Hello everybody. Thanks for being here tonight. Uh we we officially can't call the meeting Jordan until we get a quorum. So we need one more council member to show up. Uh I'm sure they're on >> I'm sorry. >> I think it's just a rainbow. Please
>> turning it on >> seems to help. >> Yeah. You eat the mic. It'll sound good. >> It just was cut out again. [clears throat] >> There. Is that better? Much better now. There we go. Uh we do have a uh a quorum now. So, we're going to be able to go.
What we've got here is um how we handle these listening sessions. Uh we parse out the time based on the number of speakers that call ahead of time and sign up. So, it looks like we've got uh five speakers who have called ahead to to sign up. We'll give them each five minutes and then I think there was one person who was here about an hour ago.
Who was that? And we'll uh let you pop in and speak as well. Um we are going to hold everybody to five minutes because we need to get down to the council meeting. And I want to let everybody know at our next council meeting on February 2nd, we're going to be holding an extended listening session down in
the council chamber. So, there's going to be a lot more room for everybody. It's going to be longer. we'll have an opportunity for more people to speak because I know there's a lot of folks who do want to talk and uh want to get their voices heard on this. So, I appreciate everybody being here tonight. I really do. And uh uh why don't we get
this started? We have a forum and we will get started. So, the four folks that I have or the five folks that I have signed up, uh, Jamie Wagner, Jamie, uh, Michelle Abbott. Okay, you're number two, Paul Coat.
Where's Paul? Paul not here yet. Cody Wright, very good. Uh, Pam, I see Pam. And then uh a gentleman in the front row who's uh >> I'm sorry.
>> Very good. There it is. Uh and we'll see if Paul I I assume Paul will show up. So >> I signed up and I was supposed to be on here tonight. >> Those are the names that they got on the list. So >> Well, I was told I was on it tonight. >> What's your name? >> Constance.
>> You see Constants on that list for me? I don't see constants. >> All right, why don't we get started here? Uh Jamie, why don't you come on up and what we're going to ask ask everybody to do, come on up. You can speak your your piece. You have to get right into the microphone as we've talked about. And then as you finish up, if you could just kind of grab the uh
the uh clipboard, kind of step away so the next speaker come in uh can come in, but uh get signed in so we know who you are as well. Phil, >> how is this? Can you hear me now? >> Indeed. Thank you. Good evening. is sadly not my first rodeo. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the
council. Thank you. My name is Jamie Wagner, and I'm here because I live on Clinton Avenue. I am here because I am a student of history and I have seen the growth of fascism across our country. >> I am here because when my wife and I
bought our first home, we decided this was a place we wanted to make our future together. I am here because I am now constantly afraid for the safety of my neighbors. I am here because I am a queer woman.
I am here because for the last two weeks I have seen federal agents attack, detain, and arrest my neighbors and members of my community at the Walgreens I get my prescriptions from, at the high school I drive past every day, and the stores I buy my groceries at.
I am here because I am by heritage and as can do. I am here because I watched uniformed officers of the Bloomington Police Department arrest members of our community clergy while they knelt in prayer. I am here
because the social contract has been broken. We have seen little more from the city government at this time than posts calling for calm on social media, words of sympathy for the families of those who have been killed. And mayor, I thank you for that.
A few words of press releases in response to the constant assault on our civil liberties, our safety, and our human rights. I am here because in the words of Winston Churchill, the triumph of evil men simply requires good men to do
nothing. I am here because I need to ask you with all of my heart. Please, for the love of God, for the love of this community, for the love of any basic decency, do something.
Thank you for your time. Michelle, [clears throat] >> Michelle, if you could come up. Um, folks, I I appreciate the applause, but I'm What we try not to do in council meetings is to you can support, you can do uh you can show your support. I don't
like it when people applaud. And if I don't stop you when you applaud, then I can't stop people from booing either or cat calling. And I don't want to see that happen. So I I think we're we're here in support of each other. I can understand that. But if you could refrain from uh from clapping, I would appreciate it because again, if we allow
clapping, then we've got to allow booing. And I don't want to do that. That kind of makes things way quickly. >> Michelle, good evening. >> Good evening. I'm Michelle Abbott. I live and work in Bloomington and u many of the comments from the first
speaker I would echo and I do have a couple of specific things I would like to talk about. So the council statement and some other social media posts I thought were a good starting point. I would like to talk about making that um
more actionable. Okay, some specific things. So I am really curious what steps the city can take to put into action some of those concepts. For instance, the city of
Minneapolis issued an executive order. The city of St. Paul used a cease and desist letter. So given our city charter, what avenue does Bloomington have to ensure that immigration agents
are not using city property for civil enforcement actions? I would expect that we could take this further. I was actually disappointed it wasn't on the council meeting agenda for tonight. Um, so I would like to encourage
everyone to think about what we can do to not just talk about making this a welcoming and safe community, but to put it into action and to do something specific, something tangible and
something that would allow our city police force to be able to use to ensure that we're not having, for instance, staging or operational activities on city property. So that is my ask for you tonight.
[clears throat] Um I think there's a lot more that we can do and we should not assume that um without direct action that we will have results that will keep us all safe. >> Thank you. [snorts] >> Thank you. And and I will say we've had
those conversations here in city hall about different things. is looking at what other cities have done, the not allowing them to use parkland or parking lots or that kind of thing. >> And and frankly, in all of those cities, they still use
the park anyway. They do it anyway. And so my my fear is to if we pass something like that, it's more performative than anything else because if ICE is just going to keep using the the parks anyway, if they're simply going to keep doing basically whatever they want to do, which we've seen them doing, um I if
we could do anything that would actually make a difference, I I would be wide open to suggestions for that. But again, we have seen cities who have passed ordinances like this, they they do it anyway. >> Can I comment on that, >> please? So I think that is true.
However, there are um current legal actions underway that may force ICE, Border Patrol, Homeland Security to actually follow the law and abide by the Constitution. So, if we have these
protections in place within our city, um we can't require them to abide by having to abide by it for other reasons. We have that safety net in place. That's why I think >> Thanks for that feedback. I appreciate
that. Thank you. >> Paul Goat, are you here? >> No. Uh so, how about Constance? wanted since we we got the opening conference, why don't you come on up here, please? I apologize you weren't on my list, but I'm glad we can fit you in here.
>> Good evening. Welcome. >> Hello. over again. Constance, I'm going to need you to get right into the microphone so everybody can hear you. Okay. >> Well, good evening, Mayor and Council. You are here to listen to my
own down outrage. >> Are you afraid? Do you have courage? >> Do you believe in democracy? process, freedom of speech, rule of law.
Your press release suggests you do a bit about myself. I've lived in Minnesota all my life. I love it. I I live I'm a Bloomington resident, retired in the ground. I'm not a podcaster. I do not go for
about Botox, expensive hair extensions, false eyelashes, and photo ops for the press. I do not make false statements about the state of Minnesota. I do not call protesters terrorists.
I I do not own a gun. I did not shoot or kill my dog or or I would not shoot a goat. I love all animals. I love dogs. I sometimes I am not a paid protest. I
sometimes sing silly songs at protests or I dress in a taco costume. I'm a peaceful protester. And most of the and everyone I'm with are all wonderful people. I've known nothing but wonderful people at pro protest. I do not cover my face with a
mask. I do not carry pepper spray. and I do not carry a gun. As a peaceful protester, I've witnessed brutish displays by ICE. I have seen peaceful protesters pepper-sprayed in their faces and armed ICE men point
their guns in men in sceneful way. Last week was an Amber Alert was issued. The following day, I woke up to find out that a little boy, a five-year-old immigrant boy named Lame Lam
Ramos was kidnapped in front of his house by masked ICE agents, heavily armed. Then I found out about the Amber Alert. Over 500 people responded to the Amber Alert. Thankfully, the child was found
and located and the and the person that took abducted the child was arrested hundreds of miles from home. Well, Liam was abducted, detained, no due process, transferred out of state, deported
thousands of miles away from his home. What happened to the man Act? Why is this not unacceptable? Maybe some of you believe immigrants are all criminals like our Donald Trump says
over and over again. I do not. I love immigrants. I love my immigrant neighbors and the diverse community I live. Immigrants are the backbone of our country. My grandparents denounced a fascist regime regime [snorts] in order to
become citizens when they came to the United States from Italy. I'm just horrified what's happening in our state. I have been to immigration court. I have seen it as a total sham. Immigrants are
denied due process. DHS attorneys dismiss their cases and ICE agents are inside the courtroom texting each other. Oh, this one's going to get picked up next and they pick them up in the hallway. They detain them and then they deport them. No due process. They think
they're going to get out free because they're dismissed their case. Go to those court hearings. Find out what it's like. Learn from it. These are your neighbors. When the clergy was praying at the airport for these people in song and
peaceful protest, Bloomington police agents assisted in their arrest. Why? We should all be praying and singing for unlawful exploitation and detention and deport of these immigrants. I am horrified what happened at Target.
I'm horrified by students being having their cars broken into, their houses smashed, and people slammed to the ground. I'm horrified at the brutality and the murder of Retro and Alex Page.
We've all seen the videos and yet we get nothing from. What can you do? You can sign a resolution to declare your support for the governor wall attorney Keith Ellison demanding ICE
leave Minnesota. >> Constance, I'm sorry I have to interrupt you here. We're at time and I want to make sure everybody gets an opportunity to speak. >> I have just a few more get a couple more. >> I'm sorry, Constance. We've got everybody looking to speak and so All right. Thank you. Thank you for coming,
Cody. >> Good evening. Welcome. >> Good evening, council and mayor. My name is Cody Wright. I live in Bloomington. Um, I'm a criminal defense attorney and the things that I see happening are extremely extremely troubling and I've
been extremely disappointed in the response from the leadership in this city. We voted for all of you because we thought you would be the best ones to do the job and represent us. And we've gotten a little bit of lip service. Um, the first statement was about a week and
a half too late. Um, everybody in the city was waiting to hear from you and we got nothing. Worse than that, I'm disgusted with how the Bloomington Police Department has responded. There have been untrained
thugs running through our city, going up to vehicles with peaceful protesters who are just filming, doing nothing else, and pepper- spraying the hoods of their cars so that that pepper spray gets sucked in through their vents. They've been pulling people out of their
vehicles and assaulting them. There's been two people up the road murdered. Can anybody tell me what would happen if I walked up to a car and someone was sitting in it just filming and I sprayed pepper spray on the hood? Does anybody
have an answer? No. I'd get charged with seconddegree assault. I'd probably get charged with firstdegree criminal damage to property. and I would most likely go to prison. I'm not telling you that our police officers need to start pulling their
guns on ICE agents. I understand that's not realistic. But they don't need to be writing tickets for honking your horn or for trespassing. I have been doing criminal defense for
over 10 years. I have never seen somebody cited for honking their horn. So that leaves me with one conclusion and it's that there's officers in the Bloomington Police Department that are okay with what's happening and they want
to make it easier for ICE. You guys all swore to represent us. Those officers swore to protect this community, not to protect the ICE agents who are here. So again, I'm not asking the officers to pull their guns on ICE
agents, but I'm asking them to be there. I don't know if um I don't know if you all noticed yesterday the National Guard was at the Whipple facility. They were handing out donuts and hot coffee to the protesters.
They were telling the protesters that they were there for them, which is what the officers whose salaries we all pay with our taxes should be doing. So, you guys have an opportunity now to pick which side of history you want to
be on. You can tell Chief Hodgeges that he needs to reel in his officers. You can find a new police chief or we can all find a new mayor and city council members because that's where
we're at right now. >> If you continue to do nothing, nobody's been killed yet in our city. But if you continue to do nothing, the when it eventually does happen, that blood is going to be on all your hands and it's going to be on Chief Hodgeg's hands. And I want to leave you with a quote
from Steve Simon, the Secretary of State. It is the first response from an elected official that's actually been up to par. So maybe you guys can read the rest of it and figure out what you need to do. But he said it is deeply disturbing that the US Attorney General
would make this unlawful request as part of an apparent ransom to pay for our state's peace and security. More broadly, the federal government must end the unprecedented and deadly occupation of our state immediately. The tactics
used by too many ICE agents have been dangerous, destabilizing, unnecessarily cruel, and counterproductive. They're tactics that often seem aimed at instilling fear more than protecting the public. He's being very direct.
That's what I think we're all hoping to see out of you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Cody. >> Uh why don't we go with Douglas and then we'll finish with Pam. How about that? Okay. >> Right across the street. >> Okay. Um, I am going to ask that the uh
council pass a a bill uh to ban guns uh from ICE members. Uh I know it's not enforceable. I understand it's symbolic, but uh those guns are dangerous. People are dying. Uh ICE is not well trained.
They're not capable of handling themselves in a a sudden uh uh unexpected situation. And this has led to death. And like Constance was saying, she's a peaceful protester. Unfortunately, that's not going to keep
her alive if she gets in the wrong situation with an ICE officer. Uh I do think that, you know, ICE is a legal mission. A lot of American voters like that mission. I'm not here to protest that. Uh but I am saying that uh I if
they need to carry guns, they can take the time to call the police force and get a better trained person to carry the guns for them. Otherwise, they should not be carrying guns. They're dangerous. They're military guns. You know, I have pictures I can show you. I don't know. You need the like 12 of these guys
standing in front of somebody's front door with AR-15s. And that's crazy. I mean, who are they looking for in there? So, you know, that's the gist of what I have to say. I I just think that, you know, if you're going to carry around military hardware, something's going to
go wrong and we should ban it. So, thank you. >> Thank you. our change. Mine is really short tonight. So, we'll wrap up. Uh continuation of the Oh, Clam Palmer is my name. Lifelong resident of
Bloomington. I just wanted to kind of do a followup on the commercial vehicles thing that I had talked about before because I learned something I was pretty surprised about. So, you guys are talking about loosening the codes and I understand some of the rationale, but
the trouble is is that right now it's not being enforced. commercial vehicles or regular cars in the street. And that big ad thing near my house, it's been there over a year and not moved. And the city
said it's too big for them to move and they just keep finding. So my question is if you reduce if you you know reduce the restrictions there will be more vehicles and how are you going to
uh enforce the code but the part that I didn't realize before okay I call they know me well at uh the environmental department and on your property those code
violations go to environment mental if you're talking about on the street public property those get reported to the police department so before they used to just you know whatever but now I've called them sometimes they ask
what's your name where do you live you know is that like next to you well recently I had called in one and the gal just took my cell phone number about a week later I get this angry harassing Paul, who are you? Are you in
my neighbor? And I was like, oh my goodness. I didn't realize when you report the police about on the street, that becomes public information. And with a data request, they can ask who turned me in.
That'll terrify neighbors to ever try to report on their neighbors, you know. So, I don't know if you guys know that, but that's kind of scary to me. Please, G. I talked to was super nice. She too was like, "Oh my goodness, I didn't know."
She goes, "Just in the future, just give your phone number." Which is all I did that time. Doesn't that worry any of you that how are you going to enforce this if you're going to be by somebody that you turn in? So, and
the public street that's an issue have all these vehicles indeed. >> They're talked about as well in his street. So, I guess I really I don't know if it's going to be next week that you'll talk about it, but please consider how to Oh,
yeah. And as far as parking on the street, do you guys know the codes? They can be there up to 24 hours. >> Well, 24 hours. >> Yeah,
>> that's not enforcing it at all. It's just I mean it's uninforced. you were saying that about oh restricting ICE or something that you can have things that you can't enforce. So it's meaningless if all they have to do is I moved into
the I moved you know please come up with work with whatever department well the police department not to give them more work department forced these codes so we don't involve the dangerous kids running behind these vehicles turning around the
vehicles and junky streets. That's it. Thank you, Pam. We actually have four minutes. So, if there's somebody else who would like to speak, I would love to hear you. Although, as I said, next Monday night, we'll have a much longer uh time period
and much more comfortable uh a comfortable spot for everybody as well. If you'd like to come on up, please. >> I have a big voice. >> I need you in the microphone. I need you in the microphone so we can get it recorded. I just want to thank everyone
who is here who's coming out. I have Somali neighbors. I have Vietnamese neighbors. I I don't even know and I don't even care. But we have to stand together and keep
our beautiful Bloomington. And so thank you and especially young people. >> Thank you for trying to save our democracy. Got to start in our >> I would echo that. Thank you for everybody for being here. Uh, thank you for your concern for this and and I hope you folks all know we all share your
concern. Absolutely share your concern. >> We don't because you barely >> Thank you, Cody. My turn. >> The danger, Cody, when mayors start pounding the table and bring it up to a two,
the federal government then takes it to an eight. And I have talked to a dozen mayors who can tell you that exact thing that they had a council member speak out that they spoke up, a police chief in Brooklyn Park spoke up and they were overrun with ICE agents for the next
three days. This this administration will punch back times 10. And so the restraint that you're seeing from this council and from me is out of concern for our black and brown neighbors because it's not going to be you and I getting thrown into the
back of a an unmarked van. It's going to be our neighbors who are going to pay the price if we decide to escalate this. We have to be careful. We have to be thoughtful. And there needs to be some folks who are willing to talk across the aisle and try and reach a resolution.
That's what we're working toward. Again, thank you all for being here. It's greatly appreciated. Council, I look for a motion to adjurnn and head downstairs. >> The Jews that lived in Nazi Germany. >> I'll move to close meeting.
>> Second motion and a second. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. We are adjourned. We will head downstairs. Hope you folks all come back uh next week. Hope to see you then.