Good evening everyone. I'm going to call our Bloomington City Council listening session to order. It is Monday, June 1st. Thanks to everybody for being here this evening. We have a number of folks who called ahead of time and one who signed up on the fly here. Uh so, uh Jamie Anthony, did I see Jamie?
There you are. I didn't see you. Jamie Anthony and then Sally. Uh Deborah, how do you pronounce your last name? Deborah Pon. Very good. Elizabeth, I see Elizabeth there. And then Brian would like to speak also. So is there anybody else? And what's your name, please?
>> Jim. All right. All right. That puts us at six. And I know it's going to be awfully tight. So everybody gets four maybe five minutes tops, but because we want to hear from everybody and get you up. So Jamie, why don't you get us started up here. Going to ask you all to speak way into the mic and be as loud as you can. And then when you finish up,
you can take the clipboard and step to the side. And if you could sign in then so we can just keep things moving along. Oh, your name as you start and off we go. Good evening. Welcome. >> Hi. Am I right up in there? >> Very good. That's it. Exactly. >> Excellent. Hi. Good evening. I'm Jamie
Anthony. I am a resident of uh Victor's district, District 4. Um I am here to talk about police activity tonight. Um, so council members, you know that I emailed you on Thursday regarding an incident where a
Bloomington police officer called in um to the ICE line. Sorry, that's not my pen, that's your pen. um about a person who was in Bloomington police custody and the person the the federal officer
um off I don't know if it was officer Madison or not um but they looked him up and they said, "Yep, this person is someone who's eligible for deportation. So, we're going to come to the Bloomington Police Department and take over custody of this person and
then take them into our custody." That kind of goes against everything that we've heard over the last few months. So, I would love to know a little bit more about what happened. >> And here's what I've been able to find out because I did see your email and uh
did we did dig into it a bit and I don't have the complete information because I wasn't able to talk to everybody. Here's what I know though. Uh the police attempted to stop someone who then fled. >> They eventually did pull him over and arrest him as a result. The person refused to identify themselves and so
the police followed ordinary procedure like they do with everybody. They took the person into custody, did fingerprinting and in the process of trying to verify an ID, other agencies became aware of this person being in custody. And we know that that when a fingerprint goes out, it goes out
everywhere and including federal agencies as well. So that is what I understand happened. I don't know there was a direct call to anyone or there wasn't a specific endeavor to try and, you know, get ICE involved in this. This was typically what they do when somebody
won't it themselves and it just happened to end up in in federal custody. >> How does that reconcile with the report from the federal agent that said that the BPD officer called in with a potential tip?
>> I I think it was uh he may have been calling. I I don't know. Like I said, this is what I have. I don't know who he called. I don't know who he contacted directly. Um, but he was they were trying to ID the person. They were trying to figure out who this person was. >> How long is a person allowed to be in
BPD custody before they have to be transferred elsewhere or released? >> Oh, that I don't know. Not sure. We can >> do other council members know. >> We We can dig into that. We can I can get you the specifics on that one, but I don't know that for certain. How do we And I get it that I only have four minutes and that we started at
5:47. So, um I'm watching the clock, don't worry. >> So, can you tell me a little bit about the culture of the Bloomington Police Department and sort of words you might use to describe the culture these days? uh the word that I would use is what I what I see and what I hear from officers
and from the chief and it's a culture of respect >> that they treat people with respect and uh and they are uh they are they are diligent and and they do their job very well. They work to do it with respect and I hear that constantly from a lot of
different levels and and a lot of different police officers and I and I think they follow that very well. What would um a person do if they have a concern about officer conduct? What would the next step be? >> There there's a formal way to file a
complaint and um it's on the website. It's on the police website. Thank you. It's >> the city attorney. It It's on the police website. How you can file a formal complaint against an officer? >> Do you know how many of those are filed every year? >> I don't off the top of my head. I do not.
>> No. Okay. And in my final minute, I'm curious. Yes, there's an item on the consent agenda and consent agenda items generally don't have public discussion. >> Oh, that's correct. >> And that item is about signing on to anou with Henipin County Sheriff's Office. >> I would like to register my sincere
concern about BPD signing on to anou without any sort of documentation. I understand it's about human trafficking and that that is a concept that we try and keep hush hush and that we don't want to inflame things. Um, but I would just like to register my deep concern
about BPD signing on with another law enforcement agency without any kind of public documentation. >> I appreciate that and I do want to clarify this isn't being hush hush. This is probably some confidentiality that needs to be maintained to do their job correctly.
>> I can appreciate that. But even saying that it is confidential would go a long way as opposed to just the lack of information. >> Very good. I appreciate that. >> I recognize my time. I will sign on the sheet. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. I appreciate what all of you are doing. >> Thank you as well. Thanks for being here
again this week. Sally >> um council member um Victor Rivas said at the city council meeting on May 18th that he changed his mind after considering all the facts. I spoke with council member Rivas before the meeting
and he said that I had it wrong when I said the city could not opt out. I did not have it wrong. The city can't opt out of the shared agreement. I asked the city manager specifically whether the city can opt out and specifically
can they opt out to use it for winter hockey. The city manager did not reply and that's my question tonight for the council. If the city wanted to use the Smith Park park parking lot for winter hockey, can it opt out of the shared agreement?
>> I'm sorry, repeat the question again because that doesn't make logical sense to me, Sally, but go ahead, please. >> Um, so I want to know if the city can opt out of the shared agreement. The way I read it, it can't. It there's no the
city going, "Oh, we'd like to use the parking lot for winter hockey." And so we want to discontinue this shared agreement. We don't want to continue it anymore. Um so my question whether the city can opt out specifically opt out to
use the parking lot for winter hockey. >> I I will have to we'll look into that and I'll have our attorneys take a look. I I don't know it off the top of my head. Uh it's kind of a an an interesting speculation, but we'll we'll take a look and we'll get an answer to you. And to that I say, you voted last
week and I sent everyone the question concerned that we couldn't opt out. That reading that shared agreement we couldn't opt out and yet you voted. Everyone voted and nobody here wants to. >> Your specific question is whether or not we could opt out to put in an ice rink. And I have no idea what the answer would
be. >> Can we opt out in general? >> The way >> do you believe we can opt out of that agreement? >> The the the agreement there there are a couple of different agreements and the shared agreement. the agreement that you're talking about, if you recall, and and I mentioned this in the in the council minute, we could have opted out,
but then it takes the agreement on both sides. So, I mean, it's not an opt out. It's basically an agreement on both sides to exit the the agreement, >> right? We can't opt out. We can't decide, you know, we'd like to use our Smith Park differently. We don't need that many parking spaces. We would like
more green space. We do not have the option to opt out. What? I will I will get an answer to your question, Sally. Even though I don't quite understand it, I will get an answer to your question. >> Will the previous agreements allowed opting out? Like after the 10-year term
was up, you >> Again, I will I will have the attorneys I will have the attorneys get you language on that. >> As I understand it, Mr. Mayor, opting out was just a one-sided function. That does not mean that it can't be either dismissed or executed differently or
modified or amended or any of the other many things that we could do. It's just that we can't unilaterally say go f yourself. That's what it means. And I don't that's okay. I think that's why we're fine with it because we wouldn't want to do that anyway. >> More specific. It says that they have to have reached for us to terminate the
agreement >> unilaterally. uni to unilaterally dismiss the agreement, they have to do something bad. That's correct. But but any any agreement of two parties can be renegotiated between the two parties and that is all on the table for us.
>> Okay, council member. Thanks. Uh please check back in your email because I'm seeing an email sent to you on May 20th that has the complete Darl Al Farooq use agreement and uh specifically it's broken out by termination. So the city manager did indeed respond to you. the term. Yeah, he didn't say he didn't
answer the question. He sent the agreement and the agreement says that it can be terminated if there is a breach and then if there is a breach, the termination means they you guys can't uphold the conditional use permit. The conditional use permit requires so many
parking spaces. If they breach and we terminate, they don't have to have those parking spaces. We're already it's already injurous. Their parking is already injurous to our neighborhood. And that termination means they do not have to have those parking spaces. They
can fill up our neighborhood more than they already do. That's >> Sally, we're at time now, but thank you much. We've heard you we've heard your conversations before, but we appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That's totally inappropriate. >> Yes, council member. Council member, >> thank you. >> And the and the face that you're giving
me right now. Totally inappropriate, >> Deborah. Hi, >> good evening and welcome. >> Good evening. Thank you. Um, I know I only have four minutes, so let me look at the time. Thank you for inviting residents to listen. And I am Deborah. My husband Mark and I um live in
District 2 with Sean. Um, and we've lived here 31 years and raised our daughter here. We love our city. We really appreciate all the work you do. I'm here tonight to bring some information um from on the ground observations about the fiber optic installation working in Bloomington. And
there are three primary concerns we have. And I kind of pulled my neighborhood a little bit to get their input as well. I think the overarching theme here is respect. Um it feels like there's been a lack of respect for our neighborhood. Evidence includes a fight
on someone's lawn um between two of the contractors. not with any resident um kind of rolling around and I don't know what the disagreement was. There was some joy riding, racing up the streets with little children nearby and insufficient communication about really
um what's going to happen um particularly with long periods where there's holes dug and then don't see them for a long time. Um we never know when there's going to show up, what they're going to be doing next. Sometimes there's eight or more workers, sometimes it's just two guys digging some holes. We do respect their hard
work and we appreciate high-speed Wi-Fi. It's an asset if you can pay for it. But there is a professional way about going about things. And three areas for improvement is what we suggest. Communication and information, safety, and response to damages. The ITG
contractors began work in our area the first week of May. Um they did hang a doororknob flyer with a number that you could call. I and neighbors have phoned. it goes to a voicemail and you kind of don't hear anything back. Um I have left an automated message a possible remedy
for the city because I know it's not your responsibility but um maybe if you could provide that URL that I just got from Priyanka. Thank you today about fiber optic installation process would have maybe really helped. So if they put that on their doororknob flyer we could
have just gone in and you know answered some of our own questions. Um the second is safety. Unlike T-Mobile, which did their installation about a year ago, this ITG work has been much more invasive where they're up, you know, 10 15 feet almost in people's yards, they
dig very, very deep below gas lines and they're exposed and they're exposed for weeks. You can just go up and peek in and see the pipe and see holes and see the gas line right there. Um, so injury, loss of power, which happened in our neighborhood, and inadvertent gas line
damage is all possible. I know they're doing their best, but you know, um, things have happened. They do have cones, but sometimes they're to the side of the hole. Um, and really anyone can walk through a yard, have kids playing,
balls go down in the holes, people twist ankles, that kind of stuff. So, a light cone really isn't a preventive aspect. Maybe not sufficient. Um, power was down. and it was cut in our neighborhood right in the middle of a workday and I and other women and men came running out
trying to figure out what was going on. Um, it really is very disruptive. I know it wasn't intentional and they say, "Oh, the utility markers didn't mark correctly, but there were flags and markers everywhere and I was there watching. Everything was marked. Um, but I understand, you know, you kind of
sometimes need to fingerpoint and pass the buck." Um anyway, it might have been an honest mistake, but it was a very difficult day. A possible remedy would be to require them to have maybe a better way of covering the holes. Um putting a co a cone upside down and then
another one and tape to it. It would be harder to move if it was stuck in the hole. And finally, the issue of damages. um one neighbor with a sprinkler. She had several sprinkler heads that were damaged when T-Mobile came through and now she's had others just this weekend
and she still doesn't have remedy from the p past year damage. Um they dig up a lot of big holes and then they just sort of plop the grass that came up with some sod back on. Of course, it dies. Um they throw some seeds on and nothing sprouts
because it's just a few seeds on damaged lawns. So, I thought perhaps the contractor's fur should come through with actual living sod and follow up on the holes. Um, maybe within a week or two before everything dries up, then it's up to the homeowner to water. In
addition, claim should be addressed with at least one month. I think another remedy could be the city takes action, you know, something even if there's a warning or something to the contractors, you know, they they've gone through the channels, it hasn't happened, please take care of this. So, thank you for
listening. Um, I am here just to bring information to you because we're on the ground. >> And Deborah, I don't disagree with anything you've said because we've heard it for the last two years. >> Oh, the last two summers. We've heard of we've heard variations of this for the last two summers. Okay. >> Uh, please call city hall
>> because uh we we do we have a plan in place. We we've got we've had the processes in place for a couple of years where we go out and we try and hold the contractors accountable. They're working in the rightway, so they have the right to do that, but they have to follow some rules and regulations. And I know that over the past couple of summers, we've
uh uninvited a couple of contractors from working in the city of Bloomington because of their shoddy workmanship. So, okay, please let us know and uh our our our crews will get out there. So, we'll >> Okay, I'll let my neighbors know. >> Good. Please do. Thank you. Elizabeth,
>> uh Deborah, did we get you to sign in? Could you sign in, please? Right up here in the the >> Okay. Sounds good. >> Okay. Hi, my name is Elizabeth and I am going to fly through this because
there's a lot of people behind me that need to talk tonight. Okay. So, I'm here to talk about Bloomington Parks. Um, on page one, you will see just an overview. I got this a lot of this from the city website, so you will probably be familiar with it. Um, the thing to
highlight on page one is that over 99% of the city is within a half mile from a park or conservation area. Um, this of course was before Creekide was demolished. Page two, um, is a map of all of the Bloomington parks and open
space. Um, it just kind of goes over who has jurisdiction over this. Um, the thing to take away from this is that the city-owned parks are zoned as residential. Number three, um the guiding decisions. So, who gets to determine what happens
to Bloomingtonowned parks? Uh we have things some safeguards in a in place. Um we have site plan reviews that are uh reviewed by the planning commission and city council. We have a park system master plan. That's kind of just a guiding thing. It's not really legally
binding. And then we have some zoning restrictions. Um it does have some limitations and loopholes. We'll go over that. The problem is is all of these three safeguards have arbitrary guidelines and they can ultimately fail the parks and the residents that use
them. We will use Creekide as an example which brings us to page four. Um so let's see how this played out. Creekide was zoned as residential one. The city um defines residential for to um zoning
for residential uses and then compatible institutional uses and then also to minimize the negative impacts from incompatible land uses. So compatible is language that here is arbitrary. It depends on who's reading it, what they
want to use it for. Um, and then even I would say in Creekide that zoning there are secondary safeguards like institutional use zoning ordinances that were supposed to protect Creek Side additionally and um that safety net also
failed. Um, page five. Um, so this is really interesting because the way that the community center was able to be built is we took residential parkland and residential land that was actually intended for residential use eventually.
That was noted. Um, and then we used a PD overlay to use residentially intended land and park land to come together for a building that is neither residential or parks and open space. So, that's a
failure as far as protecting parks. I'm not saying the project was a failure. Protecting parks, just so we're clear. Um, let's see, where did I page six? Um, so the the neighborhood
and surrounding area was not protected. Again, the city did not assess the environmental um impact. I know you all saw environmental impact studies. I know you all trust the staff that you hired to do that. I'm here telling you, promising you I can prove that there are
huge holes that were missed and when those were missed, the resident were um no one was held accountable and um there was no one to advocate for us residents. Let's fly to page seven, which we don't need to spend a lot of time on, but this
is just um other ways the city could not use parkland, but it doesn't apply to Creekide. Number eight, I did a ton of research on this and if any of you would like more information on it, um, but basically it compares Bloomington to our surrounding neighboring suburbs and we
came in last place for how our park land is protected. Um, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka, Edina, and Minneapolis are just miles ahead of us as far as protecting their parkland. I would love to share this information with you if you are interested. Page nine. Let's get
the conversation starty started. So all of you that all of you council mayor that live in Bloomington, you chose your homes because they were within a half mile or closer a lot of you to green space. So where is the closest city operated park or green space to your home? How much further away is the next
one? Um what if that were transformed? How would it affect your quality of life, your neighborhood, your home value? I have answers to all of those because that all happened to me and none none of them are good. And I think if you went out into the neighborhood, um I know I know if you went out into the
neighborhood and you ask residents these same questions, you would have similar feedback to what I'm I would tell you. Um, and then I'm going to turn over to The reason I know that you would get these answers is because I have dug deep, deep, deep, deep into the archives
of what Bloomington has done to research what residents value. They value outdoor green space. They value the accessibility and this 48% equity. No matter what neighborhood you live in, no matter if you can walk or drive,
Bloomington residents value that a park is close to them and accessible. Now, I did I'm almost done. I promise I did not come here to complain. That brings me to my last piece of paper. Possible object objectives. Reszone the park land to strengthen the protection. Another
option is adopt a no net less park uh loss of parks ordinance. So, if you take away green space, you're required to replace it. The last thing is um seek a charter amendment for permanent protection. Um so, I'm actually I'm actually asking for action on this. This
is not controversial topic. This is not a partisan issue. There is no reason that this should not be pursued for the safety of our Bloomington parks. So, who wants more information and who's going to do it? >> Uh, Elizabeth, uh, we'd love to continue
the conversation. We're six minutes now. Yes. So, I appreciate all of this and, uh, staff will be in contact. Okay. Brian, >> I'm a resident who lives at 9911 Newton Avenue. So far, here's an update on the damage
that has been done to my home already. I have $42,000 plus of foundation damage, new foundation damage done by the vibrations of this construction. And that is proven by one of the top foundation companies
in the Twin Cities. Uh some of the other other things uh done are uh my sidewalk has separated from my from my steps by about an inch and a half so far. The land is literally sinking around my home.
I have vertical cracks in my vaulted ceilings in my home that reach all the way to the roof. One of the cracks expands and and contracts with the the the temperature. Uh some of the plaster is now falling off my ceilings. Now,
this is on a beat up 13year-old home. Um, my right the right side of my front entry door is now one half inch lower than the left side. The question is, will I even be able to close my front door after the new destruction, which
hasn't even started in front of my house. Okay. My home is literally sinking to the right. My retaining wall in front of my house has collapsed from the vibrations. My garage floor of my 13-year-old home,
which wasn't cracked before, is now got zigzag cracks going all the way to the back wall. Uh my driveway is sinking probably so far an inch and a half and it is cracking now. Um and you you
and you haven't even started the construction directly across the street from me. I would like to challenge you or invite you to come and see the damage that you are wreaking on the on the Newton Avenue
residence. I'd like to invite everybody here to come. You can come and look at my house and you can probably look at Miss Camron's house of which I totally agree with her. Uh and and and see the incredible destruction you have done. I have now been told by realtors that my
house is worth exactly zero. It cannot be sold in its present condition until all the repairs are completed. Well, that's not going to happen. Um, so please come and see for yourself what you've done to us. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. Thanks for I mean those are serious allegations. I appreciate you bringing those forward and uh staff will be getting back to you. Thank you. Jim Brian, could you sign in, please? Thank you. >> Good evening, Jim. I missed your last
name when you said it out there. >> Bowman, B O M. >> Thank you, Jim. Go ahead. and I'm here to talk about traffic in Bloomington, primarily 106 Street
between Xerxes and Lindale. This is the new Bloomington Freeway. I invite everybody to come and sit there between 4:30 and 5:30 and watch the traffic. There is hardly anybody that drives a
speed limit. We had stop signs put in at one point. One person complained and they were taken out after two weeks. 106th Street was never to be a thoroughare.
When the bridge went in over nine mile, no truck traffic was allowed and any trucks had to go to a residence. Period. Maintain 30 m an hour. Bloomington denies that that ever existed because
they turned the road over to Henipin County. You need to look back into that. This needs to be changed. These trucks are driving through at 50 miles an hour with a semi and you can't get cops out there to
ticket them because you got two officers to take care of the traffic. Last Friday night, we had a major accident. Two people died
and nobody was speeding. It's that stupid turn lane. You got took a four lane road, made it two lanes with a turn lane in the center. People are passing in it.
It's irresponsible. This needs to change. This is a second accident in a week and a half. There one was on Thomas. Car went through the stop sign, t-boned the car. This one, a Metro
Mobility collided with a motorcycle, drug it up on the neighbor's yard. Two people were laying there dead. This is ridiculous.
And Bloomington doesn't seem to care. I drive that road every day. If I'm doing 30 miles an hour, I got people passing me. They use a turn lane to pass. You get up by the school during
school time, it's 25 20 miles an hour. The school buses aren't even slowing down. They go by 35 miles an hour. They speed so they can get down to the freeway to go to Burnsville.
And I have only seen a police car up there tra monitoring the traffic once in the last nine months and I go through there at 7:30 to 7:40 every morning. Jim, we're at time. I
don't mean to cut you off. We're at time here. What I'm going to do is I'll tell you, well, I'm going to talk to Chief Hodgeges about upping the the enforcement there because no, we shouldn't have semis at 50 m hour. We shouldn't have school buses speeding in that area either. Absolutely not. And
I'm also going to ask our traffic folks, our uh our environmental uh folks to to get out there and see what could be done. You said there was a stop sign there for a while. Perhaps it needs >> It was on Thomasson 106 and that was >> like 30 35 years ago.
one guy. Oh, I got to sleep during the day because I work at night. Got it taken out. It >> uh it predates all of us. So, we'll we'll take a look back into that and we'll um but I I appreciate I'm going to cut you out, Jim. We got to get back. We got to get downstairs for our meeting,
but I appreciate you coming in. So, >> if you can do it on 84th Street with stop signs, you can do it on 106 Street. >> Sounds good. >> Anybody else want to speak about it? >> Uh Jim, we've got to we've got to get downstairs. I've got to I've got to adjourn this meeting. I would ask that you sign in so we have your contact
information and we can get a hold of you. Thank you council. We are over time here. I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion and a second to adjurnn. All in favor, please signify by saying I. Opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you everybody for being
in coming in tonight. Uh I appreciate everybody here. Thanks.