The City of Falcon Heights regular meeting of the City Council on Wednesday, 01/28/2026. We'll call this meeting to order at 07:04PM. Roll call Gustafsson here, May here, Bogan here, Melke, Lawson sorry, Flossenburg here, Linehan here, pretty here, Next would be approval of tonight's agenda, any changes to tonight's agenda? We want to amend the agenda. I think we want to amend the agenda so we can include a discussion on. Okay, we'll add Again this is due tomorrow.
Add policy item number three, discussion on joining, an amicus curie brief, in support of state of Minnesota and city of Minneapolis, Saint Paul, preliminary injunction from suburban cities for, against the federal government regarding ICE. As kind of a way to put it briefly without having formal language. Add that to three as policy items. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Discussion? Okay.
Aye. Okay. We've added that. Approve the agenda as, as amended. So moved. So moved by Melkie. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign motion carries five-zero. Tonight we have a presentation to bring us out on a cold night to hear from the State Fair Task Force Their final report to the City Council and Mona will, well actually I'm gonna go ahead Jack. Yeah. Just a quick note, 9 North, if we could switch the input,
for, the presentation for the podium. So, but while while that's waiting, so tonight, State Fair Task Force members are here to present, the State Fair Task Force final report. Good evening. Yep. We made it to the end. I wanted to thank the people who worked really hard. Georgiana, Paula, Jack, Tom Brie, because we had three Toms, two Tom Bs nonetheless, Risa and Jennifer, Paulus, because we had two Jennifers. And those are who are here tonight. It was a long journey, and, but basically, we've convened in 2024,
and we met monthly. We were charged to improve the quality of life and, during the fair. And after this summer, I really think we succeeded with that. We focused on safety safety, parking, traffic, equity, and neighbor relations. Our task force was extended until 2025. We actually were extended into 2026 for one last meeting. Safety and parking went hand in hand, as we all know. We do an annual we did an annual survey that could be transferred year to
year. So therefore, we have the same results that can be used every year. It tracks safety, traffic, parking, and overall experience. The 2025 results, as you can see, show really a significant improvement over 2024. We expanded resident only parking and permit zones. We improved signage, maps, and parking clarity citywide. We restricted parking on select streets for safety and access. That included putting signage up in front of stop signs and the alleys so that
people could get out, making the, streets where the alleys exit the North South Streets in North Home, only one side of the street parking. And it made really a big difference for those involved. We implemented pedicare registration and doubled parking fines. This was all done over the course of our, stay. Then we implemented pay by mobile parking program, which you all know about. We, as I said about North Home, but we also implemented the parking in the majority of the streets in North Home
and Northeast Quadrant. Residents received one free permit and could apply for a second one. And, by request, no questions asked, parking ambassadors hired to assist visitors and support enforcement. It was great to have those additional people on the ground. The goals were safer streets and cost recovery. So what how did we do? We had a $49,000 net surplus after covering program expenses costs.
Surplus was transferred to the general fund. It allowed a 2% reduction in the twenty twenty six property tax levy. Demonstrates effective non tax revenue source. Residents reported quieter streets and less traffic in the neighborhoods. So what did the residents think? 89% felt safer in their neighborhood, plus 25% from prior years. 72% said traffic was less of a problem than previous years. You could actually walk in your streets. It was wonderful.
Reported police visibility and parking enforcement more than doubled. Residents cited ambassadors and parking programs as key improvements. What worked well? Karma calmer, safer neighborhood streets, strong coordination with Saint Anthony Police Department, parking ambassadors provided visible, helpful presence, resident permits, preserved neighborhood convenience. So we identified some improvements for 2026. We need clearer, more visible signage with price and hours, improve communications on costs,
revenue, and goals, explore pedestrian safety improvements at key crossings. Snelling really needs it. Continued traffic, tracking noise, and resident concerns. We got a lot of complaints about airplanes, and we had to tell them that we really can't control airplanes. Final recommendations. Continue the program parking continue the pay by mobile parking with strategic refinements, advanced administrative citation process for parking violations to be pursued, administrative leave rather than criminally,
allowing parking ambassadors to write citations and freeing police officers to focus on safety, finalize commercial commercial parking lot licenses licensing ordinance and approve, codify state fair rules and regulations, transition task force to an as needed advisory group. And that's it. And, there's a lot more details in our report. So Thanks, Warren. I thought that the report was really good. I liked all of the information, how you laid it out and how you presented it.
And, and it really highlighted the wonderful work that, this community group put together these last two years. Really a group effort. It was amazing group effort. You guys did great and, really, came through for the city on multiple levels. And the twenty twenty five fair experience, it was fantastic. It was it was safe, it was calm, it was everything that I think you would hope to to accomplish when you said how does our health revolve, you know, our relation with the city and the state fair and all of the people.
We still remained welcoming to people here. We did all of that as a city, and your leadership, amongst the, what, 12 folks? Yeah. But it wasn't really a leadership. It was more that we worked together. That it was a yeah. A real group effort that was spectacular. It was a group effort, everyone, and we had the support of so many people in the community. For every negative person, we had at least two or three people cheering us on. Good. Yeah. It was it was great. I wanna thank you for that. Open up to counsel for questions or comments
too. I wish Tom Baldwin was here. Yeah. I did the task force with addressing just long term problems that our city has had with many issues around the fair and, task force. You know I love you guys. Thanks, Mona. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank thank you very much. As a North Home resident, and and, Georgia has one. Also, I can very clearly say that that basically second everything that you put up there is is completely true. The fair was a much better experience. It was much safer. Much quieter. And you're better our counters too.
Yes. It's like I thought they're counting cars. Well thank you. Thank you, State Fair Task Force and, looking forward to when we call upon the when the need arises that you again will rise to the occasion and and and help the city out so thank you so much for that and thank you Jack and the staff liaison for Paul as council liaison to make it make it work and for city staff to to support those efforts and make it happen and our ambassadors.
The whole thing it was great. Thank you. Yes. Good job. Alright. Mayor, council Yes. With that, so just direction either, you know, we could it doesn't have to be tonight, but at some point, if you'd wanna formally adopt the report, I mean, if you wanna workshop it or do other stuff, that is fine too, but just gives us that direction. There are some There are some deliverables in there. Those are signed off by me. That gives you concern of, like, you know, a lot of those actually came kind of on my initial draft just to some of those time frames and stuff.
So we know that they're kind of aggressive. Some of that is getting kind of this administrative citation process, working with the attorney's office to figure out what we can do. Some of it might, you know, that we may run into some challenges, but it gives us a little bit of a playbook on how to like, what to do next. There aren't any official other commitments, I would say, other than kinda giving us direction there. And if the council wanted to adopt a, like, a next phase of the task force or a standing committee, that would have to be a future motion as well. We'd have to build that out over time. But so right now you want a motion to adopt the report?
At some point we will At some point can can we I'll move. Because it does have actionable items that that would require help, that that they're all good to look at, we're fine that way in terms of everybody agrees that those are realistic deadlines that have to be met, staff? Yeah. Yes. Correct. The the deadlines and the deliverables, we're fine with, you know, I know I kinda see it a lot of times too. It's, you know, sometimes sometimes you put these out there, we know that some of it is gonna be aggressive and that we you know, ebbs and flows. Some stuff we could get done in a week,
you know, reaching out to the city attorney's office. We have that by March. We can do that when we have time. You know, much before then, but some of it is what we're gonna do anyways. So a lot a lot of that's fine, I would say, in that regard. So it's up to you though. It doesn't have to be tonight. So if you wanted to bring this for another time, but if it's gonna be a consent item in a couple weeks. If it'll be consent in two weeks, let's see. Or just consent right now. I mean, we're just adopting the report as is. Yep. We're we're accepting the report. Yes.
And goals goals are goals, so we're not and you helped us with the timeline. And So So So Yep. So Right. Contrary to, Jack's characterization, I don't see this as a requirement. I think the the this is a report as to what should be done and accepting the report is is we're just accepting that. Yeah let's accept this report. There we go. Georgiana motion. Georgiana made a motion to accept the report. Further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of accepting the State Fair Task Force report to the council signify by saying aye.
Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five-zero. Thank you very much and thanks for catching that detail so that we can continue moving forward. Okay, next. The, we've got approval of minutes from our 12/22/2025 City Council special meeting minutes, the 01/07/2026 City Council special workshop minute meeting minutes, and the 01/14/2026 City Council regular meeting minutes. Any changes to those minutes that have they been communicated to staff for typos,
that type of thing I assume? Do I hear a motion to, approve the minutes? So moved. So moved by Wassenberg. Further discussion? Hearing none, approval of the minutes December 2225, 01/07/1926, and January 1426. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five-zero. We don't have any public hearings tonight. We have a consent agenda that's a little shorter. We have our general disbursements through January payroll through January 15 wire payments through January
15 approval of Resolution 2,607, accepting a donation from the Falcon Heights Lauderdale Lions Club three, approval of Resolution 2,608, appointing Mark Mioska Mioska to the Planning Commission four, approval of Resolution 2,609, appointing Erica Bieland to the Environment Commission five, approval of Resolution 2,610, appointing Naomi Loudheinrich to the Parks and Recreation Commission and six,
approval of Resolution 2,611, declaring the Public Works F250 as surplus to sell at the Purple Wave auction and seven, approval of City of Falcon Heights 2026 Pay equity report submission. I'll move the consent agenda. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five-zero. That'll move us down to policy items which is probably why everybody would like to be here. We have, first up consideration of Resolution 20 six-twelve affirming community values and stewardship of community resources
amidst immigration enforcement operations. Those that tuned in were here our previous workshop heard a lot of discussion on this one. I'll turn this over to Administrator Linehan to gonna summarize and then we'll we'll proceed with council, council input. Thank you, mayor and council. So a little bit kind of on the background at our January 14 meeting, we reviewed some of our, current policies and practices, and kind of our our past practice of not, you know, not being involved in immigration or enforcement.
But as this is continuing to be a day by day evolving issue, we continue to work on this. And so at that meeting, the direction, was to bring forward a resolution and an ordinance. So knowing the resolution, could potentially be adopted that night, the ordinance would require our ten day posting by law. So we worked at the city attorney's office, kinda used some of the language from other cities, but also our own values, our own history, brought together a resolution that the council workshop tonight. I have it up on the screen. I also have additional copies where we can kinda talk about some of our track
changes that we made, during that workshop. This this resolution again firms our values, lays out the history, gives direction. It feeds into, which would be the second part, which would be an ordinance, which has more enforcement ability, for the city. So the ordinance is the secondary part that would not be for consideration tonight, but we would essentially ask for the council to consider resolution twenty six twelve as amended. Okay. Council discussion? I think that you summed it up well. What we, are doing with this, resolution is to affirm what,
what our community values and our city action steps have, taken regarding the recent, immigration enforcement and how to better be responsible about how that's going to impact, our city resources and what we do. Our resolution highlights in kind of chronological order to an extent we're available, how to articulate what our values are. And our values are that we're a community, that we're committed to serving all residents and visitors with dignity, respect, and fairness, and fostering a safe,
welcoming, and inclusive community. So that's that's where we're at there. And, as we note that in, 2023, The U. S. Census Bureau identifies approximately 17.6% of Falcon Heights residents, the resident population is considered foreign born. So immigration has played a large role in who we are as a community, who we are as people, and we all know that we we respect each other as individuals and we try to work together in a safe factoring way.
The we noticed in August 2020, we had an amendment to the City Administrative Manual, concerning community and enforcement of immigration laws, setting in place that we do not participate with ICE immigration unless we're following a court order or a rule of law there that way. February, we reviewed our existing policies to immigration enforcement, and on February 10 year we issued a public statement affirming the commitment to the
safety and well-being of all community members. In May, we adopted, or the council adopted, May '25, a goal setting process report. And the goals of that report is to continue to explore options to enhance our community with, for the purpose of reducing polarization locally through cultivating a caring community and strengthening our connections. The December 5, we issued a support following the federal government attempt to end special privileges for our Somali and Karen residents.
We issued a statement of support for that. January 12 we recognized the death of Renee Goode at the hand of federal agents on January 6. We unfortunately had to issue another statement on last week on the twenty sixth, earlier this week, as they, after they had killed Alex Preedy. The, and we have had our resources for assistance and help published in our newsletter and on our website so that people dealing with the immigration
enforcement problems that are that are happening had a resource. We've discussed, and invited public engagement on how to approach our potential use of our city property for federal immigration enforcement staging, our parks, our streets, and all of those. We've, we value our partnerships with our law enforcement partners, our legitimate ones that that we've cultivated relationships with for decades, and we will continue to do so. And we want to restore public trust in our
honest law enforcement, partners and the work that they do. And we're we're also seeking to reduce community fear and confusion and restart that community trust in the community and so that we can all feel as neighbors again to participate. So that's our resolution. We're resolved to as we pointed out to affirm that we do not participate or carry out civil immigration enforcement. We don't operate its programs or services for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration law.
Two, we're committed to stewarding the resources for the benefit of the public as a whole in accordance with state public purpose expenditures law. We're clearly stating that we do not support the use. That that's the edit here that I probably need the best remember back. Yep. City owned property including but not limited to parks, buildings, parking lots, facilities, personnel, or resources may not be used for the purpose of mobilizing, staging, preparing, or or deploying vehicles,
equipment, materials, or personnel for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration law. And we also note that I think it's clear there that's the council directs that, but the five on our edits nothing, there let's see. Council is directing staff to continue reviewing existing policies and ordinances related to the use of city resources to return with any recommended updates and to guide opportunities for further community engagement. This issue will not go away.
We will be on top of it is what we are saying. We have, once we pass this resolution work, we do have an ordinance, that that's been proposed that outlines exactly how we can meet those goals. That will be published if if the council agrees tonight that, that ordinance will be published on our website made all of the legal spots to make it up. It'll be up for more than ten days, and we'll be looking at that at our first meeting in February to, to adopt. And we'll be seeking public comment on that during during the time that it's that
it's up and going. So we want to make certain to clear clearly state we are moving as a city within our authority as best as we possibly can and, that's our purpose and our goal. Council? Mr. Mayor the one other thing I wanted to add to your summary is that the language of this seems a little stilted in some ways possibly. The language of it is also designed to support the ordinance that we are going to be considering and wanting to adopt. So the idea is to establish the backdrop,
the the the ability for the city to adopt the ordinance and therefore have it be enforceable, and not overturned when challenged. So that's the the reason for the long, history, for some of the language about what we've done in the past and why we need to do it. Thank you for succinctly stating that. Council members, further comment? I look at this as one step that our city is doing. I think there's we're gonna be talking about another one here in a little bit, and there's still more that, we can be that will come before us or that we need to be bringing forward to be
doing in this time of ice. I don't see it decreasing. As at Whitville yesterday, it was at the same rate and got at least six calls. Text today from rapid response was ice out in our neighboring communities, responded to. Possible ice activity suspected at Curtis Field last night. I was out there with a wet head, and jammies in, and just throw in my coat and went and checked, and luckily there was nothing happening. Yeah. So it's real. It's happening and we need to be doing more. So, mister mayor, I offer, a move acceptance of the resolution as amended.
Okay. I'll second that. Okay. So moved by Morgan, second by by me to, pass the resolution as amended. Further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of resolution signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five-zero. The, do we need to state that we're setting up the debt, the draft, ordinance up on that we reviewed it and works, that that will be happening as a next step. The council directs that,
that the council would direct the publishing of the proposed ordinance for, in order so that we can take it up on, our first meeting in, February. That would be that would be helpful to have that official direction from the council. So if the council does want kind of us to publish that, to move forward with this ordinance, kinda going through that process, that's helpful. Another area you can recommend is, you know, again, certain ordinances, certain chapter require public hearings. This one does not require it. We have elected to do public hearings from time to time.
If the council seeks feedback on it, that would be helpful. So that could be another direction item that that helps us prepare for it too. So we could bring it as a policy item or we could bring it as a public hearing item up to the council discretion on how how to handle that, or you could allow comment. There's a lot of Allow comments. That just helps helps direct us in what to expect and plan for and how to frame it. If we Leaning towards pub policy item with time for questions. Yeah. Not well, I mean, I I do not have question Comments. Or comments. Yes. Or public comment.
Yes. So a public hearing. Yeah. Is there a difference between that and a public hearing? Yeah. Somewhat. So the public hearing, you know, would be kind of the official for if it's a it would follow our process for a public hearing. If you do a chance for public comment, you could limit it to a minute. You know, you could go you could change our public hearing process if you wanted to. You could The difference is Other than that, it would be it would be how you do it. Yeah. And it'd be how we notice it. Is that do we notice this public hearing or we notice this as a policy item? Again, it's not statutorily required.
Certain ordinances like changes to zoning code and others require it. This one would not, but it does it just helps us frame how we should do that. So I just propose that. I agree, Paula. We have public comment for sure. Yeah. I think we should do public comment but I don't think we need to set up as a public I don't think we need to do with comments. Yes. Policy item with, with public comment provided for and encouraged rather than us agreeing to, like, we because you can do that with policy if we Yeah.
But if we notice it ahead of time that it's going to be that way, that would be good. That's helpful. Okay. Need a vote? Before we do that, like, this is a question for our counsel. I think, like, how would we specifically pursue that conversation with the police department that you were suggesting? I think that would be something that you'd work with, so the administrator let him to Okay. Work out. So I'm comfortable with moving ahead with this ordinance if we, in addition, have that conversation. Yeah. You know, and I I met with, again with the city manager,
Charlie Hunker, who's my, I don't know, my position over in Saint Anthony, and also the chief last week, kinda talked through the ordinance. I think, you know, again engagement with the police department, especially if we are proposing changes to operations or how they do stuff, you know, that that unilateral, like we're gonna tell you what to do has never been our goal. And I think and it's no one's goal for this. So I do agree that maybe if there are kind of okay having these conversations and seeing, might be a good thing that, you know, potentially we do small group meetings with, you know, the chief and a couple officers.
Potentially we could do more community engagement sessions right now. I know Saint Anthony, they're organizing from their city side community listening sessions and, like, community conversations. So they're doing very informal, you know, sit around in a circle and talk about your concerns, to kinda gather community input. So that's part of their community engagement strategy. I know every city is kinda doing different stuff right now, and we're all trying to we're all trying to help and learn from each other, kind of as this is unprecedented for everybody, the public, also cities too, as we try to figure out this new environment.
So that's a little bit of how how you could frame it or do it. Right. So would that community conversation, include police present? I don't know if Saint Anthony's is going to, but it could. And that could be we could extend that invite to them and see. Okay. Okay. I I wanna be, transparent in that I know people are going to want to be able to get together and drill the chief on their desires and their wishes and what they want to have seen.
And I want to express that I don't think that's appropriate. I don't think that's the proper way, for elected officials to operate. We have a contract with them. If there is a problem with the way that our contracted entities behave, we are the ones that are responsive to the people. And so the questions, the concerns need to come to us, and it is not the chief is a public official, but it is not the place for the public to necessarily be,
to be directly directly, of course, they're accountable, but directly responsive to these types of things. So I don't wanna put the the chief on a hot seat. I don't think that's appropriate. I just wanna be careful about how we perform and do this step. I take your point. And I'm not suggesting that. And I wasn't necessarily addressing you. I was really addressing. I think there's gonna be a lot of people that we're frustrated. There's there's nothing that we feel like we can do, that we wanna do something. And, there's gonna be people that wanna do more than we can do.
I agree. So managing expectations, which you pointed out before. I know one thing the city council of St. Anthony did was release a statement about ICE. Is that something they released recently? And then, they also are holding listening sessions to bring people together and give them a chance to talk. So they were holding listening offering to they are holding listening sessions at four different times for the residents. Yes. I was trying to address specifically my concern with the ordinance that we have some
kind of clarity of what the police's role are? Mhmm. And how would we go about getting that clarity? Maybe the suggestion is is if there's a specific question, and I I hate that, you know, this sounds so protective, but, you you know, maybe the the thing is is if we have something like that, maybe the question specifically a written question and see if the mayor see if the chief can respond in a written manner. Gives everybody an opportunity not to not to get a gotcha, but to, respond. And, Jack, we can look at I think Saint Anthony did do, like a little q and a that they posted on their website with questions for
the chief. I didn't see I did not see questions. There is something like that. And if there isn't, we could do that that way because we know what a lot of questions are. Yeah. We could handle it that way. Yeah. That's a good Or if if that exists, we could, connect to it in our in the newsletter. And if it doesn't, work to create one. Yep. Yeah. We may want to link in our next, newsletter if we haven't already. I don't think we have, to the policies and procedures of the Saint Anthony Police Department, which are publicly available, and they're they're fairly clear on public assembly and things like that. Yep. I think that we have do we have that on our website?
Or they have it on their website? I think I can't remember where I where I read it. So many websites right now. But it just felt like there was one, and if there wasn't, there would be a pretty easy one because we had some questions that were sent to Chief Speaksa to answer. We could work with him and turn some of that into answers on it. So I mean, it's it's four or five questions really is what many of us have. Like Right. Yeah. Yeah. And just to clarify, again, just take their policy 415 and just 413. Thank you. Make that and answer some of it. Yeah. I do I do appreciate their transparency in providing that policy.
It is on page 264. 97. So, you know, making it easy for, residents to access that information too might be helpful. Yeah. Well, that could be a way to handle it. It really is. And so for those of the the the that didn't hear this conversation before, the Saint Anthony Village Police Department has their entire policy manual online available for the public. This is incredibly unusual for a public, police department to do, and so we have to give them kudos for doing so. And their immigration violation section is section four thirteen.
So go look it out up yourself so you know what they have already responded to. The, so do we our word agreement that we should push this or post the post this draft ordinance on the normal channels and put it as a policy ahead of time and then we're going to make it a public comment policy item at our February at the first meeting in February.
We're all in agreement with that? Does that need an official motion, Greedy? Let's do it. No. Well you can if you want. You can't. Your husband said you wanted that direction. I just want direction. Why? The motion makes it even clearer. So if you want to do a motion that's even better. I don't have it, but it's makes it even clearer. All right well I'll make that motion. All those for those all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. You've got a motion five-zero to post it up and make it a policy item on February 12?
And, either eleventh would be our Eleventh. Meeting. At the February 11, the council meeting. Policy with public comment. Cool. Item policy number two, appointment of acting mayor. Traditionally, we just missed that last last week when we did all of our organizational things on who's gonna be which on the council. In the past we've taken senior senior members and try to spread it around a little bit as time goes on. So I propose that we make Jim Wattenberg acting Mayor for 2026.
Discussion. Great choice. Okay. There we go. A leveler head than the than the current. It'll be good when I'm good. Thank you much. The, all those in favor of, appointing or appointing, Jim as, acting mayor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries five-zero. I'd just like to say that I wish the mayor, great health and attendance, and I'm looking forward to this being a rather uneventful appointment. Thank you. There we go. The, I hope so too. Continued health is always one of my goals.
I'm getting old, but anyway. The next we have, we added policy item number three, which was to discuss joining in the, amicus curiae brief in support of preliminary injunction to the U. S. Department of Homeland Security and Associated People as brought by the State of Minnesota, City of Minneapolis, City of Saint Paul. Administrator Linehan. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor and Council. So I'll kind of give a little bit of background as to this. It is, I first apologize. I know we were kinda throwing this at you.
It was a new discovery. So got, you know, had a meeting this afternoon, saw that Lauderdale had amended their agenda to talk about this. Right after that, I got an email from, Council Member Milke, sharing Richfield's, consideration of this as well. So this actually comes from Lauderdale's last night. It's possible there are more cities. I got it over to the city attorney's office. They reviewed. Petro was almost late coming here, reviewing and getting and kind of giving us direction, and they worked through. And the end result is if you want to do something, you have to do it by they have to file first thing tomorrow.
So that's the kind of the background. Again, it's a little, you know, kind of going through it. A little bit of background. This started as the, that January 12, or the original part had started as a January 12 lawsuit, city of Minneapolis, city of Saint Paul, use of city property, attorney general's office kinda taking it on, and then more, you know, as that went, I can't explain the amicus curiae briefs. I defer to the city attorney to explain that process a little bit, what it means, and the cities that have joined on on so far. So, if the city were to sign on on this amici brief,
it would not make the city a party to the litigation, at all. It's, simply kind of expressing support and, for this particular, issue related to, a proposed temporary restraining order. And that restraining order is targeted at court related and prosecution related issues with ICE enforcement. So that's really the very narrow focus of, this brief, and kind of what the city would be signing on to if, the city wanted to participate in this. Thank you. I had one thing just for the my understanding and for those,
those listening. I believe one of the main important sections here in this amicus are the is on page four, the summary of position. Yeah. I'll I'll just read some of it briefly. The the amicus supports these concepts of the proposed TRO, sensitive location protections for courthouses, limits on arrests, detentions, absent warrants, or established cause, masking identification of vehicle marking requirements, number four, anti retaliation, anti surveillance provisions protecting observers, and five, reporting and accounting requirements. I think all things that are sorely lacking. Maybe our counsel could,
I guess, clarify for me whether that is basically just restating the major portions of the TRO or if that is, some other statement of position apart from the TRO? I believe that's specifically related to the TRO. Okay. Thank you. And TRO means temporary restraining order? Correct. So my understanding of, what this does, and this was a skim of this, is that the as amici, we would be, friends of the court. We would be would be participating from our point of view as to why these
t r o steps are necessary. And, they to to to dig into them a little bit further, I believe it would, restrict, immigration enforcement at courthouses and other sensitive locations, curtilage around the courthouses, recognizing that our justice system needs to be able to operate, short, without the burdens and in in, intrusion of immigration. That, we clearly, follow the warrant requirements and due process requirements, that the masking and identification of enforcement agents, be stopped or so that they can be identified,
they can be accountable. That the until the anti retaliation and anti surveillance provisions, be enforced against observers. And the reporting requirements, as I understand it to be, are that, they provide the lists of, data they've collected on US citizens as well as, accounting of persons that have been detained, so that that is clear, for the public. And that seems incredibly reasonable to me. Other comments? The there isn't a, there's no cost to the city to participate other than,
attorney time? Yeah. Okay. And then you will be looking up so that we make sure we have the right court houses in here. With the ranch account is correct. Is Maplewood correct? That's when I needed to check. Right? Yes. I'll work with administrator Lenehan to Mhmm. Arms without help. Mhmm. And the one thing that I want the mask removed, but I know that Metro Transit Police are outside and they do wear a mask, but that's a legitimate use of masks because they're out there in the freezing cold at their bus stops, but but their green line stops. Okay. Motion to, or what? No. I was just gonna ask kind of one final just just so that,
you know, my goal of getting counsel. I make sure everyone's educated knowing this is a new item, and also new for the attorney's office. But, Petra, do you see potential risks or cons that maybe are out there for this, or what are things that we should consider as well in making a decision? Yeah. I mean, the primary risk, if the city were to sign on this, would be, drawing the attention of the federal government to the city, and the other action steps that the city is taking, personally, to kind of address community concerns, such as the resolution and ordinance. And so to that extent,
you know, if the city's not been quite as much of a target from the federal government at this point, that's something to consider if they really wanna draw the federal government's attention to Falcon Heights in that in that sense. It could bring more, enforcement action. So absolutely crazy that we are concerned about our federal government targeting us. Retaliating. I am a 100% in favor of this, and I move for us to join in any way we can. Good. I I agree. I just heard on the reader today they were interviewing someone.
I think the quote was, if you think you're going to keep your head down, you're eventually going to have a boot on your head. Or in another party for potty. Yep. Let's, let's join. Yes. Then k. So official motion from the council is to, we will join the Amicus Curry Brief in support of, in support of this. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five-zero. We have, put ourselves on the target. So we'll move to, to maybe more fun stuff than that. Go to information and announcements.
And, Georgiana, you'll, you wanna start us off? Got report from the environment? Let's see here. Yeah. Environment Commission, has met once before I officially rotated off, and we haven't met since I became the council liaison. But we are in that last meeting, we reviewed our goals and and the charge of the commission, which I think is a healthy thing to do. We're considering setting up a what do we call it? The climate crew because the climate action plan,
which is quite an excellent document, has a lot of goals. And and, many of them are achievable, but we need focus. And so we decided to set up a subcommittee that would specifically, go after or identify the most lowest hanging fruit, the things that we can do today for the Climate Action Plan. And that seems like a really smart move to me. And I'm enjoying being the council liaison for that commission. You're great. I just wanted to, thank Mark Miazga for, jumping back into city government after a after a hiatus.
He's a he's a good guy. He's an experienced public servant, and he's going to do well for us. So welcome back, Mark. Good to have you. Paula, Jim, Paula? Sure. The, Saturday, we held a tenant rights workshop. An attorney from HomeLine was with us. We offered one in Somali and one in English, and, it's just always good to provide that resource to our tenants and to hear their concerns. And, yeah. And it just validates, how important it is for to keep looking and updating our different codes and,
just providing the support that they need. And then I had the new liaison to the community engagement commission and, yeah, and we talked about how we could breathe new life into that commission and to, I like the way the chair, Denise King, awards it that we can look at what things we wanna have stay the same, what things we wanna change, and what things we want to start. And they're a very enthusiastic team, and they're, voted to hold a workshop on Monday evening. So we're gonna keep, keep the discussions going,
and they're gonna come forward with ideas and develop a strategic plan for the commission. So So that's all exciting. And then, maybe you guys can tell me if I'm out of line, but I forgot to ask this that we did have, the misfortune of ice blocking some vehicles in Falcon Heights and a car was damaged and wasn't drivable and, other cities, I guess, we don't have it's Saint Anthony's police protocol is to tow it, but that poor person because the ice had a towing expense, so I would like us that we would,
reimburse anyone whose car is undrivable because it gets towed because of ice. So is there any way we can just Look at that at a workshop. Yep. Add that to a workshop. Add that to a workshop that we would approach that? Mhmm. Okay. And then also, I'm just asking everyone. During COVID, there was, an eviction moratorium, and that is really needed right now because people are afraid to go into their jobs. And that means they're not collecting a paycheck, and they can't pay their rent. So please contact the governor of Roseville, passed a resolution last night and sent a letter,
but just call and make that phone call. Make that email. Thank you. Okay. Jim? Thank you. We did have our first, planning commission meeting with, a, with without me on there technically. And, they have, set out sort of their plans. The U Of M golf course obviously is going to be, big, but it's not going to be immediate. There is going to be, and it's not by the planning commission, but, by the city is going to establish a citizen advisory committee as well as a, technical advisory committee, in a few months. So keep a lookout for that if you wanna participate,
in that. There is, the, we learned that the Larpenter Senior, building, the what was known as Amber Flats is going to continue going to, continue in a slightly different form. And there is a public hearing public meeting, being put on by the developer. Right? Yes. On February 4 at 05:00 at City Hall. The, the planning commission is gonna continue working on updating our code, and they gave a summary of a really interesting presentation last Thursday. I was not able to make it, that, a number of planning commission members did from put on by sustained Saint Paul and
transition towns about, unique or alternative methods of development, that they proposed or put forward kind of just to talk about, for the U of M development, the golf course development. So I thought, that was interesting to hear, and I want to continue doing a lot of those things. And finally, and just sort of my comments, I would like to thank everybody that has helped out in various different ways, regarding, the ice, intrusions, particularly two of ours, that are showing up, regularly. In the cold. Appreciate, everything that you do.
Appreciate you organizing. Appreciate, everybody that, helps out by bringing food, by responding to, concerns, to by, helping out their neighbors. And those that showed up at the vigil, just to, to show their support for their neighbors or to, check on your neighbors. It's, it's difficult for everybody, and I appreciate the ways that we help in various different ways. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Well stated. I'll copy those. Yeah. Thank you. Let's take care of each other. Yeah. The, let's see. I haven't attended my first, Parks and Rec Commission meeting.
I think it's happening on Monday and unless, things change, but I think we're looking in talking to the vice chair and the, staff liaison and with Naomi, the new, who who just joined. This is going to be a lot of fun. I thank thank you for giving it up Jim. Especially with with the new park and and all of that as it goes We were, we're looking forward to, we're gonna have a joint meeting I understand with the, Environment Commission to see how we can, blend the use of our outdoor spaces and protect those and
all kinds of really cool ideas that came up and day two at the last meeting did their goal settings and all of that and that document. I'm just excited and jazzed to to be able to do that again and to get out. Lamey will she'll be a great addition. Her kids are heavy users of community parking. Yep. That's what she said. Yeah. And she knew exactly which ones were, which swings, which parts they liked, and yeah. Yeah. I I missed, something if I may. Add to my long, long presentation. I I wanna thank everybody that, did apply for all of these,
particularly for the planning commission. We had some incredible, options, to to choose, a range of different points of view and different, expertise. And so, keep keep, making yourself available because the city needs your help. Thank you. Yep. And we do have openings on some commissions as well to, to participate in the, I missed the the game night, last Friday. I was driving to Brookings, but, I thought that would be a lot more fun than driving in that snowstorm and drown blizzard in the dark.
But, anyway, looking forward to that I want to thank everybody for the work that they're doing in the parts by the city and thankfully we haven't had any snowfall you know substance to thank Public Works for for bailing us out but they are maintaining and still doing some stuff and dedicated people here and our new communications intern, Amy. Yeah met her yesterday that was good. Things are looking up. The Ramsey County Legal Local Governments will have a
webinar or the virtual meeting regarding on Friday. They're looking at some of the ICE stuff, that communities are doing, those who are able to attend that. And, so that's some of the keys there. And I know that, Administrator Linehan probably has a lot of announcements for what's happening at City Hall. Thanks, mayor and council. You guys covered a lot of them. Just to add to, I know the mayor and I were invited, yesterday we sat in on a call of it was mayors and managers of, Congresswoman Betty McCollum's office.
So she wanted to give an update to us. We had questions opportunity to hear from her, kind of hear what's going on kind of at the federal level, and starting to get ready for kind of the session kickoff at the state level too. So starting to kind of get in those, start to look at some of the legislative updates, looking at legislative priorities, and that'll be something we'll bring to the council, coming forward. Kind of on that from the staff side, some of the things that we've been working on. So public works has been busy during the cold. Some have kinda seen. It was kind of a cool project we did. We don't use a lot of salt. It's been a practice of ours,
kinda through our MS four permitting. We get enough salt use usually from our major county roads that it gets dragged into our streets and works. But But we know there's times we wanna pretreat. And so actually Public Works had a cool innovative project they worked on this, this winter. Our leftover tank that we used at community park for the garden, the community garden when they had no water, they repurposed it into a brine applicator, and then welded and created nozzles to, do a brine applicator. One full tank can get the whole city, brine application and Lauderdale.
And so that's kind of those lines on the street that just helps kind of prevent, some of the ice forming. And it also, the benefit of it over salt is it doesn't get into the gutters and everywhere. It's a lot more concentrated. So nice little project they worked on. We also received our new f one fifty lightning. We didn't expect I didn't expect that. When we usually purchase trucks, they're fourteen months out. But this one was ready to go. So we have it, back in, the Public Works Bay. We're waiting to get the logos. It will not be going out until it's logoed. Just with community uncertainty and everything right now,
we wanna make sure it's clear that it's a city vehicle, what its purposes are, and then we'll get it outfitted in the future. A lot of cool features on it. We're really excited for how it's gonna help our environmentals. The trunk pops open and it can charge batteries from or sorry, the hood. And so you can use it as a battery charger. So as we start to get our fleet switching every time we have a chainsaw break, we get to electric. Right? We're starting to kinda upgrade more to our electric. We need a way to charge those out in the field, so this creates a field charging station. So we're excited about that. And another one too, finance. We've officially moved to third party payroll,
which is exciting for us. That's a feature we've always done in house. It's one of those things that the public doesn't see, but it's a huge lift. So shout out to interim finance director, Alyssa Lampurg. She's been working tirelessly to make sure it's accurate on time. And so that's been a huge lift. And so other than that, yeah, just responding to other stuff, and that would be my report. Okay. I have to ask, where do we get Brian? Do we make it, or do we just know somebody with lots of pickles? My my understanding likely is that we get it from Ramsey County. So we go and we pick up salt. And so what we do is we,
purchase salt through the county. We'll go and fill our dump trucks for it, fill them up, and we return any salt we don't use and we get credited for it. So my understanding is their brine comes similarly. But I could be wrong, and we could be purchasing it somewhere else. So that'd be my my assumption. But I can I can get that answer for sure? It's a better answer. Cool. Thank you, counsel, in all of that. At this time, I'll open this up to community forum. If there's anybody who would like to come up and address the council for for three minutes to talk about something that is there.
We'll may refer them for consideration for items and ideas and we may ask questions but we won't take any official action during it but invite anybody up for a community forum to give your thoughts to council and and those that have tuned in or will be tuning into the meetings, on on tape. Here we go. State your name and and also that then we, get the record correct. My name is Signe Nesting, and I live at 1447 Iowa Avenue. I most first, I have a question. In the ord or the amicus brief,
you listed five, six steps or six parts of the amicus brief. One was privilege around courthouses. I assume warrant meant the use of a a judicial warrant to enter a space. I'm just wanting to know be clear about what those were. I didn't have the paper. Due process and the masking was to not wear masks. Is that accurate? And, So is that sensitive location protection for courthouses? Right. Limits on arrest, detentions, absent warrants, or established cause? Okay. We I can give you this copy. That'd be great. That'd be great. I just wanted to have the wording because I didn't couldn't write it down fast
enough. Okay. That was really one of my comments. And, then I also wanna thank you again. I appreciated, Jim, your comment about thanking everybody else, but I wanna thank you all too for the work you're doing and the people in our community are doing. I I really appreciate that this is a tough time, and, we all take care of each other. So thank you. And then I did have one question about submitting a letter to the editor. The 11 mayors from mostly, miss Minneapolis suburb submitted a letter to the editor that was published in the Star Tribune, just saying,
the that they requested that ICE respect the constitutional rights of the citizens of their communities. Now we we, of course, have no control over that part. We have control over what we say. And I wondered if the city council or the mayor or somebody could, I realize you're working a lot with all these other communities. Would there be a way for us to have a letter published in both the Saint Paul paper and the Minneapolis paper kind of echoing that January 22 letter. Again, as a as a group of communities together saying,
we are standing with each other. Because if we don't stand with each other, we're gonna be standing alone. So that was just a further step that could be taken that I just wanted to put out there for something to be thought about and considered. And I appreciate the comment on the eviction resolution. And it's nice to know what the brine was on the streets. I didn't know what that was. So I appreciated that. It's like, what is that? So that's all I had. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else want to share their thoughts? Hi. I'm Mark Hovi. I live over on Tatum Street, 1824 Tatum Street in Falcon Heights.
Been impressed with your conversation tonight. This is challenging. I wrote down a little thing I wanted to say. Thank you for your efforts to support a safer community, through the resolution limiting ICE actions. I believe this resolution will also help build build precedents in Minnesota and possibly the country regarding ICE's disturbing actions. You're trading this resolution could draw the unwelcome attention of others, but there are many in our community just along these streets behind us who are working with you on the street.
And, well, I'm with you. And I know many others are with you, and I applaud you. I thank you for standing up. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Alright. Second, third call. Anybody? Okay. Thank you for participating in community forum, and thank you for participating in tonight's meeting and being here on a on a nice cold January night although it's a little warmer than it was a couple of days ago but thank you thank you for coming out and your interest in city government and what we can do as a city to build a great community
further comments thank you all I'd do I hear a motion to adjourn? So moved. So moved by Melkie. All those in favor signify by saying Aye. All those opposed same sign. Thank you very much. We are adjourned.