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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC MINUTES 060920201 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 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 47 48 CITY OF ST. ANTHONY CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES JUNE 9, 2020 CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Stille called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. Mayor Stille invited the Council and audience to join him in the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL. Present: Absent: Also Present: Guests: Mayor Stille, Councilmembers Jenson, Randle, Walker and Webster. None City Manager Mark Casey, Assistant to the City Manager Charlie Yunker, and Police Chief Jon Mangseth, and Fire Chief/Emergency Manager Mark Sitarz. None. CONSIDERATION, DISCUSSION, AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. I. APPROVAL OF JUNE 9, 2020 CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA. Motion by Councilmember Randle, seconded by Councilmember Jenson, to approve the City Council Meeting Agenda of June 9, 2020. II. PROCLAMATIONS AND RECOGNITIONS — NONE. III. CONSENT AGENDA. A. B. C. D. Approve May 26, 2020, Council meeting minutes. Approve June 1, 2020, Emergency Council meeting minutes. License and Permits. Claims. Motion carried 5-0. Motion by Councilmember Randle, seconded by Councilmember Walker, to approve the Consent Agenda items. IV. PUBLIC HEARING — NONE. V. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION AND STAFF. Motion carried 5-0. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 9, 2020 Page 2 1 A. Update from Police Chief Jon Mangseth and Fire Chief/Emergency Manager Mark 2 Sitarz. 3 4 City Manager Casey explained both Chiefs will be giving an update to the City Council. He also 5 stated he wanted to introduce the idea to the City Council about the possibility of creating a 6 Public Safety Commission. He envisioned that potentially this commission could be an advisory 7 to the Council and could be composed of residents, a City Council liaison and also supported by 8 staff. This commission could serve as a forum for residents to voice their opinions regarding 9 public safety within the community. The commission could be modeled in some ways after the 10 existing commissions of both the Planning and Parks and Environmental Commissions. What 11 staff would do is follow up with a draft ordinance that would help to define its charge and get 12 input from the Council and if this would be acceptable staff could follow a similar process by 13 taking applications and having the Council perform the interviews and appoint Commissioners. 14 Staff would be looking for some direction if this would be an interest or not of the Council to 15 establish a Public Safety Commission with the opportunity to have staff come back and draft up 16 what the charge of this group would be and also a little bit of some parameters what staff would 17 think some of the duties and focus would be. 18 19 Mayor Stille thanked Mr. Casey and indicated this is sort of a consensual action and would be 20 giving the City Manager the ok to move forward and spend a little internal time on this. He 21 asked if anyone had any comments or questions. 22 23 Councilmember Walker asked what the timeframe would be to have the Commission start. Mr. 24 Casey thought it would depend on how quickly information could come together and if it is 25 acceptable or not. He thought maybe the earliest to get back to the Council would be the Council 26 meeting after the next one for a draft, but he thought there should be a Worksession before then. 27 28 Councilmember Randle asked if there is a mechanism where they could get comments or 29 opinions from the City as a whole. Mr. Casey asked if Councilmember Randle would like 30 comments in regard to the formation of the Commission or what the duties are of the 31 Commission. Councilmember Randle indicated he would like to hear from the community as a 32 whole, just not some portions of the community. Mr. Casey explained one option would be for 33 staff to draft something up and have some discussion at a Worksession and then role that out into 34 the community through the social media platforms or anything else. If this did more forward, it 35 would be done through an ordinance which would require the 3 readings and it would be a little 36 more formalized, but some engagement could be made before that as well. 37 38 Councilmember Jenson hoped that they really think through the process and as we put together 39 what the City wants to put together that it will truly be effective and helpful for the City and that 40 this is not rushed through and due diligence is performed so that the City will have an effective 41 Commission and that there can be certain actions in place or items in place to measure the results 42 of what may happen and if it is working and if it is not working then how does the City make 43 changes to it and improve it. He personally liked the concept. As a member of the Metro Cities, 44 he indicated he was on the Board of Directors, and reached out to the Executive Director and 45 asked her if there are any Cities throughout the Metro area that have some type of Public Safety City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 9, 2020 Page 3 1 Commission in place and he has not received a response back yet. He hoped that maybe there is 2 something that can be gleaned off of other areas or Cities that might be helpful. 3 4 Councilmember Webster indicated she was also curious if there are other communities with a 5 model that St. Anthony could look at. She also knew several communities have a Human Rights 6 Commission and wondered if during the Worksession they might look at this Commission from a 7 broader lens and tie in their mission statement as a City and look at how they can look at the 8 different factors of the health and safety of all of their residents. 9 10 Mayor Stille thought if no one objected, the consensus of the City Council would be to have the 11 City Manager move forward and get the City Council some ideas as to what this might look like 12 and some draft priorities. 13 14 Fire Chief/Emergency Manager Mark Sitarz provided the City Council with a high level and 15 brief overview of how the public safety agencies responded to the recent events tied to the death 16 of Mr. George Floyd. He stated his primary concern and focus as Fire Chief is the safety of the 17 residents of St. Anthony. He stated during the events that happened over the past several days 18 was to focus on taking care of the residents in the City. He noted both the Police Chief and he 19 have access to information from various sources that allows them to keep up to date with what is 20 currently happening, what trends are taking place and what is potentially coming down the road. 21 He stated they were utilizing those sources as was every other City in the Metro Area, using that 22 information in order to have the discussions they had and come up with plans. 23 24 Chief Sitarz explained discussions resulted in St. Anthony having an increased and continuous 25 public safety presence in the community which meant both departments needed to increase 26 staffing in order to make their presence known in the City. From a fire perspective there was 27 multiple apparatus out on the streets with the whole intent of being seen and the Police 28 Department followed the exact same plan. By increasing the number of police on the street they 29 were able to provide City wide coverage and that constant visibility and the goal was met. The 30 departments also used mutual aid and had discussions with neighboring Cities. The common 31 response was the other cities would help as much as possible but depended on what was 32 happening in or around their cities. There were a lot of internal discussions that took place and 33 much of it was about sharing information with staff on what was known, what the plans were and 34 what was needed, and staff responded fantastically. 35 36 Chief Sitarz indicated his staff responded for additional help during this time without hesitation. 37 The majority of St. Anthony Fire Fighters are paid on -call and are full time paramedics and full 38 time Fire Fighters in other Cities as well as other occupations. They left their families to climb 39 on a truck to provide that presence in the Community. These are men and women that truly care 40 and have a true passion for taking care of others and he cannot thank them enough for their 41 courage and dedication and their selflessness. Their goal on this was to be present. The goal 42 was to be seen and they needed to do that and accomplished that and did a good job. He 43 indicated he was in favor of the proposed Public Safety Commission. 44 45 Police Chief Jon Mangseth stated he echoed all of the comments Chief Sitarz expressed. He 46 wanted to make special note as well that the communication was well done and was quite City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 9, 2020 Page 4 1 extensive with the public safety partners, not only locally but across both Ramsey and Hennepin 2 Counties and State and Federal partners. Local cities were left pretty much on their own due to 3 needing heavy amount of assets and resources that were positioned to assist with things that were 4 occurring not only in Minneapolis and St. Paul but in other area as well. He believed they were 5 very effective in their response and in fact on May 28th the Minnesota Department of Public 6 Safety along with local public safety agencies and partners initiated the Multi -Agency Command 7 Center (MACC) as both a proactive and reactive security measure for activities related to and 8 due to the in -custody death of Mr. George Floyd in Minneapolis. 9 10 Chief Mangseth indicated the department accessed information that was supplied to them via the 11 Minnesota Fusion Center, which is housed with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and also 12 the Criminal Information Sharing Analysis Unit (CISA) housed in Hennepin County. This was 13 crucial for them in being able to dial in what their operation response would be. In conjunction 14 with communicating with outside agencies and public safety partners and information received 15 through the MACC the department was able to set up a response that involved somewhat of a 16 heavy presence in terms of City vehicles and City uniforms patrolling and being visible in the 17 City at all hours of the day and night. He explained they did learn through these resources that 18 certain groups that were developing within certain areas were targeting certain locations, such as 19 grocery stores, retail locations and gas stations. He noted they were very cognizant of this 20 information and strategic in terms of deploying resources and patrol patterns that would in 21 essence cover those areas. 22 23 Chief Mangseth stated the officers along with City fire staff committed to proactive patrolling of 24 the community businesses and were actually very proactive in terms of going into businesses and 25 meeting with store employees and management to provide them with the information the 26 department was learning and hopefully setting them up well to be situationally aware and 27 respond to any issues that they had approaching into their businesses. He felt that overall the 28 City experienced very light traffic as it related to part one crimes compared with other, larger 29 suburbs with more retail. 30 31 Chief Mangseth explained he issued a statement on the Police Department Social Media 32 Platform on Wednesday, May 27th and it read in part "As a Police Officer and Chief of a Police 33 Department, I can say the actions of the primary officers in the video are unacceptable and very 34 hard to watch", referencing the videos that appeared on the media. "I remain disheartened that 35 the tragic events took place. These types of actions forever tarnish the good work Police 36 Officers do and have been doing in the community each and every day. I have since cycled 37 through stages of grief, anger, and frustration along with the City Staff, Police Officers and Fire 38 Fighters but we have remained focused on leadership through these tragic and difficult times. I 39 have emphasized repeatedly to our Police Officers that everything we do as Police Officers must 40 be plausibly articulated and reflect our department strategic planned mission and vision. The 41 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis disturbs me to the core. It bothers me as a leader of a 42 Police Department. It bothers me as a human being, and it bothers me as a person of faith. I am 43 in complete agreement with other Police Chiefs across the Nation and that if you are currently a 44 Police Officer and you watch the video and you think in any way, shape or form that it was 45 acceptable, reasonable use of force, I want you to turn in your badge to me immediately because 46 that does not follow the principals established here with the Police Department and even with City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 9, 2020 Page 5 1 greater public service. I want out community to know that we will continue to ensure that our 2 officers are receiving the highest levels of training to keep our community safe." 3 4 Mayor Stille thanked Chief Mangseth for the heartfelt statement and the work done by both 5 Chiefs. He asked if there were any questions or comments from the Council. 6 7 Councilmember Jenson stated he asked that as the City develops the process for a Public Safety 8 Commission and they get a draft process in place that it is clear how this will drive actions that 9 will improve fairness, equity and justice and the leadership as well as the staff of St. Anthony. 10 11 Mayor Stille stated the killing of George Floyd was a senseless tragedy and does not make sense. 12 He stated they have to do better and commit to doing what is right. He knew the policing has 13 gone through a lot of numerations and improvements over the years and have implemented 21 st 14 Century policing policy and initiatives. The community came out during the Department of 15 Justice exercise, the cops' program, and said they wanted de-escalation training emphasized on 16 procedural justice. Fair and impartial policing, crisis intervention and communication and the 17 City has done that. The City has dedicated officers that are here to make sure that nothing like 18 this ever happens in this community. 19 20 Councilmember Walker stated he would not say this is a statement that would disagree with what 21 Chief Mangseth just said but he would say when a Police Department does its job correctly it is 22 functioning where it is committed to impartial policing justice and so forth, there is no need to be 23 concerned about being tarnished. If you are doing your job right as a department or as an 24 individual officers the community would not view you as being tarnished, they would make a 25 distinction between your performance and what happened to George Floyd. As far as what 26 happened to George Floyd, he hoped that not only St. Anthony, but Minnesota, the Country and 27 the World will see that this is not an isolated case and that this was an unprofessional act of this 28 unprofessionally acting Police Officer and that it is not an isolated thing, there is a systemic issue 29 that needs to be addressed and he is concerned that people would demonize this officer who 30 killed George Floyd and say that is the end of the story and we can move on. To look at that 31 situation and say that is systemic of something much larger and to look at policing as something 32 that needs to be reformed. Yes, an individual was responsible for George Floyds death, but he is 33 a symptom of a much larger issue and that should be the focus of people's anger and frustration, 34 not directed at just that individual officer but at a system. That is not saying that a system entails 35 that the individual members of the system are bad Police Officers for the department but there is 36 overall a system that needs to be reformed even though there are officers and good departments, 37 that still does not rule out a systemic reform for Police Departments around the Country. 38 39 Councilmember Webster stated leadership matters and as a community member and a 40 Councilmember she was grateful for Chief Sitarz and Chief Mangseth' leadership in the 41 community. She was also grateful that neither one settles, and both are focused on continuous 42 improvement in the departments and she wanted to thank them for that. As shared earlier, the 43 murder or George Floyd was not only congeable, but his death was preventable. The world 44 watched as Mr. Floyd died as a knew was pressed against his neck for eight minutes and forty- 45 six seconds and after reflecting on the horrific death she reflected on the symbolism of the image 46 of the knee in his neck and one of the things she thought about is Mr. Chauvin's knee really City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 9, 2020 Page 6 1 highlighted in plain site the impact of systemic racism throughout society. Systemic racism does 2 exist in every facet of society and a white person may not see it, however, systemic racism is 3 real, is deadly and it exists and if you live in the US, you breath in systemic racism every day and 4 it is important to acknowledge and to start to see it and it is even more important that it is 5 dismantled. Systemic racism exists in housing, schools, health care, law enforcement, the 6 economy and impacts every facet of the world. As mentioned before, leadership matters and the 7 task as leaders is to help dismantle it and although words matter, actions are even stronger. 8 9 VI. GENERAL BUSINESS OF COUNCIL. 10 11 A. Reducing Speed Limit of City Streets to 25 mph 12 13 City Manager Casey reviewed the staff report with the Council. 14 15 Motion by Councilmember Webster, seconded by Councilmember Jenson, to approve the second 16 reading of Reducing Speed Limit of City Streets to 25 mph. 17 18 Motion carried 5-0. 19 20 VII. REPORTS FROM CITY MANAGER AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. 21 22 Councilmember Jenson stated he attended the Ramsey County Local League of Governments on 23 June 5th. The primary discussion was collected work between cities on surveys. 24 25 Councilmember Walker stated on June 2nd Dana Healy of CTV sent out an email to all the 26 Commissioners regarding how CTV can play a role in facilitating conversation around the 27 death/murder of George Floyd in such a way of having various members of the community come 28 in and have a conversation. She wanted to know what the Commissioner's thought and as far as 29 he knew he was the only one that chimed in. There was a zoom session and discussion about the 30 State of Affairs in the Country. The process that has gone on and trying to understand even the 31 looting without condoning, how sociologically and even from an issue of oppression how that is 32 occurring. It was not a recorded zoom meeting, just a discussion. 33 34 Mayor Stille stated he attended the Regional Council of Mayors meeting on June 8th and there 35 was a lot of talk about affordable housing initiatives and what the Legislature has in front of it 36 that might not happen given some of the stalling that has gone on with COVID-19. Given the 37 strong need for affordable housing in the region, it was a little disheartening to see that may or 38 not occur. There was also a round table and Mayor Frey was there and talked a little bit about 39 what some of the decisions have gone on in Minneapolis. He thought Mayor Frey has taken a lot 40 of heat, but Mayor Frey is in a tough position and doing the best he can, and his heart is in the 41 right place. 42 43 Mayor Stille noted he also attended the Mississippi Watershed Organization Board meeting and 44 talked about watershed assessments. There was a City gathering for the George Floyd memorial 45 and he attended for about an hour. He indicated it was nicely done in honor of George Floyd. 46 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 9, 2020 Page 7 1 VIII. COMMUNITY FORUM. 2 3 Mayor Stille invited residents to come forward at this time and address the Council on items that 4 are not on the regular agenda. 5 6 City Manager Casey read an email from Kate Martin, 2513 30th Avenue NE, St. Anthony 7 regarding releasing data related to race and SAV policing at the February 22, 2018 Collaborative 8 Reform Initiative Community Update. 9 10 Mayor Stille thanked Ms. Martin for the email and indicated for specific questions please email 11 or call City staff. 12 13 City Manager Casey read an email from Mr. Dan Spriggs, 3331 Stinson Boulevard, St. Anthony 14 regarding the City of St. Anthony, its history, and the need to confront racism and fix any issues. 15 16 IX. INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS. 17 18 None. 19 20 X. ADJOURNMENT. 21 22 Mayor Stille adjourned the meeting at 7:45 p.m. 23 24 25 Respectfully submitted, 26 Sue Osbeck 27 TimeSaver Off Site Secretarial, Inc. 28 29 �, Mayor 30 ATTEST: .lei 31 City lerk