This transcription has been organized with speaker names identified through the provided list and contextual clues within the dialogue. Please note that several speakers (Council Members Whalen and Troutman, and HRA Attorney Julie Eddington) are identified by name in the dialogue but were not in the provided list; their roles have been noted accordingly. [00:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All right, good evening everyone. It is May 23rd. I'm going to call to order this regular city council meeting at 7:00 PM. And if you are able, please rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:10] **Audience:** 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. [00:25] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. So thank you, now we'll move on to the open forum. I have two cards right now. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak that hasn't filled a card out? If so, Mr. Swanson is back there and he can help you with a card. All right, if you would like to call into open forum, you can dial 1-415-655-0001 and use webinar access code 2633-626-2586 and the password "one two three four." So, is there anyone that was calling in at this point? [00:40] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Mayor Supple, there is not. [00:41] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All right, so I'm going to address the people that are here in the room. Thank you for attending tonight's meeting. A few reminders about open forum: please sign in and state your name and address for the record when you're speaking, and I'll start timing after you've stated your name and address, and you'll have about three minutes. We want to provide a safe platform to state our opinions about municipal policies, so please stick to issues; this is not a forum to discuss individuals. The council will be listening and taking notes, but we will not be responding to the comments. This open forum is designed to hear from you and not to be a debate. Thank you. The first person that I have a card for is Randy Olson. So if you would like to come up and greet them and tell us your name and... [01:31] **Randy Olson:** All right, so I'm here... there's a couple of reasons why. A celebration of composers' influence is a high school senior... it's a very demanding piece of community here in Richfield. The Richfield Symphonic Band was started in 1979, originally sponsored by the Richfield American Legion. We rehearse on Tuesday nights at the high school, and this year we celebrate our 44th year making music. From area to enter the contest, students videotape themselves... the classroom is Tuesday. We will also be performing at the band shell on August 15th. Congratulations. [02:05] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. All right, thank you. Our next speaker is Kathleen Balaban. [02:15] **Kathleen Balaban:** Oh, I thought they'd put one up there... okay, well I have it written down on these cards so we'll use that. Thank you for your patience. I see it, can we take one of the other microphones? I think... all right, thank you. There's a new open forum, I like to get close to you guys. All right, absolutely. My name is Kathleen Balaban and I live at 6526 Stevens Avenue South. I did go out... I lost it once and so I had to order it again; it came back today in the mail. It's the Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedures, you know, the "Hoyle" book of the game. So I got it because I needed to find out how you guys work and what you do and how you do it. We have a problem in our commissions, and the reason we have a problem is the states right in here about the documentation and the detail in our minutes by the commissions. We don't have it. I go look at the minutes—I'm an ADA person—I don't see any documentation. There is nothing to back up the presentations; there's nothing, absolutely nothing for me to learn when I look at the minutes. Videos, yes, because I can hear you, but documentation? Absolutely not. We are remiss in our parliamentary rules. So I would like to see those minutes in the backup in there. In addition, my newspaper is back there but as you know, the Sun Current produces their newspaper early. Okay, it comes to the City Hall on a Tuesday—today—but it's dated Thursday. And in that documentation—and I have copies at home—there were notices in the paper sitting on the table back there while you were trying to approve something. In other words, you were "led and fed." It was already in the paper, so the decision was made before you even made a decision. So I would like you to rethink that, talk about who makes those decisions to print this and to make sure that they are not printed and in possession of the City Hall prior to your approval. So please let's do the proper documentation. Now, going back to the commissions real quickly: we don't teach them how to represent me. The attorney teaches them on the legalities, the staff teaches them on the "how-to's," how they're going to run the meeting—and I do mean *how* they're going to run the meeting. So we are led and fed; they're not representing me. I want us to start teaching them how to ask questions and let them know that they rule—they represent me, not the staff. Teach them how to be good commissioners. No more leading and feeding. Last but not least, I've written today's newspaper. We have a problem, and it's in our Human Resources department. How can we terminate somebody's employment without due diligence? Every supervisor, no matter what position, anybody that manages people, should have the proper training on how to evaluate performance and how to terminate an agreement. We did not do that according to this article. I know I don't believe everything I read and see, so there's something in here that may not be written, but why did it get this far? So let's look at our internal controls, let's look at how we teach our supervisors how to manage people. And please, please get the documentation for my commissioners so that I can read it. Thank you very much for all that you do. Personally, I don't think you get paid enough, but thank you. [04:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. All right, is there anyone else that has called in? [04:18] **City Clerk Michelle Friedrich:** Mayor Supple, there is not. [04:20] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All right, and is there anyone else in the audience that wishes to speak? If you could go to the microphone... and since there is a paper up there to sign in now since I don't have a card for you... all right, and you'll want to come up to the microphone that's working. [04:45] **Ruane:** Ruane, 2421 West 65th Street. You can hear me? She was just talking about salaries for commissioners and council members, and I remember when I was running for city council, the stipend was less than nine thousand dollars a year. It seems to me that there's an incredible rapport between the council members and the staff insofar as there's a 100 percent almost every time approval of anything that they give you. I certainly, if I were on the council, I would ask a few more questions. I would want to know this and that or the other thing in public forum because, of course, you cannot telephone one another, you cannot meet one another, you cannot internet one another. So I don't understand how you can always have 100 percent approval of everything that comes in here. Where, when, and how do you form a consensus so readily? And my question is that I would like to know when and if you are now receiving salaries and benefits, when did your stipends become salaries and benefits, and how much does each of you receive as a salary and a benefit? Thank you. [05:40] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? And Ruane, since you didn't fill out a card, can you please write down your name and address on the paper? Is there anyone else who wishes to speak for the open forum? Looks like council member Whalen is going to get you the thing. Thank you. All right, anyone else? So then I guess we will close out the open forum and we'll move on to approval of the minutes of the City Council work session of May 9th, 2023, and the City Council meeting of May 9, 2023. [05:58] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Move to approve the minutes. [06:00] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Second. [06:02] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Are there any corrections or discussion? All right, hearing none, all in favor please say "aye." [06:05] **Council Members:** Aye. [06:06] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All opposed? Thank you. Next, we're going to move on to the presentation of the food safety awards. City Manager Rodriguez? [06:14] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Are we having more microphone issues? Sorry... Jennifer Anderson will make the presentation. [06:20] **Support Services Manager Jennifer Anderson:** Good evening Mayor, members of the Council. Annually since 2006, the Richfield Advisory Board of Health has acknowledged excellence in food safety by giving out awards in two different categories. The first is for the Full Service Restaurant and the second is the Fast Food, Pizza, and Carryout. These awards have not been given out since 2019 due to the pandemic, so it's exciting that we're back here tonight to do this. A team of food collaborative members nominate three to four establishments in each category based on food collaborative interviews and then the actual inspection results. Nominees are judged on how they manage risk factors on a daily basis, how the establishment encouraged workers to be continually motivated about serving safe food, whether they can list the five critical factors that affect food safety, what is their policy when an employee shows up for work who's obviously sick, and so forth. So those results are scored and then sent to the Advisory Board of Health; they review the scores and select the winners. Tonight, a full-service restaurant is an actual category... it's an actual sit-down restaurant, so you're seated and you get service at your table. For the fast food, pizza, carryout, that's more of a quick-service style restaurant. You can get in, get out, you can sit, but you're not going to get service by someone at your table. The nominees in the full-service restaurants were Davanni’s at 6345 Penn Avenue and Giordano’s at 3000 West 66th Street. And Giordano’s took the award. Eric, if you want to come up? Eric Holland is the manager. [07:30] **Eric Holland (Giordano’s):** Eric Holland from the Giordano’s at 3000 West 66th Street. I just want to address the council that your food service industry here in Richfield is one of the best in the cities. I've had other restaurants and other municipalities and I think there's just something to be proud of on how well they do here. So thank you. [07:50] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Congratulations. [Applause] [07:55] **Support Services Manager Jennifer Anderson:** And the nominees in the fast food, pizza, carryout were Five Guys at 1844 East 66th Street and Panda Express at 1638 East 66th Street. And Panda Express won. So Syrillac Hannah is here this evening from Panda Express to receive this award. [08:08] **Syrillac Hannah (Panda Express):** I work for Panda Express, and on behalf of my Panda Express in Richfield locations, I would like to say thank you so much. To be honest, to be here, and I'll be moving forward to commit to making food safety a priority for our company. Thank you so much to be out here. [08:35] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Congratulations. [Applause] And then you had mentioned pictures? Did they want to do pictures in here or out in the lobby? Okay, cool. And thank you and congratulations again to both of our winners. All right, next we'll move on to approval of the agenda. [08:46] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Move the approval of the agenda. [08:48] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Second. [08:50] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? All right, all in favor of approving the agenda, please say "aye." [08:55] **Council Members:** Aye. [08:56] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All opposed? We've approved the agenda. Next, we'll move on to the consent calendar. City Manager Rodriguez. [09:00] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Thank you, Mayor. The consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the City Council in one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved. No further Council action on these items is necessary. On tonight's consent calendar: Item A, consider approval of a temporary on-sale intoxicating liquor license for an event scheduled for June 10th, 2023, at Fred Babcock VFW number 5555; Item B, consider approval of a temporary on-sale intoxicating liquor license for events scheduled July 3rd and 4th, 2023, at Fred Babcock VFW number 5555; Item C, consider approval of a temporary on-sale intoxicating liquor license for the Academy of Holy Angels for their annual Rock the Lawn event scheduled June 24th, 2023; and Item D, consider an appointment to the Advisory Board of Health. I recommend you consider all these items on the consent calendar today. [10:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All right, is there a motion to approve the items on the consent calendar? [10:03] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** So moved. [10:04] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Second. [10:05] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to approve the items on the consent calendar. Is there any discussion? I would like to welcome our newest commissioner, Stephanie McAfee, who's going to be on the Advisory Board of Health and thank her for her service on the commission. Any other discussions? All right, all in favor please say "aye." [10:15] **Council Members:** Aye. [10:16] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All opposed? All right, we have approved the consent calendar. Next, we will be moving on to consideration of confirmation of the appointment of Kamud Verma to be the Finance Director of the city of Richfield, and I'll turn that over to council member Whalen. [10:30] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** Thank you, Mayor. Ms. Verma started her role as Finance Manager on May 18, 2022. She brings over 20 years of experience in accounting, budgeting, municipal bond issuance, technology solutions, and leadership experience to the role. She also has a Master's degree in Finance and a Bachelor's degree in Accounting. Ms. Verma has excelled in her leadership of the Finance Department. She had to quickly learn municipal accounting operations and processes. She has regularly improved and updated processes as she learned and will be key in implementing further process and technology upgrades. The city plans a major financial software upgrade in May 2024. She is already an important member of the leadership team and has developed strong professional relationships with colleagues both inside and outside the organization. Her accomplishments are even more impressive given that the department continues to be short-staffed. Ms. Verma's response to the staff shortages demonstrates her strategic problem solving and innovation; given the shortage of public finance professionals nationwide, she recently created a student internship position to help with the annual budget and also create a better pipeline of talent to fill current and future needs. Ms. Verma's skill set will also be needed to continue progress on strategic plan initiatives, including better long-term financial planning. The city's success depends on an effective Finance Department, and Ms. Verma has the technical and leadership skills to strengthen the department so the city can build on a tradition of sound and responsible financial management. Do staff have anything further to say? [11:51] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Yes, thank you. I just want to say again I'm very impressed with Kamud's first year, and I'm really excited to see what she can do when she has a full staff. I really think she'll excel in the role. Thank you. [12:00] **Mayor Mary Supple:** I would agree. So I will make the motion that we confirm the appointment of Kamud Verma as Finance Director for the city of Richfield. [12:10] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** I'd second. [12:11] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? I just want to say congratulations and thank you, and I agree with everything that's written. We really appreciate your leadership. [12:20] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** I would also like to say congratulations. There was one line that really stood out to me in what council member Whalen read: it said that you have regularly improved and updated the processes and will be key in implementing further process and technology upgrades. I have seen that firsthand and I've been so impressed. So we're very thrilled to have you in this new position. Thank you. [12:35] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** I'll just add, I've really appreciated that even in the manager role, not yet being a director, that you've been present for many of the meetings with directors and Council since the finances are so essential to the long-term visioning and planning conversations. And so I'm excited to have you now in this full director role to continue leading us in that way. [12:55] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Any other comments or questions? All right, all in favor please say "aye." [13:00] **Council Members:** Aye. [13:01] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All opposed? All right, congratulations. Next, we will move on to Item 6, which is to consider a request to modify in 2024 and then terminate in 2025 Best Buy's minimum assessment agreement. Council member Troutman. [13:15] **Council Member Troutman:** Thank you, Mayor. This request to modify 2024 and then terminate 2025 Best Buy's minimum assessment agreement is a little lengthy, but I am going to read it because I think there's important context here. The Interchange West Lindale Gateway tax increment financing or TIF District was established in 1999, and the district is a scattered site redevelopment district with multiple projects and outstanding obligations, including the Best Buy corporate headquarters, Main Street Village, and the Castile Place Townhomes. Best Buy has approached the City and Housing Redevelopment Authority (HRA) to request a modification to their individual contract, which would move the minimum assessment agreement that prevents a tax value of their property from falling below 118.5 million during the life of the TIF District ending in December 31, 2025. The minimum assessment agreement (MAA) is in place for two purposes: one, as part of the contract for private development with Best Buy, the city agreed to issue general obligation bonds to help fund significant infrastructure improvements necessary to handle the traffic of Best Buy's corporate campus. The principal and interest payments on these bonds are made with tax increment generated by the project; the obligation remains outstanding with the final payment due on February 1, 2024. Sufficient increment will be available to make the remaining two payments. The MAA is also in place to provide a mechanism for pooling; pooling allows the HRA to spend a portion of the tax increment outside the geographical boundaries of the TIF district for TIF-eligible activities such as affordable housing. A modification or termination of the MAA will not impact the remaining bond payments, but it will likely impact the amount of money contributed to the Housing and Redevelopment fund. In November of 2022, Best Buy submitted a request for termination of the MAA. After significant work by HRA staff, the HRA attorney, and HRA financial consultants from Ehlers, a work session was held with the Council and the HRA in March to discuss the potential impacts to the HRA and Best Buy. At the time, Best Buy proposed a contract amendment that would ensure no loss of revenue to the HRA for pooling for affordable housing, which is estimated to be between 210 and 385 thousand dollars over the remaining two years of the district. Best Buy also requested that the HRA provide an accounting of payments made to Best Buy and pooling over the life of the TIF District. This analysis was ongoing at the time of the work session; however, policy makers made it clear that a global solution to all outstanding issues should be found prior to any request to modify or terminate the MAA. This financial review has now been completed and has revealed that due to the complexities of the district and two successful Tax Court petitions by Best Buy to reduce their property tax value, the HRA has overpaid Best Buy by approximately 851 thousand dollars. HRA and City staff have indicated support for a solution that: one, ensures that the Housing and Redevelopment fund is fully funded at the level anticipated by the MAA; and two, that Best Buy acknowledges that the HRA intends to recoup the identified overpayment by withholding additional available increment received over the last two years of the TIF District. Best Buy has submitted the attached letter and legal analysis dated May 12, 2023, disputing the HRA's assertion that they've been overpaid. To resolve the dispute and move forward with their request for modification and termination, they have proposed that the City and HRA approve their request in exchange for 20 percent of the actual tax benefit to Best Buy in 2024 and 2025. Staff recommends that the request to subtract Best Buy's legal and appraisal fees to pursue a tax value reduction be rejected out of hand; therefore, the following analysis does not include a reduction for these costs. If successful in their request for a reduced tax value in 2024 and 2025, the potential payment to the HRA under the proposal is estimated to be between 423 and 764 thousand dollars cumulative. The HRA and staff financial consultants believe that this would leave the HRA between 472 and 638 thousand dollars short of full recoupment. The HRA has advised Best Buy and believes that the approval of the city, school district, and county are required to modify and/or terminate the MAA, and the deadline for these approvals is June 30th, 2023. The HRA believes that Best Buy is unlikely to be successful in the request for the 2024 tax year and that the second scenario therefore is more likely. Finally, there is a possibility, though seemingly unlikely, that no reduction in value would be granted, in which case the HRA would continue to receive the anticipated funds for the Housing Redevelopment Authority but would not recoup any overpayment. HRA and City staff, along with the HRA attorney and financial experts, have reviewed the proposal and legal analysis provided. We strongly disagree with the analysis, and a legal response by the HRA attorney is included as an attachment to this report. Based on our analysis, we recommend denial of the request. While Best Buy is an important and valued employer in our community, the contractual agreement in place should be honored unless a "do no harm" solution can be found. And thank you for the context, but given that, I also want to turn it over to staff for any additional context. [14:38] **Community Development Director Melissa Poehlman:** Council member Troutman, members of the Council. I will just reiterate that HRA staff and City staff feel that Best Buy is a very important member of our community. The relationship that has been in place for the last 23 years has been a mutually beneficial one; both Best Buy and the HRA have been served well by the contract. Looking forward, the pandemic has absolutely changed the landscape of office developments across our region, across the nation, and across the world, and we would like to find a solution that could help Best Buy be nimble here. We just aren't recommending a solution in which the HRA would be harmed through that solution. Best Buy has several representatives here tonight to answer your questions, and myself, the HRA attorney, and Gene Vogt from Ehlers are also here if you have additional questions. [15:20] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Great. Questions? Should we make the motion then discuss? [15:25] **Council Member Troutman:** I believe that would be the proper parliamentary procedure. Thank you. So I would move we deny a request to modify and/or terminate the minimum assessment agreement for Best Buy corporate campus at 7601 Penn Avenue South. [15:33] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** Second. [15:35] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded. So now we can move on to questions and discussion. Is there anyone who wishes to speak at this point? [15:40] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** Thank you, Mayor. I greatly appreciate the details here and emails back and forth with staff to further explain. I will share that I am open to some level of negotiating in good faith, but this to me does not feel even like a meeting-halfway offer. For us to put in all of the extra effort to do this big audit of payments that have happened, find out that we are owed 851 thousand dollars—a set dollar amount—and be offered in return 20 percent of a very unknown figure, feels not like a mutually beneficial offer. I also hope that we can continue the conversation. I don't have any doubt that the minimum assessment agreement that made sense when it was made... that because of the impact of the pandemic and how many people are working from home, I don't doubt your analysis that your property is not worth that minimum value. But again, to find a path forward would have to be something that comes closer to addressing what the original agreement would say the city is receiving. And so that is my comment; I feel like we had a pretty extensive discussion at the work session and personally don't feel my views have changed. I'm open to removing the minimum assessment agreement, but that deal has to address the overpayment as well. [16:20] **Council Member Troutman:** Thank you, Mayor. Referring back to the conversation we had during the work session, what I meant by a "global settlement" is that I'm persuaded by our analysis that we're owed 851 thousand dollars. I'm also delighted to learn that there's an opportunity for us to recoup that money, especially at an opportunity where Best Buy has the opportunity to receive some tax savings. So this doesn't actually come out of Best Buy's bottom line. Anything less than that is not a proposal that I receive in good faith, and so that's where I'm at. I think we have an opportunity to get it all done, but this isn't it. So I would respectfully—as much as I appreciate Best Buy as a denizen—deny this proposal. [17:05] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Any other comments or questions? So, while I appreciate that Best Buy has done many things for our community and I'm grateful for that, my first priority is to do my fiduciary duty to the residents of Richfield. We made it clear as a council back in the work session in March when we talked with Best Buy about this proposal that there should be no financial loss to the HRA through any agreement, and the current proposal does not meet that criterion to "do no harm." Therefore, I cannot support their request at this point because I do think it would be doing harm, and that would not be something that I can do as a fiduciary to the HRA and to the city of Richfield. So at this point, I would be in favor of denying the request. Is there any other comments or questions? Now this is a bit of an unusual motion because the motion is to *deny* a request to modify this. So I want to be clear: if you vote "yes," you are voting to deny the request. If you vote "no," then you are saying we shouldn't deny the request. Is there any further discussion or anything staff wanted to add? [17:35] **Community Development Director Melissa Poehlman:** Mayor Supple, excuse me. I think maybe the representatives of Best Buy would like to speak. [17:39] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Oh, they wanted to speak? I'm sorry, I apologize for that. So go ahead, and is that microphone working or do we need to come over to the other one? [17:45] **Tracy Smith (Best Buy Representative):** Good evening Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Tracy Smith, I'm an employee of Best Buy and I'm happy to be here tonight and thank you for the time. I will tailor my remarks at the end to some of the comments and questions that you made, but I'd like to start off by just reminding everyone, as Melissa Poehlman said, from the start of the development and construction of the Best Buy campus, Best Buy and the City have partnered for their mutual benefit. We built a vibrant corporate campus in Richfield that has served Best Buy, its vendors, and the Richfield community well for over two decades. Best Buy wants to highlight the public benefit from the Best Buy portion of the TIF District, which includes almost 12 million in the payment of bonds issued to finance public improvements and almost 11 million to the HRA to fund its housing initiatives. In addition, Best Buy has made significant charitable contributions to Richfield’s non-profits, schools, and community activities. Today, the unprecedented downsizing and reordering of the Twin Cities office market demand swift action to keep the city’s largest commercial office building competitive. The Best Buy office building and the city need to attract new business tenants as workforce dynamics have shifted to remote and hybrid work models. We therefore need to make changes now to our minimum assessment agreement to reflect market-competitive property taxes instead of the arbitrary value that was set over two decades ago that far exceeds today's fair market value. Waiting two and a half years from now until the end of the TIF District to pay property taxes on a fair market value base, we will have missed our window to attract those tenants looking for space right now. At your working session on March 6th, which I attended, the parties appeared to agree that the benefits of Best Buy's request to modify and ultimately terminate the minimum assessment agreement were benefits so long as the HRA was made whole. Best Buy agreed to make the HRA whole with respect to the consequences of the minimum assessment agreement. Since that March 6 meeting, Best Buy has made at least two offers to resolve all issues globally. In each of those offers, Best Buy has compromised its position by offering to accept significantly less than it believes it is entitled to if you apply the legal standards that are at issue. In contrast, the HRA has made no offers and stands firm that it is entitled to a hundred percent of its assertions. The hr's assertion that there is an 851 thousand dollar overpayment arises from errors and calculations over 10 years ago. Best Buy simply doesn't agree that that overpayment was made. The solution is not for the HRA to withhold additional money. We have invested over 10 months in these discussions on how to orderly wind down this TIF district. We have one proposal in front of the city—it was the 20 percent. The 20 percent was intended to be larger than the "make-whole" we set originally—the two to four hundred thousand that we talked about—but it was to be less than the total of the make-whole and the overpayment that is alleged. That's what that 20 percent is: somewhere in between, where we were trying in good faith to find a middle ground. As such, Best Buy today asks the City Council to approve our request to modify and ultimately terminate the minimum assessment agreement, either on the 20 percent basis that's in writing or on a standalone basis. On a standalone basis, Best Buy would reconfirm that it will make the HRA whole by ensuring no loss of revenue to the HRA for affordable housing as a result of any assessed valuation changes. The parties are in agreement that this make-whole amount is estimated to be in the range of 200 to 400 thousand dollars. There is absolutely no downside to the HRA to today approve the standalone request where we are standing behind our statement that we will make you whole. The time is now. Thank you. [22:15] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** I have questions for staff. I believe the last comment there was effectively offering to split the two discussions of the minimum assessment agreement and this overpayment. My understanding is that if we were to approve the eventual removal of the minimum assessment agreement and the make-whole provision that they are offering, we would lose our ability to recoup the overpayment amount if we were to resolve just the MAA portion. [22:25] **Community Development Director Melissa Poehlman:** Council member Whalen, I'm asking HRA Attorney Julie Eddington to join me here. But as we discussed or as Julie discussed in her memo, the HRA believes that we have the ability to recoup that money regardless—that we're actually obligated by law to do so because it's been an improper use of TIF funds. So the City Council and HRA could consider discussing the minimum assessment on its own and then go ahead and move to recoup through the outstanding TIF payments over the next couple of years. The idea behind a global solution is that we would like everyone to acknowledge that this has happened so that we can take care of everything and not try to recoup that money and have Best Buy and us end up in possible litigation. [23:05] **Council Member Troutman:** Thank you. I just wanted to say appreciation for the comments. This week, the Rise Remember George Floyd Memorial conference is going to be at the Best Buy headquarters, and we really appreciate them making their space available. Structurally, historically, that building stands as a strategic error; it isolated itself from the Richfield community in very concrete structural ways. It had a vision to hermetically seal the corporate campus away from our community, and now that's revealed itself to be an unstrategic move both financially and communally. I hope that in the next several weeks we can resolve this, but nothing here changes my analysis. [23:35] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All in favor of the motion to deny the request to modify and/or terminate the minimum assessment agreement for the Best Buy corporate campus at 7601 Penn Avenue South, please say "aye." [23:43] **Council Members:** Aye. [23:44] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All opposed? All right, we have denied the current request and I hope the conversation will continue. Moving on, we will move to the City Manager's report. City Manager Rodriguez. [23:45] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Thank you, Mayor. I think my most important announcement tonight is tomorrow we have the equipment and we start the AV upgrades in Chambers, so definitely needed. I also wanted to respond to an open forum comment from the last meeting: Kathleen Balaban spoke and wanted commissioner contact information and also to put pictures on the website. We are putting on a fillable form—it should be out late this week—for the chairs of the commissions. We will provide further contact information if asked and also, this is similar to other cities, we will also add group photos of the commissions. We think that's a great idea as we have time to upgrade the website. I also have some good news to report. For our top three legislative asks, we got full funding for our Woodlake Nature Center—a new building at 12 million dollars. We also have the ability to bring a local sales tax to the voters, and we also made progress on local flexibility for EMS. I wanted to thank Representative Howard and Senator Wicklund; they are very responsive and work hard and smart. I feel really lucky to have them as our legislators. That's all I have. Thank you. [25:35] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** Thank you, Mayor. I imagine several of the things are related to not our top priorities but the farther down ones. Is that something that Ann or any of the other staff could make a summary of sometime over the next month as people get a chance to actually read all of what's in some of these big bills that passed at the end? [26:00] **City Manager Katie Rodriguez:** Yes, and we're collecting reports from League of Minnesota Cities, Metro Cities... I'm hopeful to attend an event and so yes, we will start summarizing those and putting together some estimates for some of the other bills that will impact the city. Thank you. [26:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All right, then we will move on to claims and payroll. [26:20] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** I would move claims and payroll. [26:22] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Second. [26:23] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to approve the claims and payroll. Are there any questions? All right, all in favor of approving the claims and payroll, please say "aye." [26:30] **Council Members:** Aye. [26:31] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All opposed? All right, we've approved the claims and payroll. Next we'll turn to Hats Off to Hometown Hits. Council member Whalen. [26:40] **Council Member Ben Whalen:** Thank you, Mayor. I also was going to lift up the strong legislative work. I think especially given our work session immediately before this focused on prioritizing actions within our Climate Action Plan. Any residents who are listening, I know we got a fair amount of feedback around sustainability-related measures when the Strategic Plan came out. Now we're starting that conversation. I believe the next three weeks or so between the Sustainability Commission and the next Council meeting, we'll weigh in on that. I especially wanted to highlight some wins on the sustainability front: a new plan to raise revenue by almost 500 million dollars a year across the Metro for transit, and also around a billion dollars of climate investments across a whole variety of things. I'm excited that all levels of government continue to take that more seriously. Thank you. [27:50] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** Yes, I'd like to give a hats off to the Richfield Leadership Network that we had an event this past week at the Community Center. It brought together a wide variety of community members, leaders, business owners, all getting together and really reflecting on who is our neighbor, what is community, and what we can do to bring Richfield together as one. Thank you. [28:15] **Council Member Troutman:** Thank you, Mayor. I feel like my heart is overflowing with gratefulness for Richfield and Team Richfield this week. We just had the Richfield Foundation wine event—tickets sold out. It's now soccer season; seeing all the coaches, all the families, all the people that volunteer so our kids have an opportunity to connect. And I also want to add to that our staff and our Mayor who spent a lot of time advocating and telling Richfield's story, now recently at the legislature but also at the federal level. We appreciate our Congress member Ilhan Omar who visited multiple occasions to Wood Lake and really advocated for Wood Lake, and for all the Senators that came and visited. Staff Director Markle, everybody who's been telling the story of Richfield—thank you so much. [29:15] **Mayor Mary Supple:** Thank you. I would like to echo those comments, and I also want to give kudos to Chief Henthorne. I saw you in the bill signing for the Public Safety bill, and I know you've been over at the legislature a lot testifying on things to do to make our community safer; the Governor acknowledged that by having you speak at the bill signing ceremony. Thank you for representing Richfield. On Saturday at 3 PM, it'll be the second year that Richfield is going to be participating in the Flags for Fort Snelling. We will be over in the Ice Arena parking lot and then our public safety staff is going to be escorting this motorcade of veterans on their motorcycles going over to do the flags at Fort Snelling. The second Memorial Day event is at the Honoring All Veterans Memorial at 6429 Portland Avenue at 2 PM. There's going to be a ceremony there in honor of Memorial Day and those that have sacrificed for our country. The ceremony will start with a flyover of a T-6 Thunder, and then the veterans' names engraved since last year will be unveiled. The guest speaker is Scott Edgar. The event is free, held rain or shine. Is there any other comments that anyone wishes to make? All right, then a motion to adjourn would be in order. [30:50] **Council Member Sharon Christensen:** So moved. [30:52] **Council Member Sean Hayford Oleary:** Second. [30:54] **Mayor Mary Supple:** It's been moved and seconded to adjourn. Is there any further discussion? All in favor please say "aye." [31:00] **Council Members:** Aye. [31:01] **Mayor Mary Supple:** All opposed? We stand adjourned.