HomeMy WebLinkAboutCCWkspMin 6-7-171 | P a g e
Falcon Heights City Council Workshop
City Hall
2077 W Larpenteur Ave.
6:30 P.M.
MINUTES
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Call to Order: 6:30 pm
1. The Hendrickson- Proposed Senior (55+) Housing Development
Presentation was made by the Kelly Brothers. There are a few components to making this ready: text
amendments made to allow for a revised land-use, density, and parking adjustments. It will be marketed
as independent senior units (55+), but typically it’s 75 and older. This is a rental property. Timing-wise
they would plan to break ground next spring. The units would have two bedrooms, but most would be
occupied by one person.
They are about 70 parking stalls on the site. Some of the persons that live on site would likely not drive.
There will also be assigned parking underground. In regards to stormwater run off, they plan to have
extensive underground storage tanks to manage it, similar to their Highland Park property.
In regards to emergency vehicle access to the building, there won’t be an asphalt road, but the grassy
area will be able to handle the fire trucks driving over it due to the installation of a grated structure
under the grass.
There still needs to be a conversation with the Met Council about the mixed usage. Originally, the Met
Council did not want two PUDs for the lots under one ownership.
2. Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office – Policing Services
St. Anthony City Council passed a resolution to put an indemnification clause in the contract. The
Council was not in favor of this turn in the contract, so the city sent out an RFI to neighboring police
departments. Ramsey County responded with interest. There are a few options available when
discussing a contract with Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. There’s a base service provided, there are
additional add-on options, and there are independent services.
Ramsey County Sheriff Jack Serier, with Undersheriff Teri Soukkala who are stationed out of Arden Hills,
stated that they always want to at least make themselves available to Ramsey County municipalities.
They do not want to get into a bidding war with municipalities within Ramsey County, and they believe
their services should be revenue neutral. Good community policing in the end, meets the needs of
citizens. What drives this conversation is, what is it that Falcon Heights is looking for as far as law
enforcement services? In addition, what is a community willing to spend to have different options
available to them? The independent contract has a different flavor to it. Otherwise, being a part of the
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contract group made up of seven municipalities. Those city managers meet monthly. Council Members
and Mayors of the cities are also able to attend those meetings. The contract cities group is an
agreement between all of the cities on how they are going to pool resources. Part of the conversation, if
interested, would be having to enter into discussion about a contract that is currently occurring. The city
would need to request to be a part of this contract cities model. These cities really drive what services
are provided. Some cities pay extra to go above what they receive in this contract. They have had a
community service officer (CSO) and Deputies that have been paid to be full-time and committed to one
community. This would be on top of the services that are already being provided to them. If the city
would like to continue in conversation about this, he would request that the city respond by formal
letter that they would like to pursue discussions.
Normal scope of services that a city gets in the basic group model:
Basic service: calls for service (911, medicals, cases that require investigation), there’s patrol services,
and traffic enforcement. The main thing they want is to be very responsive to the cities that they serve.
All of the communities currently share borders. The complicating factor is that the other cities are
contiguous and Falcon Heights does not share a border. That would require further discussions. Having a
backup patrol/squad car becomes an issue with the distance or relying on neighboring communities for
backup that may be tied up. There are a lot of variables to work through.
In terms of number of hours per day present:
10am-8pm they have the most staffing available. During that time, they have 10 cars available because it
is the busiest time. Over the night shift they have five cars available (8pm-6am). They do not go below
their minimums.
Community engagement:
They have a category within the CAD system for proactive police visits. This could include going to the
library, stopping at the park, checking strip mall doors on a midnight shift. What are they doing above
and beyond and how do they quantify that? They currently do hot dog with a deputy- the Sheriff’s
Foundation is funding this. Yesterday they went through 750 hot dogs rather than their 400 in previous
years. They do shop with a cop, coffee with a cop, and they make themselves available to residents.
They follow up with concerns after these visits. Their staff if very bare bones and they are very busy
throughout the year. If another city is added to that, these could be a la cart options. Last year they had
162 parties for Night to Unite. They attend these and it’s growing every year. The County Attorneys
office joins in and City Council members as well.
Respect, responsibility, honor and truth are their characteristics that they have identified as their values
when hiring. They are also looking for someone that has an eye for community engagement. They are
looking for people with a heart of service. Diversity is reflected in leadership from top to bottom. They
have been in a hiring cycle right now. They are very passionate about both racial and gender equity.
Policies in place for cultural competency training?
They recently completed a four-day training called Why We Serve, and they had speakers on mental
health, race, and race equity. They also talked about historical issues. They wanted to have bigger
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discussions on this in the format of a conference. Part of his job is to provide refreshment to his staff
and refocus them. The purpose of the conference was to help connect them back to why they serve.
Data collection and reporting of data to the city:
In February they began collecting additional data on traffic stops and race data (reason, person
searched, vehicle searched, arrest, criminal activity, moving violation, registration, etc). They are
currently not putting this data out but they can work towards doing something like that.
Body Cameras:
They do not have them, but they do have an interest in them. They are meeting with vendors and
beginning to have discussions on cost, implementation, and timeline. They are also looking at potentially
pooling with other agencies if they make the purchase. They are trying to prepare budget-wise to
purchase them outright. They also would have to prepare to store this data when implementing
something like body cameras, and they are in the process of building a system that would have those
capabilities.
Falcon Heights has annual reports from a police chief and monthly attendance from the Police Chief in a
Community Engagement Commission. How would that fit into a model?
Typically the interface that is currently happening at those monthly contract cities meetings can last on
average up to two hours. Other types of interface would be with Undersheriff Soukkala, because he
works on day to day policing issues. Each one of the communities they serve are very different and have
different challenges.
Are officers measured on proactive police visits? Is it encouraged?
It is encouraged. There are several methods to proactive police visits. They can raise the visibility by
hiring more staff and putting more squad cars out there. They can also make note of areas with higher
crimes and they will spend time in those areas and invest in the community’s needs. They do
performance evaluations, and they see it as important to encourage their staff to do proactive visits for
the right reasons, such as preventing crime. They know that they get results because their community
surveys come back with extremely high reviews. If you want to see the types of crime/stops that happen
in Ramsey County, that information can be viewed online at communitycrimemap.com. Times of day can
be selected on the website. Things they would take into consideration with Falcon Heights are their past
calls for service. They have an analyst and they review the data to look at crime trends. They use
technology to guide their services as much as possible.
Cost:
The contract cities cost equation is based on land mass, population, cases investigated, and calls for
service. These components would determine the percentage of the pool that a city is responsible for. In
order to come up with estimates, Ramsey County would need to know what Falcon Heights wants from
them. One of the things that would need to be reviewed is the baseline of the current services received
from St. Anthony and where the city wants to go from there. Other cities contracts are hosted online.
Amount of training?
They have a core amount of training that they require every year. Then they have post plus training that
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is more catered to different roles within the Sheriff’s Office. Last year they made requirements of an
Implicit Bias 1 and Implicit Bias 2 training. They are expanding on the number of trainings that are
required by staff.
What is the grievance/complaints process?
There is an internal affairs complaint process. Staff or public can also contact supervisors, a less formal
process.
Difference between a Sheriff’s Office and Police Department?
A Sheriff’s role is a support to the Police Chiefs. The County has correctional facilities/court security, law
enforcement services, and they have countywide jurisdiction. Ramsey County also has a great
relationship with the Fire Departments they work with. They do emergency management training, but
that is not a formal role they take on.
In order to provide police services with a catered model, Ramsey County would need to start hiring staff,
but he cannot guarantee that would be available by Jan 2018.
3. Task Force Inclusion Recommendations
Presentation by Melanie Leehy and Kathy Quick on Inclusion
Specific implementation actions:
They seek to implement two resources and recommends sustaining them for at least 3-5 years.
Create a dedicated truth, racial, and healing committee
The committee is not an exclusion of other diversity, but racial issues is where the healing is
needed and it needs to be addressed.
Dedicate (reassign duties or hire) city staff time to forge partnerships, find grants, recruit
volunteers to sustain these efforts- keep committed to improvement
Enhance the welcome packet and include resources to building relationships across differences
Ask that the City Council commit city staff to build its own capacity to participate or support
these efforts.
Recommend existing programs, enhance the website, and provide training
Inclusion means providing variety in the types of activities
Address specific sources of disparities: expand affordable housing options consider Roseville
Area Schools programs and initiatives on mentorship, internships, etc. They have discussed
having an equity culture. Challenge is getting people to show up and participate. Considering
having a variety of events because different sized events cater to different kinds of people.
Promote healing by connecting with community partners doing excellent work: Science
Museum, MHS, Ramsey County Recorders office, registrar of titles, project of Augsburg college
to make visible historic patterns, Ramsey County libraries
Recognize and promote businesses to support this work. Involve local employers in youth
development initiatives
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Expand partnerships with the University of Minnesota: Center for Urban and Regional Affairs,
Center for Integrated Leadership, etc.
Work with foundations: Wilder, Bush, JAMS, St. Paul, and Minneapolis
National initiative for building community trust and initiatives
Work with existing organizations on how to build relationships across differences
Arts is another tool that can be utilized
Roseville has a committed staff person for volunteer coordination.
Build committee and capacity: website should have accessibility to values, work on inclusion,
etc.
Expand newsletter to include highlights on work with racial equity and inclusion
Expand cities information packets on block parties (ex. how to do courageous conversations)
Use newsletter/website to support related work and what other community events are doing
Find ways to connect with landlords so they have up to date information
Sustain/expand trainings
Continue to host the events in place but enhance them to have resources/building relationships
There are concerns about staff time and resources when we gear up for budget discussions. There will
also need to be discussions with the Community Engagement Commission to begin implementing what
is feasible now.
Adjournment: 9:09 pm
_____________________________
Peter Lindstrom, Mayor
Dated this 7th day of June, 2017
__________________________________
Sack Thongvanh, City Administrator