagine my relief. Roseville police in a city lot that ICE are not allowed in. Allegedly, I felt safe. I pulled up next to the officer and I explained what had happened. I wasn't expecting him to confront the dangerous men I had run into. I'm not blind to the complete inaction of our law enforcement over the last two weeks. But I told him how there were others now driving in that same neighborhood, and I feared for their safety. I asked only that he drive through to try and deescalate the situation. As the officer began to tell me that there was nothing he could, or should I say would do, two large black SUVs roared into the parking lot behind us. Within seconds, I was surrounded by six federal agents pounding on my windows and pulling at my door handles. This was 20 minutes after my scary encounter in my neighborhood, and I was over a mile away. With fear in my eyes, I looked at the police officer who had sworn to protect our community. He gave a slight shrug and said, "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to." I pulled further into the parking lot, realizing that with two vehicles and only one entrance, I was likely trapped. I then watched as the Roseville police officer spoke briefly with the federal agents and pulled out of the parking lot. To his credit, he stayed nearby, affording him a front row view as the federal agents chased my car around the parking lot of a Roseville City park, the same park my children play at in the summer. I have dash cam footage to support all of these statements, and I am happy to submit that to you. I'm here tonight because a stroke of luck allowed me to drive around these aggressors and escape. I'm here tonight despite the complete inaction of the Roseville Police Department, the ones who are supposed to protect us. I'm here tonight because we deserve to feel safe in Roseville. Thank you for your comments. >> The next speaker after uh this speaker will be uh Brian Smith. Hello and welcome. >> Hi, my name is Kathy Ramound. I live on Lori Road. It's almost impossible to follow all of these speakers. Um I but I couldn't be prouder and love the residents of Roseville more than with everything that I've seen in the last few weeks. Um so I'm not even going to try and cover what they've covered. But I do want to say that you lack imagination. Like I just think you there's a lack of imagination on your part. I would implore you to go I've written this to you like go department by department within the city and figure out what what they can do in each department to make a difference not being stuck by laws. What can they do? What can you know what can the housing navigator do to support people that are doing this? What can community development do to support businesses? Like every department in this community should be able to do something and spend some time to make a difference. And on the other hand, I hear what you're saying as far as all the legalities that are stopping you from doing anything that's really concrete and valuable that's going to keep us safe. But I would ask you, what are you doing with those barriers? Like if you're if you're seeing a state law that's preventing you from doing what you say you want to do, but you can't do because the law is preventing you. Are you doing anything as a city to try and make those law changes? Are you talking to Are you talking to, you know, senators and representatives and the federal government? Are you doing anything? Are you representing us as a community? You have hours and hours of testimony from people about what we're dealing with. Can you use that and rather than make each one of us write and each one of us write a letter as an individual, could you write as a city to those congressmen and try and get some law changes based on the fact that you have a barrier? you you say you want to do these things, what are you going to do to make those law changes? And I'd implore you to do that for you as a city of Roseville, but also working with the cities that surround you. Like, are you talking to Shorey? Are you talking to Little Canada? Are they having the same things? I imagine if each individual here wrote a letter to a senator or congressman, it would be in a pile. It would be counted. But if every city wrote a letter or wrote contacted them more than writing a letter contacted them to say as a city representing 30,000 people this is what law change we need from you that would be more powerful than each of our individual voices. So I'm asking you for all of those things you say you can't do because the law laws are restricting you. What are you doing to make those law changes? Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Uh, and the next speaker after this speaker uh would be uh Jamie Becker Finn. Hello and welcome. >> Hello. Name Brian Smith. I've lived in Roseville since 1999. Other residents have touched on some of the these things, but I want to reiterate them. Namely, some fairly granular comments about information sharing with ICE and other federal law enforcement. I would like to see the absolute minimum amount of information given to ICE and other federal agencies. And I'm obviously not alone in this. Like a previous resident whose name escapes me said, the Roseville Police Department guidance has some very vague and weak language just suggesting we don't give information to ICE and other federal authorities. I would like to see that strengthened and like he said some actual accountability if anyone actually gives such information to ICE or other federal agencies. In addition, he didn't mention specifically 413.7 and information sharing. No member of this department will prohibit or in any way restrict any other member from doing any of the following regarding the citizenship or immigration status lawful or unlawful of any individual. So it seems that while you're asking people not to give information to the federal government and to ICE, there's absolutely nothing to say they're going to stop doing any of it. That's in multiple places in this police manual. And like our engineering friend said a little while ago, get creative. Find ways to work the system. find a way to get around it. And I would like I would urge the city council to take some more concrete action to have some actual accountability for any and all city employees who give information to ICE as information is the lifeblood of ICE. They can't do much if you they don't know where to go and I am not alone in all of that. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Uh and the next speaker after this speaker would be uh Shannon Weiss. >> Hello and welcome. Uh Jamie Becker Finn, a resident of Roseville and small business owner. Um apparently you guys don't know this, but part of your job is to actually lead. Uh winning an election doesn't make you a leader. Your actions and your words do. We know you can't physically force ICE to leave. We get it. Um, but when we are all risking our own safety every day for neighbors that maybe we've never even met, despite the risk, we need to know that our elected officials have our backs. And we have been asking for that for almost two weeks now, and it isn't clear that you do have our backs. Why is it so hard for any of you to say out loud, ICE is harming the residents of Roseville, we want you to leave. You don't even have to swear like Mayor Fry. But none of you, no, I can't find. Nobody will just say out loud while you're up there on your microphones being recorded, we want them to leave. They are harming people. Nobody will say it. Um, other than the hundreds of residents. Most of this time, I've been really mad that colonizer white supremacists with guns are terrorizing my children, are terrorizing all of our children. If those words are triggering for you because they're DEI woke words, too bad. That is reality. That is what happening. That is history and it is being repeated. But honestly, I mostly feel sad for all of you because you are not part of the beautiful, heart-wrenching work that is happening in our community right now without you. Cuz it's incredible what we have all built together out of nothing, without even knowing people's real names. And I have to believe at this point that if any of you were out there behind those names, you'd say something. And instead, we just hear excuses about why you can't return emails quick enough or that like the law doesn't actually let us do anything. But that being a leader is more than passing laws. It is. I know that it is. To my neighbors, you are doing enough. What you are doing is true public service. Every time you roll up, every time you honk, every time you deliver food, every time you respond to a text, every minute you stand in the cold at the bus stop, it matters. And it also sends a message that there are more of us than them. Never ever forget that. And I want you all to allow yourself to forever, and this is to my neighbors, not to the people sitting up there, but to my neighbors, the people who've been up here giving you public comment, allow yourself to forever be radicalized by the deep truth that we take care of us. >> Thank you for your comments. I think the next speaker was Shannon Weiss and then after that would be uh Joan Dao. or Joanne Dao. >> Joan Da. >> Hello and welcome. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Shannon. I've been a resident of Roseville for six years. I'm going to keep this short because plenty of people have already come with both stories and very practical solutions for you all. And honestly, I went back and forth on whether or not to even get up here because if I'm being honest, I'm not sure it's going to matter. If what was said at the last meeting and by others tonight hasn't moved you to do whatever you can to take action against the horrors that ICE is committing in our community, likely nothing I say is going to. I could sit here for hours and tell you stories of the children that I work with that wake up, go to bed, and spend every moment in between fearful for themselves and their families. But I don't think that that's going to matter. Like I said, I have long lost hope that our government is going to come to save us, but it would still be great to see you all try. I decided to get up here because there is one message that felt important to say to you all. You could do 1,000 great things in your time on this council, but how you handle this moment right now is how you will be remembered in this incredible community. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments and welcome. And let me just check. Uh we're uh coming to the end of our list, so we'll make sure and provide an opportunity for anyone else who wishes to speak. Hello and welcome. >> Hello and welcome. We're back here again today. So, my name is Joan Dao. I'm a long-term uh resident here. I have gone to school with your children. I have been an active community member for a very long time. Uh yesterday, I so I'm going to tell a story earlier this week. Uh I had received message uh through my hyper local group that ICE has been staging um at the community center on county B2. Um and that's where the preschool is, that's where the pool is, that's where our seniors are. That is also where alternative school is and they have been using parking lots there likely also Corpus Christi large parking lots that are hidden in plain view for staging. This is around the corner from my house. I live with know this knowledge every day this week. Knowing that fouryear-olds could get kidnapped. knowing that my family despite having gone through Lord knows how many atrocities to get to this country and then some and to have to relive wartime efforts and environments again. There is if there is any solace for me it is knowing that if we have survived once we can survive twice but it it does not bring me any joy knowing that I have to have a will in place that I have to have special apps like ready now to have a lawyer uh at a moment's notice and that it could still get stolen from my phone. It does not bring me any joy knowing that I have to be here even though it risks my own livelihood just to talk to you or that I have to bring papers to prove my citizenship and I to consciously think about my accent to see if I can lessen my risk profile. I don't need to tell you what type of job you're doing. Everyone has already told you. I already told you this 10 days ago. the police are not going to do anything, right? We've already seen it. And while I was listening to the stories, because we're towards the end of the list, I was reading these city values and I was thinking about this moment and I'm thinking about this conversation right now and how none of those city values are being honored. How is it that we are accountable if we do not make a strong stance for our people? How are we transparent if we have language that wouldn't even stand up to the wind outside? How are we for community except for community itself if you are not willing to stand with us? Is certainly not equitable because only a portion of the community can actually be outside. And it's very weird to go out to like restaurants or like be around the community when I can be and see that's only white people. The Roseville I remember and I was hoping it would be different. It's certainly not safe if our residents are getting run off on our roadways, on our freeways, to be boxed in, to not know if they can actually go outside or back home. I have been in coffee shops outside of the city sometimes because I know where the the hotspots are and they're around my house and I have to make a deliberate decision of whether or not I can be at home to protect the elderly that live in my house or that I have to be outside for my own safety. And where is the integrity? Is it in the room? I really have my time. >> Thank you for your comments. Right. Is there anyone else from the public who wishes to speak? We've run uh to the end of the list of signups. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? Feel free to come on up uh and just uh once again state your name uh and uh make your comments or ask your question. Hello and welcome. >> Hi everyone. Um my name is Amy Perkins and I live near Emtt D. Williams, north side of Roseville. Here I am again. Um, I'll probably think of something far more eloquent to write to you in an email tomorrow or the day after. Um, like I did last last week. Um, I echo so much of what I'm hearing here and um, I'm trying to think of other things that maybe we haven't talked about. We have we have this amazing wave of solidarity in the room and in the hallway. And I I wasn't here at the beginning, so perhaps we had some people speaking from other angles. But while it's really strengthening and motivating to be here and listen to all of you, and I I see what so many of you are doing, and I you know, where I'm trying to be in the thick of it, um I also wonder, it's easy to feel like everybody must feel like all of us in this room. And I'm not sure if I can really crystallize this thought in only a couple minutes, but I wonder sometimes if I want to believe this isn't it, but I know that you are here to represent us. And I would guess that you are perhaps getting emails and comments from other people who do not agree with the people in this room. And I know that's got to be really tricky and really hard to balance um because you are here to represent everyone. But I would like to believe that you're hearing and seeing the evidence of what's happening and how regardless of how you feel about the overarching reasons for immigration enforcement. I would like to believe that you all can understand that that this is it's all problematic. None of this is happening in the right way. Um, and if I'm right about that, I wonder if one of the ways you can use your platform is to help us push the needle in some kind of way. I had an encounter with a neighbor of mine this week which um took me un took me by surprise and it's really weighed heavily on my heart. I I have a neighbor who um is an immigrant married to a white American. I called on her to check in and see how she was doing a couple nights ago and um was immediately met with uh backlash um about why I was concerned and why should I be concerned because everything was fine. Um so I'm not naive. I know that many people are in favor of what's happening with ICE. Um, but again, I don't know if I can really finish this thought here. Um, I don't know. I just help us push the needle. If you are if you are caught in the middle of two groups of people that are so far apart right now, help us push the needle. even if it's not with a policy, even if you can't change the law, help us push the needle towards a kinder, more loving like the radical love that that Jamie is talking about. Help us push the needle. Um, if it's okay, one quickly, I also in my heart I try to empathize and I try to think about how hard it is to be on all the different sides of this. Um, Chief Schneider, I can't imagine what it's got to be like um to be in law enforcement ever really. I was a public teacher school teacher once and I think there are some parallels um where you can never do anything quite right and everybody's blaming you for everything wrong. I would assume that everything that's happening now has got to be undermining and damaging your department's reputation by the minute. Um I perhaps I'm wrong and perhaps um I don't I would like to turn around and say hello back there, but I won't. Um, I just I wonder like I would love to hear at some point in some space from our law enforcement officers. There has to be a better way. And for us to damage so many parts of our society, I there's just got to be I would assume that there is some push back despite the perception or reality that law enforcement is siding with ICE enforcement right now. Um again, whether that's all true or not, there's there's got to be ways that law enforcement can there have to be things that you guys don't like about this and how it's happening. I I better just stop. The thoughts aren't quite all there, but anyway, thank you very much. >> All right. Hello and welcome. >> Hi, my name is Carly, a resident of Roseville. >> You all should be ashamed that a couple of uninforcable signs is the best you can do after hearing the accounts of the citizens you were sworn to serve. If it was possible to remove all of you from your seats, the citizens would do so right now. Clearly, you are unwilling and unable to rise to this occasion and are more vested in protecting federal goons and masks with guns than the vulnerable people of Roseville. For what? So we can get federal funds for police that you've made clear won't and will not protect us or even enforce the one proposed solution signs. As it has been said by others, the police are not here to protect us. They're not required to. Why would we protect federal funds for an institution out to protect capital and blatant harassment of non-white folks and underserved communities? Spend the budget on something that's a real solution. I've yet to hear anything about rent moratoriums or anything that will functionally help the people of the city. Your actions make it clear that mutual aid and the collaboration of people in the city matters more than this government institution. We have moms putting themselves between tear gas, pepper spray, and potentially bullets. And all you can do right now is propose a sign. I sincerely think and hope that you can do better. I yield my time. >> Thank you for your comments. Hello and welcome. Hi, I'm John. I'm a long-term Roseville resident. Um, I've been really moved by the people that have been talking tonight. Um, the engineer brain in me kicks in a little though and we've heard from the council about things that we can do against ICE, but we're not hearing a lot of things we can do for the people. You've got moms and others out doing patrols and you've heard now some suggestions on rent moratoriums and I I believe that rather than looking only at the how do we fight ICE, it's really how do we support our people and that's what's missing from this discussion. That's really all I came up here to say. I mean, you've you've heard the the conversation about asking each of your departments. You can also ask the community, what can we do to support you? Uh we've heard our city manager talk about putting things on the website of here's how you contact, here's, you know, so more directed things. Can you be the funnel through which efforts flow to do this support? That's my time. Thanks. Thank you for your comments. >> Hello and welcome. >> Um, thank you very much for creating the space and spending the time with us here today to hear us out. My name is Jesse Austin O'Neal. I'm a Roseville resident. I live in the McCarron's neighborhood of Roseville and moving to that community is one of the best things that's ever happened to me in my life. I'm also a mom and I'm also um one of the co-directors of the Minnesota and Reservation Homeless Studies. And I'm here today to tell you I'm extremely concerned about our neighbors and community members who are too scared to leave their houses, who can't go to work, and who are facing as with rent coming due in just a week and a half, are at risk of eviction and homelessness in the dead of winter. And I'm here to ask you to please join St. Paul in Minneapolis in calling on Governor Walls to put in place a statewide eviction moratorum to protect our community members from homelessness. Please, that is within your power to do. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. >> All right. >> Hi. Um I'm Linda Stron. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'm a longtime Roseville resident and I I truly believe that you can hear the anger and the frustration and the fear that is in your city. Um this is a small group. There's plenty of people who were expecting more and hoping for more. I also understand that it's hard to work together with u five people who have completely differing views. Some are over here, some are over there. However, next in the next two weeks, the next time you come, will you have something that's a little more bold? This seems to me as if you're appeasing the police department who are appeasing ICE. And that is not going to help anyone in this kind of a situation. They're disrespecting the rule of law and we should at least do something about it. Um, so I'm hoping you can come in two weeks with uh something even, you know, something a little more bold, a little more uh um actionable, uh something that will maybe like one person said, move that needle towards helping. The other thing I want to say is that I know that um I I wish the police chief was here so that she could hear this and I I hope she was invited. Uh the other thing is you're getting blasted as if you are all one unit. But I know who on this board has been going out and confronting ICE. I know who's been patrolling the the um what are those things? Houses, the trailer parks. Sorry. Sorry. Um I know who's been going out and marching. I know who's been gathering people together to take them out to confront ICE. And it's not everyone on this council, but it's somebody. So, I want the the city to know that all of you are not sitting back and doing nothing. On the other hand, I would like to think that you can come together and put out something for us that's a little more bold. It doesn't have to be the end of this tonight. We can keep working at it. That's what we're here for. So, uh, thank you for listening to me and I'll yield my time. >> And thank you for your comments. Hello and welcome. >> Uh, my name is Josh Carroll. I live on South Aaso. Uh, I've lived in Roseville about eight years. Um, first of all, I think it's great that uh, Council Member Bower put this on the uh, agenda two weeks ago or whatever because it's brought out a lot of people in the community to say what they think and to uh, unify as uh, the city. Um, I agree with a lot of what's been said tonight. Uh, that ordinance that was drafted has no teeth in it. It is um a nice a nice start, but I think uh you all should go back and try again. From what I've heard tonight, uh it sounds like also um our police department and dispatch needs to sit in some of the training that was uh mentioned in uh the city manager report. Um it's really unfortunate to hear these stories about how uh police and uh this the police staff have responded to calls and have responded to um in-person interactions where ICE and immigration are concerned uh especially in our city parks. Um, the other thing the the last thing is I was sitting here tonight looking at the city values over and over and I got to integrity and the last part is to take actions when it's not easy. And I think there's some things that might not be easy to do that you certainly could do, like starting to work with um our neighboring cities to form a coalition of how to respond to ICE activity or to get ideas from other councils or, you know, maybe to get out in the community and uh see for yourself what's going on and what you could do. It won't be easy, but you know, it's not an easy situation we're in. Uh, and the last thing I just want uh to uh share that I'm sure not everyone's on uh like ice tracking apps like a bunch of us probably are, but uh there's good possibility that they are renting homes in our community and >> they are they are >> they are and they might be at 770 heel. So stay away from there. So, thank you. >> Right. And if I could just ask you uh to maybe sign your name on the sheet over on the clipboard there just to make sure we get the spelling correct. Uh and if any of the previous speakers that weren't on the signup list could uh do that if they feel like we may be make a mistake on the name. >> Hello everyone. My name is Pra Moretti. I live on Rice Street. I am well aware of the limitation of local government. Right. Um, even if all police officers are against ICE, which I'm sure some are very supportive of ICE activities, unfortunately, we have less than 70 police officers, right? And Minneapolis has less, I think 650 police officers, and they have 3,000 people and potentially more as how this situation escalates. But like many other constituent saids, I was really hopeful of something more than just adding a poster to different places. Um, you know, I joined a commission about a year and a half ago because I wanted to be more civically engaged. I thought government is a place for good and local government is the best place for good because there's no politicking. You're there's like actual action that's happening and I'm very disappointed to see what's been going on so far. And I'm hopeful as this situation escalates or hopefully doesn't escalate, but if it does that you as a local government think of ideas of trying to do something more than just putting notes on city property. Um, I yield my time. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Hello and welcome. >> Hey. Hi everybody. My name is Kate Warden and I have been a member of the Roseville community um for the last decade. I am a parent of two elementary age kids. And without a ton of preamble, I want to say that I love Roseville. I love our parks. I love our wildlife rehab center. I love our location between the two cities. Um, and as a as an introvert until recently, I haven't spent a ton of time in the community, but I can say now that I absolutely am in love with our neighbors and the residents of Roseville. I to know and see what everyone is doing here tonight, our local shops, our schools, our teachers, our community leaders, our spiritual supporters are doing together and to gather everyone. um to care for our immigrant neighbors has been truly inspiring to me. That's why I'm here today. Um I was here during our last city council meeting and I sent quite a lengthy email um and was looking forward to seeing all the hard work come to fruition. You've heard a lot of different um sides and viewpoints to what we could do as a community to make things better and safer. After reading through the documentation and preparing for the meeting tonight, I thought that maybe I was missing something. Um, certainly there must be more action than some signage and some discussion that it would be difficult to enforce laws on federal ICE agents who are kidnapping children and violating our constitutional rights. In policy 413.6, six. It states, "Members of the department are authorized to assist federal immigration officers when it related to scene safety and/or safety of federal immigration employees as they perform their duties." And I'm not sure if we can change the wording, but what I think is it should simply read, "Members of Roseville law enforcement are authorized to assist Roseville residents when it is related to scene safety. The federal agents do not require more backup than what they already have. If we don't provide more concrete, caring language around this policy, residents will eventually fight their own way. And I know that none of us want that, but this is kind of where we are at this point. Um, you guys have the opportunity and the authority to make these decisions and enforce them. We can do more. The other point that I want to make tonight is that we need language around school safety. I sent an email last week with details around areas that we should be able to enforce keeping federal agents away from many different areas, but a bare minimum there should be standard language that uh school grounds bus routes are off limits. Our children, my children are scared about what will happen to their friends. My son, who is 9 years old, is asking what was going to happen to his friends and his teachers. He's even worried about the St. Paul mayor. He doesn't really understand what's going on, but he's scared, and we are, too. Certainly, there can be a policy passed to protect minors from federal kidnapping and being traumatized while simply trying to find their way in this world. We have a right and and it's incredibly important to protect them and their innocence as long as possible. and we're doing a really bad job of it collectively right now. There are so many more things that need to be done. There have been amazing people here talking tonight there. You know, we can talk about um covering rent. There's mental health concerns, more training. There are lots of other areas that we can certainly discuss. I know that all of this is really hard. It's really scary. None of us have ever been through anything like this before. But you and we have a beautiful community. We have a beautiful community of creative and thoughtful and intelligent and determined people that you can lean on. We don't have to do this alone. This is something that we can all do together. We're trying to provide thoughts and ideas, but you have the connections to be able to write the laws and the policies and the language, right? So, please don't pass only the language before us tonight and think that it's the best that you can do. I know that this is not an easy time to lead, but it's a very important time to lead. It's not just your residents watching. Many other states are, and we can be a beacon of real change here. >> I'm going to have to ask you to stop because of your time. >> And uh we support everyday citizens in our community. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Hello and welcome. >> Uh my name is Chris. I'm going to start this by saying sorry if I get emotional. I think like most people here, we're a little frustrated, a little scared, a little angry. I'm an emergency medical dispatcher who works directly with an agency who works directly with Ramsey County. We work with Roseville PD and Roseville Rescue. I do want to say thank you for your service, but I'm so disappointed to hear all of the stories tonight about the way that you have failed this community. There's really no words for it. Another thing I wanted to touch on is you said you're trying to make life as normal as possible. Stop trying. I know that normaly is important for some people because it gives them a sense of comfort. This isn't normal. None of this is normal. And pretending that it is is harmful. It allows things to slip through the cracks. Those things are people. Those people are from our community. This isn't normal. Stop pretending that it is. Use that. >> I see my time. >> Right. Thank you. >> And this will be uh the last uh speaker this evening. >> Um >> welcome. >> Good afternoon. My name is Eric. I live on Lexington. And I've heard a lot about law today and what we're going to do to support the law. >> I've done a lot of thinking about this and laws, they're not moral. They're not ethical. It was illegal to hide Jews. It was illegal to own slaves. We have a really good opportunity right now. And especially you guys, pardon me. My heart's racing. You don't want to disrupt anything because you might lose your seat or you might lose a paycheck. Hundreds, if not thousands of people here in this community are doing that every day. I might be one of I don't know. Who knows? And that's what's crazy. That's what absolutely crazy breaking laws. How many people have seen unlicensed trucks zooming up and down everywhere? I have. I got pulled over because my tabs expired because I'm quite the, you know, lawb breaker. But that's more of a civil offense than an ordinance or some kind. I'm not an expert on that. It's driving me nuts to see that they are placating and they will work with ICE. They don't need any more help. The people of this community are the ones that need help. And right now, the community is coming together to help that. And I mean, I've I'm so proud to be a citizen of Roseville because there's great people here. So if we have great people here, let's make a little bit of great rabble rousing and let's let's do something. Think outside the box like everyone ever sell imagination or whatever. There's ways to make a change and get together. Minneapolis, St. Paul, call those people. We have a great opportunity to actually be a beacon of light for people who so need it so badly right now. And I don't know, that's all I got. So, thanks. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Right. And I do want to thank everybody uh who has spoken this evening, who has reached out to the council. Um uh we do uh uh appreciate hearing it because it does help inform the decision-m that we do. Um I did want to begin with one uh statement which is ICE is harming people and we want them to leave Roseville. Um there's no question about that. And I will also say that um the language of our policies and I I should say we did have an updated version of the 413 policy which not everybody may have seen and we tried to address some of the concerns about the language uh related to appearing to want to protect ICE versus protecting people. um I don't know that it'll be satisfactory but we've we've tried to uh address that because it is about protecting people and and the concern uh that I have personally um is that we have all well I should say during all of this we still have people who are calling 911 because of medical emergencies. We have people calling 911 because they are being harmed by uh family members. We have people calling 911 because of uh burglaries in their homes. None of those things stop during this absolutely terrible time. And the the purpose of our police is to do all those things and deal with all those issues. And it's the challenge we have is is can we also be doing additional things too and we have to figure that out certainly. Um I I just want to make sure that that I don't think anybody sitting at this table is saying or wanting to say, "Yeah, our job is to protect ICE or to help them out or keep them safe except that as people and as as people in our community, um if there is a situation where they are in danger, it's not that we're saying we want to protect them." uh and exclusively them. I think that the challenge is is a lot of times if if somebody's um engaging with ICE in a way that's dangerous for ICE, it's also obviously dangerous for the people that are engaging in that way. Our police are very experienced in um deescalation. That is a very important mantra of their training and their policies. And the the intervention that police would be expecting to do in those situations is to make everybody safe by creating space by deescalating situations. Um that is that is what we're really talking about in terms of looking at these policies especially as it relates to interacting with with uh immigration enforcement. Um, and so I wanted to make sure um that that uh despite perhaps language not being, you know, where somebody might like to see it or certainly if if the old language and is being looked at and not the newer language, um, the intention is to have language that, uh, provides for the safety of everybody in the community because that is who our public safety people are here to serve. And so I just wanted to make that that point uh, to help clarify that. Um the other thing is um you know there's a number of questions that have been raised this evening and I think we can do some follow-up. Um I did want to note that we we do not unfortunately or maybe fortunately depending on your spec perspective have the ability uh to levy an income tax as a city and the state of Minnesota. Uh that is not something we can do. Uh that doesn't mean we shouldn't do other things or anything but that I just wanted to clarify that that point. Um, the Fraternal Order of Police does not represent any of Roseville's officers in their collective bargaining. Uh, it is a fraternal organization and I don't know that we know or could know whether somebody may be participating uh in that organization as as a member but not related to uh um um labor negotiations. Um, and I so I I can't speak more to that, but I did want to clarify that we have completely different uh uh bargaining representation uh representing the various portions of our police department in terms of their uh their union negotiations with the city. Um I think the uh we should talk about uh you know uh um looking at what we can do related to uh getting the state to put in place an eviction moratorium. I think that makes some sense. I think we have also uh I know I've done outreach to uh city staff about the ability to uh use some of our uh sales tax funding uh for housing uh to help with uh people and their uh rent uh and making sure that we're uh helping people get through uh situations where they may not be able to pay their rent. And so I think there's more we can talk about that as we get more information on that. Uh so whatever we may or may not do this evening certainly wouldn't be the end on that. And I I don't think we're prepared at this point to take action specifically on that this evening because we we're still putting together what we'll be able to do, but I know uh during COVID we did uh some programs with respect to uh helping people with rent and things like that. And so that seems like something that makes sense for us to look at. Um I don't know that I've got a lot of other necessarily uh response and clarification for people um as to comments that were made uh questions that were raised. Um I think that's and certainly I did want to also say that that um a big part of what informed the the original policy in 2017 uh and I think reinforced it even uh in years after that is the uh notion of building trust between our public safety people and the community because it helps with investigation and solving crimes. if people aren't willing to come forward and provide information that can help in solving crimes, protecting people who have been injured in the community by somebody doing doing uh criminal activity, uh whatever that might be. Um if people can't or aren't willing to come forward because they don't have trust in our law enforcement, uh those investigations may not be successful. Those people may not receive justice and that is terribly, terribly unfair. And I will say that these outside agencies that are in our communities doing the things they're doing, shredding the Constitution, trampling on people's rights, taking children, none of that is acceptable. And all of that has a bearing on how people in this community perceive our police regardless of what our police are doing because that is the that's just the way uh human nature is is that we look at what somebody's doing and it's natural to sort of assume that's what everybody's doing. And I think that does great harm to the public safety of this community. So, I will reiterate that ICE is harming people in our community and we want them to leave. And if they don't want to leave, I really wish that they would listen to their own policies and their own training and do the things that they're supposed to be doing in the way that they're supposed to be doing them. And the way, by the way, prior to this past year, that that agency for the most part had been conducting its business under past administrations where certainly people who were um uh violent criminals or otherwise shouldn't stay in this community were dealt with through the immigration process. If that's the purported purpose of what's going on in Minnesota and in Roseville, that's not what's happening. And it's as I said, it's not the way things should be happening. Uh so I want to be clear about that. Uh we do have several requests uh for action this evening. Um and I do want to clarify again uh just on the policy language uh related to the um uh police and immigration matters. uh the new language uh that we've uh put forward in relation to uh the uh assistance in instances of immigration enforcement. Uh states that uh members of the police department are authorized to assist in instances of federal immigration enforcement to the extent that participation is related to scene safety, the safety of members of the general public who may be present and the safety thirdly the safety of federal immigration employees as they perform their duties. Um, so I wanted to make that that clear uh that that is the language we're proposing uh based on the feedback that we received from members of the public and trying to be more clear that we're talking about broad safety rather than very specifically protecting ice. That is not the mission of the city of Roseville or for that matter uh the police department in Roseville. And uh we want to make that clear and if we need to uh enhance or improve our language to to do that uh we certainly can look at that. But this is the start that we made this evening. Uh other council members, I I want to make sure that we have an opportunity either to follow up with questions of staff or the attorney on any of the uh matters we have before us andor items that were brought forth in uh the feedback from the community this evening. Um Council Member Strong, we're your neighbors. We care as much as you do. We are not your enemies. I know we're all pissed off. We don't like this. We don't want them wandering around our neighborhoods. We don't want them terrorizing our people, but we didn't bring them here. I know it's natural. We're the visible people here, but it is hard and that's fine. We're elected and we can decide not to do it again. And you can try to you can run for reelection. You can run for election this year. There will be three seats available this fall. Sign up. But we are not your enemies. We are doing what we can. And to say to have people text you at 6:00 in the morning saying, "Where's your itemized list of what you're doing?" You need to know we came here because we care about the people and we want to do what is right. But don't come up and say laws don't matter. Just because someone else doesn't follow the law doesn't mean we get to not follow the law. And for people who think that you are the only ones who know what's happening. I am a HR director at a first at a nursing home. I'm going to work tomorrow so that other people can stay home. Not all of them please. People are scared all over. A lot of us are there in a lot of different ways. Please don't make assumptions that you know how everyone is out there in the community. You can encourage, you can ask, but don't make assumptions that you know. I've spoken to the people in Shore View, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale. We're working on things, but this is this is new. We all have day jobs. We don't have a staff to respond to the 250 emails we got in the last 24 hours. We just don't I'm not saying you have to you don't even have to like us cuz clearly a lot of you don't. But please remember we're not here to mess up your lives. We're trying to take in this. We're at 6 and a half hours so far and thou, you know, hundreds of emails and phone calls. I think we can all pretty solidly say we really want ICE to get the hell out of our town. But we got to remember there's certain things we just can't break the law because other people are doing it. We all have jobs and we have reputations in our jobs. We can't just we're not going to do that. Same way Amy mentioned about bringing healing. We got to remember that we got to work together. We got to find some solutions together and not just come at us. It's hard to keep hearing how how we're not if you want us to work together then assume positive intent that people are wanting to help and wanting to work together because if you just come at combatant we're not going to it's going to feel naturally like we got a lot of work to do. >> Lecture you're yelling at the wrong people. You're yelling at the wrong people. >> Uh, Council Member Strong. >> All right. >> All right. Other council discussion. >> Council member Bower. >> So, when I originally brought this up, uh, well, I mean, I started on this probably three weeks ago now. Time is kind of a blur. uh before just kind of working with talk seeing what was happening and at that time it was already discussing it with other council members uh in other cities uh just seeing what's happening what their plans were already starting to talk with lawyers uh and realizing that something needed to be happening we didn't have the solutions at the time that brought that agenda item up um and I we brought it forward knowing that we would have this discussion and I also knew that whatever we brought up was not going to be sufficient enough and it was going to upset people because it wasn't But as we some people have stated, it was our start to try to make something happen. And you're correct in being upset and frustrated that it's not enough. U you're very much correct in justified in saying that way. I feel that way as well. Uh I understand a sign is not going to be something and I could see them just taking the signs as uh decorations for wherever they're staying. But it is a start. Now we do need to think creatively and try and make these things happen. And that's what you know some people have commented and called out what are we doing while you don't see us lines and that's fair or not there but we're taking a me personally taking a different tact of you're right the laws that we have here aren't sufficient and they're impeding us and so that's requiring us to change and so that's where I'm spending my time right now is I take the input that you have and the frustrations with it and I do see and spend spending much of my time more time than my companies would like to see uh on this matter and taking those things forward and working with other legislators at levels higher both at the state and at the federal levels. You saw I invited Congresswoman McCullum today and she sent her representative trying to move those things to happen. This is the kind of the creative thinking that we're you know at least I and I think others on this council are trying to do is taking your complaints and your frustrations and seeing if we can change the game a little bit here to empower us to make those kinds of changes. Um as far as like what the city can do and those kinds of things, I would applaud everything that you're doing right now. the the speed at which you're reacting, the speed at which you're dealing with solution, coming up with solutions to problems, meeting needs of others. I I was had a meeting with um Roseville superintendent, right? Um trying to figure out if there's other things that we should put in uh if she had ideas or asks, you know, that we should put into this and hearing her stories and her frustrations as well. and uh is hearing her stories about how people in the school both uh teachers and uh family members uh are stepping up to provide things and food and delivering food and how to protect that. It's really inspiring and you can act much faster than we can the cities. We'll do other things. Uh as the mayor noted, we have some things in there for, you know, rent and whatnot and programs as part of the EDA and we can take a look and we will do that, but we're not going to react in the same kind of speed that you're able to react. um we will come behind and see what we are able to do but you know keep up your efforts and what you're doing and we will be working on we do have some authority and some powers but most of that is kind of soft powers and soft abilities you know being able to send emails it means something when you say you're a council member or you're a mayor you can get into in front of some more people both at the county state and at the federal levels and so that's where I'm spending a lot of my effort and I think others on this council will be happy to do that as well to see if we can change these things right now uh you know the state is is very much still trying to figure things out you know if there's lawsuit those other things that's why I asked earlier when uh city manager treasure was presenting you know have there been asked from the state or the county um just to make sure that we're meeting those things but trying to build up this kind of conversation amongst you know other councils uh from other cities and trying to become this unifying it's taking time it is happening in the background we are trying to change some of these laws laws and change laws. Minnesota session will be coming in, you know, starting very soon. We do hope that we take, you know, they have some public sessions there, so you can, you know, bring your concerns and address them there as well. Um, so I'm optimistic there might be some movement or something that happen there. We are just as frustrated as or at least I can speak for myself just as frustrated uh trying to get these things laws and rules changed so we can give you more just as upset and as frustrated as you are about you know my solution of let's just put up a sign. Uh I share that same kind of frustration just up one level at this point. But we will continue and I will continue diligently working to try to change those things and change that so we can provide you some with real solutions. But it is going to take time unfortunately. And I wish it could move faster. But uh moving as quickly as we can and having as many phone calls as possible and as many Zoom meetings as possible to try to make this happen for you. >> Right. Other council members, Council Member Grath. >> Uh first of all, thank you all for being here today. I have been trying to reply to emails. I I did that until midnight last night and I did it again today uh up until this meeting. Um just trying to give you information as I was getting it. I I gave the information about the uh change in the ordinance that came forth because of because of your comments really. But there are a lot of things we're doing. This is affecting all of us and it's affecting our friends and our neighbors down the street. I have um the grandchildren of the people who the fellow who was arrested or taken out of his house in his underwear and his his slippers. So, it's affecting all everybody. Um it's very stressful and I understand your anger. I feel it too. Um I feel a real frustration about not being able to do more. But this morning I went to a meeting with uh Northeast Youth and Family Services and uh spoke with many other council members from other cities and spoke with the director and the board there or the staff and what's happening with children is is going to be for affecting us for years. It's not going to go away when ICE leaves us and they will leave us thank God someday. They can't stay here forever, but we have a long road ahead of us and I want I want us to work together to solve this. So, I think that's all I'm going to say. Right, Council Member Shore. Again, thank you all for being here. And believe me, I feel deeply the anger and the fear. And I and I think again, you know, I wanted to um comment about what um Council Member Bower said. We may not be out doing these things like right next to you, but where we can be most effective is doing these things trying to get these laws changed. I too have been meeting with groups of different mayors, different uh people at city, county level, state level, talking to people, trying to come up with solutions. So you think about I think that what it is is where can we help the community the most? What can we do to move this needle? And and this is where unfortunately again it it's it's it's painfully taking longer than we want it to. And but I think the thing is please believe we're all on the same team. Please think that we are definitely trying to come up with solutions and and support this community. We all live here too and and and you know it it's it's just so horrifying to see what's going on. It is it is very painful for for so many people. Yeah, just remember, you know, and and I think some of it it's not so obvious and um transparent what we're doing, but we are spending a lot of time calls, emails, meeting with people, you know, all kinds of stuff because we are trying to come up with stuff. So, just so you know, we are doing what we can do in the capacity that we were elected to do. And so ju I want to make sure you realize we are working on that stuff. You may not see us as we're spending hours and hours talking to other people or out there talking to you know uh police officers, superintendent, other people in the communities, other people, city um managers. So we are trying to come together as a as a um bigger community to come up with solutions. And so and again I just please believe us that we are on the same team and we are really wanting to figure stuff out. So and we appreciate the suggestions and the and you you know the emails and stuff. So yes, please we want that. Um and and um you know we hear you and we are trying to incorporate this stuff. You know even you know when people were talking about the different wording in this this changed today with the yellow in it because of the feedback people were giving us. So yes when what was in the packet the feedback came there was some revisions done. So we're constantly hearing and trying to incorporate it. So, um, we will do, um, you know, our best. So, please believe us on that. >> And I think it is important to note too that that, you know, this isn't the last conversation about this. There are some things that have been proposed this evening. I would say most of these things are things that actually have been requested by members of the community. Um, and you know, I think we all understood that the signs weren't a magic wand. Um, but it was something that was requested in in the January 12th meeting and we wanted to make sure that we were being responsive to it. Uh, and so, you know, we're trying and and so that was one of the things that we we wanted to do. And I I wanted to be clear too about my earlier comment about going out to parks. I was kind of trying to and maybe I was too subtle about it. The notion of if our parking lots are full, they can't be used by other people. That's really where I was going. I certainly understand that there's a lot of people in the community who absolutely are terrified to go out to a park and I was not at all suggesting that that's what people should do. And there's your solution. That was that was not what I I meant by those comments. Uh and I apologize if I was being too subtle in my attempt uh to get people to occupy parking lots. Um but with that, we do have some actions that are are before us this evening. Uh, and I do want to make sure if the council is uh interested in uh taking some of those actions uh that we uh take the opportunity to do so. Um, and maybe we need to look at some things in in order of how they're being presented. Actually, maybe a little bit different order. I might suggest that the ordinance and its accompanying resolution uh may be something to to take a look at first uh by the council and we can then look at uh the policy 413. Um I don't know that we're requested to take any action on some of the other policies. I think those were there more forformational purposes this evening. Uh but so the the the ordinance the resolution accompanying the ordinance with some of the the reason behind it. uh and the 413 are certainly things. Um and just to be clear, I think on the 413 policy change, do we have to adopt was there a resolution uh to uh approve that change in the packet because we made the original resolution saying that the council had to approve changes or or is a council motion to approve this change adequate to our prior resolution? >> Not to get bogged down. >> Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I believe it is um I think the a resolution to adopt the the the um policy as as worded. Um >> a motion to adopt the polic. Okay. I just wanted to be clear on that. >> Uh so maybe we'll start once again with the the ordinance um and the accompanying resolution from the council's perspective. Are there uh any thoughts about uh that in terms of adjustments or and certainly that can be brought back um if further changes need to be made uh following up on that. I apologize. I'm just trying to grab my copy here. >> Three go. I would move to adopt the resolution and the ordinance. Uh >> maybe we'll start with the ordinance. >> Start with the ordinance. Uh yeah, if you want to do both of them separate. >> Uh well, no. I think the resolution is a single motion. >> The resolution is the reason for the reason behind it for the ordinance. Uh, >> can you clarify what your your the city use? >> Actually, just I want to first check with the attorney on making a single motion for both. >> Yeah, no issue. >> I think you can make a single motion. Just just for the record to be clear, the the ordinance is the use of city resources ordinance. Correct. The resolution that you're referring to is resolution affirming lawful and appropriate use of city resources. Right. >> I think the title is actually longer than that. I just want to be clear because there's a lot of things on this agenda. So, those are the two that you're considering moving as one. So the resolution would be attachment five uh which goes into the basis for the ordinance and then the ordinance is the and I don't have the attachment number but that's the ordinance amending uh title one to establish uh the section entitled use of city resources. >> I'd second it. >> All right. Resolution plus ordinance. It's been made by council member Bower, second by council member Schroeder. Uh discussion on the motion. Uh as uh the maker of the motion, council member Bower. Uh, I'll start with the uh resolution. I I think the resolution does lay out nicely the reasons for us to um make this change, but also a larger point of restating Roosevelt's values as community and the reasons for us to make this change and makes clear that we are what we're seeing is not u up to what our police and just as a community expect from law enforcement as well. So, I do like how the resolution is worded. Uh, as far as the ordinance goes, again, as I stated previously, um, I know that's not sufficient. Uh, I know that doesn't meet what everyone is looking for. It does not meet what I'm looking for as well. U, but it is something that we can do now. It does make a statement. I think I would hope it would show to um those here and in the larger community in Roseville and those that are watching that we are making progress and I do hope that in the future we can come to you uh with more progress. Uh, we will continue working on that. Um, and I wish I could give you a date when that could happen, but this is the start. Um, and hopefully we'll see you again, uh, when there's more and, uh, we can continue this conversation. Until then, do continue expecting a lot from us. Uh, don't change your expectations. Uh, keep sending your emails, keep letting us know what's going on, and keep doing the great work that you are doing, but um, we will continue to keep keep ourselves keep us accountable, and we will continue keeping ourselves accountable as well. Thank you. Council member Sher is the secondary of the motion. >> I would agree with what um council member Bower talked about. Again, this is just a start. So, so we can, you know, you know, it's incremental steps that we're doing here, but you know, it you know, it's it's I think u Kathy had the shirt on. How do you eat a elephant one bite at a time that I saw come up to the table. So we are trying to you know get as much in here as we can to eat this elephant but we you know there's other information that needs to come you know forward and we can I I consider this um a living document that we can as as things develop we can um amend as needed. >> Other discussion on the motion? Council member Strong, >> I'd like to know about uh if passing of the ordinance obligates the city staff to enforce it. Um if now having it as a um actual uh ordinance, does that change the enforcement of um ICE access or use of city resources including city parking lots? Technically, it would be a violation of the ordinance which is um presumably citable. um to people that break that law, both uh external agencies as well as employees. >> Administrative citation, I imagine, is our >> and will that be served upon ICE agents or other federal in folks taking up space where they're not where it specifically says they're not supposed to be? >> Uh at this point, I can't say how we would uh look to enforce that. Um I suppose technically that would be the way we would enforce it uh if we do that. Uh I think challenge with the citation is you need to cite it to somebody and as we see that we don't have any accountability on ICE to know who the citation is unless it's to the U Department of Homeland Security. >> We can figure something out there. I think if we Yeah. Yeah. Um and and that that just to that point um you know the the the correlary maybe is um that we also don't permit people to have uh you know raves or car shows in our parking lots either. Um and that's a totally different thing obviously. Um and usually the police doesn't enforce that unless there is an active ongoing criminal activity. um that is observable and then you know that can be dealt with. Um so that's the challenge I think we have is that it's an an administrative type thing but we can work on that and if we have to send daily citations down to the office in the Whipple building or wherever it is we can figure some things out. >> Other discussion on the motion? Other discussion on the motion. Council member uh Gra. >> Um I I support the motion. And I think it's a this is just a beginning. I know this is frustrating and I think I've talked to many of you before over the years and I I've said government does not move quickly that it's not constructed for that and and when you come to situations like this it is extremely frustrating. I know from where you're sitting it seems like we should be able to just do things, you know, quickly and it does. It isn't. It isn't arranged that way. But I am supporting this motion. I'm supporting this ordinance change for as only a beginning. We're going to have to do a lot more. I want to talk to as as been suggest suggested work with the neighboring communities. We're much stronger together as you've said if we can work with Shor, Maplewood, you know, other cities and and all share our information and share our experiences and share what has worked for them and bring them back here. Um s not surprisingly but quite often Roseville is ahead of the curve on this. So we're actually being more help to them in constructing their ordinances and their work than I found from them. But it doesn't mean I don't plan to work with them and share information and try to work together and and get ice out of Roseville. >> Right. We've got the motion before us. I think everyone has had a chance to speak. If there's any other comment, this would be the time. Right. Hearing none. Uh all those in favor of adopting that resolution and that ordinance uh as moved uh signify by saying I I opposed. >> That passes unanimously. Uh then next uh we have the uh policy 413 updates. >> We do have an ordinance summary. >> Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. For the ordinance uh technicality, we do have to uh unless we want to publish the whole ordinance, we do have to do a resolution to authorize publishing a summary. Uh bear with us for that. Uh is there a motion on the summary of the ordinance? It's been moved by council member Grath, seconded by council member Schroeder summary. Uh that requires a two-thirds majority uh by state law. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. That passes unanimously. That publication is uh authorized. All right. Then to the policy 413. Mayor, I'd like to um move to not approve the um the police department 413 and uh move to do some revisions to make the uh policy and the contents thereof make sure that um we indeed follow where it says uh 413 per uh 13 or.3 Roseville Police Department is a victim-entered organization. I would want to make sure that we are also a citizen centered organization. And I'd like to make sure we rework that to ensure that it meets those parameters. >> Right. Is there a second to that motion? >> Second. >> All right. Uh discussion on the motion. Uh council member Stron is the maker of the motion. >> Nothing further. >> Right. Uh as the secondary, Council Member Grath, >> there are other things in this uh document that I would like to see revised and changed and I'm not satisfied with the way it is reading. Now, one of those would be a 413 number six. And I think the second paragraph reading that members of the department are authorized to assist in instances of federal immigration enforcement. I think the last part of that we should have a discussion about if we could drop off and the safety of federal immigration employees as they perform their duties. I don't think we need that in the document. Other discussion on the motion? I support uh continuing to work to improve it. Uh certainly the existing policy uh remains in effect until any changes are approved. Uh if there's no further discussion, all those in favor of the motion to continue work on 413 uh signify by saying I. >> I opposed. That passes unanimously. >> All right. Uh other uh matters that the council may wish to uh consider. Um I think we should uh probably uh bring back uh something to uh look at. I don't know if it's part of our legislative priorities or exactly what it would be, but something to encourage the state to look at that eviction moratorum. Um, and I would also uh note uh for the public that we do have a uh economic development authority meeting. I believe in February. We're going to look at our funding of various programs to help with housing in the community. uh and certainly the discussion of how to use those uh sales tax housing funds uh for help with people and their their rent and and those matters would be appropriate at that time. So, we'll be looking at that, I would imagine. Then, um other things um we still are awaiting more information about the lawsuit and joining the lawsuit as I understand it. >> That's correct, Mayor. We've my firm has reached out. We represent a large number of cities and we've reached out to the attorney general's office and frankly they're they're kind of buried in responding to what's going on right now. What we're hoping to find out is what ways would be best for them. Um what ways are they asking for city support so that we can bring that information back to you. Okay. >> As soon as we hear back, I'll you'll you'll hear, >> right? And I think that makes sense to understand how they want our help. um because that's that's I mean we want to do the best thing to to uh uh support those efforts uh that we can. Um other things that uh the council wanted to uh talk about this evening in relation to this uh knowing that we will be no doubt coming back with some other things. I did want to just uh if not uh note too in terms of data um we we didn't touch on it too much but the policy was was in the materials. Um there's a couple of things that govern uh the handling of the data as it relates to for instance the license plate readers and things like that. Uh the one is is that the only authorization in our own policy um is to share the information for law enforcement purposes and once again we're collecting uh license plate numbers and slight more additional information in relation to that. Uh typical ways it's been used in the past, for instance, is if uh a license plate is read and a warrant comes up for a violent offender, uh we try to make uh a stop of that individual or that vehicle and uh try to ascertain if that individual is in the vehicle and attempt to uh address the warrant. Um occasionally there may be orders for protection type issues or those sorts of things or stolen vehicles. Uh that's the typical purpose of those uh license plate readers as they're used by the city of Roseville. The policy is only to share it to the extent that perhaps if a vehicle is leaving our jurisdiction, we can let the neighboring jurisdiction know and they can attempt to uh make the stop and that sort of thing. Uh and that's not entirely perfect in and of itself because uh some of our neighboring agencies uh or other county agencies have different um pursuit policies than the city of Roseville. We will disengage pursuits if there appears to be a danger to the public. Uh and unfortunately some of our neighboring agencies don't always uh abide by that even though if it is their published policy. Um but that's an aside. Uh but I would did want to acknowledge that. Um and we do not share the information uh with the entities that provide those that those cameras. Um that is not at all part of it. It's got to be for law enforcement purposes to other law enforcement agencies as I understand our policy. Then there is the whole issue of the Minnesota uh data practices laws about how cities can share information about people and there are pretty tight restrictions in Minnesota law about how cities can share that information. Um if some if somebody requests information from the city and it is allowed to be shared by state law we have to do that. Um but I believe that um you know the types of requests where people are saying can I get a list uh for a mailing list for marketing purposes or something like that does not count. Uh and as we talked about our own policy we strengthened that to not share for immigration enforcement purposes. Uh so hopefully that helps address people's concerns there. But I know data uh and privacy concerns are huge uh not even associated with this particular issue we're dealing with in our communities now uh but just in general. So, we will remain uh careful to make sure that our policies are as restrictive as we can make them in that regard. Um, anything else from the council? Council member Strong, >> I just wanted to point out that um this meeting started with 17 agenda items. One of which was brought by council member Bower. Um, a bunch of which I compiled based on a bunch of emails that you all forwarded prior to last meeting and then a citizen position that came out. some of which seem to correspond or go over, you know, we we are talking to other leaders. But as we um uh you know, if there are things that we can do, we certainly can be asked. Um sometimes um some of the things that are shared or requested are against how our city is set up. Um executive orders and such. um you know, but the way to move things forward is maybe not 230 of the same email, but many different ideas and things that come up that maybe we can do. And again, it's glacially slow, but it's it's hopefully hopefully you can see that we're all working on the same. We're all hoping to affect some positive change. And I did want to just add too that in addition to what's been said about uh things that we're doing and obviously members of the public can judge their adequacy that is uh your right as citizens uh and we completely understand that. Uh but I can say that uh thinking creatively uh looking at uh alternative ways of doing things. That's why I shared a little bit about uh my own consideration about the emergency declaration earlier in the meeting and my thoughts in involved in that uh because I wanted to let people know that we heard those requests and we're looking at what we could do there. Um and also all of the interactions that we have on, you know, multiple times a week with other agencies and entities in the area. um the information about uh what the county attorney uh was talking with uh our local jurisdictions about in dealing with uh those use of force investigations that came out in a group that I uh participate in about working with youth violence in our county. Um, and you know, that group meets pretty frequently through the year and we talk a lot about great things that a a lot of agencies across this county are doing to help with uh youth violence and violence more broadly in the community. And actually a lot of progress has been made in that area. But our last discussion was quite a bit about, as you can imagine, about ICE activities in our community because all the people that participate in that discussion are dealing with the same issues. I was uh involved in the Rice and Larpenter Alliance board meeting uh just at lunchtime today. Uh and you know the first half of our meeting was talking about what uh both uh government folks as well as uh groups and individuals uh and nonprofits in the communities of you know Roseville, St. Paul and Minneapolis were doing in that neighborhood where I'm sure everybody is painfully aware uh we have a tremendous number of uh new immigrants to this this area. uh people who were dealing with oppression in Myanmar, the Kurin people, uh people who are not instinctively trusting of law enforcement or or government. Um and all the challenges we've had prior to this terrible situation to try to bring those people in the community. And it is so frustrating the harm once again that is being done done to people in our community by these just outrageous efforts by uh supposedly immigration enforcement to do supposed immigration enforcement. Um it just is it's as has been said so many times. It's scaring people. It's making people angry. It's making people do things that are outside of their comfort zone. Uh and I I applaud that. I think we all have everybody in this room has different comfort zones. Everybody in this community, 36,000 people have different comfort zones and everybody is seeing what's happening and viscerally reacting to it and trying to figure out what they can do and how they can do it and who they can work with and everybody's in a different place. Everybody's processing at a different speed. Nobody's wrong. Everybody's right in their own way. and we all continue to grow and and uh learn through this process and challenge our own selves. Um and that is an amazing thing in this community. And um I'm not just saying it because I love getting elected and it's important to be nice to the voters. Honestly, in everything I do, the very last thing I think about is the electability of a decision that I'm making. Um, and that may not even sound sincere and I completely get that >> because I'm an elected official and and you know elected officials and how we are, but believe me, uh, from where I come from, I am always looking. I'm an engineer. I'm looking for solutions. I'm I'm a PK, one of the good ones. Uh, at least I try to be. And, um, and it's, you know, we're we're trying to figure this out. We're working through it. And believe me, again, I share all of the emotions that have been expressed, all of the concerns that have been expressed. Uh, and I am not doing nothing. I'm most likely not doing enough. And I own that. And I'm still working to to work through it my way. And everybody is working through it in their way. And I think we just have to make sure that we're all, you know, um to to unfortunately borrow the sports metaphor that the Gophers football team uses, you know, that we're rowing the boat together and we're rowing in the right direction. Um I actually I spoke uh about a week ago. We had um uh our annual awards ceremony for uh the police department where we we recognize members of the community who stepped up in terrible situations. uh police calls somebody who got stabbed at a convenience store and people at the dental office across the street, you know, came to his aid and provided medical assistance at a dental office to to stop his bleeding and they saved his life. And that's people in our community. Um and the thing that I said at that in my opening comments was that uh we will get through this. I I I hope that ICE will be out of our community and I hope that it's sooner than later. Um because it is doing irreparable harm. I think the comments about people's mental health, young people's mental health are spoton. And believe me, I I've said that too many times already this evening. I'll try to come up with a different phrase. Um young people in this community weren't hunky dory prior to this. young people in our community uh you know didn't attend school for a couple of years and we're doing it remotely and and we're dealing with all those impacts. Young people in this community have been dealing with a whole host of things throughout their lives. Um everybody else in the community is dealing with it too. I was on the board of NYS prior to Wayne being on and one of the things I took away from that was all of the discussion that they talk about in terms of mental health related to trauma. And trauma isn't one big bad thing. trauma that really affects people is just constant small things. >> Yeah. >> And unfortunately, we've got some constant small things, but we have a lot of constant really big things, too. And that's it's just we're going to be dealing with those impacts. We're all going to be dealing with those impacts for years to come, as it's been said. And we understand that uh as as leaders in the community and as as your representatives in the local government, we want to continue to figure out ways that we can we can deal with those impacts because you know whenever this situation goes away, the impacts don't go away and we need to be dealing with those. And so I I hope that everybody can stay engaged uh and do whatever they can and and however they can and whenever they can. Uh and um we will continue to be a great community of people. Uh and we will continue to be a place that people want to live. Uh and it's because not because of the five of us or any of our predecessors, although they did some good things. It is and always has been because of the people in the community of Roseville. And I think that's a note on which to end this evening. There's >> anything if just one last thing. Sorry. Uh just wanted to check in if it's okay from the council uh that uh if staff can brainstorm and look at creative ideas and help support the community and efforts that they're doing and having us uh as objection. >> Yes. >> I just just wanted to verify that. So we will certainly do that um in the upcoming days. >> Right. and and and I should note that that the reason that the city manager often asks that question is that we are notorious for giving very uh imprecise direction to the staff uh at the end of discussions and so I think uh Mr. Trean has been uh trained to make sure and get clarification from the council. Uh not not that the staff doesn't want to do things, but just to make sure that they understand what the direction is. >> But I understand. >> Great. And and I appreciate the the turnout from staff in the training. That was that was good to see and and we hope that that can >> we have a timeline on when we get some of that back. >> Um I think we're going to have to take a look at what's involved. I'm imagining the policy may be able to come back. I don't know if well we've already got an agenda for Monday uh meeting so that might be too soon but February 9th or 6th is our next meeting. >> February 9th I I think we can talk about uh the eviction moratorum as part of the legislative priorities >> which is on that >> on Monday. >> On Monday. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. So we we can we can sort that out. >> Can we have a letter ready to send at that time? >> Maybe a draft to look at. >> Yeah. Yeah. We we'll get it might come at the last second at the meeting but >> Okay. >> All right. No, that would be helpful. >> All right. Anything else from the council? >> No. uh being a special meeting uh we cannot discuss any other topics by law uh and so uh being that I believe we've come to the end of this discussion uh for this time to motion to adjurnn. >> All right, it's been moved by council member uh Stron whose initials I'm having trouble writing uh and seconded by council member Grath. Uh no discussion on a motion to adjurnn. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. We are adjourned at uh 9:13 p.m.