Based on the context provided for the City of Richfield and the flow of the meeting, here is the transcribed text with speaker names and estimated timestamps. **[00:00:00] Mary Supple:** Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to call to order this regular city council meeting of the city of Richfield. It's March 25th at 7:00 p.m. And if you are able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. **[00:00:15] All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. **[00:00:30] Mary Supple:** Thank you. Uh, did we have any comments sent in ahead of the meeting on the open forum? **[00:00:35] Michelle Friedrich:** No, we did not, mayor. **[00:00:38] Mary Supple:** And do we have any um comments tonight? **[00:00:40] Michelle Friedrich:** No comments have been received for tonight. **[00:00:43] Mary Supple:** All right. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak for open forum? And I'm seeing nods saying no, they do not wish to speak. So, we'll move on in the agenda. Thank you all. Our next item is approval of the minutes of the city council special meeting from January 31st, 2025; the city council special meeting from February 1st, 2025; the city council Richfield Bloomington Watershed Maintenance Organization or RBWMO special meeting from March 11th, 2025; and the city council regular meeting from March 11th, 2025. **[00:01:25] Walter Burk:** Motion to approve. **[00:01:27] Sharon Christensen:** Second. **[00:01:28] Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All in favor of approving those four sets of minutes, please say I. **[00:01:35] All Council Members:** I. **[00:01:36] Mary Supple:** All opposed. And we have approved the minutes. Moving on, we get to the approval of the agenda. **[00:01:42] Sean Hayford Oleary:** I move approval of the agenda. **[00:01:44] Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Second. **[00:01:45] Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. Is there any discussion? **[00:01:49] Sean Hayford Oleary:** We'll discuss that. We have a very brief agenda tonight. So, we do have a very brief agenda and we're going to be discussing agendas at an upcoming work session. So, it's like inception of agenda. **[00:02:01] Mary Supple:** Yeah. There we go. All in favor of approving the agenda, please say I. **[00:02:05] All Council Members:** I. **[00:02:06] Mary Supple:** All opposed. And we've approved the agenda. Next, we'll move on to the consent calendar. City Manager Rodriguez. **[00:02:13] Katie Rodriguez:** Thank you, Mayor. The consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the city council in one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved. No further council action on these items is necessary. On tonight's consent calendar: Item A, consideration of the approval of a resolution authorizing staff to submit an application for a Hennepin County youth equipment grant in the amount of $10,000 for the purchase of skate aids, hockey equipment, rental skates, and rink dividers, and authorizing staff to enter into a grant agreement if awarded. Item B, consider the adoption of a resolution authorizing the acceptance of a hose roller—one unit—from First Response Fire and Safety. Item C, consider approval of the contract with Becker Arena Products to provide and install new dashboards on Rink 2 for $251,067. Item D, consider a resolution authorizing the execution of an agreement with the state of Minnesota to release the 2023 appropriations bill funds awarded to the Wood Lake Nature Center building project in the amount of $12 million and authorizing staff to administer the funds in accordance with all terms as prescribed by the state of Minnesota. And I submit these items for your consideration as part of the consent calendar. **[00:03:50] Mary Supple:** Thank you. So, is there a motion? **[00:03:53] Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Motion to approve the consent calendar. **[00:03:55] Walter Burk:** Second. **[00:03:56] Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say I. **[00:04:01] All Council Members:** I. **[00:04:02] Mary Supple:** All opposed? And we have approved the consent calendar. Next, we'll move on to the city manager report. **[00:04:09] Katie Rodriguez:** Yes. Thank you, mayor. Uh, at our last meeting, we had two short-term rental owners that came and provided their perspective on our study of um potential uh change in rules for short-term um rentals. And they didn't ask any questions, so I don't have further information tonight. And that's all I have. **[00:04:30] Mary Supple:** Thank you. I did have one question that just popped into when you were talking about that. Is the survey now closed that we went out to the public to ask them about short-term rentals? **[00:04:41] Katie Rodriguez:** I'm fairly certain the survey is closed because they gave us an a total and it was—it's like over 500 surveys were completed. **[00:04:50] Mary Supple:** Well, then thank you to the public for filling out the surveys. That'll be useful data when we finally get it. Thank you. Next, we'll move on to claims and payroll. **[00:05:00] Walter Burk:** Move approval of claims and payroll. **[00:05:02] Sean Hayford Oleary:** Second. **[00:05:03] Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to approve claims and payroll. Is there any discussion? All right. All in favor, please say I. **[00:05:11] All Council Members:** I. **[00:05:12] Mary Supple:** All opposed. And we've approved claims and payroll. Next, we'll move on to hats off to Hometown Hits. Council member Hayford Oleary. **[00:05:21] Sean Hayford Oleary:** I got no items tonight. **[00:05:23] Mary Supple:** Oh, wow. We are going to have a short agenda. Council member Christensen. **[00:05:28] Sharon Christensen:** Yes. I had the opportunity of attending uh Richfield High School last Thursday evening for the um called Empty Bowls 2025. And for anybody who doesn't know what that is, it's basically a um it's a event with food and um the uh you get soup and salad and rolls and dessert and and and uh beverages. But the most important part is what you get is you get um when you donate uh money to the uh high school, you are donating uh different amounts of varying money to um the art department there that conducts the um uh making of bowls and vases and cups and everything. And what's really neat about that is um that all of the products that you have that you that you actually get that the kids make is all um um fired for um use of uh with food and with dishwasher safe and everything else. But the most important part of over and above that is um it goes to the proceeds go to the Richfield High School food shelf. That helps a lot of the kids out and a lot of the families out that would not be able to um adequate food during the day for some of the kids. So, thank you. **[00:06:42] Mary Supple:** Thank you, Council Member Coleman Woods. **[00:06:45] Rori A. Coleman-Woods:** Absolutely. So, I've got a couple of hats off. Um, first of all, um Agent Carl Herman—he's he's a insurance agent here—um has been gathering efforts to um to for the uh citywide food drive and it has um incorporated several groups from Richfield High School that he's actually been able to give back to those those high school programs with donations um and funding. So, he's been able to to uh entice them by uh asking for volunteers. Uh and he's giving a $750 donation to each of those groups. I believe soccer, swimming, um and um several other sports groups were involved. And so, the pickup starts soon. Uh the distribution of the bags for the citywide food drive starts very soon. And the pickup is April in the April territory. So, um, keep an eye out for those bags that are being distributed to the households. And also, um, congratulations to CJ Armstrong for making the top five, Mr. Basketball, um, finalists. Um, we're so proud of that. Uh, all of the sports teams that did great at sections and all of the things and so they're, uh, they have represented Richfield quite well. **[00:08:02] Mary Supple:** Thank you. I have a a couple of items to add as well. Um, last week we had the HEDA gave their year-in-review presentation and that's one of the most interesting presentations we get because you find out all the good work that the staff has done and that the city has worked on and all the people working together. So, if you're interested in seeing that, you can go on the city website and if you go under um if you look under I believe it's um government, you go down to HEDA and open that up, you can see the whole report of all the programs and all the people that have been served. And I think that's really kudos to everybody involved in that. In tonight's um consent agenda, we were talking about the ice arena. And one of the facts I want to call out and give a kudos is that our ice arena gets 500,000 visitors a year. That's half a million people that are going through our ice arena. And I also thought it was really cool that the the skate lessons are given for first and fourth graders. So that's like a lifelong thing if you can go ice skating in Minnesota. So kudos to everybody involved at the ice arena. Um we also um this past week had the um police department awards and we have four new officers that were sworn in. There were also a number of commendations and we also have the 2024 officer of the year was officer Drew Gford. So kudos to everyone involved in that. Um when we were here for that, it overflowed the council um chambers. There weren't enough seats. We had to go out into the hallway because there were so many family members and community members there to support. So, thank you to them. And then finally, um I had the pleasure of joining our local Tibetan community gathered at the Capitol Rotunda yesterday and they were doing um a celebration to honor the 14th Dalai Lama's 90th birthday. And so they talked about that—that he's calling this the year of compassion and the theme of everything is gratitude. And they did say they probably will be stopping by one of our council meetings as well. But I just wanted to do a shout out to our local um Tibetan community. It was very gracious invitation to join them. So with that, is there anything else anybody would like to add? And I think this may be a record for one of the shortest council meetings. We've—I think it's 11 minutes. So you were not kidding when you said it was a short meeting. So if there's no further business, is there anyone who wishes to make a motion to adjourn? **[00:10:45] Sean Hayford Oleary:** Motion to adjourn. **[00:10:47] Sharon Christensen:** Second. **[00:10:48] Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. All in favor, please say I. **[00:10:53] All Council Members:** I. **[00:10:54] Mary Supple:** All opposed. And the meeting is adjourned.