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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 City Council Joint Town Hall Meeting Minutes April 18, 2024 Page 5 believe it is our responsibility to model respect and civility in our interactions with one another and with community members. We recognize that exploring a police service partnership with Falcon Heights can generate a range of emotions. Tonight, our objective is to provide an opportunity to listen to community members and for councilmembers to hear and understand multiple perspectives. Our goal is to ensure an environment which emphasizes respect and civility. We expect our community members to commit to this goal too. Members of the public will have three minutes to share their perspectives. At the end of three minutes, we will restate the themes we heard from each community member to ensure understanding before moving onto the next community member. Speakers are requested to come to the podium, state their name and address for the records, and limit their remarks to three minutes. The Mayor reserves the right to limit off topic discussion. No community member will be given an opportunity to speak a second time until everyone, who wishes to speak, has had an opportunity to do so. Please limit the second presentation to new information and not rebuttals. Gary Huss, 3224 Croft Drive, asked what the response time the SAPD would need to meet to get to Falcon Heights. Now police officers are going very fast to calls. He asked if a cost benefit analysis has been done. What will this cost the taxpayers? How many more squad cars will be needed for the additional 9 people? Why are we hiring someone to survey the police department. Why is he not speaking for the department. What is the Police Chief s position on this issue? Are we dedicating two police officers to be in Falcon Heights at all times? How much time needs to be spent in Falcon Heights for this to work? The distance from St. Anthony to Falcon Heights is 5.2 miles. Who will they support first if two calls at the same time? This is more tax money that doesn't need to be spent. Laura LaBarge, 2909 Townview, stated she does not see any advantage to the partnership. There is a high cost for facility expansion and raising taxes for St. Anthony residents. There is an increased legal risk. She cited some statistics. There is a shortage of police officers state-wide. Randy Stille, 3717 Rankin Road, talked about risks. He was on Council in July 2016. Council learned that partnerships bring risks. This could happen again (shooting). It could happen to a good police department. The reputational risk is huge. There is operational risk and St. Anthony suffered greatly and legal fees were in six figures. The Council shouldered this on their own. Falcon Heights sent St. Anthony a bill for barricades. This is a risky business model. He asked Council to use common sense. He is not in favor of this partnership. Ramsey County is required to support Falcon Heights and they do not want to and neither do Roseville or St. Paul. We tried it once and it didn't work. We should not try it again. There were several off camera comments. Joan Peterson, 3200 Hilldale, stated she and her husband have attended most of the meetings including meetings in Falcon Heights. She understands how Falcon Heights wants SAPD policing services. They are protective over the SAPD. Eleven people would need to be hired for expansion and retiree replacements. The department is still grieving over July 2016. If a new police station was built taxes would increase. Falcon Heights residents should be asked if they would build a new police station to serve another community. Two percent responded in St. Anthony to the survey which does not provide enough input to make a decision.