[00:00:00] Mary Supple (Mayor): All right, good evening everyone. I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Richfield City Council meeting. The clock in the room is not accurate; it is actually 7:01, so we're going to go ahead and get started. If you're able, please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:00:15] Group: 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 (Mayor): Thank you. I did have one statement I wanted to read before we started the rest of our official business. There have been recent media reports of racist text messages being sent out this past week across the United States, including in our area. I want to be very clear that here in Richfield, we will not tolerate bigotry, discrimination, or violence of any kind. Richfield's diversity is our strength, and we will continue to work together as a united community. Our message is clear: that we stand as one and will not tolerate hatred. Together, we are Richfield strong. Thank you. [00:01:05] Mary Supple (Mayor): All right, now we'll move on to the open forum. Do we have any forms that have been turned in for the open forum? Is there anybody online? All right, I'm going to read... Mayor, are we going to... we've changed our policy. Can you explain the new policy for the online part? [00:01:20] Katie Rodriguez (City Manager): Yes, thank you, Mayor. So, we did not have people that were asking or participating in the WebEx offerings, and so we have changed that. If anyone needs to join the meeting and wants to provide any kind of comment, they can do it virtually through WebEx, but they need to give us notice of that. The language is on our website. [00:01:40] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): All right, thank you. Could we include the instructions on how to do that on the agendas? Kind of like we used to include the call-in instructions, just saying "email this person at this date." [00:01:50] Katie Rodriguez (City Manager): Sure. Thanks. [00:01:52] Mary Supple (Mayor): All right, thank you. So, is there anyone here that would like to comment on open forum? All right, then we will move on at this point to approval of the minutes of the City Council meeting of October 22nd, 2024. [00:02:05] Council Member Whalen: So moved. [00:02:07] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): Second. [00:02:08] Mary Supple (Mayor): It's been moved and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? All in favor of approving the minutes, please say aye. [00:02:15] Group: Aye. [00:02:16] Mary Supple (Mayor): All opposed? All right, so at this point, we've approved the minutes and we're going to go on to a celebratory part of the meeting: the 19th annual Great Pumpkin Giveaway coloring contest winners. So I'm going to be joined by Steve Schneberger, and he's going to tell us all about the program. [00:02:35] Steve Schneberger: Thank you members. My name is Steve Schneberger. I'm a local business person here and Lisa Hintermeister is one of our business partners. We are excited to once again award three young winners of our annual pumpkin giveaway coloring contest. It's become quite a tradition over the last few years that the Mayor actually gets to judge these entries and award the prizes. Tonight we had 150 people draw or color in three different age groups, so we're going to be giving an award for each of the three age groups. [00:03:05] Steve Schneberger: But before I turn the microphone over to Mayor Supple, I'd like to first of all thank the sponsors and our team players that helped us continue to make this a success every year. Carl Herman with State Farm in Richfield, BJ Scoo with Richfield Leadership Network, Dave and Lisa Hintermeister—Lisa who's here—they're with Luminate Home Loans. I'd also like to thank the city partners that have been helpful to us over the years. City Parks and Recreation has helped facilitate and promote the event, and this year we're very excited that Visit Richfield gave us a grant to help buy gift cards from local restaurants to give away as door prizes. Finally, the Richfield Arts Commission stepped up this year and they actually helped facilitate the coloring contest. They were there volunteering and they provided these beautiful trophies, which is the first time ever. These young winners are going to be super excited. Thank you to the City of Richfield, thank you for the partners and the teammates, and thank you Mayor Supple for being there as well. Would you like me to announce the winners? [00:04:10] Mary Supple (Mayor): Sure. [00:04:12] Steve Schneberger: Okay, so in our age group of five and under, we have Chase Fisic. Chase, would you like to come up and Mayor Supple will give you your trophy? Congratulations, I really like it. [00:04:25] Mary Supple (Mayor): Congratulations! [00:04:27] Steve Schneberger: And then in the age of 6 to 8 category, we have Everett Cinet. Everett! [Applause] And then in our nine-year and older category, we had Tatsuo Bond. All right! [Applause] [00:04:45] Mary Supple (Mayor): Thank you again to all the sponsors and to all the participants. Next, we'll move on to our commission reports, and first we'll have the Civil Service Commission from President Jeffrey Brusek. [00:04:55] Jeffrey Brusek: Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council. I'm Jeffrey Brusek, the President of the Civil Service Commission for the City of Richfield, and I'm here to report. A couple things happened this year, it was very exciting. We had a new firefighter process; we hired three firefighters: Rodriguez, Bee, and Olsen. We are now technically up to nine firefighters on each shift. The extra third position allows us to cover extended military leaves that may happen with our crew. We've also established intern positions for the Captain and Lieutenant positions. We filled the vacancy for Captain Ewald over his year-long deployment; we should all congratulate him for that extra time he took away from his family. [00:05:35] Jeffrey Brusek: We also used different eligibility lists in order to split the time with all the candidates. We also had a promotional process for the Lieutenant and Captain positions; now we just have one process for both positions, just more for the captains obviously. We also established eligibility rosters for the Captain and Lieutenant positions if we need to fill them in the future. Regarding the Fire Department, we completed our strategic plan and a standard operating procedure for the ongoings of the department. We codified our mission, vision, and values of the Richfield Fire Department as well. And more important to the nuts and bolts of it all, we had a record number of calls for 2023 of 4,989 different calls. Thankfully, less than 10% of those actually have to have fires. And we're on pace to set another record with already 5,000 calls in 2024. With that as a report, it's an honor and pleasure to serve the City of Richfield. Thank you. [00:06:30] Mary Supple (Mayor): Thank you, President Brusek. Does anyone have any questions? Appreciate all the work that you do, and we always hear good things from staff member Kelly Wynn, who's your liaison. So, thank you. Next, we'll move on to the Transportation Commission and Chair Bradley Daniels. [00:06:45] Bradley Daniels: Hello and thank you for having me here today. The Transportation Commission has met seven times in 2024. The highlight of the commission work this year was providing a recommendation to the City Council to advance the County's design proposal for Nicollet Avenue reconstruction. The commission welcomed five new members this year who have all provided great new perspectives. The commission hosted two open houses for the Nicollet Avenue project and discussed the project design at five meetings, including a joint meeting with City Council members in June. The commission is proud of the collaborative effort with County staff to develop the preferred concept and is excited to see the final product in a few years. [00:07:25] Bradley Daniels: The commission has also been involved in hosting four open houses and having discussions about the designs for two upcoming Safe Routes to School projects on 70th Street and 73rd Street. Both of these projects were recently recommended to continue forward. At other meetings this year, the commission has received presentations from MnDOT on their I-494 construction, from Metro Transit on their Route 4 Better Bus Routes project, and from City staff on the City's speed limit reduction plans, the pavement management program, and the local sales tax referendum. In 2025, the Transportation Commission anticipates discussion items about MnDOT's Phase 2 plans for I-494 and the early stages of public engagement for the Penn Avenue reconstruction. Thank you. [00:08:10] Mary Supple (Mayor): Thank you. You have a lot on your plate when you start listing it all off. Council Member Hayford Oleary, you are the liaison, did you want to add anything? [00:08:20] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): I just wanted to say grateful for the work from the whole commission. Particularly nice that you have these opportunities in these open houses to connect with the community on Nicollet Avenue. It's been great to see so many commissioners there talking with residents about why what's in front of them is what it is. It's been really iterative, and I'm also just really excited about Nicollet and can't wait to see it break ground. [00:08:45] Council Member Troutman: Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say a special thanks to Commissioner Bradley Daniels. When I grew up in Richfield, one of the things that you can see so clearly are the changes and improvements in our roads. When I walk down our streets, they're better, they're safer. It's one of the yardsticks that we can really look at. We've made a lot of incredible investments. It's also a commission where you get a lot of direct community feedback, so you just hold the passions of our city too. I just want to say thank you for that. [00:09:15] Mary Supple (Mayor): Yes, thank you so much, Chair Bradley, and please express our thanks to the rest of the commission. You all do really great work. [00:09:20] Bradley Daniels: Well thanks, we enjoy serving the city. Thank you. [00:09:25] Mary Supple (Mayor): All right, thank you. Next, we will move on to a proclamation celebrating Small Business Saturday, and I'm going to be joined by business owner Travis Paski, who's from Body RX Wellness. He's going to join me to receive the presentation for the proclamation. Thank you. This is a proclamation of the City of Richfield. Whereas the City of Richfield celebrates our local small businesses and the contributions they make to the local economy and community; and whereas the Small Business Administration as well as other public and private organizations have endorsed the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday; and whereas the City of Richfield has partnered with Hennepin County to support Small Business Saturday with the multi-jurisdictional "Love Local" campaign. Now, therefore, I, Mary Supple, Mayor of the City of Richfield, on behalf of the Richfield City Council, do hereby proclaim Saturday, November 30th, 2024, as Small Business Saturday in the City of Richfield. Proclaimed this 12th day of November, 2024. [00:10:35] Travis Paski: I just want to say thank you for having me, and it's an honor to represent all of the small businesses. I've been happy to see a lot of small businesses around Richfield starting to grow and boom, and lots of new restaurants in the area. So it's exciting. I love this small community. Thank you. [00:10:55] Mary Supple (Mayor): Thank you. Our next item is approval of the agenda. [00:11:00] Council Member Troutman: Move the approval of the agenda. [00:11:02] Council Member Whalen: Second. [00:11:03] Mary Supple (Mayor): It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. All in favor please say aye. [00:11:08] Group: Aye. [00:11:09] Mary Supple (Mayor): All opposed? The agenda is approved. We'll next move on to the consent agenda and I'll turn it over to City Manager Rodriguez. [00:11:15] Katie Rodriguez (City Manager): Thank you, Mayor. The consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the city council in one motion. Tonight's consent calendar: Item A, ice time rental agreement with Minneapolis Hockey Association; Item B, first reading of a new ordinance regarding registration of cannabis and hemp businesses; Item C, approval of the Intensive Comprehensive Peace Officer Education and Training 2025 Grant; Item D, resolution determining the results of the city general election on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024; Item E, purchase of two 2025 aerial lift trucks for $389,962; and Item F, authorizing the City Manager to enter into contracts under $175,000 without further council consideration. I submit these items for your consideration. [00:12:30] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): Just a question on the canvas item. It mentions the unofficial results are attached. Is the resolution updated from what's in our packet? [00:12:40] Michelle Friedrich (City Clerk): The resolution and the abstract of the election would be the attachment that was added. [00:12:45] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): Got it. And it's minor, but Walter Burk's last name I believe is misspelled in it. There's no "e" or there should be an "e" removed? [00:12:55] Michelle Friedrich (City Clerk): We can edit that. [00:13:00] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): Okay, well I will move the consent calendar with a change to Item D to correct the spelling of Mr. Burk's last name. [00:13:10] Council Member Whalen: Second. [00:13:12] Mary Supple (Mayor): It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? [00:13:15] Council Member Whalen: Just with the general election results, I want to congratulate Rori and Walter as our future council members, and congratulate Council Member Troutman and I on being fellow "lame ducks" now. And then also want to thank all of the voters who weighed in on our ballot questions around the local sales tax to fund our recreation needs. [00:13:40] Council Member Troutman: Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to make two brief comments. One, I wanted to thank our Police Chief Jay Henthorne. I see the approval of the IPOET grants. You have to have a vision to see how you can utilize it and then aggressively pursue it. Through your leadership, we've been able to expand it and you've really been a regional leader. I also did just want to say thank you to our residents. Every time democracy works, I just find it amazing. [00:14:15] Mary Supple (Mayor): Any other comments? I wanted to comment on Item B about the new ordinance. I was listening to a report on MPR talking about how it's really important to do enforcement of these ordinances in order to give the legal businesses a fair shot. If you don't do a good job of enforcement, that hurts the legal businesses. I also would like to thank the voters of Richfield for passing the three parks amendments. Congratulations to you for your reelection, Council Member Hayford Oleary, and welcome to Council Member Burk and Council Member Coleman-Woods. With that, we have a motion on the floor. All in favor please say aye. [00:15:00] Group: Aye. [00:15:01] Mary Supple (Mayor): All opposed? And we have approved the consent calendar. We'll next be moving on to item number eight. [00:15:10] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): Thank you. This is to consider a resolution providing for the sale of $10 million of General Obligation Sales Tax Revenue Bonds, Series 2024A. These will finance the improvement of the Wood Lake Nature Center building project. I move that we approve the attached resolution. [00:15:30] Council Member Whalen: Second. [00:15:32] Mary Supple (Mayor): It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? [00:15:35] Council Member Whalen: Could I just ask, I see that we do have a pre-sale report. Is there anything of note to summarize from that? [00:15:42] Rebecca Kurts (Ehlers Financial): Good evening. Rebecca Kurts from Ehlers. As alluded to, there is a pre-sale report. These bonds will be issued per the approval from the referendum. This is the first in probably three different bond issues to finance the various park projects. One thing I want to note is that while we anticipate the debt service being paid solely by sales tax revenues, they will be General Obligations of the city. We have structured these with a term of six years. With that, we are looking at having money available on December 30th. [00:16:30] Mary Supple (Mayor): Any other discussion? The motion before us is to approve the resolution providing for the sale of $10 million in bonds. All in favor please say aye. [00:16:40] Group: Aye. [00:16:41] Mary Supple (Mayor): All opposed? All right, we have approved those. Next we'll move on to Item 9, Council Member Troutman. [00:16:45] Council Member Troutman: Thank you, Mayor. Item 9 is to consider a resolution approving the contract with the International Association of Firefighters Local 1215 for the period of January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2025. The settlement provides a cost of living wage adjustment of 3% with an additional 3.5% market adjustment in 2024, and another 3% with a 1% adjustment in 2025. It also includes funds for wellness screenings, an increase to clothing allowances, and paid parental leave. I would move that we adopt the resolution and authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement. [00:17:30] Council Member Whalen: Second. [00:17:32] Mary Supple (Mayor): It's been moved and seconded. I would like to thank both parties in the negotiations. I know it was a lot of hard work. [00:17:40] Council Member Troutman: Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to acknowledge that especially post-pandemic, the amount of calls our firefighters have been going on has increased significantly. When we are increasing their pay, it's also to recognize that the volume of work you're doing has gone up. Thank you. [00:18:00] Mary Supple (Mayor): The motion is before us. All in favor please say aye. [00:18:05] Group: Aye. [00:18:06] Mary Supple (Mayor): All opposed? We have adopted the resolution. Next we'll move on to Item 10, Council Member Whalen. [00:18:12] Council Member Whalen: Thank you, Mayor. This item is to consider approval of a contract with Fractional HeadStart CFO LLC to provide Finance Director services. The city recruited for the position but did not find candidates at this time. The contracted services would be primarily provided by Mary Bogie, who has 35 plus years of experience. I move that we authorize the Mayor and City Manager to finalize and execute the contract. [00:18:40] Council Member Troutman: Second. [00:18:42] Mary Supple (Mayor): Moved and seconded. Mary Bogie is here tonight. Thank you for attending and we're looking forward to working with you. All in favor of the motion please say aye. [00:18:55] Group: Aye. [00:18:56] Mary Supple (Mayor): All opposed? And we have approved the motion. Next we'll move on to the City Manager's report. [00:19:00] Katie Rodriguez (City Manager): Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to add my thanks to the voters for their support on the referendum questions. I was reading that only 58% of such questions passed across the state, so I'm excited that we can deliver these. I also wanted to add my thanks to Chris Faint, who is the President of Local 1215. It's a lot of hours that you put in negotiating these contracts. That's all I have tonight. [00:19:30] Mary Supple (Mayor): Thank you. Claims and payroll? [00:19:35] Council Member Whalen: I'd move claims and payroll. [00:19:37] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): Second. [00:19:38] Mary Supple (Mayor): All in favor please say aye. [00:19:40] Group: Aye. [00:19:41] Mary Supple (Mayor): Approved. Next for "Hats Off to Hometown Hits," Council Member Whalen. [00:19:45] Council Member Whalen: Thank you, Mayor. Just one quick one: want to say thank you to everyone who has applied to be part of a City Board or Commission. We have a lot of interest and looking forward to hearing from those folks on Saturday. [00:19:55] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): I also wanted to give my thanks about the vote. Thank you for re-electing me, and thank you for the votes on the park referendum. It passed by huge 2-to-1 margins, so it's great to see that. [00:20:10] Council Member Troutman: Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to say again thank you for everybody that participated. Richfield has some of the highest voting turnout in the state. And a reminder that a majority of that sales tax revenue will come from people coming to Richfield, not just property taxes. [00:20:30] Mary Supple (Mayor): I believe it was 89% for the voter participation, which is incredibly high. I would like to thank the students and faculty of the STEM school and the Veterans Memorial Committee for the programs yesterday for Veterans Day. It was heart-warming to see the students thanking the veterans. Also, thank you to the election judges and City Clerk Michelle Friedrich. If we have no further business, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. [00:21:00] Council Member Whalen: So moved. [00:21:02] Sean Hayford Oleary (Council Member): Second. [00:21:03] Mary Supple (Mayor): All in favor please say aye. [00:21:05] Group: Aye. [00:21:06] Mary Supple (Mayor): We stand adjourned. Thank you.