Good evening everyone. It is Tuesday, February 10th at 7 PM and I'm calling to order this meeting of the Richfield City Council. Um, if you're able, please rise and join us with the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. >> Oney
for all. Thank you. Um, our next item is approval of the agenda. Council member Hayford Deliri. >> Yes. Um, I would move that we approve the agenda moving item 7B, the resolution about Nichollet Avenue off
the consent calendar to be item eight. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Being that council member Christensen is remote, we need to do a roll call vote. So, city clerk Friedri. >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor Supple. Council
member Burke, >> hi. >> Council member Hayford Olyri. >> Hi. >> Council member Christensen. >> I. >> Council member Coleman Woods. >> I. >> And Mayor Supple. >> I. >> Thank you. >> So, the motion passes. Um, our next item
is approval of the minutes from the city council work session from January 27th, 2026 and the regular city council meeting from January 27th, 2026. >> I would move to approve the minutes from both the work session and the regular
council. >> I'll second that. >> It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Um, clerk Friedrich. >> Yes. Thank you. Council member Burke. >> I. Council member Hayford Deliri. >> Hi. >> Council member Christensen. >> Hi.
>> Council member Coleman Woods. >> I. >> And Mayor Supple. >> I. >> Thank you. >> Okay. The minutes have been adopted. We're now moving on to open forum. There are a number of people wishing to speak tonight. So, we will strictly follow the threeminut time limit. I'll hold up a
yellow card when you have 30 seconds left and the red card when your time is expired. I would like to remind you to please listen respectfully and quietly to all, even those you disagree with. When you approach the podium, state your name and city of residence, and then I
will start the timer. Please keep in mind that anything you share becomes part of the public record. Thank you. At the moment, I have six cards. Are there any more? I'm just trying to figure out timing. Okay. So, doing the math, if we have 8* 3 is 24 minutes. So, I don't think we
need to extend the time at this point. If some more come in, we can always extend the time later. All right. So, Yep. Thank you for that reminder.
Just trying to get the timer up here. All right. So, our first speaker will be Burgett Johnson and on deck is Betsy Stark. >> Beet Johnson Ridgefield. Um, my granddaughters were playing Polly
Pockets in the living room with a neighbor's child. My sister called me while I was in the kitchen preparing lunch. Suddenly, there was a loud there was a lot of yelling coming from the living room. My sister asked if they were fighting. I went to check and see
if they were okay. They were very animated. I asked what was going on. We are playing ice is outside was the answer. Apparently, when talking to other caregivers of children, that is what is
happening. Let that sink in. Children have added ice to playtime themes. We are allowing ice to intimidate elementary school kids. I was angry and sad at the same
time. Here's an observation. Who put a roof on your house? who takes care of our elders and our children. When I was in the hospital, an immigrant helped me to the bathroom and
helped me me retain my dignity. Who plans and harvests our food? Farmers can't do it alone. Could it be an undocumented person or what is newly termed illegal immigrant
who did your roof or provided care and service? And why is there work for these immigrants? Could it be that immigration is vital to our economy? Or who else would do their jobs, those jobs that we
apparently don't want to do? What about the immigrant businesses hindered by the raids with closing or reduced hours? Have the smart people who think this is all good good thought about the loss in tax revenue.
Here is a thought. Before I became an American citizen, I was already a human being. These people who are being persecuted by ICE for simply trying to attain the American dream are human just
like you and me. >> Thank you. Next we'll have Betsy Stark and on deck is Ava JT Mcnite. >> Hi, my name is Betsy Stark. Richfield has been my home for 67 years. I'm here tonight to ask the city
through its police department to help document the removal of our neighbors by ICE when called upon by city members for help. I'd like to tell you about an experience I had last Friday at the intersection of a busy street in Richfield. A friend of mine saw ICE
agents chased a man. My friend texted for help, but the man had already been taken away by the time I got there. There were about three other observers present at this busy intersection. His car was left there blocking traffic. One
of the observers called a towing service and we directed traffic as we waited for the tow truck to arrive, but it didn't arrive quickly. So, someone called the police to ask for help. A Richville police officer arrived along with the
officer. We tried to move the car out of the way, but the gear was locked. I asked the officer if he was going to file a report. He said, "No, they they don't do that for this." His response was hard for me to comprehend.
In the city I know and love, this actually would have been absolutely criminal. One of the observers found an address in his car. We drove to that address and discovered that he lived with a relative. We told the relative what happened.
We learned his what his name was. I'll call him Tony. He was here on a work permit. He was injured when he fell off a roof. Later, after Tony called his relative, we were told that the way Tony was physically apprehended by ICE caused even more pain.
The relative also reported that while detained, Tony felt forced to sign voluntary exit papers. This story makes me so sad. As a longtime resident, I have personally observed how our immigrant neighbors enrich our community.
The city can and should document when someone is taken away and document each abandoned car. We owe it to our residents to document this disruption and costs that our community is incurring right now.
Because of the federal immigration enforcement, these costs are real. Please ask the police department to start creating reports when they are called to assist at the scene of enforcement activity. Thank you.
Thank you. Next we have Ava JT Mcnite and on deck is um Jacob Powy. Good evening. I also am a resident of Richfield and
actually thank you Beck Betsy. That was um my impetus to speak tonight was also I feel like the dispatch and police's duty is to document the rights that are
being um taken away. And so what has happened though um I I offered to collect stories of neighbors. I'm gonna read uh something from one of my neighbors
and they have had issues in the past, but she didn't write about that. So, we also want kids to be protected and that police actually help. This is one person who is at home with
her family, too scared to come to this city to speak. Nothing has happened recently, but we can tell you that we are afraid. They are kidnapping people and we are not sure if they are going to accept our
papers or if they are only going to assume that because we are brown they can take us. >> Thank you. >> So we have Jacob Poppy and on deck is Uh, good evening. My name is Jacob Poppy from Richfield, Minnesota. I want to
voice my concerns this evening on the use of the Flock camera system and other automated license plate readers in our community. Automated license plate readers or ALPRs or LPRs are an AI powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing
details like our cars locations, dates, and times. They also capture our cars model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers, often turning these into searchable data points. ALPRs are a
serious risk to our privacy and civil liberties. These systems continuously record our movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable reasonable suspicion. Our driving history is rarely confined to the town or city where the cameras are installed.
It's typically shared with thousands of other agencies nationwide, often secretly. Once the data is out of our community, we have no control over how it's used or what rules apply, leading to instances of misuse. These cameras collect data on millions of vehicles,
regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime. These systems are marketed as indispensable tools to fight crime, but they ignore the powerful tools police already have to track criminals, such as cell phone location data, creating a loophole that doesn't
require a warrant. Specifically, the company Flock has faced significant scrutiny and scandal recently regarding data privacy, misuse by law enforcement, and security vulnerabilities. Some of the notable controversies involve allegations of
tracking individuals for legal reproductive healthcare, assisting in immigration enforcement, and allowing unauthorized access to camera data. I ask that the city council seriously consider removing cameras from our community and barring future ALPRs from
our community. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. So, we have Landon McKay and on deck is Brianna Darling. Uh, Land Mccay, Richfield. Uh, guys, I'm tired and I think
everybody's tired and I think we'd have more people here if we weren't so tired. We're out here every day doing laundry, delivering people to school so they don't get kidnapped. We're doing everything in the community to support it. And we're asking the city to do the bare minimum, the cops to do the bare
minimum, and we're being failed by both the city and the cops on a regular basis. We're asking you, just like he said, let's how about we don't have lock cameras that track us down and are enforced by ICE. I sent you documentation. I sent you
wellressearched independent studies that also spurred a US representative and US senator to have an FTC investigation on Flock because they are lying and they lied to you and I'm disappointed at the last meeting because we have public
outcry about this just basics research could have been done instead you asked Flock are you guys the bad guys? Did you do anything bad? And they said, "No, the people you spend money towards, well, that money could be going towards, I don't know, rental assistance, anything
else to help our community instead of spying on us, instead of having having ICE take that data, which they have, and I've highlighted it many times, and I've highlighted it numerous times. And I'm tired. I'm tired of doing this and coming here. I'm going to come here
every single city council meeting reiterate to reiterate the independent studies that were found on it. All flock models are easily hacked. All flock models capture and retain images and data. Again, they lied to you about that, right? There's little to no data
or security. And that again is why the US representative and US senator said, "Hey, this is a big problem. This is this is a huge problem for data security for our entire country." Instead, we keep them up. They are basically
outofdate Android cameras that we have up that a child could hack into and they have people do all the time and also Flock gives that data the city of Denver multiple other cities have found that Flock gave them backdoor access even
though Flock told those cities that they didn't. To me that is a problem. That's a problem that you do business with this company. You're exposing all of us and our vulnerable community to a huge problem. So, I'm asking you please to remove
those cameras, listen to reason, listen to the independent studies that are out there, listen to our US senators and representatives, please. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have Brianna Darling and on deck is John Lennon.
All right. Hi, I'm Brianna Darling. I'm a Richfield resident. Um, and I am just here tonight because I had a friend asked if I could tell his story. Um, and he asked me last night for the second time. So, I I thought I would just share
it. Um, it's pretty short and simple. Um, but he came here from Mexico four years ago. Um, and when he was in Mexico, he had a really cool job. Our secrets keep keep us safe right now, so like I'm not going to say that much, but
he had a really cool job. Like really cool. Then he came here and he couldn't find that same job. Um, so he found a trade to work in and he wasn't super excited about it because before he had had this really cool job, but then he learned how to do it and he learned how to do it well and he became really proud
of his work. um to the extent that when he would do his job, people would tell him he was an artist. So, he would go home and tell his wife like, "I'm an artist." Um and see, he um shared that he had been thinking a
lot lately about his identity. He's been doing more research on kind of like Mexican history, his own history, and that he's kind of come to the realization that he identifies more as an American than a Mexican, even though he's only been here for four years. and he's really proud to be an American. He
loves America. At school, our kids say the pledge of allegiance, but they say it in Spanish. You know, they celebrate our country alongside us on the 4th of July. It's really beautiful. And so, what he wonders is why as as someone who
lives here and works here and pays taxes, he doesn't have the same rights and protections of the others who live here and work here and pay taxes. Um, I feel like everyone, what I know of most people in this room, we know these
stories. So, I just I just wanted to give voice to his since he couldn't be here to share it safely. Um, and then also just kind of like put out there that there's there's there are so many helpers. There's so many of us doing so much. so many of us
are involved that maybe when this is over, we can like take all of these numbers and all of this energy and really push it towards legalization for all so that we have a more sustainable um approach and and we don't have to worry about this in the future. Thanks.
>> Thank you. Um we have John Lennon and is there anyone else that wants to turn a card in? Hi, my name is John Lenon. Um, I also get John Lennon, which is fine. I am a Sorry about that. Sorry. I'm a Beatles fan. >> Um, I'm a Richfield resident as well.
And I just had a couple of short points. Uh, I wanted to uh propose that more funding, if possible, is given to the VEP organization, which is volunteers uh enlisted to assist people. Um they are
fighting primarily the increase in uh suburban poverty which we've seen a massive surge in recently due to the anti-immigration activity. They are providing food and other essential items to people who are impoverished um in general and as a result of ICE and border patrol. And then in addition to
that, um, and kind of along the same line, I'd like to see our representatives also put pressure on Governor Walls to enact some sort of, um, eviction moratorum so that those who are are not able to get to work, to make
money, to pay rent as a result of some of this surge we're seeing, that they have the ability to stay in their homes. That's all. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? All right, thank you. Then we will close
out on the open forum and we'll move on to the consent calendar. Uh, city manager Rodriguez. >> Thank you, Mayor. The consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the city council in one motion. Once the consent calendar
has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved. No further council action on these items is necessary. On tonight's consent calendar, item A, approve dispersements claims. We have moved item
B to be considered after the consent calendar. Item C, consider the approval of a resolution authorizing the lawful gambling premises permit by Richfield Lions Club to conduct lawful gambling at Sandy's Tavern, 6612 Penn Avenue South.
and I submit these two items for your consideration on tonight's consent calendar. >> I will move to approve the consent calendar. >> Second that. >> It's been moved and second. Is there any discussion? >> Um, city clerk Friedrich, could you call the role, please?
>> Yes. Thank you, mayor. Council member Burke. >> Hi. >> Council member Hayford Olyri. >> Hi. >> Council member Christensen. >> Hi. >> Council member Coleman Woods. >> Hi. >> And Mayor Suppel. Hi. >> Thank you. >> So, we've passed the consent calendar.
So, now we're going to move on to consideration of items removed from the consent calendar and I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Hayford to read the report. >> Thank you. This item is to consider a resolution authorizing the mayor and city manager to finalize and execute
Henipin County Cooperative Agreement number PW221925 for the 2026 2022 Nicollet Avenue reconstruction project. Henipe County has planned for a full reconstruction of Nicola Avenue in 20 for 2027. We're
sorry, 2026 to 2027. Public engagement and outreach began in August of 2023 and consisted of four phases of engagement following Ridgefield's public engagement policy for public works projects. City council adopted a resolution supporting the project layout at the October 8th,
2024 city council meeting. Staff have been collaborating with Henip County and their consultants throughout the final design process to ensure that the final plans are in substantial compliance with the layout that was approved by the city council in 2024. Staff have been negotiating the city's cost contribution, payment schedule, and
maintenance responsibilities with county staff and have agreed upon the terms of this cooperative agreement. Does staff have anything to add prior to a motion? >> Thank you, council member, city engineer Joe Powers. Um, I do have uh some clarification on questions that were
asked by council prior to the meeting. Um, a note on what is remaining outstanding to be negotiated in the agreement and some news to share on the cost share. I'm happy to share that now or wait for additional council discussion. >> Um, if you want to go ahead and do your
report and we can. >> Great. >> Thank you, mayor. um to address the couple of questions that we received from council members on landscaping. The agreement outlines a landscaping plan that is fairly detailed. However, the
city does have leeway to change that plan. We are responsible for letting a separate contract to install that landscaping and we will be taking into account past experience with with median landscaping on projects throughout the city to make sure that we're doing our
best to plant plants that are going to be easy to maintain and stay healthy and hopefully avoid some of the issues we've had in the past. So, I hope that answers the uh the questions on that front. >> Can I ask one question on that? Um, do
you anticipate that our workers will be doing that or is that going to be something we'll contract for? >> I anticipate that we'll have a private contract to to do that work. >> So, I know there had been um questions about like when mulch was applied that
people made like cones or it was bad for the trees and so you said we've learned from past things. So, will some of that be put in the contract to make sure they're doing it correctly? >> Yes, it will. >> Thank you. All right. Other questions on that before move on. >> All right. You had other parts to
report. >> Yep. I'd like to clarify why we're not asking council to execute the agreement tonight. Uh there is one area that we are still negotiating with the county. It applies specifically to the rectangular rapid flashing beacons that will be installed at a couple of the
roundabouts um and 72nd Street, which is not a not a roundabout. Um, we're still negotiating the terms of the what the county considers major maintenance and minor maintenance. Um, the city will be responsible for the cost of maintenance
on the RFBs. However, we are negotiating with the county to have them perform that maintenance and invoice the city. So, we're just working through the details on that. I think we're very close to having that um having that determined and agreed upon with the county. anticipate we'll be able to have that finalized by next week and then we
would execute the agreement at that time. >> So, do we have any input on which company they get the devices from because I know there's been problems in the past with certain manufacturers um that the equipment is not reliable. >> Yeah, we have been discussing that with
uh with the county. Um we haven't determined exactly what company it's going to be. One of the things to note there is the systems that we have in town primarily are supplied by a company called Tapco. Um and in discussing with other cities and with the county, it's
primarily been the solar powered systems um that are having the majority of issues. So we are planning to install a hardwire system on Nicollet Avenue for those RFBs hopefully avoid some of those issues whether that is with the the Tapco product or another another
product. Hope that's going to be one step to address that. >> Thank you. And then some of the ones that we've had issues with, are they planning to retrofit some of those or just try and fix them as best we can? >> Yeah, we're we're trying to maintain those as best we can for now. Uh staff
recently have been in discussions separate from this project with some other manufacturers um to see if we can retro either retrofit parts or replace um major components of those systems to hopefully have them operating better. But it's an
an ongoing and frankly frustrating uh problem that we're trying to solve. >> Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Oh, go ahead. >> Oh, about that item. >> Yeah. One one last update I just wanted to share. Um this is reflected in the
agreement in case you hadn't picked out the the details. Um typical Henipin County cost share policy require that the city pay the full upfront cost of our portion of the project when the project contract with the contractor is
awarded. Uh we have been able to negotiate with the county uh such that the city will pay $2 million this year in June of 2026 and the remainder of our project cost in 2027. So we're substantially deferring a large portion
of our cost from their typical policy. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Um Council Member Hayford. >> Um a couple of questions. So the median landscaping they're going to chip in 30 like a third of the initial cost.
I thought their cost share for landscaping was 50%. Is are they doing less because they're doing the boulevard trees or why is that? >> I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head. That's something I can follow up on. >> Okay. Um and then also just this this is kind of exciting for me because of course the last time we saw this was
almost a year and a half ago. So it's seen the more detailed plans. I am curious the lighting indications sort of in the background of the plan. those accurate of it looked like approximately like eight or nine street lightss per block >> I believe. So, yeah, we that was one of the final items that we've been that we've been working through with the county. Okay.
>> Um so there may be some minor changes to that, but those are substantially >> correct plans. >> Yeah, overall I'm just going to say I'm just excited about the state of the plan. I'm still wish it cost us less money, but it is a it's a really exciting street and I know it's going to be awesome. One other detail I noticed and I'm just curious if this is firm
that the south end of the corridor would be the first year and the north end would be the second year. Yes, that's correct. >> Okay, that's good to have some expectation as people know sort of know what to expect in this coming year. Um, and then I just want to, you know, I want to thank staff for doing everything they can to reduce our cost share. I do
want to just reiterate our our ongoing concern that many of the features of this this project like the protected bike lanes, like landscaping, like the lighting, all further county goals and what the county says they want in these projects. And that's only possible because we're agreeing to pay 100% of
the long-term costs of those. So, I think it is great that we are doing the county's policies for them, but it would be even better if the county paid for their their goals. Um, so thank you staff for making the best of this. I know the county is working on changes, but I think this contract, unfortunately, is still an example of
when where they're really not paying everything that they should towards their projects. >> Um, other questions? I did want to bring up one. You've already answered it for me, but I thought for people that are watching, um when the intersection of Portland and
77th was constructed, we ran into some issues because um Mandot did not talk to the um garbage haulers and people's garbage wasn't being taken away. And so our staff had to intercede and mediate to make sure that that got taken care
of. So I was just wondering what we're going to do ahead of time to prevent that from becoming an issue on Nicola during the construction. >> Yeah, thank you for the question, mayor. Um, I've talked directly with the construction project manager for Henipin County who will be managing the
day-to-day operations. Um, there there will be meetings with the contractor selected for the project and with all of the waste haulers along the corridor prior to construction beginning and we have communicated uh the the waste hauler map and collection schedule to the county
already. so they are aware of it. Um, I do expect there will be some some hiccups here and there. That's not uncommon, but I think we'll be on top of that and hopefully have that coordinated well and communicated out to to residents throughout the project. >> Thank you. >> Did you want to go ahead and make the
motion? >> Yep. Uh, I move that we approve a resolution authorizing mayor and city council or city manager to finalize and execute Henipin County Cooperative Agreement number PW221925 for the 2026 27 Nichollet Avenue reconstruction project.
>> I'll second that. >> All right, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? >> Um, I just wanted to thank both the county staff and the Richfield staff and Commissioner Gautel. I know that there was a lot of effort put into this and
also all of the residents that participated in the engagement process as we were going through the planning. So, thank you to everybody that was involved with that. >> All right. Um, city clerk Friedick, could you please call the role? >> Yes. Thank you. Council member Burke, >> I.
>> Council member Hayford Olirri. >> Hi. >> Council member Christensen. >> I. >> Council member Coleman Woods. >> Hi. >> And Mayor Sel. >> I. >> Thank you. So, the motion passes. All right. We don't have um any business
coming forward other than that. So, I'm going to go to the city manager's report. City manager Rodriguez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I just wanted to start out with some updates and I um am asking city attorney teaching to provide an update on the amikas brief that we
had joined and then also the underlying or not underlying but the ongoing lawsuit. >> Thank you city manager mayor and councel. So before I talk about the AMA brief, I want to just give a brief summary of the lawsuit that was um
initiated by the state of Minnesota and cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. That case was started on January 12th of this year and the plaintiffs, the state and and Minneapolis and St. Paul sued um DHS
Secretary Christy Gnome alleging that the federal government's operation metro violated the 10th and first amendments of the Constitution and lacked proper procedural implementation. The plaintiffs in the case requested
several forms of relief in the lawsuit, including a preliminary injunction. This was a request to the court to immediately stop the operation and certain actions by federal agencies. On January 30th, the court denied the
request for the preliminary injunction. The denial um reflects the high burden for preliminary injunctions, but it is not a ruling on the merits of the case. So, the case will continue to move forward.
Preliminary injunctions require that a party immediately cease actions before the court determines on the merits whether that action violates the law. So because of that preliminary injunctions require the plaintiffs to meet a very
high legal burden including that they are likely to succeed on the merits of the case. So the court determined that it was not able to issue the emergency order given that the case involves very complex constitutional issues. Um but as
I mentioned the case remains active and and will move forward. So the court will eventually rule on the merits of of the plaintiff's arguments including the constitutionality of the government's
actions. Currently the parties are engaged in discovery in order to uh better present evidence in support of their arguments. So that case will proceed through through the courts. With respect to the AMAS brief, uh the city of Richfield and
I believe nine or 10 other suburban cities have joined in an amus brief um which is uh a called a friend of the court brief which is something that
uh parties um or people who are not parties to the case can file such a brief in support of the case. And this is done really to present um additional policy arguments uh that the judge can
consider in a case. And in this particular amus brief, Richfield and the other cities um have have put forth policy arguments about how um Metro is affecting municipal prosecution
operations. Um that that brief is available if any members of the public um would like to to read it. Um and so those those arguments and those policy considerations will be in front of the
court and the judges as they continue to review and and um eventually rule on the issues matter. Thank you. Um, city manager Rodriguez. >> Yes, thank you. Um, then I guess I have
some other updates. So, the city, we received some questions regarding the recently adopted emergency ordinance that prohibits federal immigration staging activities on city property. And that um staging is uh defined in the
ordinance. It's a ban on assembling, mobilizing or deploying vehicles or equipment or materials on city- owned properties. The ordinance does not prohibit federal vehicles from being on the property, but rather from using it
to stage their operations. Um, we still ask that residents call um they should call 911 if they believe that that that uh immigration agents are using our property to stage. Uh our the dispatch
will um let Richfield know and we will send an officer out. um the officer will document uh to determine if it's staging or um is happening on the property and then that documentation will assist us
in evaluating potential sanctions. Um also wanted to provide an update. We've added website pages. Uh we we added several new pages to our website focused on uh the federal immigration surge in Richfield. The links include
community updates, how help your legal rights, legal resources, housing and utility resources, food resources, business resources, and healthcare resources. There is a link currently on our homepage. Uh the web the website
will continue to be updated as needed. Um we've also added regular updates to our weekly uh Richfield recap e newswsletter and we're exploring other channels to make sure that the residents that are most impacted are getting information. Um So, we've got time
scheduled on Laorazza radio this week and we'll continue having updates through the rest of the month. Um, I wanted to give an update on assessing the business impacts. Uh, CD staff uh and they were joined by Mayor
Supple had a meeting with local business owners to understand the issues that they're facing. Anecdotally, it appears that the impacts are as bad or worse than during co Uh staff is working to send a metrowide
survey to collect more detailed information. Uh and in the me meantime, business resources have been shared on the city's website uh in the business newsletter and staff continue to explore additional options to support the business
community. I know this is a small gesture, but I do know that staff are doing their best uh to personally support these businesses. And I know that um members are doing it as well. I I went to Lena and saw the
saw the mayor's husband there this weekend. So, um uh new community request from the last meeting. Um there was the request to have a resolution to urge the governor to declare a state of emergency and impose an eviction moratorum.
Uh this did come up at our legislative breakfast and our our legislators believe that that unlikely that a statewide eviction moratorum would be passed at that time. Um we also do have
some concerns that the COVID moratorum had unintended consequences. Um it the balances uh grew to such an extent that the tenants were not able to once the eviction moratorum was lifted they weren't able to pay the rent and then
there's always a pretty big spike in evictions. So the city focused on additional rental assistance um with the $50,000 contract with BEP and the H will be considering additional support and keeping in contact with also community
development staff and the city attorney are working to engage uh with partners and review statutes related to an emergency ordinance to temporarily extend a pre-eviction notice for nonpayment of rent in Richfield. and we hope to bring something to the council
later this month. Um there was a request for city hall to close during the during the general strikes. Uh many of the functions of for Richfield uh they operate 247 like police, fire and water treatment
operations. Also, the residents depend on other less critical but still important services like renewing tabs, answering questions about water bills or business licenses. Um, the other thing is we've also been really focused at trying to respond to
the community during this crisis. So, if we close city hall, those office staff that are working on those efforts wouldn't be able they miss a day of being able to do that work. Um, the other thing is that VEP has office hours here and they food shelf. So, we don't
want to limit that access. Um, and our community center is another um it's like a it provides a vital service. It's a daily hub of support and programming for people in our community and we don't want to limit that. Some of the programs
that they uh that they provide is meals and other services that residents rely on. And then we were asked to provide more information on the multi-ity effort. Um it has a name now. It's a cities for safe and stable communities. It's a
nonpartisan coalition and it formally launched with 12 member cities including field. We are growing quickly. We have another 15 cities that have either joined or are considering joining. The coalition is scheduling interviews with
national policy makers. uh they have a plan to engage with state legislators and has already started that work. Um and we've been sharing uh resources to the cities do and so for example when we were looking to update our web pages we were able to look at a variety of web
pages that other cities had and then were able to move more quickly and we've been doing that with the emergency ordinances as well and so that just helps us to speed up our response. Um the coalition is also developing a process to collect city impacts uh for
future communications and advocacy. And then the finally there was a request to provide trauma sensitive safe community spaces for residents specifically children to heal. Um we did pass that suggestion on recreation services staff. um and actually reached
out to well I reached out to Jennifer Anderson who is our main leazison with Bloomington public health and they had already been planning to coordinate with local schools on the idea so I don't have specifics yet but they are already working on it and that's all I have for tonight.
>> Thank you. Are there any questions for city manager Rodriguez? >> Um go ahead council member Burke. I've had some residents ask concerning the lawsuit, why was Richfield unable to join as a plaintiff? Perhaps someone could explain why it was not possible
for Richfield to join as a >> um Mayor, Council Member Burke, the I I think for one thing, the the lawsuit um the timing of everything was on a very expedited uh process and so I think that factored in. Um and I also
think There was some discussion. I was not involved personally but heard that I think there was discussion about there being more impact cities joining together in um and presenting those act those the impacts the policy impacts
that cities have been feeling that that could be particularly useful um to the courts. the the legal issues, the constitutional arguments were thoroughly and extensively briefed by the existing
parties in the case. And so having the unique perspective of the cities and the impacts that it's um cities are feeling outside of those just purely legal issues. I think is a way to have a
different kind of impact and useful I do want to thank those who were involved to get get our involvement in that's was quite a quick turnaround. Having read the it really does express very clearly how Richfield is being
impacted and I like to think that some of the community comments that we heard here even before that you can see it reflected in that brief. So definitely great to see that all together. The only other comment or question I would have is um understand it's unlikely for there
to be a statewide eviction moratorum. Um hopefully we can still look and see if there's some kind of u some kind of a defense that can put in its ordinance that for people who are being evicted for non-payment of rent due to direct
involvement of ICE in their inability to pay their rent. Hopefully the city can look consider some kind of an ordinance that uh we can provide that defense so that if someone is brought to a housing court and are about to be evicted, they can say, well, you know what, in my city, um, this this is not allowed in
this situation. So, hopefully we can continue to look at that. So, thank you. >> Is there going to be a comment? I thought somebody's warmed up for a comment. >> I council member Burke, I just wanted to mention that we are we are discussing that and hopefully going to be incorporating that language for the
council's consideration. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Then we'll move on to Council discussion. Um, Council Member Christensen, did you have anything you wanted to add? >> Uh, no, I do not.
>> Thank you, Council Member Burke. >> Um, no, I've I've heard some concerns about fly cameras, and I do want you to know that u I'm sure many of us, and I I can definitely guarantee myself that I have looked at some of the most of the
things that have been sent to me. Um some of the things that I find less um persuasive are some of the YouTube videos and people anecdotally saying that this happens and that happens and they can do this to block cameras and they can do that. What I
find more persuasive is the research for example by University of Washington. I found that very interesting to look at. Um but what I find in those in a lot of this research is that um it's usually by what hap ICE and other organizations
getting access to the flock of cameras occurs when it's almost like user error. It's as if the person in charge of deciding who that information is going to be shared with. U the more that they share it, the
more it's like backdoor ways for that information to get out. My understanding is that Richfield is very careful u in limiting with what organizations or what other law enforcement agencies the information is being shared with. I I know that
we'll continue to uh to look into that to see and verify again that you know with whom that information is being shared with. But it seems from a lot of the reading that I've done for example if um if a police force decides to share
information the nationwide. Well, obviously then many organizations are allowed to use that information. But if you're only sharing it with one other organization and it's a local organization, then it makes it more difficult for that to occur.
I also know that there's a state law that makes it very clear where that information can be shared with. And so I would encourage people to look at the state law and see see what that state law is talking about as far as what's happening with that information.
I just want to comment some feedback on what I've received from citizens. Thank you. >> Thank you. Council member here for Liry. >> I just want to share a leazison report from transportation commission also related to ICE. Um there's a lot of
interest from the transportation commission in us looking at a gentler approach to towing and tagging the possibility that somebody has been taken and their car is left um and just in general sort of creating extra duress at this time. So I understand that staff are looking into what they've discussed
both research how much this has really happened and what are sort of options are to do that wouldn't impact public safety or other issues. So, I think that is forthcoming, but wanted to let you know that there was a lot of interest in that from the transportation commission. >> Thank you, Council Member Coleman Woods.
>> Thank you. And um thank you to everyone who came out tonight and advocated for change and for justice. I have been thinking a lot about our children during this time of crisis and what their future is going to look like and the future we want to build when
we're all when this is all over. And I know we all work each and every day across the community for our neighbors and for justice. It's true we make mistakes, but we also do a lot of good. So, please give each other grace because everybody's doing the best they can and
we are determined and we won't give up. Our community has been working to provide food rides, rental and mortgage assistance, and so much more. One thing I want to talk about right now is the long-term goal to help stabilize the local small businesses so families have
jobs to go back to when when they get back and get a way to get back on their feet. And it was very telling listening to the small business owners and how it's affecting many many people. And so we want to and keep those small businesses and find
ways to assist them so that families do have jobs to go back to. Um, if you are a business owner or know a business owner, I would encourage people to please sign up for the business bulletin. If you go to the city website and you just um put in the search
business bulletin, it'll sign up a way for you to get to the form for that. Like in the last issue, it had a list of resources and grant programs to help local businesses survive. And so there's a lot of different different things in there and it and I know I was out in the
public last week and people had asked can we make sure that all that information gets shared. So spread the word if you look for that business bulletin that's where we're condensing and putting a lot of that information to help people. Um, another long-term effect of this crisis that we need to
start thinking about now, and I was pleased to find out that Bloomington Public Health has already started on this, is how our community will heal from the trauma because there is trauma going on caused by Operation Metro Surge. And we need to find ways to
support our children especially, but all of our residents because it's affecting everyone. So, we're going to have it's going to take a while to work through that as we go through the math of this siege. So, please continue speaking up and sending your ideas because we need those ideas
and I appreciate that everyone who came out and all the people that have been contacting us. So, with that, um, I would accept a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. City clerk Friedrich, could you please call the
role? >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor Supple. Council member Burke, >> I. >> Council member Hayford Olyri. >> Hi. Council member Christensen. >> Hi. >> Council member Coleman Woods. >> Hi. >> And Mayor Supple. >> I. >> Thank you. >> Meeting stands adjourned.