good evening everyone I'm going to call to order this regular city council meeting for the city of Richfield it's February 25th at 700 p.m. if you're able please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of
the United States of America and to the thank you next we'll move on to open Forum I have one card did anybody um call in or leave messages or anything ahead of time no no messages no messages all
right so for the open Forum participants can share comments in person by voicemail or email and may also request to participate virtually for more information on submitting comments refer to the city council agenda and web minute and minutes page on at Richfield
mn.gov city council um we have one person who has requested to speak and you'll have three minutes so I'd like to welcome Kathleen Balaban for what I gave you is uh the first page is actually a cut and paste from the city
code and it talks about the city council agenda I'm not going to oh I handed off the wrong stuff so I don't have my sheet okay I don't need it um bottom line is what I have attached are your agenda
sheets for all of the council meetings in the beginning of the year to current and what I'm speaking to in these is the consensus calendar and how much money is on it and I'm primarily addressing the
grant money as well as high cost equipment items but it's on the consentant calendar and consentant calendar doesn't you really don't discuss anything you just say yes to it and on the first first page on the council agenda the last sentence says
that the city manager decides what's on the consent calendar and it shall be those which the manager deems to be of routine and non-controversial nature well I find that these consent calendar items are more than slightly deserving
some attention they're million doll items Millions here and they're going into the future years 25 26 27 I don't need to address each and every one of them what I'm asking you to do is look at them because we don't seem to have
what I would refer to as an a one area for grant funding because I've seen job openings and they come from different departments and they're grant writers so we seem to be working in a silo or some type of environment where we're not communicating and we don't tell each
other how many how much dollars and you know I'm looking at these $12 million things and they're going into the future future debt we seem to be taking from Peter to paypa and sending Mary out for funding and it's in these documents it speaks to that I'm asking you to be
cognizant of what you're saying yes to without discussion and what it does to the future I mean look at what's going on in our federal government and we're asking for more money I haven't heard one thing out of the city staff that says okay we can cut this from the CIP
you know our Capital Improvement plan or we can do these reductions over here we don't have to do these projects in 2025 or 2026 we can send them out to 27 and 28 we don't know what the future is going to bring but yet we're still spending money so I'm asking you to look
at your code see if you can put a parameter on how much goes in the consensus calendar where we can discuss it so that we can hear that you discussed it when we read Andor listen to your council meeting thank you very
much thank you is there anyone else who wishes to address the council all right um seeing no one else raising their hand or coming forward we'll move on from the open Forum thank you to the commenter next we'll
move next we'll move on to approval of the minutes of the city council work session from February 11th 2025 and the city council regular meeting from February 11th 2025 I move approval second it's been moved and
seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor of approving those two sets of minutes please say I I I all opposed we've approved those two sets of minutes our next agenda item is is a proclamation
celebrating women's history month and I'd like to invite HR or Human Rights Commission commissioner Maddie Von to join me up at the front so first of all thank you to the Human Rights Commission for preparing this Proclamation this is a proclamation of
the city of Richfield whereas women's history month is for celebrating the achievements of all women including women of color women of the lgbtqia a2s plus Community women of all abilities and women of all religions and
whereas women of the indigenous nation of the Dakota people have lived on this land now known as the city of Richfield for thousands of years and whereas President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 7th women's history week and
later the United States Congress declared March women's History Month in 1987 and whereas women have served courageously throughout our history in all aspects of our society and deserve to be recognized and respected for all
their contributions and whereas the city of Richfield was honored to have the first Latina mayor Maria re ran Gonzalez in the state of Minnesota and whereas Melissa palman is the first woman director of the city of Richfield
Community develop development department and whereas Kristen Asher is the first woman director of the city of Richfield public works department and whereas the city of Richfield is in Minnesota's fifth congressional district and is
represented by the first Somali American congresswoman ilhan Omar and whereas the city of Richfield confirms its commitment to supporting and uplifting women of all Races abilities and religions to ensure a better future for all members of our
community now therefore I Mary B Supple mayor of the city of Richfield do proclaim the month month of March 2025 as women's History Month in the city of Richfield and call on the people of Richfield to observe this month with appropriate programs activities and
ceremonies and continue to honor the contributions of women Americans throughout the year Proclaim this 25th day of February 2025 and then commissioner Von if you would like to say a few words and I think eventually they were going to get a picture but perfect all right good
evening everyone um I just want to say thank you mayor Supple and the city council um for having me here tonight um although this is my fourth Proclamation I'm always very humbled and honored to be here with the city council um particularly on behalf of the Richfield
Human Rights Commission um I would just like to make one quick announcement about my Pro about the proclamations um I do feel that although they are really important that we honor and acknowledge all the different communities um and genders and religions that we have in Richfield that it's really just an
opening opening a door to more action that really represents our values as we go throughout this year thank you thank you and I think we again thank you to the Human Rights Commission next we'll move on to
approval of the agenda so moved second it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda is there any discussion hearing none all in favor of approving the agenda please say I I I all opposed and we have approved the
agenda next we'll move on to the consent calendar and I will turn it over to city manager Rodriguez thank you thank you mayor the consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the city council in one motion once the consent calendar has been approved the individ idual items and
recommended actions have also been approved no further Council action on these items is necessary I just have two items on tonight's consent calendar item a consider authorizing the city manager and mayor to enter into a right of Entry
agreement with the owner of real property located at 7221 Lindale Avenue South for the removal of a privately owned dead Oak Tree by a City Contractor Item B consider the approval of the 2024 2025
law enforcement and fire department therapy dog grant program and I submit both of these items for your consideration as part of the con consent calendar thank you thank you are there any items that council members wish to pull off the consent calendar for
further discussion all right is there a motion to approve the consent calendar so moved I'll second that it's been moved and seconded to approve the consent calendar is there any
discussion all right all in favor please say I I all opposed and we have um approved tonight's consent calendar next we'll move on to item number four and I'll turn it over to council member
Burke for the public hearing Council um number five oh number you're right I looked at it wrong because so number five I misspoke thank you for that go ahead item number five so the item for Council
consideration public hearing and consideration of the adoption of a resolution specifying the use of funds from the Urban henpen County Community Development block grant allocation for 2025 and authorizing execution of a
subrecipient agreement with henpen County and any required third party agreements the executive summary um Community Development block grant cdbg funding is annually awarded to hennipin County on a formula basis from the
Department of Housing and Urban Development the county in turn allocates a portion of these funds to the city of Richfield to address local needs relating to afford affordable housing community development and public services the city has historic allocated the funds to the Housing and
Redevelopment Authority for programming staff is proposing to use the city's 2025 direct allocation of $171,800 th000 to the single family acquisition and Rehabilitation and $12,500 to firsttime
home buyer down payment assistance program the Deferred Loan program provides no interest 30-year loans up to $30,000 to low income homeowners to address health safety and Property Maintenance needs the Deferred Loan program is administered for the City by
hennipin County there's currently a significant waiting list for the funds the HRA will work with a nonprofit developer to purchase and rehabilitate an existing home single family acquisition and Rehabilitation the re rehabilitated property would be
sold to a household earning 80% of the area median income or less $97,400 for a family of four the firsttime home buyer down payment assistance program is aimed at low and moderate income firsttime home
buyers who are looking to buy homes in Richfield it provides no interest deferred loans of up to $20,000 to use towards down payment and closing costs anything to be add added by City staff uh council member Burke mayor
members of the council uh I'm Julie Urban our assistant community development director and no I have nothing to add but I'm happy to answer any questions so recommended action is to conduct and close the public hearing and by
motion um to adopt a resolution authorizing I'm sorry my apologies to uh open up for public hearing is there anyone here who wishes to speak on this matter in the public hearing did we receive any comment that
was sent in so I'll ask again if there's anybody here that wishes to speak on this right it does not look like anybody's coming forward to speak in the public hearing so a motion would be in order to close the public hearing
I'll move second it's been moved and seconded to close the public hearing is there any discussion all in favor of closing the public hearing please say I I all
opposed okay the public hearing is closed so now it would be in order for someone to make the motion and then we can ask if there are any questions or if there's any discussion I'll make that motion
could I clarify which motion you're making um I would be making uh both motions to adopt a resolution authorizing the use of funds for the 2025 Urban hanpen County Community Development block grant program and also
part of that motion is to authorize execution of a subrecipient agreement with henpen County and any required thirdparty agreements second okay it's been moved and seconded now there's time for Council discussion
there any questions for staff or any discussion um I do believe we've talked in the past that hennipen county is changing how they're going to do this can you explain this is the last year when we're going to be doing it separately could you go through that yes mayor members of the council that is
correct I sent out a memo last fall um detailing that the county um was not meeting expenditure goals um of requirements I shouldn't say just goals requirements of Hud and so had to come up with a plan and and their response is
they feel they can be more efficient by having all the money themselves and then offering it out in a request for proposals they currently have some cities that they do that with and some cities get direct funding and they wanted to have it all in one one pool and and deal with it that way so we will
have the ability to apply competitively going forward but we'll have to see how that goes the HRA staff are currently in the process of evaluating all of our housing programs and that's one of the things that we'll take a look at is how we might access some of those funds in the future it's unfortunate we've had
these funds since the late 1970s and done a lot of really great programming with it so we're working on how to how to make up for that loss all right are there other comments or questions the motion is before us if there's no further discussion comments
or questions all in favor please say I I all opposed and we have passed the res passed the resolution and authorized the execution of the subrecipient agreement next we'll move on to item
number six council member Coleman Woods okay before us is a item for Council consideration uh to consider the approval of agreements with nonprofit organizations to provide Social Services to the city of Richfield and authorize the city manager to execute agreements
with those agencies in November of 2024 staff distributed a request for proposals for social services to nonprofit agencies serving the Richfield city of Richfield for services to be provided in 2025 the 2025 City budget includes funding for organizations that
provide social services that are deemed to be a benefit of the City a benefit to the city and the community in general the 2025 budget includes $91,400 for this purpose a total of eight proposals were received from the following
agencies Cornerstone advocacy Services the Family Partnership vep or volunteers enlisted to assist people loes and Fishes Senior Community Services reach for resources in Incorporated formerly Trail or Transportation resource to Aid
Independent Living uable emotional health formally Headway and icna or the Islamic circle of North America the prop the proposals represent a wide variety of social services offered to Richfield residents the organizations requested a
total amount of$ 13,22 exceeding the city's available funding by $ 38,42 one Richfield resident and three staff members compromised the committee that reviewed the proposals and made funding recommendations the Review
Committee these recommendations took into account the type of services to be provided the target population to be served and past performance of the social service agencies uh seven of those eight proposals were recommended for funding the following
table details the review committee's recommendations do we need to put that up at on the screen no and first off Cornerstone at $222,000 uh was the proposal request and
the 2025 recommendation was 21,200 vep uh was a proposal request for $25,000 and it maintains a 2025 recommendation of $25,000 Loaves and Fishes uh $8,000
proposal request and it may it will maintain a 2025 $8,000 recommendation uh low um The Family Partnership a $30,000 proposal request and they will receive a
$12,600 recommendation Senior Community Services uh request at 10,500 and they will maintain a $10,500 recommendation reach for resources
formally Trail uh requested $5,000 and they will receive a $4,500 recommendation uable emotional health formerly Headway requested $10,000 and they will maintain a $110,000 recommendation icna or in
Islamic circle of North America uh received a a request or we received a request for $1,712 and they will not be funded according to this recommendation icna is not being recommended for funding
because it's Food Shelf services are limited duplicative of vep and not physically located in Richfield a complete overview of all services to be provided by the various organizations is attached and um the recommended action is to move
I move to approve the agreements between the recommended nonprofit organizations in the city of Richfield and authorize the city manager to execute agreements for services with those agencies uh are there any is there any discussion from staff council member Coleman Woods mayor
and council members no I have nothing to add I'm happy to answer any questions do we have any questions for staff great so if you want to go ahead and make the motion uh I move to approve the
agreements between the recommended nonprofits organizations second it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion oh go ahead just a quick comment I this is the first time being new on the council to see how the city is supporting some important social
services and it's great that the city is increasing in that support and definitely appreciate not just uh definitely appreciate the efforts that these organizations are making and truly great that you're out there so thank you and I see in the audience we have um
some representatives from those organizations so I also want to add my thank you and to anyone who's watching online for all the work that you all do for our community it's very valuable and very very appreciated if we had unlimited money we wish we could fill all the requests so it's a really tough
job trying to figure out you know which ones we can and cannot fund so thank you all and thank you for the services that you provide any other comments or questions we have a motion before us all in favor please say I I I I'll
oppose and we have passed the recommended action thank you next we'll move on to the city manager's report nothing to report tonight thank you thank you claims and
payroll I move approval of claims of payroll second it's been moved and seconded to app approve the claims and payroll are there any questions comments discussion all right hearing none all in favor
please say I I I all opposed and we have approved the claims and payroll so next we'll move on to the hats off to Hometown hits and we'll start off with council member Hayford aliri thank you um I just wanted to take
a moment to thank staff I submitted Richfield for a potential award or recognition from strong towns the strongest Town um and I did a lot of the writing for the application and the selection of pictures but basically strong towns is an organization that supports um kind of traditional city
building by which I mean uh mixed use development walkable neighborhoods um streets that prioritize people outside of cars as well as in cars and just good Financial uh resilience so a lot of people helped with this application so I just want to thank them I'm probably going to forget some folks but mayor
Supple um our communications director Kate hon Katie Rodriguez Carl Hugh Miller uh Melissa palman and I think I think one of the director so whoever I'm forgetting I apologize and thank you everyone for your time um you know even if we don't get recognized it was just really fun to be able to write up all
the cool things that we're doing because it was yeah we're doing a lot of great stuff all right thank you um council member Burke did you have anything go ahead uh hats off to uh Public Works uh they came out to my ward there was a
tree that needed to be taken down and I was really impressed with how swiftly and thoroughly and just very considerately uh took care of the issue and definitely heard it from a few of my neighbors also so hats off to public works
so thank you council member Coleman Woods um absolutely um so hats off to one of my neighbors who I've lived on the same block of my entire life um who reached the honorable age of 100 uh
Joanne St Pierre uh I have um I was a little girl growing up on my on this block so she's literally existed my entire life on my block so I have the honor of presenting uh the proclamation
on Friday uh as she celebrates her 100th birthday I thought that that was really amazing that you've known her your entire life whole life that is uh that ages me too well that just means you're less than a century that I mean that's true
this is true this validates my age thank you all right um and council member Christensen you said you didn't have anything um I well this past week I'd like to give a hats off actually to the league of Minnesota cities uh they
hosted a um wonderful wonderful two-day learning seminars uh about different things about city council and Leadership and it it provided a really good Insight that uh to consider that what we're
doing here in the city is um really good and we uh compared to small cities to large cities and we're pretty much all on the same page of how we run our meetings and things like that we all attended that meetings or
those two days of meetings and I thought it was awesome to meet other representatives from other council members and other mayors that are been newly elected it definitely showed um quite a lot of diversity thank you yeah and I appreciate the
taxpayers funding that so we could go for the training that was really great I want to do a hats off to Patricia Ione and she um helped organize a visit from a group of powerful women
the mueres Latinas unidas came to Richfield and um we the police department did a presentation and we talked about how all of the service that the city provides and the various programming that we do and it was a really great event so I want to thank
Patricia and the mueres Latinas unidas for joining us it was a great out um a great um meeting I also want to do a hats off to one of our social service funding organizations that is now coming
to City Hall so vep the Food Shelf has hours at City Hall now every Monday and Wednesday they come from 10: to 1 and it's right out behind the information desk is where they'll meet with people they can help people with p through rent and utilities accessing food and other
General needs so I thought it was really exciting that if someone didn't have transportation to get to their site in Bloomington that they are coming here to us in Richfield so people right on the bus line can get to them so hats off to vep for coming to us and reaching out to
people there are no further hats off I would entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting second well somebody has to make it first so moved okay it's been moved by council member Coleman woods and
seconded by council member Christensen to adjourn the meeting all in favor please say I I I all opposed we stand a journ