[00:00] Mayor Mary Supple: Good evening everyone. It is 7:00 P.M. on May 9th, and I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Richfield City Council. First, we have the Pledge of Allegiance. If you're able, please rise and join us. Thank you. All right, next we'll move on to open forum. If you would like to call into the open forum, you can dial 1-415-655-0001 and use webinar access code 2450-490-8842 and the password is one two three four. All right, so for anyone who is here in person, when you get called up to the microphone, please sign in and state your name and address, and we'll begin the timing after that. And remember, we want to provide a safe platform to state our opinions about municipal policies, and please stick to issues, so it's not a forum to discuss individuals. The Council will be listening and taking notes but will not be responding to comments. This open forum is designed to hear from you and not be a debate. Thank you. Is there anyone waiting online? [01:13] Management Analyst Swanson: Mayor and Council, there is nobody waiting online. [01:21] Mayor Mary Supple: All right, and I'm going to get my phone out for timing. We have one person who is signed in for the meeting here, and so I'm going to call up Kathleen Balaban to give her comments. [01:34] Kathleen Balaban: Oh, I apologize... my name is Kathleen Balaban and I live on 65th and Stevens. I came before you on March 14th requesting direct contact with my citizen chairpeople for various commissions, boards, and authorities, and the staff responsible said it would cost $130 per email and that they were now working on an online form to fill out. I recently watched the commissioner's training session—excuse me—on the legalities of their responsibilities presented by our City Attorney Mary, and I thank you. I learned a lot, and at one point she indicated that they were now public servants, which meant their personal information was now public and may already be on their commission's website similar to yours; you're public. I'll be honest here, I listen to that section a couple times. I've been looking for this information for a long time. So now what I'm asking is to stop what you've been doing on my behalf on the 14th, and I am now asking that the city has each commission, board, and authority member have their pictures presented like you do, and that the videos presented by staff be removed from every commission site and a public picture of the group with a single picture of the chair and some personal contact information—just something that gives them the pride and ownership of the commission that they're on, and that they are our commissions and not the staff members that are presented. So I'm asking us to look at this a little bit more clearly because, on the flip side, you don't have any expense; it's their personal contact. Thank you. And all we have to do is update it annually, and so I'm asking us to do that. Their roster numbers and names are listed at the bottom of the commissions and boards website in a group, but not on the website saying who's on it. Okay, you have to go look for that, and I think that falls for a little bit more pride and ownership by putting who's on it because they want to be on it and they want to volunteer. So thank you for that consideration and you have a nice evening. [03:52] Mayor Mary Supple: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? All right, did anyone call in the interim? [04:00] Management Analyst Swanson: Mayor and Council, nobody's called in the interim. [04:05] Mayor Mary Supple: All right, thank you so much. Next we'll move—we'll close open forum and move on to approval of the minutes of the City Council work session of April 25th, 2023, and City Council meeting of April 25th, 2023. [04:22] Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary: I move to approve the minutes. [04:24] Council Member Sharon Christensen: I second. [04:26] Mayor Mary Supple: Okay, it has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All right, all in favor of approving both sets of minutes please say aye. [04:33] City Council: Aye. [04:34] Mayor Mary Supple: All opposed? All right, we've approved the minutes. Next we'll move on to approval of the agenda. [04:40] Council Member Simon Troutman: I move approval. [04:41] Council Member Ben Whalen: Second. [04:42] Mayor Mary Supple: All right, it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. Is there any discussion? All right, all in favor of approving the agenda please say aye. [04:51] City Council: Aye. [04:52] Mayor Mary Supple: All opposed? We've approved the agenda. Next we'll move on to the consent calendar. City Manager Rodriguez. [04:58] City Manager Katie Rodriguez: Thank you, Mayor. The consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the City Council in one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved; no further action on these items is necessary. On tonight's consent calendar: Item A, consider adoption of several resolutions to accept financial and or material support from state and federal agencies for local infrastructure planning and construction. Item B, consider approval of a resolution authorizing agreement number 1044209 with the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Hennepin County for provisions related to minor traffic signal maintenance for the traffic signal at Trunk Highway 62 and Penn Avenue. Item C, consider acceptance of the public storm sewer constructed by Hope Presbyterian Church and authorize reimbursement of costs incurred by Hope Presbyterian Church for the installation of public storm sewer across the church's private parking lot. Item D, consider the approval of the amended Fourth Amendment to the site lease agreement at 6700 Portland Avenue between the City of Richfield and Sprint Spectrum Realty Company LLC, successor in interest Sprint Spectrum LP, a Delaware limited partnership, to modify equipment requests for the addition of a five-year automatic renewal term and change of successor in interest to T-Mobile Central LLC. Item E, to consider a resolution to approve the amendment to (1) the education facilities revenue note for the Academy of Holy Angels series 2002 dated December 30th, 2022, and (2) the educational facilities revenue note for the Academy of Holy Angels project series 2003. Item F, consider a resolution to accept $100,000 in funds from Hennepin County's Broadband expansion grant and authorize the Mayor and City Manager to execute the agreement with Hennepin County and subsequent agreement with the Bloomington-Richfield [Project]. I submit these items for your consideration on tonight’s consent calendar. [07:11] Mayor Mary Supple: All right, is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? [07:15] Council Member Simon Troutman: It's so moved. [07:16] Council Member Sharon Christensen: Second. [07:18] Mayor Mary Supple: It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent calendar. Is there any discussion? Council Member Whalen. [07:22] Council Member Ben Whalen: Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to lift up—the short sort of title or motion doesn't totally give justice to Item A. I just want to lift up our partnership on the Safe Routes to School program between our Public Works department and the school district. There's like five—I forgot the exact number—five or six different all-worthy projects that will make for safer bike and pedestrian routes for students to get to school, upward close to a million dollars in total funding. And yeah, just very, very exciting. And again, thanks staff for their work investing the time to apply for all of these different grants, and I'm excited to see the outcomes. [08:08] Mayor Mary Supple: All right, any other questions or comments? All right, all in favor of approving the consent calendar please say aye. [08:14] City Council: Aye. [08:15] Mayor Mary Supple: All opposed? All right, thank you. Now we'll move on to the City Manager's report. [08:21] City Manager Katie Rodriguez: Nothing to report tonight, thank you. [08:24] Mayor Mary Supple: And then we'll move on to claims and payroll. [08:27] Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary: I'll move claims and payroll. [08:28] Council Member Ben Whalen: Second. [08:30] Mayor Mary Supple: Okay, it's been moved and seconded to approve claims and payroll. Is there any discussion? All right, all in favor please say aye. [08:35] City Council: Aye. [08:36] Mayor Mary Supple: All opposed? All right, we've approved the claims and payroll. So next we'll move on to Hats Off to Hometown Hits. Council Member Troutman, did you have anything? [08:44] Council Member Simon Troutman: Sure, just one item, and I think other people are going to mention it too, is that we have our Taste of Richfield, which is what has historically been the Richfield wine tasting but has now been expanded to include any number of other tasty beverages. I've got a prop right here. So this is a great opportunity to support the Richfield Foundation. The Richfield Foundation, for folks that don't know, is a group of folks that get up to good in Richfield, and if there's something wonderful happening in Richfield, there's a good chance that the Richfield Foundation is making a contribution and encouraging folks and funding and making donations. They also serve as a fiscal sponsor or partner to new non-profit organizations in Richfield. So they're up to great work, and I know our city staff and municipal liquor store does a lot of work to help make this happen. So it should be a great night; everybody's excited to do it after COVID. So if you're free on a Thursday night, you could find more unpleasant ways to support our community. [09:50] Mayor Mary Supple: All right. Council Member Hayford Oleary. [09:52] Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary: I will just add on to that—pass the prop to me. It is a lot of fun, this Thursday, and you can still get your tickets at richfieldfoundationmn.org. And I don't—do they sell them at the door, do you know? I believe so, but I don't know for sure. Try to get them online; it's nice for them to know in advance who's coming. So you can still get your tickets, and it is this Thursday, 6:30 P.M. at Wood Lake Center. The building that once had Houlihan's now has Protagonist, which is also good. [10:19] Management Analyst Swanson: Mayor and Council, you can buy tickets at the door. I know for a fact they are selling a lot more tickets this year, so to be sure you have a ticket in hand, probably best to buy them before the event. [10:37] Mayor Mary Supple: All right, thank you so much. Council Member Christensen. [10:41] Council Member Sharon Christensen: Yes, I had the opportunity of attending the first Farmers Market down at Veterans Park this past Saturday. It was a little cool, the rain held off, and there were many vendors that I had met from last year's farmers market and they were back again. It was full of food vendors, non-food vendors, food trucks, and all sorts of different things that you could engage in. So it was really a good time to be starting out the spring with that kind of an event on a Saturday morning. It goes from 7:00 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. and it will go until I believe October 28th this year. [11:21] Mayor Mary Supple: All right, thank you. Council Member Whalen. [11:22] Council Member Ben Whalen: I was going to share—the Sustainability Commission had a few things in the works that they were very excited about that have gone well. The first ever City tree sale and City rain barrel sale both sold out very quickly. People were very excited about it, and so that is planned to happen again in future years, possibly even expand. And then also, I believe we have most of the plots for the community garden pilot project have been claimed. I think as of at least a week ago, there were still a couple left. I don't know if they're still available, but I know folks are excited for the community garden to kick off soon as well. And then also wanted today to give a shout-out to our former council member, now State Representative Mike Howard, who chairs the Housing Committee. They just passed a historic housing bill, the largest investment in housing that the state has ever made, of a billion dollars. And frankly, we will need more, but also just want to lift up there were some provisions in there that include some ongoing dedicated funding to housing, as well as specifically some provisions for first-time home buyers who are Muslim to be able to buy in a way that is compliant with their faith. And so, just applaud the many, many things that are part of that and the good work that he and many others have done to get that passed. [12:53] Mayor Mary Supple: All right, thank you. I wanted to bring up a couple of things. One is that the city is currently looking for one resident to fill an open seat on the Housing and Redevelopment Authority, or the HRA, which also means the person would be sitting on the Economic Development Authority, or the EDA. So for more information, you can visit the city web pages on the HRA and the EDA. If you go under city government, you can find those web pages. Applications are currently being accepted and they will go through June 1st, and then interviews will be scheduled for the week of June 6th, which will be held at City Hall. So just asking if anybody is interested in being on the HRA or the EDA to consider that and to please put in your application. Then this is Drinking Water Week—I believe, I don't know the exact title of it, but it's Drinking Water Week. To celebrate in Richfield, we're offering limited tours of the Richfield water plant. So the Thursday tour is all filled up, but there are still spots open on the Saturday tour, which is at 9:00 A.M. on May 13th. So if you're interested in taking a tour of the water plant, you can RSVP by emailing mswanson@richfieldmn.gov, or you can go under departments, go to Public Works, and down on the side menu it'll take you down to Water Week activities. I've been on that tour and it was pretty fantastic, so I would encourage people to attend if you haven't been there. Another cool thing that's happening is we just had the opening of the High School Art Show that's at the Richfield Community Center. It's hosted by the Richfield Arts Commission, and the student exhibits will be there through the end of June. So please stop in; there's a lot of fabulously talented students that are showing their work at the Community Center. So please head over to 70th and Nicollet to see that. Also, we're looking for feedback from the community about the off-road bike park that's being proposed for Taft, and there's going to be three times that you can gather there at 62nd and Bloomington, which is right by the parking lot. There's one session this Saturday from 9:30 to 11:00. There's another one on Tuesday, May 16th from 5:00 to 6:30 P.M., and there's one on Thursday, May 25th from 3:30 to 5:00 P.M. And so we're looking for community feedback on how to make that the best possible off-road bike park that we can. And finally, I have a "hats off" to our Fire Department. I was talking with one of the neighbors and apparently this weekend, a mother duck hatched out a whole bunch of ducklings and they all ended up down the storm sewer grate. So the neighbor called in the non-emergency number and a couple of our Fire Department personnel came over and rescued eight ducklings out of the storm sewer. So thank you to the Fire Department for saving those ducklings and helping out people in the neighborhood. Is there anything else we want to bring up before we close out the meeting? All right, I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. [15:58] Council Member Ben Whalen: So moved. [15:59] Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary: Second. [16:01] Mayor Mary Supple: It's been moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. Any discussion? All right, all in favor please say aye. [16:05] City Council: Aye. [16:06] Mayor Mary Supple: All opposed? All right, thank you. We stand adjourned.