Call the special meeting of the St.

Palace City Council to order.

Roll call, please.

Coleman.

Here.

Johnson.

Here.

Joast.

Here.

Bowie.

Here.

Kim.

Here.

Yang.

Council President Naker.

Here.

Seven present, non-absent.

Thank you so much to everyone for taking time to join us for tonight's truth in taxation meeting.

It is good to see our chambers so full.

We're here tonight to talk about how public dollars are spent and to talk about our budget and our values.

But before we begin, I want to start by saying that all of us around this table are like you deeply concerned about the events that unfolded in our city today.

This is a city and this is a council that values safety and inclusion for everyone, no matter who you are.

And we have passed resolution after resolution demanding an end to fascism and hatred and violence.

And I think I speak for all of us around this table and probably many of us in this room when I say we are coming together tonight angry and confused and hurt and sad and just full of questions about what we saw unfold in our city today.

Tonight we don't have those answers, but we will be demanding them over the days to come.

And while tonight we are here for a very specific purpose, our truth and taxation hearing, uh, we are having a public hearing.

And anyone who is here tonight to speak on any subject, everyone will have two minutes to speak on that subject, and we invite you up to share your thoughts.

I'm gonna have the unenviable job of keeping time and keeping order, and I appreciate in advance your help with that.

Um and I'm gonna turn things over to Kamud Verma, who is our chief budget officer to give a brief presentation about the budget that was proposed to us.

Welcome up, Ms.

Virma.

Thank you, Council President and Council members.

Um, my name is Komud Verma.

I'm the City Council Chief Budget Officer.

My role is to support the council in reviewing the proposed budget and offering insights to facilitate their decision making.

Tonight I will present an overview of the proposed 2026 budget.

Um, I have a couple of couple of slides here to share with all of you.

Prior to reviewing the budget, uh please note that the city council is scheduled to adopt the budget during its uh regular meeting on December 3rd.

The meeting will begin at 3 30 p.m.

and uh it will be held at the city hall.

Community members are encouraged to review the budget documents online for detailed information regarding the 2020 2026 budget proposal.

These documents can be accessed through the city's official website under the budget and financial reports section.

The website offers comprehensive resources, including the full proposed budget, departmental overviews, and summaries of key initiatives.

Please visit the city website to explore the budget and stay informed about city's financial planning process and priorities.

2026 proposed budget includes property tax levy of 232.5 million, 180 million of that supports the journal fund, 22 million 26 million supports the debt service levy, 23 million of that is going to be going to go going to be allocated to the public library agency, and 2.9 million dollars will be levied on behalf of the Port Authority.

23 million of that is going to be going to go to be allocated to the public library agency.

And 2.9 million dollars will be levied on behalf of the Port Authority.

The total levy increase over 2025 is 5.3%.

On this slide, you can see the impact of all proposed changes on a typical St.

Paul home.

Median home value in 2026 is expected to be 289,200.

This home would see an increase of 107 that's uh that's in city property taxes, 45 increase in sanitary sewer charges, $18 increase in storm sewer fee, $5 fee for the recycling fee, uh, no increases being proposed to the trash collection, and there is going to be a $57 increase related to the water charges.

For 2026, the total proposed budget would increase total charges on a typical St.

Paul home, median value home for 232 dollars.

The proposed budget reflects responsibilities in managing the resources wisely and advancing the city for a safe, connected, and prepared future.

2026 budget allocated $13.1 million for the to the housing and economic opportunity.

This includes $6.6 million for housing production, $4.9 million for housing affordability, and one $1.6 million allocated to economic opportunities.

City is investing $3 million to modernize services and enhance operational efficiency through strategic technology initiative.

Key allocations include $626,000 in new permitting and licensing system called poly, $1.08 million in cybersecurity investments, $115,000 in grant management system, $450,000 in street marking vehicles, $100,000 in facilities management study, 60,000 in mobile device management audit, 100,000 for priority-based budget consulting, 116,000 in Kennaby's registration administration, 166,000 for the data practice team, and 200,000 in access and security of council office.

To summarize, I think I did I miss.

Nope, this is it.

To summarize, um, the proposed budget reflects a range of priorities, including public safety, sustainability, infrastructure, and community services.

The budget proposal attempts to address and balance various community needs.

The next steps involve adopting all budgets and setting the property tax levy on Wednesday, December 3rd.

We welcome community input.

Community feedback will continue to inform the final budget.

At last, I want to thank everyone for their time and engagement in the city's budgeting process.

We encourage you to review the budget documents available online and provide your feedback to help ensure that our resources are effectively meeting the needs of the community.

That's all I had for tonight, Council President.

Thank you so much.

Great.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Verma.

I I also want to acknowledge, first of all, just uh if I think we're standing room only, so I would love to encourage folks if there's a space next to you that you can maybe shift in just a little bit.

Um we can make we can make room, we can have a big tent, and it would be great to be able to allow everyone to be able to sit down if they'd like to.

So thank you for your help in doing that.

Um I also think it's important to note that we are required by the state to hold a truth in taxation hearing at this time of year and actually at this exact time of day.

We have to start at 6 p.m.

or later.

This is by state statute.

One of the things that has been very frustrating to our council for a long time is that by this time in the budget process, we are very far along with the budget development, and having truth in taxation now, while we are required to do it by the state also feels kind of disingenuous, right?

We want to actually hear from you about what you want in the budget.

And so while we are having this hearing tonight, as we are required to do, I think it's important to point out that we have also had much earlier engagement with the community about the mayor's proposal.

He proposed his budget in August.

We had one citywide budget event in September that many of you attended.

Thank you for being there.

And then all of us in our wards have had separate budget community engagement events over the months since.

And we've gotten a lot of great feedback.

The budget that you just heard Ms.

Verma present was the mayor's proposal.

If you've been one of our millions of viewers following along at home over the last few months, you have probably seen that we are proposing a number of amendments to the mayor's proposal that were not reflected in that presentation because they haven't been adopted yet.

And those amendments are directly related to what we've heard from you.

For example, we have heard invest in frontline workers.

We have heard invest in front facing services.

We have heard do not cut hours at libraries and rec centers.

We have heard do not cut firefighters and first responders.

We have heard that we need basic infrastructure like lighting.

We have heard that we need funding for our district councils and our commercial corridors and our small businesses and our immigration defense fund, which is maybe more important than ever right now.

We have heard all of this and more from you, and we have incorporated that into the budget amendments that we are proposing.

So while I know that those are not what we're what was just presented because they haven't been adopted, please know that we have been listening.

We're going to continue listening tonight.

And what you just heard presented is not the final budget.

So with that, um, as I said earlier, we are going to move into our public hearing.

If you missed um my framing earlier tonight, I wanted to um make sure that folks know that this is about truth and taxation.

But we are welcoming folks tonight to take your two minutes to speak on any issue that brought you here tonight.

My job is to make sure that we give everybody the same two minutes.

We have a full room, um, and we want to make sure that all of us up here are able to give the same amount of attention to the last person as we do to the first person.

So it's not fun, but I'm going to be really stopping everybody at the two minute mark.

Um so in a moment, when we call for the public hearing, we'll invite people to line up on both sides of the microphones.

We'll go alternate sides.

When it's your turn, come up, stand between the microphones, say your name and where you're coming from.

And once you've done that, we'll start the two-minute timer.

You'll see it start right in front of you.

Um, and then you'll have two minutes to share your thoughts with us this evening.

When you're done speaking, please make sure to sign in at one of the two sign-in sheets.

And uh then at the very end, I'll make some quick closing remarks and we'll go from there.

Does that sound good?

All right.

With that, this is our public hearing, uh, our truth and taxation public hearing.

We invite folks up to comment.

Come on up.

Welcome up.

And oh, sorry.

And you you can adjust you can leave the microphones exactly where they are.

They'll they'll pick you up just fine, and you can also stand up straight, you don't need to lean over to them.

They're they're high tech.

Please go ahead.

Uh hello, my name is Brian Bergson, 2047 Dayton, uh, St.

Paul, obviously.

I'd like to say that I'm a little bit disappointed in this podium because I'm disabled and would like to have been able to sit down, but this doesn't look like it's um compatible for that.

My property taxes have doubled in the last four years.

I live on a fixed income.

I'm a disabled veteran from the war in Afghanistan.

And my disability goes up less than what you're asking us to pay in property taxes.

Well, I'm happy that my home is gaining market value.

Uh it's going up at an unsustainable rate for me.

There is a property tax problem in this city.

And the only way that the taxes can come down is if you don't spend as much money.

There seems to be a program for every problem.

And I saw on the screen tonight that there's um support for for housing.

We know we all agree with that.

We all want uh people to have a safe place to live.

But you're pushing people like me out.

And um I wish there was a program for the disabled for the elderly.

I guess I'm getting close to being both.

I look like Santa Claus.

Um, but there doesn't seem to be.

And I would encourage you, you know.

I know this is late in the process.

We all could have come here earlier to speak about this, but I you know, I've quite frankly given up.

I've called, I've written, I don't get calls back from my council member.

And um I'm uh this is like the fourth year that I've come, and every year you just pass the same budget and give us lip service.

So, you know, do what you can, but I'm not really looking forward to much being done.

Thank you very much, sir.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Well, that was an excellent speech.

It's hard to go uh after that, man.

Nice uh thank you, sir.

Uh my name's Will Thompson.

Uh I'm at 1995 Norfolk Avenue.

I believe I'm in uh councilman showsteria.

And uh I'm here about my taxes as well.

Uh my taxes are, and thank you for the presentation, but it was flawed from what I'm looking at from the tax bill I got.

The property taxes on my 85-year-old home are going up 44%.

That's that's the total number.

Uh the taxes just for the city here are going up 48%, much more than the 5% that you had in the in the uh demonstration piece.

Um the thing is, yes, I've got an 85-year-old home.

It's uh there's this, there's yes, it's in Highland Park, but uh big deal, you know, it's an old home.

Uh and it's you know, it needs help.

Uh I'm like the other gentleman, I'm a veteran myself.

Uh I work for Department of Commerce.

Uh so I'm uh um in my own way out of fixed income.

Uh well, we're working until they tell me uh, you know, I gotta go, which could be any day.

Uh, but the prices for my house have gone up, or at least the value of my house has in one year gone up 36% from uh the market value from 468 to uh 637.

Unbelievable.

No houses are selling for that in that neighborhood in the condition that I have.

I don't know where that number came from.

It's unrealistic.

So I hear what the gentleman said before.

He's this is my first time here.

So uh I don't really know what to expect other than these tax rates are forcing people, working people, out of the city of St.

Paul.

And I thought that is uh would it be important for uh you as a counsel, for you council person uh uh jost to hear on uh behalf of uh your your uh constituent, and uh I'm hoping you don't pass this.

I'm hoping you're able to do that.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Put spending somewhere.

And make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jeffrey Piquette.

I live at 1410 Portland Avenue in St.

Paul.

Um, I'm here to talk about the activity of federal agents today on Rose Street.

Um, I was one of um uh a handful of people that were first to show up to the scene, and there was a uh it was at a house.

There were agents um in the yard, some agents in the on the three seasoned porch that were um attempting to try and talk to some people inside the house.

Um I had a megaphone with me.

I used my megaphone and my Spanish skills to to inform the residents of the rights not to open the door, not to talk to the agents.

Um what was most frustrating and makes me furious and sad and sick is that the collaboration of the St.

Paul police department later on in the protest.

The policemen showed up, they began to push protesters from the front of the house westward uh down Rose Street.

I was physically grabbed by a police officer, shoved back, and then sprayed with uh pepper spray in a plume of smoke, only for asking why are we being moved?

You're respecting our right to protest, but why are we being moved?

What's going on?

I then was continually being being pushed back.

I had a stream of some type of chemical irritant or pepper spray sprayed directly into my eyeball from a police officer that was outside of my peripheral vision.

My eye still burns hours later, my face still burns hours later, my skin is sensitive to the touch.

I was cooking a late lunch today.

My hand was affected by the heat on the stove because the chemical irritant is still there.

It's under my fingernails still.

And this is St.

Paul police department doing this.

This is not federal agents.

The Federal Agents are disgusting, terrorists, and they wear masks or cowards.

The police department was the same way today.

They wore their gas masks, they protected themselves, they hurt people, they brought aggression and violence, and it is not right, and I'm sick of the platitudes from the mayor and any city council members that are saying that the police is not collaborating with agents because they are.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Isaac Milkey.

I'm a resident of Board 2.

As you all know, I'm the president of Aspen Local 1842 City of St.

Paul Technical.

Um, we're going into contract negotiations right now.

We had our first meeting yesterday.

Um our vice president Tabitha likes to call the City of St.

Paul the Walmart of Public Employers.

I checked, and the University Avenue Target is hiring cashiers at 1775 an hour.

That's the same starting wage for library and rec center workers.

These employees take care of our children, they're mandated reporters, and they take de-escalation trains for violent incidents.

Most of these employees are women, people of color, and part-time.

According to the city's commitment to equity.

Sorry, I have to laugh at that.

Uh our leaders are guided by an unapologetic equity agenda.

I don't see the equity in poverty wages.

One of our members found our contract from 25 years ago.

If our wages had kept up with inflation, they would be about $3 an hour higher.

That would be a 10% raise for me.

This makes complete sense.

We can't hire people, we can't keep people at these wages.

We have vacancies all the time.

I think we had 23 vacancies for one job title in Breck.

Members of the City Council, you have the power to change this.

You can be these leaders who are guided by an unapologetic equity agenda that we don't have in our departments and who don't have an HR.

And we need to keep our libraries and rec centers open and fully staffed.

Um, and that includes not closing around to the library for no reason.

Uh to do this, we need you to stop the city from hiring consultants and chat from the top.

We have too many people making six-figure salaries working from home.

Um, I keep hearing from the city from management that we have this $8 million deficit.

Um that's not our problem.

That's that's why the city has budget reserves.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

I just want to recognize folks.

I know it is hard to stick to the two minutes, and I appreciate everyone taking the care to do that.

It's hard.

Welcome up.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Greg Blee Sword Seven.

I want to thank the St.

Paul City Council for using constraint when certifying property tax levies to help pay for essential city services like police fire, public works, parks, and wreck.

For the 2025 budget, the St.

Paul's levy increase was 5.9%.

By comparison, three Ramsey County cities had smaller levy increases.

Well, 15 other Ramsey County cities had increases ranging from 6.5 to 17%.

For the 2026 budget, the St.

Paul maximum levy increase is proposed to be 5.3%.

By comparison, only one Ramsey County city is proposing a smaller increase at 3.8%.

While 17 cities in Ramsey County are proposing increases from 6.5 to 18.3%.

Council members, you're doing good, but your constituents are begging for you to find more ways to reduce the certified tax levy for 2026.

You ask why.

Thank you so much.

Make sure to sign in and welcome up.

For me and my family's safety, I prefer to keep my identity unknown.

But I do help run my family's small business here in St.

Paul, and I am a resident of St.

Paul as well.

I was one of the people pepper sprayed today at the ICE raid on Rose Avenue in St.

Paul.

While trying to peacefully deter officers from shooting the crowd with guns that had pepper spray bullets loaded into them, a St.

Paul police officer came up behind me and shoved his mace canister under my glasses, spraying directly into my eyeball.

This happened right in front of me.

She was standing in front of a van and talking with one of the officers when this happened.

One of my friends, who was a vendor who is a veteran, is still processing the fact that an ICE agent pointed a live gun, a real gun, directly at his chest today.

He was very clearly unarmed with his hands out wide by his sides when this happened.

The following are a series of questions my fellow activists have for the city council.

One, how much of the city of St.

Paul's budget is going towards aiding federal law enforcement and local operations, which is in direct violation of the city's own separation ordinance.

Two, how can we be sure that the increased investments in SPPD are going to protect and serve our community?

Three, what oversight is as council and mayor providing for the police department to ensure that our city is a safe place for all residents and not uplifting fear through illegal enforcement.

Four, what are the current regulations regarding SPPD officers identifying themselves to the public?

And what steps set up steps will be taken to ensure compliance with those regulations.

Is there additional language needed to ensure officers are identifiable during these types of situations?

And five, in the city department, the pair preparing a more explicit and detailed policy regarding law local law enforcement support response to requests for aid for federal immigration actions, if not why.

That is all very much.

I'm trying to sign in welcome up.

And I have several suggestions for you on how to reduce the levy.

One, you could decertify eight of the tax increment finance districts.

These are the districts where the city has already paid off for the loan for the money it borrowed to give to the developer for those projects.

There's eight of them that have completed that, and you should be able to decertify that.

And the impact will be roughly about a million dollars to the property tax budget, the general fund.

It also means it'd be about another million dollars to the school district and another million dollars to the county.

So I'd encourage you to consider that.

The other thing I think you should do is we should focus on fixing the parks that we have, focus on getting rid of the maintenance backlog on the parks that we already have built.

Right now we're spending roughly 10 million dollars, I believe, on the design and planning of new parks.

You're talking about hours and cuts at some of the rec centers now.

If we we do that, we should focus that money on taking care of the backlog, pause any sp any spending on any of these new facilities, and really figure out how you're going to pay for the operation and maintenance of these new facilities you want.

The other thing we should do is we should ask the legislature to fulfill its commitment to those regional parks that we operate.

Right now, state law says they're supposed to be spending 40% or providing us 40% of the money for the operation of those regional parks, like Como Phelan, Battle Creek, Lilly Dale.

Uh that's not all of them.

But right now we're only getting about 8% of the money.

So the first thing on your legislative package should be requesting the state to fulfill its obligations.

That's about a five million dollar impact to your property tax, which would go a long way to solving the parks and rec budget.

So those are several of the things I have on my list where it would be a substantial impact on the property.

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Thank you.

Hi, uh, my name is Andrew Mangles.

I currently reside at 1936 Ford Parkway.

I'm uh here because I would like to ask you to oppose any of the cuts to the services such as library hours and um rec centers in a city that um really has so much to offer, and in a time when the federal budget is being gutted, I think that it is unfortunately going to land on state and local governments in order to carry the brunt of um expanding services.

Um I can tell you that as somebody who has worked with unhoused and lower income individuals that as a direct result of these cuts, uh, you will see people with no other um choice other than to go out to the streets um without any place else to go.

There are many people that still do not have access to a lot of the services that the rec centers and libraries provide.

And I I, for one, would like to see services expanded and not cut, even if it means an increase in the cost of living for me, so that uh residents from all over St.

Paul, it can be accessible to everyone, um, regardless of nationality, race, or where they may live or income level.

Um, so I would like you to consider that one.

Thank you.

Making this thank you very much.

Well, I just got hit.

Um, I'm Jane Prince, and I'm here speaking on behalf of the Insight Agenda.

But I do want to say before I start that we've been really grateful to all of you for considering the things that we've brought forward.

Basically, when we came together as a group, St.

Paul has the highest residential property tax rate in the state, or quite close to it.

We have the highest sales tax, and most significantly, as you've heard tonight, we have the highest percentage of people that the state considers to be property tax stressed.

That means they're spending more than five percent of their household income on property taxes alone.

We cannot be doing any new or extra spending on anything, and I believe, like most of you, um, our new mayor has campaigned on focusing on core services, core services like we just heard about of adequately funding our rec centers and libraries.

I I have a couple of specific things that I was gonna bring up.

One is the five million for converting commercial to residential properties downtown is a really bad way of using money.

You'll be spending money to lose money.

The residential property tax rate is significantly lower than the commercial one, and we haven't done enough creative thinking about what low priced rental office space might be able to attract downtown.

We should be providing amenities like free parking, the lots are sitting vacant now.

We should be putting child care into office buildings so that people are really convinced to come downtown.

And I had a couple of other things, but I want to say over the last 10 years, one of the things that I opposed as a council member, although I understand it, is that we have taken on a tremendous amount of human services work.

Work that is the job of the county and that is the state, and we can't afford a million dollars for a drug when we are taxing people out of their homes.

Thank you so much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hi, I'm Luke Jansen, 1455 Sherburn.

Um I wanted to speak also in opposition to any cuts to libraries and parks.

Uh, I think uh it just uh is immoral to be paying our city workers poverty wages.

Uh we can't exist in like a city uh that's like uh pursuing like austerity with its like key public services, those are things that help the most vulnerable among us in the city and help everybody in the city.

Um the uh budget also just reflects priorities, right?

Like they're uh the money needs to go to uh the people that make our city run uh in places like parks and libraries.

Um stop there.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up good evening.

I'm Leah Van Dasser.

I live at 978 Marshall Avenue.

I come to you as a citizen of St.

Paul, but also as the president of the St.

Paul Federation of Educators here in St.

Paul as well.

I was at the event that happened this morning.

As a president of a pretty badass union, we get to be in spaces around the country.

And until today, I was proud to be able to brag that we were a city that didn't have police that back up ice.

That's no longer true.

I represent people and educators in 69 buildings around the city.

And they all work with children.

And at least one of our schools is on lockdown today because of ice activity.

And that's not okay.

Some of the badge numbers that were there today were 385, 340, T.

Who refused to give us badge number, and A.

Gal as part of the first part of that person's last name.

This was not okay.

This was not something that we needed to have St.

Paul public police show up for.

The questions were already asked by us sibling earlier.

They they need to be repeated.

This 5% increase, how much of that is gonna go to federal law enforcement being supported by our police?

And breaks our own city's operation ordinance.

How can we be sure that increased investments in SPPD are going to protect and serve our community?

What oversight is this council and the mayor providing to the police department to ensure that our city is a safe place for all our residents and not just putting up fear and a legal enforcement.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in the United States.

So the reason that I am here today is for propose a radical idea.

The radical idea to invest in our public service members.

Libraries, recreation and parks.

Frontline people.

That people is the one that you everybody will encounter in any case.

I am super alarmed that last year, and I will just talk about the libraries because I keep an eye on that one.

We lost like a clerk.

How much a clerk makes a year?

They don't even make enough to meet ends.

But we eliminate that those hours from the library.

And this year, what are we eliminated?

Another another one, a library association.

Those also, guys, I struggling, right?

I am a part time still after two years of roaming around in the library, and then I truly don't believe about the equity team.

So my my proposal is let's use the money wisely.

Let's hire people that is capable and stop with the consulting.

This is like what so we are having consultant members, and then when the consulting combats with the resource in front of the other people, they they they don't know what they are telling.

They don't know even the sources that they are using.

They don't know what kind of companies is that the one that I'm using.

Is it useful?

Is until now, I'm from the science point of view, it's not.

So uh through my eyes as a we are paying taxes in my home, right?

So I I feel like I'm getting getting like some kind of prep out by the city because I'm paying my taxes, I'm part-time, I'm a woman of color, and all my coworkers are not getting a good salary.

So I am proposing the radical idea to invest in our people.

We start by our home.

If we if our people are able to put food in their it's this is already great, right?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

My name is Clara Doctor, and I'm here as a staff member of the St.

Paul Federation of Educators.

I'm here today to express my deep concern with how the St.

Paul Police Department conducted themselves this morning during the raid on Rose Street.

When the St.

Paul police arrived on site, they arrived in full riot gear, carrying weapons that would disperse and dispense chemical agents and non-lethal targets at people who were legally observing ice.

There was no rioting.

There was no obstruction of the federal operation, and I had been there for an hour prior to SPPD's arrival.

Their arrival raised tensions and did not in the slightest make me as a white woman and a constitutional observer feel any safer.

In fact, I've never felt more unsafe in the presence of SPPD.

This morning, who were they there protecting and serving?

That's their motto on their vehicles to protect and serve.

Our good citizens of St.

Paul or the federal agents terrorizing our community.

From my vantage point, I saw no assaults on federal officers prior to their arrival.

And I was in the front and the back.

SPPD turned down requests from trained nurses to help out.

I love this city.

I love working here.

But tonight I am utterly disgusted and disappointed and horrified at the actions of the St.

Paul Police Department.

The questions I have have already been asked.

How is the oversight going to come from this council and the mayor's office?

Are public dollars going to be spent on these federal operations?

Our schools are underfunded.

Thank you very much.

Hello, my name is Ari Dalagar.

I am a constituent of Ward 2 at 734 Delaware Avenue.

I'm also a proud member of Aspen 1842.

I am here first and foremost to ask you not to um uh to invest in our frontline workers and not to back balance the budget on our frontline workers.

And um to um to invest in us, as Isaac was saying.

I also am particularly concerned about the cuts to our rec centers of someone who works in our rec centers, someone who grew up uh at Hancock Rec Center, which is one of the proposed cuts.

Um we used to have 40 rec centers, we now have 26.

We've more than 40 rec centers, and I know once you cut hours like that, you're not getting them back.

What we're gonna be doing is coming back next year to ask you not to close them and give them to someone that's not the city and not regulated by the city.

And there has to be, I actually think you don't even need to increase the levy, right?

There's not much money you're saving there, and you should be able to find that.

As we said, there's consultant fees being paid by HR.

There's wages going to the top of people who aren't doing anything.

So it has to be ways to find that so that we can still invest in the public and in our rec centers, because these cuts get made, we're gonna lose those rec centers.

It's just how it is.

We know how that goes.

So thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Define.

Uh good evening.

My name's Nick Niles, and I'm here as a staff member of the St.

Paul Federation of Educators.

Over the last two weeks, I've responded to calls for legal observers to ICE raids in our community.

And today I was shocked to see that the St.

Paul Public uh Police Department had a large presence at a residential home supporting an ice raid.

I was shocked in part because I am a descendant of immigrants.

My grandmother immigrated to this country in 1946, shortly after the end of World War II.

My family's worked hard to build a life here.

They've served in the military, in public health, and work to support their neighbors and contribute to our country.

I'm here today because of their sacrifice and contributions.

Today, our police department supported masked anonymous federal authorities as they ripped apart families like mine.

What I saw in the streets of St.

Paul today are not the values that we all hold dear.

So I'm here to ask some questions about what the council and the mayor believe.

These questions have been uh asked earlier, but they bear repeating.

How much of the city of St.

Paul's budget is going towards aiding federal law enforcement in local operations, which is in direct violation of the city's own separation ordinance.

How can we be sure that the increased investments in SPPD are going to protect and serve our community and not rip families apart?

What oversight is the council and mayor providing to the police department to ensure that our city is a safe place for all residents and not uplifting fear through illegal enforcement.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

I'm trying to sign in.

Two minutes is not a great deal of time to address everything that's going on.

I'm sure half of the people in this room or more could spend a half hour talking just about the actions of the St.

Paul police department today, let alone the ones earlier this week or last week.

But I'm going to speak to my personal experience as a front in the line rec leader.

I am lucky or unlucky enough to have experienced a major injury in my childhood that leaves me with enough money to be able to work my ethics.

I am one of the only of my coworkers I know who has the money to own a home because we do not get paid enough to do that.

We do not get paid enough to keep up with inflation.

We are working frontlines.

We are taking care of children of single parents.

We are a place for teens to go to be safe after school, to do something productive.

We are constantly helping unhoused people, and though I have personally been lucky enough not to have experienced a gun incident, they keep happening.

And our frontline underpaid workers keep handling them.

They keep handling them without anyone getting hurt, without anyone getting pepper sprayed, without anyone getting shot with rubber bullets.

No one wearing a mask, no one needing to hide who they are because we are the frontline rec leaders.

We are the people who talk to the community every day.

And while individuals from the community come in and thank us all the time, and that is deeply appreciated.

It's hard to know that I can only keep doing this job because when I was 13, I died, and that gave me enough money to do whatever and still be able to work my ethics.

I am constantly amazed and impressed by my coworkers who are doing this job and living off of what very little we get paid to do it, especially those people who are dealing with gun incidents.

I'm lucky enough to be working at a recenter that my worst incidents, crazy children who are six years old, I can handle that.

Thank you very much.

Hello, my name is Miguel.

I'm a Westsider uh resident of 55107.

I was at the raid today.

Um, a family friend was in the home that was raided today.

I witnessed St.

Paul Police Department escalate the situation that was ongoing more than the fascists that were there, which is concerning.

I spoke with the mayor, he said he was gonna look for answers.

Why is our mayor not aware of what is going on with his police department?

I saw some council members there on site, and I um definitely would uh appreciate if more of our elected officials would put their bodies on the line like I saw today.

Um, some elected officials do.

We need that.

You guys use your power, you have power, use it to protect your constituents.

I um wanna also talk about the budget.

I I used to work at parks and recreation, and I know how many talented people are there, and we fund all these other programs, yet the programs that have direct effects on our children and our families are underfunded, and it doesn't make sense.

If we want to reduce crime, it starts with services, not policing.

Maybe then we can start to demilitarize our St.

Paul police department so they're unable to do what they did today.

I saw protesters try to coordinate with the police department and get peppered sprayed.

I saw protesters try to de-escalate and they escalated.

Let's invest in our frontline workers so that we can start demilitarizing our police so that our folks can be safe and our teens can have places to go and have good influences in their lives.

Um again, I'm just uh I'm really angry of what happened today.

I was there, I saw it all, and it's it's really unacceptable.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hi.

Um I live at 2078 4th Street East.

This is the first time I've been here.

Um, there's a couple things.

I bought my house three years ago, and I feel like either somebody doesn't budget very well or you guys aren't very honest, because my property taxes are double every single year.

Instead of 5%, it's more than 10%.

And you kind of factor we pay health insurance, car insurance, every single thing goes up.

Like something's kind of gotta give.

And then the second thing I want to know, after I read this residential disposal guide, you guys charge a yearly fee, you charge a quarterly fee, but then it's printed here that you sell all our recyclables to buy the yard and all these other companies and stuff.

So it's like, where does the money go that you sell?

Why do we have to pay so much and that you want to even increase more?

Like sometimes things really don't make sense here for being a fairly new resident.

But if it continues to go this way, I'm gonna have to turn around and sell my house and leave again.

And I'm not from Minnesota, but it kind of doesn't really make sense.

Just saying.

That's all I have to say.

I don't need two minutes.

Thank you very much.

One one thing I do just want to note, I forgot to say this earlier.

Um, if you know, we're not able to answer questions like that right now, but your council members are sitting around this table, and so those of us who represent you can follow up with you about questions like that.

We also have out in the hallway, if you have specific questions about your property value or your taxes or your appraisal, um, we have staff from Ramsey County Assessor's office at the table outside who you might want to talk with both about your own value but also about some of the rebate programs that they have available if your taxes have gone up more than a certain amount.

So that does not take away from anything that's happening in here, but I just wanted folks to know that that's what those folks are doing uh out in the hallway.

Welcome up, sir.

Okay, thank you for having me.

My name is Donald Clark, and our family owns a small business on Rice Street, and uh we've owned for 60 years, and our property taxes have gone since 2019 to now they've gone up 60 percent.

And I'm just wondering when is it gonna end?

Um, I think that there should be some budget cuts for sure.

And these nonprofits that are proliferating everywhere, they're not paying their fair share.

And like St.

Thomas Collins, for example, those people should be paying taxes.

And I really feel that that is a huge problem.

But anyway, I just want to state that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hi, my name is Free Matthias.

I am a St.

Paul resident.

I live at 316 Larpinter Avenue.

Um, I'm a proud ASME 1842 member and a community rec specialist at one of our busiest St.

Paul rec centers.

In my time working in parks, um, the same thing has been true.

Our frontline workers, our lowest paid staff are stretched incredibly thin on the daily.

They are the most likely to be put in um and manage some of the most dangerous situations.

Their jobs are not easy.

Managing 30 kids in a rec check after school every day is not an easy job.

Our rec leaders deal with violence in our rec centers.

They also are committed to quality programming.

They coach sports, they teach classes.

Um this summer, they were taking our kids, all of our Eastside Rec centers had kids sent to um Phalan Regional Park once a week throughout the summer where they were able to try biking, fishing, hammocking, so much more.

So we are committed to fostering stewardship of our beautiful natural spaces for generations to come.

The impact our rec leaders have on our youth is critical.

We are asking you to chop from the top and prioritize our lowest paid staff for retention, yes, but also so that they are more fairly compensated for their incredibly hard and sometimes dangerous jobs.

Thank you very much, Michelle.

Welcome up.

These lights are bright.

Um Will Bowman uh with Udama Place.

I came to uh ask for support with funding for you John Place to expand housing access for returning citizens, but I'm not gonna lie.

Um, in light of like today, I just have to say shout out to everyone on the front lines.

Uh my mom is an immigrant, and without protected immigration, I wouldn't be here.

So shout out to y'all.

Um, also um, right on behalf of John Place express our strong support for increased funding to expand our housing access for returning citizens in our community.

As the training best practices manager, I see firsthand firsthand how critical stabling housing is for our young African-American men that we serve, particularly those re-entering society after incarceration.

Udom Place has long been committed to ensuring that our participants are not only housed but supported, connected, and equipped with the tools they need to achieve long-term stability.

Additionally, or additional funding would significantly strengthen our capacity to provide safe, consistent housing for returning citizens who also face some of the most substantial barriers to securing a place to live.

With this investment, we can assure that participants remain committed and connected to a transformative programming, employment resources, mental health services, and long-term stability.

Importantly, expanded housing also allows our participants to build positive rental history, which is a fundamental requirement for securing independent leases in the future.

This opportunity will close a critical gap in the re-entry process, empowering our participants to move toward sustainable housing, self-sufficiency, and dignity.

And honestly, without like secure housing, you can't really focus on your goals.

So, like giving them housing will allow them to take other things off their plates and to focus on things that they really have going.

So, your support for this funding will have a direct and lasting impact on the lives of the men that we serve, and it will help ensure that returning citizens are not left behind, but instead provided with a stable foundation.

Every person needs to rebuild their lives and contribute positively to the community.

Thank you very much.

I'm vice president asking.

One of these days I'm gonna stand at this podium and I'm gonna talk about all the amazing things we do, and I'm not gonna have to beg for money to keep St.

Paul workers off of food stamps and housing.

One of these days, I'm gonna be able to talk about what it means when the fifth grader immigrant child from Highwood Hills gets the kayak for the first time and tears of joy come down his face, or they ride a bike, or they win the basketball championship.

I am a 25-year employee, and I'm sick and tired of like my raise does not include my property tax raise, right?

And as a city employee, am I supposed to complain about taxes being too high?

But I'm going to because we continue to have how many bosses for how many workers.

The disparity of income, of cultural competency, and the ability to drive into St.

Paul when you don't live here to work at work is appalling to me.

We need firefighters.

We need library staff.

We need rack, and yes, we need community control of the police, but what we don't need is what we need today.

So my co-worker, as we said, every kid gets a free swimming lesson in St.

Paul.

It was asked me.

It was labor who got that done.

We identified Eastside kids so they could take them swimming.

And today I wanted to talk about other things.

But my coworker David, who's a coach, who's a lifeguard, literally with his AfME shirt on, sent me a picture and said he is terrified to leave his house.

And if those folks who do or do not know DeVee, right?

We work together a lot to bridge swimming and nature.

Because if you want to talk about historic racism and classism, it's around drowning numbers and many other things, from asthma to who gets saved when they're drowning.

But today, he literally said, I can't come here.

My family is terrified.

I took call after call after call today about our ask me members, our city workers, our community workers who are terrified of my own co-workers, the St.

Paul police.

What happened today is a disgrace.

And I'm looking at coworkers who have taken guns out of kids' hands.

I'm looking at co-workers.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to come in.

Welcome out.

Man, I can't follow that.

I don't know.

You know what I mean?

This is rough.

Okay, um, let me focus.

My name is Christian Asbury, and I'm coming on behalf of Ujama Place.

I am the current program director here, and um, we're asking for funding.

And the words I'm going to read are not my words.

These are the words of our um director of housing.

Ujama Place began as an educational program for African American men between the ages of 18 and 30.

Leadership and staff quickly realized that being unsheltered posed a major challenge to the men pursuing their GED and post-secondary education options.

This led to Ujama Place providing the men with transitional housing.

There are substantial increase in educational attainment, and men reported they were experiencing reduced feelings of anxiety and depression, bringing increased stability to their emotional and mental health.

The men were able to focus and not be burdened with where they were going to sleep after program hours.

We currently have a master lease for a 16-unit building that has program space, one full kitchen, two kitchenettes, and two bathrooms on each floor.

Excuse me, the property is conveniently located near public transportation and just a few blocks from Ujama Place headquarters quarters.

Statistically, it takes a person about 18 months in a secure housing situation to bring to begin addressing other challenges that may be impacting their success, such as employment, education, mental, and chemical health.

This funding would allow us to increase the number of men we serve, acquire property in a rondo community where we're already at, which is close to the direct leases of our men with pathways to home ownership.

Our tenant training helps our men navigate leases and communicate with landlords in addition to understanding tenant rights, financials, and home ownership.

This funding would not only enhance Ujon Place Transitional Housing Program, but create opportunities beyond.

We are currently providing our men with safe, clean, and secure housing.

This funding will open the door to an American dream of home ownership.

And I want to say we have had so much trouble trying to find housing for our men because of what we do.

And a lot of people will not lease to us in the community, even in a rondo community.

They will not give us any housing because we're a black organization, and it's ridiculous.

I've never seen anything like this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

Thank you.

My name is Tim Marino.

Uh, I'm at East Star living at 55106.

Um, I'm also a member of the Capital Improvement Board and the Capital Maintenance Subcommittee.

Uh, this year we only had three million to distribute for capital maintenance for the next two years, while the requested we need was almost 10 million.

Things like repairing or replacing the roofs at Fire Station 6 and 23, the Battle Creek and Northdale Rec centers and our traffic operations centers that the hardworking employees of our city have to work in were left unfunded because we have not increased our the money that we get to our committee since 1995.

What else costs the same as 1995?

Let's be for real here.

Meanwhile, there's a three million dollar increase going to our police.

And they were seven million dollars over budget last year.

That is twice the amount that we have to distribute to the people working in our city and the buildings they have to work in every day.

A department that today made me utterly embarrassed to call St.

Paul home.

I was tear gassed today when I turned my head and the hair gets in my eyes, it still burns.

But I got tear guess, and it takes a long time to be able to even see and be comprehending of these things after that.

And it took a half an hour after that before the ambulance showed up, and they didn't come out the front where they moved us, they came out the back.

How will history look back on our officers who refuse to share their badge numbers?

Share that they don't need to listen to our mayor.

Where is the accountability?

All of all of you, all the people who we talk to in the city, the people running for mayor, they all talk about how we need to stand up to ice to our immigrant neighbors to reduce to increase our equity in our city.

We talk a good game, but we're not backing it up.

What we defend, we co-sign.

We are manufacturing consent to abuse our residents, and we need investigation, we need transparency, we need accountability and to make sure that this never happens again.

And also I want to say thank you to Councilmember Kim for showing up and putting your body on the lawn today.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hello, I am Joshua E.

Thomas.

I am a I am a Ujama representative amongst Ujama.

Um, you know, I'm gonna keep it short and sweet and say, you know, 2024 hasn't been the nicest to me, you know, being, you know, with my neglectful mother, I would say.

And you know, through the housing program, you know, I kind of found found my sense of peace, you know.

And you know, the reason why I'm here is to invest in the Ujama Housing Program because it helps us, you know, get our feet wet so that you know, when we do leave our nest, which is the Ujama place that we're able to understand and that we have the skills and the tools to say, like, oh, you know, the landlord's acting crazy, or you know, this situation's happening, and I got the tools to, you know, use that.

And it helps us find our you know, peace and reach a new version of ourselves, rather it be through education, getting jobs, or you know, just fighting our own individual battles.

You know, Ujamas has helped us yet again.

My name is Josh.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hello, I'm Laurel Grammling.

I live at 466 Little Street North, uh, in the Conway neighborhood, and I work uh doing adult services at the Sunray Library, also in Conway.

So go you side.

Um this speech I kind of was moved to give on the fly, so sorry if it's rough.

Um, but just some things that I see in our libraries, in our parks.

Um, you know, we need funding for us to actually get paid and have health care and all that stuff, but the libraries and parks also need funding just to do what they do.

So um for the last month, we've had a regular, she's a nine-year-old girl.

We have a little food pantry that patrons put uh you know, can bag food, clothes.

Once a week she comes in, slow nine-year-old girl fills up bags, brings them back home.

We have multiple parents who come weekly, monthly to have supervised visits with their children.

Uh, one woman just this week, she was so excited.

I'm gonna see my baby today.

Right.

Um, on Monday, we had a another woman who's going through immigration and she's trying to get all of her immigration papers done.

Um, the uh lawyers charge too much for the copies, so she's gonna do themselves.

She was at our copier for an hour and a half, and she had to come back the next day.

But she wants to get her immigration papers done.

I'm a notary, I notarize name changes after weddings, I notarize um people starting their own businesses, car deals, whatever.

We need to have libraries and parks open.

These people need places to stay.

Um, for our houseless population.

Um, I heard that the winter warming centers might be going down to 40 beds from 80 this year, um, as well as reduced hours at multiple different warming houses throughout the city.

Umprofits don't have the money to take care of these people, and so libraries need to be open, they need to be opened up late.

Folks need a place to stay, and that's what our public spaces are for.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

My name is Xavier Robertson.

I'm a U Gentleman representative.

And I'm up here asking, well, not asking, talking about the funding for housing, and pretty much how it's helped us be able to keep our minds clear, uh, pursue our goals and you know, things that we want to do here in our community, and uh especially you know, some of us want to, not some of us, all of us want to be able to give back, and uh I really don't have much to say, but yeah, the housing and um it would really help a lot.

Thank you very much.

Can you sign in?

Hi, my name is Courtney John.

I am a lifelong um east, born and raised.

My grandmother still lives in ward seven, and we have a family group chat to figure out who's paying grandma's taxes this year.

She's on fixed income.

Um I have the benefit of being a um promoted member of AFSME, so I am no longer at the 17 dollar wage.

Um my big thing is prices are going up, we know that.

Why are we not looking at external revenue sources?

Um, I work in the athletics department, so I get to do the free sports program, which has been a blessing for all of these kids.

They get to win medals for the first time.

They get to Don a St.

Paul Jersey for the first time.

When I was their age, those services allowed me to have a collegiate career in softball.

I was the first person in my family to earn a degree, and I brought those talents back to the city that made me who I am.

Why do our kids get to play for free here and then they spend hundreds of dollars to go do state tournaments in other cities?

Why can't we bring state tournaments here?

Why do we allow non-residents to utilize our city services for free?

We have children from Cottage Grove, from Newport, from Woodbury.

We have people coming from all over the metro to use our free sports program because my coworkers and I are damn good at our jobs.

So I don't understand why we're spending money on consultants that aren't from the city and for the city when we are really good at what we do, and we can help the city um deal with some of these budget cuts right here at home.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Cole Hansen.

I live at 1845 University Avenue West in Ward 4.

Um, I am a dad, a healthcare worker, uh, just across the river, and a renter.

And I want to say first thank you to Councilmember Kim for showing up for our neighbors today.

I'm also a proud member of Twin Cities DSA, and our organization has been frustrated as we've seen our union families struggle to get their fair shake at City Hall and with this city budget.

Local 21, our firefighters who keep my daughter and I safe, have been seeing cuts in this budget.

Unreasonable cuts when we are increasing the density in our city.

I'm also concerned about our AfSME colleagues and friends and family who are seeing cuts to their efforts.

So my daughter can have a safe place to go for recreation, or I can enjoy a trip to library.

These things are fundamental to living in a city.

They're the basics, that's why people come to St.

Paul.

And the fact that this budget did not prioritize the people that make this possible is a little more disappointing.

Now, the last piece I want to bring up is what is in the budget for half of our city.

150,000 residents who rent.

They are getting less than five dollars out of this budget to manage rent stabilization and inspections.

The rent stabilization cases that came up before this council just a few months ago hinged on the fact that tenants were able to represent themselves and work with the housing justice center to get a seat at this table.

How many more tenants in this city like myself, like anybody else in this room, have to figure out how to go by, get along to get along with their landlord, even though they have a leaky sink, leaky faucet, mold, broken hand rails.

And the city's job is to inspect them and hold them accountable.

I want to see this for not only your families that might rent in this city, but your children, and maybe if you happen to rent here.

You deserve a safe St.

Paul, too.

Thank you so much.

Make sure to sign in.

Thank you, everyone.

My name's Luke Melkey.

Um Isaac Melkie as my brother, and he's a great job as a librarian here in St.

Paul.

I'm an elected leadership for Twin Cities DSA.

And I was supposed to be baking pies for Thanksgiving this morning, and I ended up on Payne Avenue, washing tear gas out of high school students' eyes.

And I was 50 feet back.

And SPDD was so aggressive with their beer tip pepper spray and their tear gas that my eyes still burn right now, even though it's nowhere near the front of the crowd.

And that's unacceptable.

So I'm also here to urge City Council to reverse the cuts that Melbourne Carter has for our libraries, for our rec centers, for our EMS.

These are the services that keep our city running, keep our residents safe.

We need to be investing in our homelessness response, make sure folks are getting into housing, not taking up the approach we see in Minneapolis, where they're just forcing people from block to block with their evictions and their cuts.

The other cities wasting millions of dollars every year just to move people from around the city, not actually getting anyone to housing.

We make sure that we're investing in our response for the help folks who are living on our streets, get out of their tents, get into their homes, not just build old Zenys encampments.

So instead of buying tear gas for SPD, it's used on Payne Avenue, or get oh Wall Street developers TIF tips as a form of corporate develop uh corporate uh welfare for these developers, which we invest in our city workers to keep our cities running, make sure we're keeping folks in their homes.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hi, I'm Danielle Finden.

Um considering the events that transpired in our city today, it's hard to be proud to be a St.

Paul resident.

Um it feels shallow to address property tax increases.

That was the impetus for the meeting today, and I came to address a concern as a 20-year St.

Paul residential property owner, uh, small business owner and commercial property owner.

Um, my commercial property tax proposed increase for 2026 is 35 percent in the last five years, it has doubled.

Um, going from 8,000 a year to 19,000.

I don't know how I'm going to pay the property taxes in 2026.

Um I'm doing significant upgrades to the property to upkeep the property, while my property values are decreasing, while the property taxes increase.

You heard that.

Property value decrease, property tax increase, make it make sense.

And the city has failed to keep up their end of the property tax agreement.

Uh they have failed to plant trees on the boulevard for the last five years that were cut down five years ago and were supposed to be planted in the spring.

They have failed to uh maintain the gas meter, they have failed to maintain the sidewalks, creating unsafe conditions.

Formal complaints by myself and several area residents have been filed to no avail.

There is rubble on a sidewalk that provides handicapped access to the street that people have slipped and been injured on.

There are areas of the sidewalk that are low that freeze over despite very diligent shoveling and ice melt being applied, and it allows water to come into the building, is eroding the stucco, and provides a skating rink on the sidewalk that as a small business owner I cannot continue to maintain.

And despite all of these facts, um the property taxes are inappropriate and unsustainable.

I can no longer afford to raise my family in St.

Paul or be a small business owner here.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in welcome up.

Hello, my name is Valerie Meges.

I live at 1606 Marshall Avenue.

Um I am a community recreation leader at St.

Paul Parks and Recreation Centers and a proud member of local AFSME 1842.

I want to begin by saying that I moved here from Kansas in an area that I had extremely limited access to rec centers, libraries, and public services.

I am concerned with the money we spend on SPPD when they attack citizens instead of our youth, instead of honor youth who need the resources that we provide as frontline workers.

I and all of my co-workers have helped countless families find programs for their families' unique needs, and instead of finding funding going towards increasing those programs and resources and paying the frontline workers who provide them.

That funding is going to St.

Paul police terrorizing these families.

Our workers provide services, resources, and emotional support to our youth, including after horrific raids like this morning's.

And many of those workers also go home without enough of a paycheck for all of their bills.

I'm asking you to support our frontline workers and work who work with and support our youth and families.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in welcome.

Hello, thank you.

My name is Jackie.

I'm a resident of Ward 4.

I've lived in St.

Paul since 2007.

St.

Paul feels like home to me.

I love my neighborhood.

I seriously feel like I won the neighbor lottery.

I imagine living in St.

Paul for the rest of my life, and yet I'm here today because I feel like I'm being taxed out of my home.

According to a recent KSCP news story, Minnesota property taxes are going up by 6.9% overall.

My property taxes are going up 18.8% next year.

My understanding is that our tax increase is based on a house value increase.

However, I do not believe for one minute that I would be able to get anything near the estimated market value listed on my property tax proposal.

I do not have the time or energy to contest our statement or inflated valuation, and if I did, that would only benefit me if the outcome were even favorable.

So instead, I come here before you today with a request to do better for the citizens of St.

Paul, the people you serve.

Please do better.

What does better look like?

Be curious about why there are such large discrepancies between the state average and what the citizens you serve might see on the statements we open each year.

Do everything you can to minimize those increases.

Do better, showing us why you had no other options than to increase taxes again this year after increasing them last year and the year before and the year before and the year before.

At some point, I feel like we're going to have to choose between the home we love and our family's financial well-being, and that makes me sad.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hello, I'm Zach Pearson.

I live at 1717 Van Buren Avenue here in St.

Paul.

And I can say this year I have the privilege of being an English teacher at St.

Paul's Senior High School.

Um, and the privilege of working every day with the amazing young people in our city.

Um I wasn't planning to come up here.

Um I didn't learn about the what happened today because it was you know in the school all day long.

Um, and I'm heartbroken, I'm crushed, I'm angry, but I'm not surprised.

Um I remember under Mayor Coleman's watch.

I was woken up at 5 a.m.

in the morning on Sherburne Avenue in Frogtown to the sound of a battering ram knocking down a door.

And St.

Paul public police department was right there with the border patrol with the others.

Um I'm not surprised because I used to work at the I used to work at the Rondo Library, and I'm pissed about that being closed.

Um I worked at the Rice Street Library.

Um, and I remember um Councilmember Kim, when we were you were working with Council Member Renmoen, they used to bring 70, 80 cops every summer for the Rice Street Parade to you know control things and keep things on, you know.

And there was always fighting, always disorder, always problems.

Yeah, when we got together, when the the park staff and the library staff and council members' office, and a few certain people within the police department actually got together and planned events.

We had great family events for the community with no incidents, no fighting, no property destruction because we knew the families, we knew the kids.

So stop putting more money into the St.

Paul Public St.

Paul Police Department and put it into the frontline workers and our rec centers, fire department, libraries, everybody who knows the kids, who knows the families and has those relationships.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hello, uh Brian Doby, 2121 Berkeley Avenue, St.

Paul.

Um in the macro area.

Uh uh return visitor, um, returning much like the first Brian that that spoke tonight.

Um, not sure I'm gonna do anything here.

I uh I came spoke last year, frustration.

Um, it it still didn't turn in anything.

The budget went uh pretty much as as proposed.

Um that is my tax, or it was my tax in 2024.

Was raised to 11,250 last year, and now 12,384.

I'll save you the math.

That's a 1,134 increase this year, and 2679 uh for the last two years.

That's um you know, 10.1 percent this year and 27.6 percent over the last two years.

10.1 percent versus the 5.3.

I don't know what that means.

108 dollar annual increase versus my 1134 for this year.

It just doesn't add up.

My 10.1% increase.

That's not just a 10.1 plus percent increase.

That's an increase on a base that you already increased by 16.9% last year.

It it's unsustainable.

And uh this obviously isn't equally distributed.

I'm getting larger and larger percentage of the tax pie.

I'm all for paying my fair share of reasonable taxes for essential services, but I think that's the point is they're not reasonable taxes, and they're well beyond the essential services we need.

The truth is this is unfair, unjust, and unconscious.

And the truth in taxation is that what you are doing is not working for the average family.

Make sure to sign in.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

Hi, my name is Spencer John.

Uh you heard from my wife earlier.

I am a uh member of Ask Me by Proxy.

Um, I'm just here to add to the voices that have already been said here tonight.

Um what I saw.

Um this is not the Minnesota way.

Uh we are supposed to be supposed to be Minnesota nice, and what we saw today was not nice at all.

Um, and so I am going to ask this council, um, much like many of the other asking members here to invest in our public service and invest in our frontline workers.

Um, because as somebody who does, uh I think we all can agree that uh you know safety is something that we can all agree is something we all care about, and people feel safe when their basic needs are met.

Health care, food, shelter, and that is what I want this council to focus on.

Invest in the people because as the saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hello, my name is Jay Kwan Ebbs on behalf of Ujama Place for Min.

Um, I must say it is tragic to hear about the events that occurred today.

Um it's unfortunate people had to get peppers and mace and uh child the protest peacefully on behalf of what they believe in.

Um but I am here asking for funding um for Ujama Place.

Um being a resident of that for the last five years helped me change my life around and affect others my age and younger.

Um like it's been a prominent key in the neighborhood of Rondo for black men and um utilizing the tools and the safeties and the procedures that we've been doing for the last couple years has been helping people like me and my fellow Ujama brothers.

Um all the things that people are saying today, it's unfortunate.

Um I can't help but to address that and also the housing crisis for uh young African American men coming out of incarceration.

I was never incarcerated, but I see the effect.

And um, I just want to say if we can do better as a community of St.

Paul people to address the problem within and um come together, not separate, and uh be better citizens of society with just using our words and uh actions, not um abusing of power and authority and stuff of that manner.

And um, yeah.

Other than that, I just want to say it's nice seeing everybody here coming together, and uh hopefully y'all stay best and have a blessed night.

Thank you very much.

Um community rec leader at Phelan.

Um, it's heartbreaking to see what our police did today.

Um, to have kids come in scared because they're on a lockdown from school and think and they see the police acting the way they do, we should be ashamed.

Um these kids are already scared enough with having guns in the schools, the guns, you know, any of that.

And saying all you have to worry about the people that are supposed to protect them being the ones that are hurting them.

I mean, that's just ridiculous.

Um, I come here from my local um 1842 as a frontline worker.

We don't asking for much.

I mean, I barely make it, and I'm a single person, and I live in affordable housing.

I've come up from the streets, I've been homeless before, I know what it's like.

It's very scary to think I could go back to where I was because my rent is almost two both of my paychecks a month.

I mean, that's ridiculous.

And it's supposed to be affordable housing.

It's sad that this is this is what the world is.

It really is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

Hi, my name is Taylor.

I'm in Ward 3, um, and I'm a member of the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America.

Um, we are bleeding money.

We are spending it to fund encampment evictions.

We can look to Minneapolis to see how expensive this really is.

They publish the numbers we don't.

And now we are about to spend almost more than 700,000 to move a bathroom in the Ronda Library.

I think we know where we can get money from.

We just have to decide that we are going to put our dollars towards care and put that put our dollars towards care over punishment.

We can fulfill these full-time employments if we push the money around.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm just trying to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hi, City Council.

My name is Titus Forcene.

I represent Ujama Place.

I'm a Ujama man.

So what I have to say today is there's been a lot of ups and down in my life in points in my life and also a lot of highs and lows.

But um life's like a roller coaster.

It has different ups and downs and different trajectories all the time.

So you never know where you're going.

But with UJAMA, it has given me a chance to put that trajectory somewhere where it's more um more helpful for me and more better for the community too, and also for my son, which I am a father of a three-year-old.

And I just want him to have the same future that I'm having right now with UGEMA because they have taught me a lot of things that I have not known before, and now I know now.

And that's all I have to say today.

Thank you very much.

I'm trying to sign in.

How are you doing?

How are you doing?

I'm Coach Key from Ujama Place.

I'm here on behalf of uh asking for uh funds for our housing program.

Uh we do great work there.

We do great work.

We've transformed, we we're in a production of stopping stagnation for transformation.

So it's a lot of guys come in, they broken.

And you know, this program has brought life back to them.

You know, uh, and I'm just asking that you could find it in your heart.

You know, find it in your heart to, you know, give us give give us this housing, these funds for this housing.

You know, these guys, again, you know, these guys don't know too much.

They don't know too much, but we're here to train them and teach them, especially in the housing uh aspect, you know.

So uh ah, just listening to y'all talk about the events today because I was I was not aware of them.

I'm appalled.

I'm appalled, you know, to have people standing here crying before you and dare you you I don't know if you if you're gonna do something or not about it, but wow, you know.

I mean, again, protect and serve, right?

You know, so I mean, what what's gonna happen behind that?

You know what I'm saying?

So I mean, we helped you guys get in these seats, right?

Now help us.

Help us, right?

We helped y'all, right?

We did that for y'all.

Help us, right?

So again, all we need is for y'all to do what y'all y'all swore that y'all was gonna do for us, right?

So I'm Coach Keefe again.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Uh my name is Cameron Russell.

I live on 1275 pain.

I ain't nobody special.

I'm not from Ujama or nothing.

I'm just somebody who lives in the neighborhood that was terrorized this morning.

Um appreciate y'all, appreciate y'all.

I was gonna say ICE has no place operating with police back up in the East St.

Paul neighborhoods when ICE rolls through with police support.

It sends a message that federal immigration enforcement is more important than community trust.

Police are supposed to protect and serve everybody regardless of immigration status.

When ice backs, they break that trust and make people afraid to call for help, accountability matters.

ICE Asians should be held accountable for excessive force.

Uh other law enforcement officers would be sometimes.

Um mixing immigration enforcement with everyday police makes all of us less safe.

People stop reporting crimes, people stop cooperating, and people who live in fear instead of community.

I ain't got a whole lot to say.

Appreciate y'all.

Thank you very much.

Welcome.

I'm Ava, and I live at 562 Edmund in Ward 3.

I'm a student worker and a tenant here in St.

Paul.

And I have seen five evictions at large encampments this year.

Um, and I have been involved in four of them helping people move to new locations.

And I am upset at how much money could be spent on this, and we are unknowingly spending our money instead of I am very upset at the fact that we are thinking about cutting EMS overnight, St.

Paul Parks and Rec hours, St.

Paul Library hours, when we are spending this money evicting people from their places of home in winter in the case of mounds of the man's eviction.

And I want the amount of money that is disclosed, the amount of money that is spent on evictions to be disclosed, as well as I want the money to go to services that assist people instead of punish the them for being poor and unable to afford rent.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

And at this point, I am going to do just another uh call for folks who are still meeting to speak tonight, if you don't mind lining up at this point, just so we have a sense of who's left, we'd really appreciate it.

Go ahead, sir.

Thank you.

Hi, uh, my name is Josh Lowe.

I live at 2076 James Avenue.

Uh a really quick high level, I did want to echo the folks like myself who have experienced pretty high property tax increases.

I think last year's year over year increase was like 25 to 28%.

This year it's 10%.

But I didn't really want that to be the story.

Uh I live here because of the good great services.

My kids go to the library, they go to the parks, I ride my bike, all those things are all great.

So the thing that I really wanted to emphasize is just expanding the tax base.

Uh, when I hear a lady talk about her taxes are so high for her business, she's thinking about leaving the city.

When I have to read about Luns and Byerley leaving downtown or Cub Foods closing, or the at-home thing in uh Midway that it was open for like what, 18 months, those are major problems.

So I don't have specific solutions to that, but I do think like a laser focus on keeping the city hospitable for business, to me would be very, very high at the top of the priority list because it really helps everything else.

If I'm a homeowner and I have to experience those burdens of the taxes, it's because it's not falling on commercials, right?

So getting that balance right helps everyone else in this room who has to pay property taxes.

Even if you're not a homeowner, you are a renter who indirectly has to experience those property tax increases, right?

So really placing that focus on attracting businesses and making this an environment where businesses want to stay and maintain their operations.

I have a friend who works in commercial real estate in western Wisconsin, and he was talking about some firm that was thinking about moving out of the city.

It's a confidential thing, so I don't want to get into it, but he mentioned how terrible it was going to be for St.

Paul.

And my reaction to that is like, oh, you're killing me, man.

But that's his job, and that's at that firm's job.

They need to find out the best place for them, and I really want you to do as much of a deep dive as you can to figure out what are those conditions that could make businesses want to stay here.

So I don't want to talk about specific tax increases because I or cuts because my kids use all of those services.

It's one of the things that makes St.

Paul great, but soda businesses.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Um, my name is Ben Eilenfeld.

I live at 651 Portland, and I am a library associate at the George Library.

Uh I feel lucky every single day to have gotten the position that I have.

It is, as far as I've experienced, a well-paying job.

And it is infuriating every single day to see some of my coworkers who are working in the clerical uh clerical union doing hard work and getting paid so little.

It is absolutely outrageous because they are working more frontline than even we are sometimes.

They're working the front desk, they're dealing with all of this stuff, and they make again 17 dollars an hour, something like that.

It's it's ridiculous.

And it's even more infuriating to know about that, and to also know that the Rondo Library is spending so much money to relocate its bathrooms, a change that no one who actually works the front lines at Rondo wants.

No matter what anyone in the library administration has said, if you talk to anyone who works front desk at Rondo, if you talk to libraries, the safety staff at Rondo, anyone who engages with the community there, they will all say it is not only a waste of money, it is an actively harmful to the stated goals of moving the bathrooms.

And so for the city for the library to be spending nearly a million dollars on this project is outrageous when that money could be spent again, investing in the frontline staff, investing in our facilities to actually improve them, uh, to maintain them, anything like that.

And I ask that you keep that in mind and you look for more clarity as to why these changes are being made from library administration.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hi, my name is Dave.

I'm on it live in Warden 2.

I'm a homeowner.

And um, I want to talk about uh the city services, or in a lot of cases, the lack thereof that we're being asked to pay an awful lot more for.

Boulevard trees never get trimmed any longer.

There's a 10-year trim schedule, that's right from the parks department.

Branches are allowed to hang over people's roofs, causing damage to roofs, siding, and even more damage coming from squirrels.

Tree trimming requests go unanswered with no response or action taken.

I almost never see a city tree trimming crew at work in St.

Paul.

Where are they?

The emerald ash trees have been mostly removed from city property.

What's the excuse now?

Why do we continue to plant boulevard trees that we can never hope to maintain?

Where are my tax dollars being spent?

It's not on tree maintenance.

There is none.

There's no longer any sidewalk repairs being done and very little street maintenance, pothole repairs, etc.

Apparently, safety is no longer important, so what is?

We are building more bike paths when we can't cannot even repair streets and sidewalks.

The street lamps in some areas are not even being fixed anymore.

The Como area is an example.

My girlfriend lives over there.

The neighborhoods are dark and scary at night and have remained that way.

There's multiple, many street lamps that are out, and it's it's dark as it's black as ink.

It is not just a copper wire theft issue.

I think that's becoming too much of an excuse.

It's also a lack of maintenance.

Where are my tax dollars going?

My proposed tax increase is 21.3%.

Now it is combining with the county, but that's an awful whopping tax increase.

Um the rate of inflation is about four to five percent.

How can the city and county be asking for five to six times that much?

We are literally driving people out of their homes or out to the suburbs with this colossal increase.

City is city services are not being provided in many cases, so what are we being taxed for?

A huge tax increase is absurd, especially in these tough times.

Employee wages are only up about two to four percent.

All city departments state they are short staff.

So where is the money that's being saved on salaries?

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Make sure to sign in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

Hello, my name's Jess Corner.

I live at 267 Maria and Ward 7.

And um I'm a homeowner homeowner.

I'm probably on the younger side of people that you've seen tonight that is able to say that.

And I know I come from a place of great privilege to be able to say that.

And part of the reason is my house is not fancy.

My house is 105 years old.

We bought a fixer upper because it was our only shot at homeownership.

And investing in St.

Paul is something that I'm clearly willing to do.

And I know I've paid you guys over 20,000 in the five years that I've been a homeowner here, and that is pennies compared to others.

What I'm hearing tonight is this money is not reaching where it needs to go.

Rec workers, firefighters, librarians, safety staff, you jama place.

Like these are where our money needs to be going.

These are also the places feeling the budget constraints.

And people, constituents here are coming to the table with good ideas.

But your actions are speaking volumes.

Financially prioritizing consultants, institutions like St.

Thomas, McAllister, developers, evicting our unhoused neighbors, countless approvals of rent increases in the thousands, undermining rent stabilization.

Thank you for that.

Uh undermining the will of your constituents.

Councils, subcouncils, launching boards and meetings and meetings, some meetings that will determine nothing but build layers between you, our mayor, and your constituents.

And the St.

Paul police.

Please reconsider who you represent and why you're here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Um 1215 Conway Street.

Can you imagine that?

It was $900 a month.

I did the home buyer's program, got the loan, loved it, loved it.

Loved St.

Paul.

St.

Paul is great, right?

And then all of a sudden, wow, it's expiring out of control.

I didn't buy my house to be to make U.S.

bank rich.

I didn't buy my bank to build a soccer stadium.

I didn't buy my house to improve the wild stadium.

I didn't buy my house for St.

Condo, so these people can't live in market rate apartments that cost $1,400 for 700 square feet.

I I didn't, I didn't do that.

I wanted to live here because it was a great city.

But like instead of uh you know, macing our citizens, maybe we should arrest the people who are getting drunk at these events and then driving home to the suburbs.

People are getting wasted at these hockey matches at these baseball games at these other things, but they're free to go.

People are saying that they're trying to help someone and they're getting maced.

I I didn't buy my house for that.

And I didn't buy my house, so people who make six figures in the political department can make have better wages and benefits than people over here.

We fought for 15, and yet these people are getting 17.

Is that what we fought for?

$2 extra above 15.

And our firefighters don't even make the top 10 of wages in the state, but take the most calls.

And they end up with injuries and illness, and they are our heroes.

No one ever says, you know, the fire department.

We love them, so let's pay them.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm trying to sign in.

Welcome up.

Uh hello, my name is Carl.

Uh, I live in Ward 3.

And I just wanted to highlight that, especially after the events this morning today, um, the uh point of the budget, uh, wherein the police are getting a proposed 30.26% of the uh budget spending by department.

Um, to me, at least seems quite egregious considering that like public works is getting 11.12%, and parks and rec is getting 12.97%.

Uh I would question the utility of funding to such a large degree a policing force that seems more focused on terrorizing members of our community and uh especially gassing us.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Welcome.

Hi, my name is Katie Kraft, and I live in Ward 4 on 405 Herschel Street.

A lot of my neighbors wanted to be here tonight, and I represent them.

Um tonight we're here to talk about where money should go in St.

Paul, but we also have to talk about where it shouldn't go.

It's unacceptable that St.

Paul resources were used to attack St.

Paul residents today who are protesting illegal actions taken by ICE.

We need an audit of the money, those resources that were spent today to do that.

And frankly, it's time for the city council and the mayor to play hardball.

With each ice raid, these thugs are experimenting with new brazenly illegal tactics and violent tactics.

They're detaining protesters, disappearing citizens of St.

Paul for hours at a time, like they did to one of my neighbors who was at Brotex last week.

Um, and they're deploying pepper sprays we've heard tonight, violently attacking citizens, and they're lying to public officials like you about what they're doing and who they are.

The authoritarian takeover is here, and today our city financed their bodyguards.

The current policy regarding St.

Paul police participating in federal immigration raids is insufficient.

We need city council and the mayor to do more than ask questions and explore policies.

SPPD actions today, we they cost us money, and that needs to be reflected in their budget.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

All right.

Welcome up.

All right, hello, good evening.

It's evening, it was afternoon a little while ago.

But my name is Carlo Franco West Sider.

Um, born and raised fourth generation.

I am also currently a city member of the St.

Paul uh public schools board of education, and so we will also be hosting uh you know a meeting like this next week to hear from uh constituents about the impact of our taxpayer tax dollars going into public budgets, and I know that our public budgets are stretched right now, and so don't envy again the position that we're all in right now because we are trying to do more.

Um, and there's many factors that go into that.

However, one of the things that I do um envy is the opportunity that exists right now here with this table.

I think uh what we all saw today um with the raid at uh on the east side and seeing our St.

Paul police department involved in that and the immediate in large scale response that was able to happen in such a short period of time.

What I know is being a community member that's involved in several nonprofits that attend community events.

What I know is that we would send a big old fat bill to a community organization to have a community event like the West Side Sink with a Mile, like Rondo Days, hundred thousand dollars like the J4 event to have that level of a response.

But we here in the city of St.

Paul today demonstrated that we can mobilize that level of response, and I I hope and expect that because of that cooperation, we're sending a big old bill to the federal government to pay for that service today.

The last thing that I will say is being a school board member, I also know that we have to have solidarity with our frontline staff.

We've demonstrated how to do that, and I believe that when we invest in our frontline people, these are the people that are actually going to have to process the trauma that our young people have experienced, not only today, but before that, and before that, and before that.

And so I really encourage us to have solidarity, invest in our frontline, but also send that bill over to the federal government for that response.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hi, my name is Kate Allen.

I'm a parent and a community member of the East Side of St.

Paul in the 55130 zip code.

I'm also an SPFE union member and a school social worker for St.

Paul Public Schools.

Um while I was not present this morning at the ICE raid that happened just blocks from my house, I was at my school supporting my students.

Coincidentally, at the exact same time the ice raid was happening, one of my students was in crisis at school.

My co-workers and I had to talk to a young student this morning who was seriously considering taking their own life because they are so afraid of their family being deported.

And what could happen to the people that they love.

While my coworkers and I are very skilled at supporting students through these types of crises, we were at a loss for how to comfort this young person besides to tell them that we would keep them safe while they're at school.

We can plan all day about safety plans to help our students cope, but I'm heartbroken that I have to tell my students that police won't protect them from ice.

There are many hurts that I can offer a small comfort to make better, but this one I cannot.

This needs to get under control now.

No child should have to experience this type of trauma.

As a school social worker, I am terrified that this is just the beginning, and I'm going to have to have many more of these conversations in the coming months.

I can't stress enough how much we cannot have SPPD supporting this.

St.

Paul Police Department is supposed to protect us, our schools, our families, and the children that we're all responsible for.

Not to aid ICE in stealing our children and community members.

This is the wrong side of history, and it needs to stop now.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Um hi, my name is Jessica Donian.

Um, I'm a resident of Dayton's Bluff, and I am a proud executive board member for ASPE Local 1842.

Um, I am lucky enough to own my home, but many of my fellow members cannot say the same, nor will they be able to on these poverty wages that we are offered.

Um I'm happy to pay higher taxes so long as they actually go to the front line and continued city services such as libraries and parks, not more militarized police, and six-figure administrative nobodies.

I urge you to chop from the top and invest in your frontline workers.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Welcome up.

I'm gonna do one last call.

If anyone else is here to speak tonight, otherwise, our plan will be to end uh with you, ma'am.

Um, otherwise, we may need to take a little stretch break in between, but I think this is this is manageable.

Welcome up.

Hi, thank you.

I'm Amanda.

Um, I live in Frogtown.

I also own my own own home.

I have lived here for five years.

First, um, I want to say that I do represent the party for socialism and liberation here in the Twin Cities.

Um I don't know how to encapsulate exactly what we learned today.

Mayor Carter has stated um, this is obviously in regards to the ICE rates, that he's unaware.

Unaware.

Governor Walsh also claimed the same.

He is unaware.

So what is SPD doing there?

I just want to drive that point home.

I think we've really heard enough.

But going back to the budget proposal, I never prepare anything, but I'm always motivated to speak because my community members do excite me and make me want to come up here.

So if this is jumbled, I sincerely apologize.

Um, I just want to point out that there was a recent study published today that a family of four in America actually needs to make 138,000 to live in the poverty line.

What we know today in St.

Paul is that 70,000 is the medium in median income here in our city.

We are not only being squeezed as the working class by XL, who is going to increase our rates by 13% in 2026, but we are also being squeezed by this budget proposal.

I want to call out that the city of St.

Paul is the largest user of TIFFs, 44 million dollars to be exact.

Um, yet TIFF properties do not fund public services, which we have heard testimony here today is exactly what our community needs and readily defy uh depends on.

I think that we really need to articulate the fact that the working class is being squeezed here, and that if you don't represent your constituents, who will?

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hi, uh, my name is Jordan Kuhn.

I live at 536 Jenks Avenue East.

I believe it's in Ward 5.

I'd like to echo the calls to bill the federal government as well as to conduct an audit of SPD spending.

With that, I have a couple questions.

How much did the raid cost us today?

How much will it cost us after the end of everything after there are lawsuits for being maced?

Why isn't the SPD here begging for money like our libraries are?

Who encourages people to be here more?

Our libraries or the SPD.

Undocumented people still pay taxes.

They still use our services.

They work at businesses who pay taxes.

Why are we giving a 30% increase to someone who costs us money, not gains us money?

That it's my time.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Good evening.

My name is Peter Hendricks.

I'm a resident of Ward 3.

And I'd like to compel this council to think about what it means to be a transparent public servant and what accountability means.

First, I'd like to talk about this notice that everyone who is a property tax owner received in the mail.

And there's translations.

For the Spanish for tonight's hearing, martes 3000 25, a las seis.

December 3rd.

The wrong day.

It also refers to tonight's hearing as Tuesday.

That's unfortunate.

Transparency, transparent financial decisions, strengthen relationships with residents through outreach.

It didn't happen.

And I received a response that the ward office budget will be $8,000 next year, and we have no planned expenditures for that money.

Nothing flashy from Ward 3 office, Mr.

Hendricks.

We don't really use the ward office budget, and our approach to the budget is about functional core services and infrastructure delivered efficiently.

First of all, to refer to nothing flashy, Mr.

Hendricks, I wasn't looking for anything flashy.

I want accountable government that's transparent and responsive.

Thank you to Ward 1 for sending out a newsletter that I received on Friday about this hearing and about amendments that Ward 1 is proposing.

I had to reach out to Ward 3 about those amendments.

How Ward 3 and other um offices can use the budget is communicate.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hello, my name is Bobby Yang.

Um I am a new resident of St.

Paul.

When uh I live in 55117, and when I told my family I was moving there, they told me, be careful, watch out.

And I had learned today that I am not afraid of my neighbors.

I am afraid of ice.

I'm afraid of the police who works hand in hand with us.

And so I'm not here to say anything new.

I'm just here to add to the mounting witness and evidence of St.

Paul police attacking pe peaceful protesters unprovoked.

In fact, when I was pepper sprayed in the face, the people around me, friends and neighbors, we were complying with St.

Paul police to move back.

And in doing so, we got pepper sprayed in the face.

And so I just want to echo again the calls for accountability.

Um, and also to reconcile this budget increase with actual public safety.

And again, I want to thank you, Councilmember Hua Zhang Kim for being there.

Uh, thank you for your courage and thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hello, I am Oliver Guzman.

I live down West 7th.

I have lived there for almost a decade, and I've never been to a meeting here before, so I am very nervous.

Um you're doing great.

I um I worked with the uh warming spaces program since night one and the pilot.

And we were uh hand selected from uh the uh shelter and hotels program from COVID.

So I'm used to masking up every night.

And I do that to protect myself and protect the people around me.

And I can't do that anymore because masked thugs are coming into our neighborhoods and into our homes, and I don't want to scare the kids that I work with.

And that's more important to me than uh protecting my my own health on that level.

There are other things that I can do, but I want to see that audit of the St.

Paul Police Department, because this is not okay.

I I originally came here um for the uh the fire department.

Um I was told that uh we were cutting the overnight team for uh the fire department.

I I've I've seen them save lives.

We need them.

And it's I'm worried that police, not necessarily police.

Well, I guess police too, but I'm worried that ICE is gonna come into uh our programs and snatch up our kids while they're trying to sleep because they take they take citizens too.

They're not just taking our neighbors who are maybe not with all the paperwork that they need.

But I wasn't supposed to have to walk around with all my papers.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Thank you.

It's been a long day.

My name is Chantel Allen, and I live in Ward 4.

I'm not gonna give you my actual address because the federal government sees activists as the enemy, and clearly the St.

Paul PD is conspiring with the federal government.

I'm not safe in my city.

I'm a fourth generation Rondo individual.

Our our whole community has been torn apart and disrupted.

And today, I genuinely don't feel safe in my city.

I've been here many times to tell you there's been actions towards us just trying to have our First Amendment rights that were violated, violating us, um, and I didn't feel safe.

But today it just felt really different.

It felt really different.

And I know that there was a statement that came out that said that the police officers were there to protect us.

But when I saw them standing there, they weren't they weren't facing the federal uh uh uh police officers, uh keeping their eyes on them, they didn't have their guns pointed at them saying we want to protect our citizens here.

They had their guns pointed at our citizens, they were facing our citizens and keeping their eyes on us.

That's not protecting us.

I've said this over and over again about all kinds of different things, but in this city, we are just putting more and more surveillance on our citizens.

And then we're over taxing them.

Now, as a school board member, I understand why taxes are going up, but our budget is a moral contract, and I don't understand why there's people that can still qualify for food stamps that are underneath y'all's care.

I don't understand how money is being cut in the firefighter's budget when those that's literally the only entity that shows up morally correct for us on a regular basis.

I don't understand how our uh Rondo Library is closing again.

Thank you very much.

I'm sorry, but I uh you know me, I gotta take up my time.

Two minutes just ain't enough.

Thank you very much.

And I don't understand because about 10 years ago, Rondo went through a whole nother renovation when people started talking about the activity that was happening at Unidel Mall.

Nothing changed.

Y'all just swapped the books to the other side.

We need you to wrap up.

Here we are in another same situation, right?

Thank you so much.

And they're just swap, they're just moving some things around.

I hate to use this language here in this place, but I gotta tell you, us in our community, we see that as nigga control.

Thank you.

Please be real.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

I think I'm waiting.

Um I want to thank you all because I think you have a really tough job, and it's been a really tough time.

I think there's an opportunity here.

Actually, I should introduce myself.

I'm Julie Bass, Ward Five.

I've also been attending the Insight uh meetings for the last year.

Um I think you all have an opportunity here because I share many of the sentiments in this room, and you have citizens who love this city and want to see it head a better direction.

So you're not going to be confused about what the values are related to stewardship of our money, or the values are related to what our priorities should be in our city budget.

And so I would really encourage you to go ahead and draw upon all the resources that have been shared tonight and go forward in your work and do some really transformational leadership in making this city turn 180 toward the right direction.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Our last speaker.

Welcome up.

Yeah, it's just that uh so make sure to start with your name and where you're coming from.

North End.

Um, Ward, whatever, I don't know.

Ward five, precinct six, whatever.

Anyway, so are there gonna be restart the time?

Okay, thank you.

Is there gonna be a hearing on December 3rd for the people who mostly speak Spanish, the ones who speak Hmong, the ones who speak Somali, the ones who speak Karen.

Because they they got this message.

So I'm hoping.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

All right, I wanna I want to thank everyone uh very much for coming to our meeting tonight.

Um, I want to acknowledge again that this has been an incredibly tough moment in our community, and I I'm grateful to everyone for sharing your ideas and your passion and your anger and your dismay, and for listening to each other, and we hear you.

And we will be thinking about everything that you've given us to think about tonight, and we will be getting to work.

So thank you all so much, and we are adjourned,