Call the meeting of the St.

Paul City Council to order.

Roll call, please.

Yang.

Here.

Bowie.

Coleman.

Here.

Johnson.

Joast.

Here.

Kim?

Here.

Council President Acre.

Here.

Five present, two absent, those being Bowie and Johnson, and they are excused.

Welcome to everyone who braved the snow and the slush to join us at our council meeting today.

We really appreciate you being here.

Thanks for your interest in civic participation.

And you cannot use this video to tell your teacher you were here.

Um we'll invite everyone to join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge allegiance to the fly of the United States.

Under God's consent agenda items three through eighteen are before you for your consideration.

Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms.

Coleman to approve the balance of the consent agenda.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Five in favor, non-opposed.

The consent agenda is adopted.

Items number fourteen and seven are withdrawn.

Take a motion from Ms.

Jose to suspend the rules.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Seven and for five in favor, non-opposed, the rules are suspended.

Resolution twenty-five dash nineteen eighty.

Uh the is uh City Council actions in response to SPPD conduct during federal immigration enforcement.

Great.

I want to uh first of all thank the community for your patience.

I know we had planned to take this matter up last week.

We wanted to make sure we had enough time to uh do this not just with urgency but do it right.

Um I really want to thank Councilmember Coleman and her office for their leadership on uh getting this into its final form.

Um and Ms.

Coleman, I'm gonna turn it over to you just to say a few words about what's in front of us.

Thank you, Council President.

For weeks, the federal government has been actively targeting and terrorizing our city and our community members.

They're detaining people for doing nothing but showing up for work that day.

They're ripping families apart, and they're causing unam unimaginable levels of harm to and fear in our city's residents, immigrant and non-immigrant alike.

On November 25th, ICE agents came for our neighbors in the Payne Fail and neighborhood.

Shortly after their arrival, officers from the St.

Paul police department arrived on the scene in riot gear, evidently following a request for assistance from federal agents.

Firsthand accounts and video footage tell us that our officers deployed tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets, striking members of the public who are there exercising their constitutional right to observe and to protest, our council vice president and journalists.

In recent years, the St.

Paul Police Department has been a source of pride for many in St.

Paul.

Leaders in our city, within and outside of the police department, have spent years putting policies and procedures in place to ensure that excellence is not just expected, but required.

People across our community have taken comfort knowing that our police department was committed to relationship building, community outreach, and true public safety.

What we saw on November 25th was police behavior that failed to come even close to meeting that bar.

Police behavior that failed us.

The series of events that unfolded has raised a number of questions.

Questions about decision making within the police department, the actions of individual officers as they relate to our use of force policy, and questions regarding the effectiveness of our city separation ordinance.

Further, additional ICE actions in recent weeks have led to community demands for us to do more to safeguard our public spaces and our community members themselves from federal immigration enforcement.

Before us is a resolution committing the council or our the council's commitment to the residents of the city of St.

Paul that what happened on November 25th and that what continues to happen as ICE operates in our city is not going to be forgotten or moved past.

There's currently an investigation being conducted by the police internal integrity assurance unit that will compile a record of what exactly happened on the 25th, what decisions were made and by whom, and other information relevant for assessing violations of our use of force policy and separation ordinance.

That record will be closely reviewed by this council.

Simultaneously, we'll be working with the Board of Peace Officers Standards and Training to ensure there is a thorough investigation into the use of force by SPPD on the 2020 on the 25th, and with our Office of Financial Services to conduct a complete financial audit of that day's events.

As these investigations proceed, we'll be undertaking a review of our separation ordinance in January and acting to strengthen it if and where necessary.

None of this is enough to undo the harm caused two weeks ago.

But a critical part of sitting on the city council is making sure that our city's policies are meeting the moment that we are in and the needs of our communities today.

What we saw two weeks ago is that we have serious work to do to ensure that we are fulfilling that responsibility.

And I look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with my colleagues to continue to do just that.

Okay.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Coleman.

And again, thank you for your hard work, along with others of our colleagues as well to make sure that we um had this resolution in front of us today.

Um I will take that as a motion for the resolution.

Is there any discussion of the motion?

Ms.

Yang.

And then Ms.

Kim.

Yeah, thank you, Council President.

I echo what you shared, Councilmember Coleman.

Um there's definitely a lot that I want to say, and um what I um first want to say is that thank you to Council Vice President Kim.

Um on November 25th when the operations took place by HSI.

Um, I was still on maternity leave, and I got a call from you that morning um to let me know about what was happening.

And even today, you were the first person that called me to let me know about ICE presence that was at Heels of Park Recreation Center, um, which to me is just so unacceptable unacceptable for that to be happening right here at home in our communities.

And um, and I can't say enough just how like for me as a as a council member, like how um unacceptable it is that that is happening because it's going to be driving so many families away from these public spaces that we have claimed to be safe, um, a place of sanctuary for them.

And as a daughter of refugees, as somebody who, you know, I was born here in Minnesota, but I will never forget the story of even my own Hmong people who had to leave their countries, you know, for actually over many centuries.

And even that that our own people had to had to leave their country and cross borders to be able to seek refuge.

And also the fact that we are here in this country because our people were recruited by the US CIA and then left to die in the jungles when that when the secret war was lost, which is a secret war, which is a covert war that happened during the Vietnam War.

And so to me, like this what we are talking about here is I think that it is an issue that really is beyond, you know, even just conversations to be had here in the city, but really about the the state of our country and about how in our country we also have to recognize that we are a part of the atrocities, the injustices that are happening globally, and we take part in that, and we have to figure out a way to stop that from happening.

And so as I look in the room today, I see the faces of so many people, and I also wanna recognize that there are many people who aren't here in the chambers, but were present on November 25th as a part of a rapid response effort to observe and make sure that there wasn't any sort of violations or and just really to protect each other as a community.

Um and I really believe that we continue speaking out again against the injustices here because we we know that love is the foundation of our community here, and we only are as strong as each other, and that means having to uplift each other and building out our village.

I um am very supportive of the resolution here.

I believe that this really is all-encompassing of many of the concerns that we've been hearing from residents near and far who've been communicating to the council about the the operations that took place.

And uh I also want to name that I think that this is not gonna be the one-all solution.

I mean, we know that these sort of operations are going to continue happening.

I also want to name that for me, like a point of tension that I have too is I think that um, well, one, you know, really figuring out like making sure that we move on a quick timeline, that is really important to me.

And then as a council, even having larger conversations on policies is very important too.

Like one of the first few policies that I think that I would really like for us to act on if we already don't have this in place, would be making sure that we do not allow for our police officers and really frankly, like even federal agents to be staging their operations in our public spaces, like library parking lots and rec centers.

And that's what happened on November 25th.

Our Arlington Hills Library and Rec Center Rec Center had to go into lockdown, and families had to make a choice on whether they were going to leave or not.

And that's a choice that I don't have to want to have to have families have to make.

And you know, they obviously are coming there for many reasons, maybe to print out a sheet of paper or to read a book, to bring their kids there to play.

Um also in addition to that I also want to point out that you know, like in my role as a council member, we have staff members, so we are pretty much, you know, we are supervisors, having to give direction.

And I feel really unsettled with the fact that I think you know, as a city, we are in a place where there's so much area of gray where we haven't figured a lot of things out, especially what happens and how we are going to take action when I and HSI is here in our in our city to literally kidnap and detain people from our community.

And uh, and so to me, like that's really important because as somebody who is in that role of a of a supervisor, it's really important to me that we are really clear about expectations and protocols, and that we're also crafting together, you know, with either our staff members and community members to look to figure out what that looks like.

And and I ultimately like I want us to be really clear about that.

That way, our own St.

Paul police officers also know like what is expected of them as they're out doing the groundwork in the community.

And so that really is uh a larger conversation that I believe is a work in progress and a conversation for us to have alongside our community members and also really to pull in our mayor or police chief.

Thank you for being here into that conversation as well.

Um, because I I don't want to be in a place where because of that area of gray, there are police officers in our city who are basically scapegoated because we don't even know and don't have policies in place that are going to be get uh that are gonna get to us us to a place of clarity.

And so I'm very committed to that.

And again, I just want to say thank you so much to everybody who cares so deeply about our immigrant refugee community.

Um I think a lot about the words from Georgia Ford, who is an independent journalist and also owner of Black Press, and also um in the East Side too, where she said, I mean, it was really important for her to get back home to her babies at the end of the day.

And as a mom, that is also really important to me too.

And I know that every single person out there during the operations, like, you know, you all we all had people we wanted to get back to at the end of the day.

And that's why for us, ultimately it was so important to speak up and speak out against the injustices happening, um, and also really um to work collectively on making sure that we're keeping families together.

And so thank you to those of you who have been so bold and courageous and unapologetic about doing that.

And I believe that there really is a way forward, and I look forward to what will come out of our resolution here.

So thank you, Councilmember Coleman, for really taking the lead, you and your legislative aid Jenny on crafting the language for this and working with our state attorneys and also engaging with the council members about this too.

Thank you, Ms.

Yang.

Vice President Kim.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

So I'm very grateful for this resolution.

I will say that we are, at least my office is hearing very clear demands for there to be more of a public forum for folks to come forward and speak about their experiences.

I know that I have the ability to sit at this dye and talk about my personal experiences that day, which um I've not had a chance to speak to the chief with, but were um I think the quote that I used and the word I used was abhorrent.

Um, and so I I really really, and I know that the council president and I and Councilman Ring and I are aligned on this, but like we need a space for community for our police officers to come forward, for the council to come forward, but hold space for our community to not even air their grievances, but share what they experienced at the hands of our own police force that day.

I also want to name that the posturing of the way that SPPD showed up was actually not expected, and a very usual demeanor of how SPP at times will come forward and behave in communities of color.

And that is something that we as activists and organizers and communities of color and immigrants know all too well.

We see that during the uprising and during when we're out in the streets, there are times where their posturing is the escalation, and when they show up in riot gear is the escalation.

Um there's lengthy and well-documented history of over policing in our communities, and I know that is one that our chief is adamant about reforming, and at the same time, the way that they showed up from my first hand experience was anything but what they what we hear they are trained in, which is de-escalation, community building, and trust building.

I also want to name that two weeks ago is another day for our communities that they live at the mercy of our broken immigration system.

This is not something that we experienced last Tuesday.

I was already out at two different sites today myself as an observer to make sure that ICE was not present.

But our immigration system is inherently broken.

And so the best that we can do right now is to quite frankly activate.

I've said this multiple times in different interviews, but if you have citizenship privilege, now is the time to act.

It is not enough for us to share resources or to even donate to legal aid.

We need folks to be a part of rapid response.

Right now, ICE agents in Minneapolis are pulling people out of cars.

They're walking into restaurants, locking both the front and back door, and demanding to see identification for everyone inside that restaurant.

In Richfield, they are pointing guns at observers, they are arresting observers.

I cannot emphasize enough this moment in history.

The time is now.

If you ever believed in a resistance or greater hope or a future that is worth fighting for, this is the time to take a stand.

And the moment cannot be more dire.

It is now.

And there's a lot of grief involved.

This is not the life that I thought we would have.

This is not the life that I think any of us deserve.

But the time is now.

So please, I beg of everyone, get trained, become a constitutional observer.

I went to the Whipple building before in this morning for a check-in for someone that is seeking seeking asylum here in the United States.

My office is writing a letter of recommendation for someone that needs to file asylum paperwork.

We need to be doing more as individuals, and you need to we need to be doing more than just sending money to legal aid.

Yes, please do that.

They absolutely need your money.

But I just cannot emphasize enough how dire this moment is, and we need people to act, and we need people to do it safely and principally.

So please get trained.

Please connect with people that are part of these trainings when you show up, that you are also safe and that you're also protected.

The last thought is just um, I just want to emphasize again, there was an incredible indiscriminate deployment of chemical agents against residents that I also experienced, and it cannot be justified under any professional policing standards and demands immediate accountability.

Residents deserve to know how their decisions, how decisions were made to authorize chemical weapons in their neighborhoods and how much the operation costs our taxpayers, and whether or not, most importantly, it violated our separation ordinance.

The consequences of deploying chemical weapons extend far beyond their immediate physical harm.

They fracture relationships between police and the communities that they serve.

And as someone that was tear gassed, maced and hit by a non-le less lethal, which is a wild way to talk about if police accidentally hit you with something that you're not you shouldn't die from it.

Um it just goes beyond anything that I think all of us have talked about this table.

And when we think about community safety.

So residents absolutely deserve to know how much taxpayer money was spent on that.

And more than ever, we deserve to know who made that call for them to show up from the time the call that happened.

Who made the decision for police to show up in Riot Gear?

And I asked that question on the scene.

The person in charge, don't know who they were.

I said, I'm the vice president of Stample City Council.

Why are you here?

Who deployed you?

And those answers went completely ignored.

Residents who watched officers gas their streets now question whether or not law enforcement prior prioritizes public safety or simply asserts dominance through force.

I'm committed to working with my colleagues to strengthen our separation ordinance and explore avenues to ensure our residents don't experience this again.

But when I tell you that every single person had the same experience as I did with SPPD, that is a fact.

When I tell you that I saw a 30-foot wall of tear gas fill the air on Payne Avenue and our own police force shoot indiscriminately through the fog, not knowing who they would hit.

I'm telling you that is a that is ubiquitously the experience that everyone else experienced.

And the very last thing that I'll say is there's also a question of if our press was attacked and targeted.

What I witnessed that day was our press moving as a collective together.

There were a few times when folks broke the line and it was a massive press to make sure that they were documenting for transparency for our community then to use the information to demand accountability.

And there is no doubt in my mind that the police knew exactly who was in the crowd, they were following very closely, they were very well identified, very well marked, and again, throughout the day, which I spent eight hours there.

They all moved together.

And there's no doubt in my mind that they knew who was in the who was in the crowd, and they still chose to shoot indiscriminately into the crowd and through a fog of tear gas.

And this is not, this is not this is so beyond what we deserve.

And now what community deserves is the opportunity to speak face to face with our police department and our council on their own grievances and their own experiences.

I think we also have to be rooted in the fact that communities of color have been over policed and have been experiencing police violence in a way that now that this conversation is at the table, we have to also center their voices and bring opportunities for folks to organize and bring their people.

I want to name one in particular.

There's an organization that I personally have been a part of for many, many years, even during the uprising.

Communities united against police violence.

And they are connected to families that are impacted by police violence.

We need to bring their voices to the table.

And the last thing is I'm again just very grateful that we're here and that thank you, um, Councilmember Coleman for like navigating this for us.

I don't I don't know if quite frankly, I would have sort of like the mental, emotional, and physical capacity to do this.

I really appreciate how it's come to the table.

Um but now more than ever, what we have to deliver for our constituents is accountability.

Accountability in reports, accountability in our force, and combat comp accountability in the way that we will remedy this.

It's not enough for us to say something wrong happened.

We also have to reform what's happening.

Thank you, Vice President Kim.

And this Jost.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh, I want to also thank council member Coleman and all my colleagues at this table for all of your effort and your work on this, and especially for your remarks and council vice president for you for being there.

Um also want to recognize uh councilmember Johnson and Councilmember Wu who are not at the table with us today, but they also did um help in uh in the work that our council has taken on the last few weeks.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank the people that showed up to the truth in taxation hearing that was on the same day.

Um we we sat here and we listened to folks that entire night, and I just really appreciate again their um their courage to show up.

Um people who showed up at uh on Rose Street earlier that day, and then also showed up that night to share their stories.

I think that um I just want to recognize there's two two issues that we're talking about here.

One is the um presence of federal agents in our city almost every week, it's felt like the last several weeks.

Um, and additionally, particularly with the uh what took place at Rose Street a few weeks ago, the um and what brought this resolution forth was uh SPPD's role that day, their conduct um in the council's uh now taking action to uh coordinate an investigation around that conduct.

So there are two things we're talking about.

I think that when I reflect on the last several weeks and what we've been experiencing in our city, it's it's truly heartbreaking.

It's not what I've imagined for our community as someone that has you know lived in St.

Palmster life and now is uh in the position of an elected official, and it is not aligned with the vision and the values that we hold in our city.

And so I just really appreciate everyone's um work on this, and I look forward to the next steps of everything that we've outlined in this resolution.

Thank you, Councilmember Jost, and thank you to all of my colleagues for your powerful words um on this.

I I realized at the beginning I forgot to also thank my legislative aide, Megan Jacket, who got the initial draft of the resolution ready.

So thank you to Jackett for doing that.

Um I I do um the only thing that I'll add to what's already been said is that um I really appreciate how this resolution is responsive to what we've been hearing.

I think our council is doing our job as being the voice of the people we represent to ask those questions and to demand that accountability.

Um and it also uses all the tools at our disposal to do that.

And I think what took us some time was to figure out not just what words can we put on a piece of paper, but what actions can we take the minute this is adopted?

Because what we put on a piece of paper doesn't matter, didn't squat to anybody if we can't do anything with it.

And so the work we did was to figure out what are our powers.

One of our powers is financial oversight.

So that's the audit.

That's figuring out how much public money was spent on November 25th.

One of our powers is partnership.

That's asking the post board to work with us on that investigation of the use of force.

And then one of our powers, and maybe our most important and direct power is legislation, and our separation ordinance is within our own power to analyze.

We don't need to wait for somebody else to do that.

And that's the conversation we're gonna be having.

That's the public conversation we're gonna be having, Council Vice President, and I look forward to planning that together with you and our colleagues.

Um, but we can start that immediately.

So I think this uses all of our powers, and it also balances things that we know will take some time, like a post-investigation, and things that can happen in the mid medium term, like an audit, and things that can happen starting tomorrow with that analysis of our separation ordinance.

So thank you again to everyone who's had a hand in this.

Um I think if there's no further discussion, um, we will take a vote.

Uh all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Five in favor, non opposed.

The resolution is adopted.

Item number 19 is resolution 25-1914 outlining the city's 2026 legislative agenda.

This is what we call in the business a very hard pivot.

Um, I um again want to thank everyone who was here for that last item.

I want to welcome up Eric Peterson from our intergovernmental relations uh office.

Um, and I want to start with just a bit of uh context for my colleagues and for the public.

Um, every year the city adopts a legislative agenda, which is the city's priorities to advocate for at the legislature.

This year we worked hard together on an ordinance that said that we need to adopt that legislative agenda, um, have it presented to us by the second week of December.

Because what we don't want to have happen is to have our staff up at the legislature lobbying for something that we haven't actually seen or approved as a council.

Um, that is our authority.

We adopted that ordinance that required this legislative agenda to be presented to us today, and that's what's happening.

However, what our ordinance didn't contemplate is what happened this year, which is a mayoral mayoral transition.

Um, and because we have a new administration, because we have a new mayor who hasn't yet had a chance, frankly, to sit down with this among all the other things that she's doing and make sure that um this is what the administration wants to present as a legislative agenda.

We didn't want to present something here to us and to the public that was just going to be changed later.

Um so, in order to follow the ordinance, we are having a presentation on legislative priorities today.

Um, but mostly what staff will be presenting is the city council's articulated priorities to be built into the legislative agenda.

Staff will then be back in front of us no later than January 21st, which is still a full almost a month before session begins with the final legislative agenda for our consideration and discussion and an amendation.

So just wanted to give that context because when this council works hard on policies, uh we don't like to just immediately veer off of that.

Um, but in this case, I think it warrants us making an exception because um we have a new mayor and a new administration.

So with that, hopefully I tap danced long enough for the tech, but maybe not to get nope, resolved.

I'm soon going to turn it over to Eric Peterson to talk to us about the legislative agenda.

Thanks, Council President.

I think well, uh Ms.

Moor Mendes helping me with the technology.

We can kind of get started on the first couple slides.

Uh hopefully you have those in front of you so we can uh talk through that.

Uh but um just wanted to highlight these are the priorities that Director Howes and I had met with you all during the summer and fall, as you stated.

So we'll walk through that.

But I just wanted to start with some of the like the groundwork in the framework of what we kind of know right now as of uh December and as we're going into the legislative session in February.

So uh last week MMB published uh the November forecast, uh, which is you know twice a year.

We do that in November, and then again in late February, early March, the late uh February, early March is the you know, the numbers that the state of Minnesota and the legislature use to determine what kind of budget targets if there would be.

We are going into a year where this would be a supplemental budget or any kind of uh new spending or adjustments to what the state had done this last year for the current budget.

And so um the numbers that you see um show about 2.465 billion dollar surplus in this current biennium, but then there's a shortfall of about 2.9 billion dollars in fiscal years 28-29, which we talk about as the out years.

So um some of those uh structural imbalances, thanks, Ms.

Mormon, uh kind of show um that that's off about 1.8 billion.

It was when we had this conversation in March, and so to increase by almost a billion dollars, there's been things that uh kind of helped with that.

Um healthcare spending was a huge um increase to the cost, as well as just uh spending by just average consumers in the state, and throughout um uh you know what people are buying for are kind of the drivers there.

So um, and then obviously we have inflation, and then there's some unknowns with uh the bill that uh the federal government passed earlier this year as well with some unknowns in that uh out year budget.

Um negotiation piece that got added is the debt service.

So there is a debt service of about 1.165 billion dollars that's assumed for in the budget by MMB.

What that means though is that in the past that's what they would tell the legislature like this is how large your bonding bill can be if you were to do one.

But now the new rules are going to apply is that the leaders will have to negotiate what that number will be as they negotiate budget targets.

So as of right now, you'll see that the the largest bill that they could do at this time with the numbers that they see from MMV is 1.165, could be lower, but that's what they could do now.

So that's kind of where that's at, and then um just a couple important dates.

Uh 12 o'clock noon on February 17th, it's a Tuesday.

That's when they all reconvene, and then they have to constitutionally uh adjourn by midnight on Sunday, May 9th or May 17th, going into Monday, May 18th.

Are you wanting me to pause for questions or just kind of cautious?

Just keep going.

I'll keep an eye.

People should feel free to ask as we go.

Great.

Uh just as we uh share, there's a couple changes that have happened at the legislature since we've spoken.

So um there was two special elections, one in the uh Woodbury and eastern part of Maplewood, and then there was one out in the western part of Hennepin County, and then the majority of Wright County.

Uh those both stayed in uh the same party control, and so at this point right now, um, it's 3433 in the Senate uh for uh the Senate control for the DFL with uh majority leader Murphy and President Champion and then uh uh minority leader Johnson.

Um in the House we have two special elections happening in January, as you stated, mayor elect um her will be assuming office in January.

She has um resigned from her seat, so there will be a special election here in St.

Paul in January.

And then there's also a special election for that seat that I mentioned in Woodbury and Maplewood.

Uh, that representative became a senator, and so that seat is now an open election seat.

So that's uh two seats down for the Democrats currently, uh, and then those will happen in January.

But uh the leaders too are here, Speaker Damuth, and then our new DFL leader uh Zach Stevenson from Coon Rapids uh took over for the uh late uh Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, and then we still have uh leader long uh as the floor leader, and then um the GOP has uh leader NISCA there as well.

Um, as I've mentioned in the past, these are where some of our delegation members are.

So as our House delegation chairs uh represent Perez Vega and the House, and then uh Senator Umover Baton in the Senate.

Um we have also Representative Hollands as a whip, and then um some of the chairs there um to just uh keep going on a public session.

Sorry, we're not we're not having a public hearing right now.

Um November 25th.

I'm gonna ask you to stop speaking now because we're not having a public hearing.

Please continue.

So uh as we've mentioned before, uh these are 2026 City Council legislative priorities that you all met with Director Howes and I'm I'm gonna ask you again.

I'm gonna please do not interrupt our meeting.

Our community we had children to keep.

What?

Call the meeting of the St.

Paul City Council back to order roll call, please.

Yay.

Here.

Coleman.

Here.

Johnson.

Joseph.

Here.

Kim?

Here.

Council President Naker.

Here.

Five present, not absent.

Uh those absent being Bowie and Johnson and they are excused.

All right.

Thanks to everyone for your patience during that recess.

Apologies for that disruption.

We are going to continue with our agenda.

Um I'm gonna make a motion to lay over item 19 to uh December 17th.

Is there any discussion of that motion?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Five in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is laid over to December 17th.

Item number 20 is ordinance 25-4.

Amending the title amending title four of the administrative code to add chapter 92 titled Tree Preservation for City Sponsored Projects.

Um this is also I'm also gonna make a motion to lay this over.

Unfortunately, the folks who were here to testify on this item uh had to leave during our recess.

So uh I will make that motion.

Any discussion?

Oh, I'm sorry, to December 17th.

Um and this is not gonna be before us for final adoption on the 17th, it'll be before us for eight, what we're calling a meety update.

Um, and we'll talk more about that next week.

All right, if there's no discussion, all in favor of the layover for one week, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Five in favor, non-oppos, the ordinance is laid over to December seventeenth.

Item number twenty-one is ordinance twenty-five-seventy two, amending chapters sixty, sixty one, sixty eight, and seventy-two of the legislative code pertaining to the Mississippi River critical corridor critical area in the floodplain management overlay districts.

All right, this is before us for final adoption after uh a long time of discussion and um many, many months um of staff work.

So I wanna um thank staff first of all for all of your hard work on this, especially Mr.

Johnson.

Um I will I will move approval and see if there's any discussion or comments from my colleagues.

All right.

Seeing none.

Uh all in favor say aye.

Aye, aye.

All opposed.

Five in favor, non opposed.

The ordinance is adopted.

Item number 22 is ordinance twenty-five-seventy eight, establishing chapter 15 of the administrative code to establish and defined structured quarterly reporting requirements for certain personnel vacancies and overtime utilization.

This is our long-awaited vacancies and overtime uh utilization report.

Um I wanna thank my colleagues for um the dedication to seeing this through.

I know it's taken a long time.

I'll take a motion from Council Vice President Kim for approval.

Any discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed?

Five in favor, none opposed.

The ordinance is adopted.

Item number 23 is ordinance 25-79.

Amending chapter 107 of the administrative code pertaining to improvements to the planning commission process.

And this is first reading, so we will have a staff report.

Welcome up.

Director McMahon and Ms.

Robinson.

Hello, Council President, Council members.

Um excited to be here today with Yasmin Robinson, planning director in PED.

Our planning commission provides an important role in our city, but hasn't changed in form since the 1970s.

So lots of other things though have changed, right?

Technology's changed, city processes have changed, and redevelopment have all changed in the plat in the last 50 plus years.

So we're bringing forward updates to the planning commission now so that it can have the tools and the opportunity to operate in a way that is more accessible, transparent, equitable, and efficient.

But best of all, these improvements cost nothing.

So Ms.

Robinson will now go through the updates in more detail.

Okay, welcome, Ms.

Robinson.

Thank you, Council President, Council members.

I think I would like to use the voice activated projector if possible.

You said the right words.

Sometimes it just takes a moment.

Assuming the voice activated projector is still here.

There's a button you can push to, so I'll just go.

There it is.

Thank you.

Now we just need the voice activated Zoom.

Is it on?

We're seeing it.

Okay.

Thank you, Council President, Council members.

Thank you, Director McMahon.

Excited to bring some recommendations to you today to ensure an accessible, transparent, and equitable and efficient planning process.

So the goals, as I mentioned, are accessible, transparent, equitable, efficient.

To achieve these goals, there's three recommendations.

First is to reduce the size and streamline the organization of the planning commission.

There we go.

The first recommendation is taking the commission from 21 to 7 with two at large alternates, and rolling the subcommittee business into regular commission business.

This would be consistent with the way that planning commissions function around the country.

Existing commissioners would roll off their term in the year 2026 until we've reached one commissioner per ward.

Staff projects that we would reach that number in the year 2026.

Rolling the committee work into the main body would result in some process changes.

For a zoning application, this would mean removing the zoning committee step.

The zoning case and the public hearing could occur at the same meeting at the planning commission.

You can also see in the red circle that the amount of public hearings does not change.

For zoning studies, there's a larger positive impact.

Reducing the minimum number of days from 126 to 82.

This would result also in no loss in public comment.

It would make the process easier for people to follow since there would not be a back and forth between the committees.

So the benefits of this reduction in the size and streamlining the organ reorganization would improve meeting efficiency so that everyone would get all of the same information at the same time.

That includes the commissioners and the public.

This would also make it an easier commitment for commissioners who sometimes do four to six meetings a month.

This would bring it down to two.

And that would make it easier to recruit people.

Taking off that many meetings can sometimes be a burden and can exclude people who don't have jobs that are as flexible as others.

The second uh the second recommendation is related to ENS, the early notification system, which I know you're all familiar with.

ENS was created for residents to sign up for email notifications about different city activities.

We send out ENS notifications when we receive an application, something you know, like for a conditional use permit or a zoning application.

Um we are recommending to bring the subdivision application, ENS public review period down from 45 days to 30 days to be in line with the other types of applications that we see.

This would give us a little bit more room for 1599 to progress.

Um basically, sorry, that's not uh basically we wait 45 days when the application is uh complete.

And so there's just a 45-day kind of sitting there period.

Um a lot of the other applications that we have are in the 30-day category.

So just trying to bring that in line with what we have.

And then lastly, there are some non-legislative policy changes, including updating the planning commission bylaws.

We would be able to move the planning commission from the basement room 40 to here in the council chambers, where there's obviously adequate audio and visual resources.

The audience, the applicants, and the commissioners would all be able to see and hear the discussions, which is something that people struggle with now currently.

And there'd be room for everyone.

Sometimes in room 40, depending on the item, it can get a bit crowded.

And I want to make sure that anyone who is taking the time to come down to a meeting can see here and participate, you know, in the in the way that they want to.

And it strikes me that one of the current barriers to doing that is the size of the planning commission.

You couldn't fit 21 people around this table, but if you were down to seven, you could.

Yes, Council President.

The number of commissioners, because there's 21.

There's no room in City Hall large enough to accommodate that.

So room 40 is really the only option.

We would also like to create a new public hearing website so that all of the information about public hearings is in one place.

That's a little, you know, it's in line with how people want to receive information.

People are always looking at the city website or hearing about something on social media.

So this would be, you know, like an above and beyond to ENS and the regular noticing that we do.

And I brought a couple of uh old friends from the T District study here.

Um we've got Artie artist.

Artie's an artist who is inspired by vibrant cities and wants to comment on a development project in her neighborhood.

Um and the planning commission changes for her means a public process that's easy to understand, and she only has to go to one meeting.

Uh the meeting takes place in a room where she can hear and see the discussion and outcome.

And we've got developer Dan.

Dan's a local housing developer, and he builds mid-sized multifamily projects, and he needs a conditional use permit.

Uh, for Dan, the product the process is more predictable and only takes one meeting to know if his CUP is approved or not.

Um there's also more time for Dan to uh talk to the local district council and planning staff uh about his project with a little more wiggle room for 1599.

Ms.

Robinson, before you move that image was developer Dan based off of Dan.

Just food for thought.

These characters are loosely based.

Implying nothing.

And then finally, we have Paula Planner.

Uh Paula is a planner with the city and is presenting a project to the planning commission.

Uh for Paula, this means projects are not delayed because of lack of quorum.

Uh the meeting discussion is more focused and dynamic, which is something that's always exciting for us planners.

Um, and explaining the process to the public is easier and doesn't feel intimidating.

Um so that's what I've got, and I can stand for any questions.

Thanks so much, Ms.

Robinson.

Other questions or comments?

Miss Coleman.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted I don't have a question.

I'm really excited about all this.

I really appreciate Director and Deputy Direct Director all the work that's gone into this.

I think we talk so much about like let's make it easier to do cool things in the city of St.

Paul, and that's often a vibey question, and to actually have some very, very concrete things that we could actually change to make the city work better while not minimizing opportunity for public input or engagement or in any way undermining the democratic project of living in a society together.

I think is really impressive and exciting, and I feel very excited about these changes, which is maybe an indictment on my personality.

Thanks, Ms.

Coleman.

Other comments or questions for staff?

Okay.

I would just say um I I agree with the enthusiastic the geeky enthusiasm for these changes.

Um I will say as a member, former member of the planning commission.

I don't know if the council vice president would agree that it does seem like a lot of um time could be saved by having those committee meetings happen in commission.

Um I also think I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but our the size of our planning commission compared to the size of our city is quite disproportionate.

I think New York City has something like seven or nine planning commissioners, and we have 21.

Um is that am I wrong?

Council President, um, I think New York City has about 12 or 13.

I did, I should know I worked there.

Um but um 21, I couldn't find a larger.

We you know, we did a lot of research uh at the staff level to see you know what was an appropriate number of of commissioners, and it really varies, but ours is much much higher.

Like usually the highest is about 12 or 13.

Um smallest is you know, about five.

And 12 or 13 for a city the size of New York City.

So yeah, so I I think that that that point bears repeating.

Um, I think it's it's worthy of note.

And then um, I noted also that your timeline slides uh talking about how much time this will save, assume that everything happens um on the normal timeline and doesn't assume that there are any meetings that have to be canceled for lack of quorum, for example, which is harder to make when you have 21 members.

And I know lately we've had a lot of projects that have been delayed due to lack of quorum, either at a committee or a planning commission.

And so um, I think this is common sense and uh great to move all the projects we want to move forward in St.

Paul more quickly.

So thank you.

Any other comments?

Otherwise, this will lay over till December 17th.

The item is laid over to December 17th for uh second reading public hearing.

Item number 24 is resolution public hearing 25-240.

Final order approving the 2026 IV Birmingham residential mill and overlay project.

All right, this is a public hearing.

Is there anyone?

Oh, did you want to speak first?

Come on up.

Sorry, we will have a quick staff report.

Come on up.

Before our public hearing and may I use the voice activated protectors already on projector.

There you go.

Yes.

Uh Council President and Council members.

I am Steve Dodge of Street Engineering and Construction Division Manager.

Uh I'm pinch hinning tonight.

Uh project manager had a engagement he had to get to uh due to the delay.

Uh but the uh we're here tonight to discuss the uh Ivy Birmingham residential mill and overlay.

It's part of the annual residential mill and overlay program.

Uh the Ivy Burman area is located just east of Phelan in the northeast part of the city, and uh in between Arlington and Maryland.

Uh it's gonna be a summer 2026 construction project.

Uh 3.2 miles of mill and overlay and cost of approximately around three million dollars.

Uh the scope of the work is of course gonna be mill and overlay, meaning we're gonna take off top two inches of pavement and uh and you know place two inches back uh in order to extend the life of the road.

And then uh there will be utility adjustments.

Uh the intersections will get 88 accessible ramps uh placed.

Yeah, there will be some sidewalk repair, and of course, the uh there will be assessments with this project in accordance with the city's assessment policy passed in 2024.

And that was the brief staff report I wanted to share, and uh we'd be open for any questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Dodge.

Thank you for pinch hitting as well.

Um any questions for staff before we open it up?

Doesn't look like it.

All right, uh, we'll now hold a public hearing on this item.

Um if you're here to testify, this is your public hearing.

Come on up.

All right, doesn't look like there's anyone here, so I will take a motion from Ms.

Yang to close the public hearing and approve.

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed?

Five in favor, non opposed.

The resolution is adopted.

Item number twenty-five is a reservoir resolution public hearing twenty-five-270, amending the spending and financing plans for various city departments.

This is a public hearing.

Is there anyone here to speak on this item?

Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms.

Jose to close the public hearing and approve.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Five in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is adopted.

Item number 26 is resolution public hearing 25-276 authorizing the police department to amend the 2025 police department grant fund for the Ramsey County violent crime enforcement team grant.

This is a public hearing.

Is there anyone here to speak to this item?

Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Vice President Kim to close the public hearing and approve.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed?

Five in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is adopted.

Item number 27 is resolution public hearing 25-279, amending the financing and spending plans in the fire department in the amount of $54,213.59 cents for the Minnesota Task Force 1 reimbursement from the city of E Dinah.

It's a good day when we take money from the city of E Dinah has to be said.

This is a public hearing.

Is there anyone here to speak on this item?

Seeing none.

I'll take a motion from Ms.

Coleman to close the public hearing and approve.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Five in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is adopted.

Legislative hearing consent agenda items 28 through 35 are before you for your consideration.

Ms.

Mormond.

Uh I will then change the recommendation of the champion that is button number 2.

Item number 29.

Do you need me to read it?

Item number 29 is RLH SAO 25-56.

Appeal of Seth Richardson to a summary abatement order at 2350 Bayless Place.

Ms.

Marman.

I am asking that the council continue this public hearing to January 14th of 2026.

They're aware and we'll send a follow-up letter.

Take a motion accordingly from Ms.

Coleman.

All in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

All opposed?

Five in favor, non-opposed.

The public hearing is continued to January 14th.

All right.

We will now hold a hearing on the balance of the consent legislative hearing consent agenda items, which are items 28 through 35.

If you're here for any of those items, this is your public hearing.

Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms.

Jose to close the public hearings and approve with any of the legislative hearing officers' recommendations, modifications, or amendments.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Five in favor, non opposed, the legislative hearing consent agenda is adopted as amended.

That brings us to the end of our agenda.

I think we've had a long enough meeting.

Um not seeing any good news or I am seeing good news around the table.

Ms.

Yang.

Uh thank you, Council President.

I do have a couple of good news to share, but before I do that, I um want to express that I'm very disappointed in our city council here.

I think that earlier um we could have made different decisions and also had different conversations in response to the ask from community members to speak at the podium.

I am really sick and tired of having to have the same sort of to be in the same situation.

I was in the same situation when I was um wanting to uh pass the ceasefire resolution.

I was the only person at the table here who stayed after when people um when our community members had um asked to speak at the podium.

And I just want to say that to me, it is not a huge ask at all for the city council here to just give that space for people in our community who care about something, or maybe they don't care about something, you know, to be able to talk at the microphone.

They can come in opposition in opposition or in support of something, and it's really important to me that we figure out how we can change up our agenda here.

I am really disappointed that because it took so long for us to to figure out what we wanted to do, and because I mean, frankly, I'm disappointed in my colleagues who cared more about process than us trying to figure out how we could just overall, you know, um uh open up uh either a public hearing or we call the resolution to let them to speak.

And I uh I expect better.

I would like for us to do better, and uh ultimately if that means that we need to change up our agenda and just overall have an open section for community members to come and speak openly about whatever topic that they want.

I am I would be very supportive of that, and I would like to see that happen because oftentimes people do come to us as council members wanting to talk about something, and because it's not on our agenda, we say, well, you can't um unless it's related to this topic.

And that is not okay for me personally.

I have been on the other side of this room before where I was at the podium talking about things that I cared about issues, like for example, minimum wage, earn sick and save time.

And um, if we were ever not given the opportunity to speak, I would be so furious.

And so I I share the frustration and anger of the people who came earlier.

And um, this is also an issue that I know like what we passed a resolution um that was unanimous.

I mean, we cared deeply about the resolution and trying to you know get an audit of those of the uh St.

Paul Police Department operations that took place on November 25th, a result as a result of HS um HSI being here in the east side.

Um, and there's more in that resolution, but overall just want to name like I just I'm very I'm very unsettled of what happened, and uh I'm gonna keep saying this over and over until we have a day where we don't have to be in this sort of situation again.

The good news that I want to share is that there's a community dinner event happening tomorrow, and uh it's that's December 11th.

It's from 6 p.m.

to 7 30 p.m.

It's for all ages and it's free.

It's a Hazel Park Recreation Center, and it's the chance for families to be able to get a visit from uh with Santa, do arts and crafts, and there will be light supper.

So please go out and support our rec centers.

Second one is that um the St.

Paul Public Library in partnership with the Southeast Asian Diaspora Project, are uh they're having a community event um called Stories of Abundance.

It's a special event commemorating 50 years since pivotal moments in Southeast Asian history, the end of the Vietnam War, the conclusion of the secret war in Laos, the beginning of the Khmer Rooch takeover in Cambodia, and the events shaped have shaped the journeys of the Khmer La Hmong Lao and Vietnamese communities in Minnesota, and it's a celebration to honor their stories, resilience and cultural legacies.

It's um happening on Saturday, December 13th, 2 p.m.

to 4 30 p.m.

at Sunray Library.

And one of the things that I do want to highlight is that right now in St.

Paul Public Libraries, if you um if you open your library account or want to get a new library card, you can get one, and it has art on it from um one of our Hmong artists, Kali.

And uh she um it's a watercolor painting on it that really celebrates the 50th year of the Hmong people resettling here in the US, and so I encourage people to go and get a card from our St.

Paul Public Libraries.

Thank you, Ms.

Yang.

Um I see Council Vice President Kim, and I don't want to forget that Mr.

Staley also has a piece of good news.

Wow, okay.

Yeah.

It's a special night.

Yeah, just really quickly just to want to speak to events happen but more so about next steps moving forward.

So I actually, in the final resolution that made us the table, it doesn't commit to a community meeting, but I do know as a fact that all of my colleagues are deeply committed to that and structuring a space that is both co-created, but one that allows allows the space for folks to be heard.

Um, I think that's incredibly important.

I think in the best way, city government is the most accessible um electeds that folks have to grab onto to be like there's a lot of things that are wrong in this world, and I need us to do something about it.

And so I'm committed to that.

I know that council president is councilmember Yang, I know my colleagues across the board are committed to this meeting.

So we are going to be looking at dates, and my office will take the lead in partnership with the council president's office to assure that this meeting takes place.

Um, I think the goal is for it to not be structured.

I think there's space for us to have meetings where we work on issues together to make progress, but I do think that having a container and a space for community to speak freely around not just what they experienced last week, but what they have continually have been experiencing from our police department for many many years is also important.

Um, and so just naming that on the record that I think um as I'm even reading through this, the council, even though internally commits to it, didn't quite make it in writing, but I know that it's not um not an intentional um miss.

And again, uh deep appreciation to my colleague, Councilmember Coleman, for getting this to table in a form that we can pass and have teeth with.

That was something that I communicated very clearly to members of the community that reached out to me is that I don't want to pass something that doesn't have the thing that we are talking about doing.

Um so my good news is um this weekend on the 13th, the Rice Leapender Alliance is having our winter warmup.

It is held at Nepali Kitchen and Bar.

It's very cold, so we'll be inside.

Um, so please come 1700 Rice Street.

Dare I say it is not in St.

Paul, but because it's the Rice Learpender Alliance, this is really great work along the corridor, and I'll um where those three cities meet of uh Roseville, Maplewood, and St.

Paul.

Um, it'll be hosted in our sister city of Maplewood, but please do come and turn out.

It'll be fun for all and food and um togetherness, which feels really important right now.

Thanks, Vice President.

Uh Ms.

Just.

Um yeah, thank you, Council President Acre.

I'll just say that um uh I care about the integrity of this council and the integrity of our processes and the transparency around the things that we discuss here at the table.

So I am open to considering a um a public hearing or a process that is properly noticed so that people can show up and be a part of that, and that it's why that is legal legally how we are required to operate here as a council.

Um, I also think that I do care a lot about the resolution that we passed today and making sure that we are able to tangibly actually move things forward that do result in accountability and result in outcomes that I believe our residents and my constituents are looking for.

That is what I care about the most.

I care about actual work, actual action, and um making sure that we are resolving this matter.

Um I will also share an event that is happening in my ward uh this weekend.

So on Saturday, December 13th at the Highland Community Center is a um holiday event from one to three where um folks can come in to take pictures with Santa.

They can also, I think there's gonna be treats and lots of other um holiday activities and games in the gym.

So I'll be there and looking forward to it.

Um, okay, um uh Mr.

Staley.

Thank you, Council Presidents.

This is uh another hard pivot, but uh St.

Paul will soon be home to the world's largest hockey puck.

Uh it is being designed right now and built right here in the city of St.

Paul and will be on display at Rice Park during the Bull North Breakaway Fan Fest, which is part of the World Juniors Championship, uh, December 26th through January 5th.

Uh the puck, one completed will weigh more than 5,000 pounds, will be more than 22 feet across and seven and a half feet tall.

This exceeds the world's previous record of 20 feet.

Um so come check that out when it's available.

Thanks so much, Mr.

Staley.

I appreciate that.

Uh it was extremely a hard pivot, but I think it was worthwhile to pivot in that direction.

Um, I uh want to thank my colleagues for your comments um in this section of the agenda, and I want to um I want to say that I agree with a lot of what's been said.

I have been very clear that I want to have a public conversation about what occurred on Rose Street.

And I want to do that in a way that is transparent, which means everyone knows it's happening.

I want to do it in a way that's equitable.

That means that if you don't speak English, if you need a translator, you can come to that meeting and you can be heard.

We did not have that opportunity tonight.

I want to do that in a way that is productive.

So we just worked really hard on a resolution.

Again, thank you, Ms.

Coleman and others who worked on that, to lay out a path that moves us forward, and I want to have a conversation that moves us along that path, and that gives us the input we need to continue that path.

Um, and I want to do it in a way that's fair.

And what happens when our business is interrupted is that a lot of folks who are here tonight on a lot of other matters that are very important to them did not get a chance to be heard.

Um and I take that really seriously as well.

So um, I'm also open to considering, Ms.

Yang, I think you're you make an excellent point.

You know, we don't have a public comment section in general in the agenda.

If we want to consider adding, you know, a public comment section at the end, we can have that conversation.

Um, but in my mind, that's a really different matter than having our meetings be uh interrupted in a way that doesn't allow us to do the the public's business.

So with that, I want to thank everyone.

I know this was a hard uh evening, and uh we are adjourned.