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MEMORANDUM To:St. Anthony Village City Council From:Charlie Yunker, City Manager and Jeff Spiess, Police Chief Date:May 28, 2024 City Council Work Session Request:Potential Renewal of Police Partnership with the City of Falcon Heights BACKGROUND At its regular meeting on April 23, 2024 the City Council approved continuing the exploratory process of a renewed police service partnership with the City of Falcon Heights. This moves the process into Phase 3 where a final decision is made based upon a final contract, and agreed-upon timeframe for implementation which is based on many logistical details. As a part of the discussion Council noted particular items they would like to review as the process continues. Those included: Lessons learned from the previous relationship A Police Department SWOT Analysis Benefits to the City and the Police department on a renewed partnership Appropriately sharing/mitigating risk Financial plan that would not increase the Saint Anthony tax levy from a renewed partnership A staffing plan and timeline to support expansion of the department when hiring is very challenging Since the April 23rd meeting staff from both cities have continued exploratory work and following is an update on that progress to date. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIP & SHARING RISK As formal and informal conversations taken place and community feedback has been received on this topic, three areas of concern have been raised to mitigate: Ensure participating City Councils foster an effective partner relationship Clearly defined service expectations, chain of command, and authority over policing strategies Appropriate sharing financial impact of extraordinary incidents Staff has the below ideas to offer for consideration on addressing these areas: CITY COUNCILS’ RELATIONSHIP The three participating City Councils should establish a formal or informal commitment to regularly communicating and building relationships. I.e. coordinating attendance at conferences and events or an annual joint formal meeting that may or may not focus on police services. The overall objective to be that the policy-makers that ultimately control the partnership establish continuity as members change and each community evolves so there is stability for the Police Department and the Police Officers that would serve the combined communities of Saint Anthony Village, Falcon Heights and Lauderdale.