City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'm going to call our Bloomington City Council listening session to order. It is Monday, June 1st. Thanks to everybody for being here this evening. We have a number of folks who called ahead of time and one who signed up on the fly here. So Jamie Anthony. Did I see Jamie? There you are. I didn't see you. Jamie Anthony and then Sally. Deborah. How do you pronounce your last name, Deborah? Payone. Very good. Elizabeth. I see Elizabeth there. And then Brian would like to speak also. So is there anybody else? And what's your name, please?

Jim? All right.

All right, that puts us at six, and I know it's going to be awfully tight, so everybody gets four, maybe five minutes tops, but because we want to hear from everybody and get you up. So, Jamie, why don't you get us started up here? I'm going to ask you all to speak way into the mic and be as loud as you can, and then when you finish up, you can take the clipboard and step to the side, and if you could sign in then, so we can just keep things moving along. So, your name as you start, and off we go. Good evening. Welcome.

Hi. Am I right up in there?

Very good. That's it. Exactly.

Excellent. Hi. Good evening. I'm Jamie Anthony. I am a resident of Victor's District, District 4. I am here to talk about police activity tonight. So council members, you know that I emailed you on Thursday regarding an incident where a Bloomington police officer Called in to the ICE line. Sorry, that's not my pen. That's your pen. About a person who was in Bloomington Police custody. Okay. And the person, the federal officer, I don't know if it was Officer Madison or not, but they looked him up and they said, yep, this person is someone who's eligible for deportation, so we're gonna come to the Bloomington Police Department and take over custody of this person and then take them into our custody. That kind of goes against everything that we've heard over the last few months. So I would love to know a little bit more about what happened.

And here's what I've been able to find out, because I did see your email, and we did dig into it a bit. And I don't have the complete information because I wasn't able to talk to everybody. Here's what I know, though. The police attempted to stop someone who then fled. They eventually did pull him over and arrest him. As a result, the person refused to identify themselves. And so the police followed ordinary procedure like they do with everybody. They took the person into custody, did fingerprinting, and in the process of trying to verify an ID, other agencies became aware of this person being in custody. And we know that, that when a fingerprint goes out, it goes out everywhere, including... federal agencies as well. So that is what I understand happened. I don't know there was a direct call to anyone or there wasn't a specific endeavor to try and get ICE involved in this. This was typically what they do when somebody won't IT themselves and it just happened to end up in federal custody.

How does that reconcile with the report from the federal agent that said that the BPD officer called in with a potential tip?

I think it was, he may have been calling, I don't know. Like I said, this is what I have. I don't know who he called. I don't know who he contacted directly. But he was, they were trying to ID the person. They were trying to figure out who this person was.

How long is a person allowed to be in BPD custody before they have to be transferred elsewhere or released?

On that, I don't know. Not sure.

Do other council members know?

We can dig into that. I can get you the specifics on that one, but I don't know that for certain.

How do we... And I get it that I only have four minutes and that we started at 547. So I'm watching the clock. Don't worry. So can you tell me a little bit about the culture of the Bloomington Police Department and sort of words you might use to describe the culture these days?

The word that I would use is what I see and what I hear from officers and from the chief. And it's a culture of respect. That they treat people with respect. And they are... they are they're diligent and they do their job very well they work to do it with respect and i hear that constantly from a lot of different levels and a lot of different police officers and i and i think they follow that very well what would um a person do if they have a concern about officer conduct what would the next step be there there's a formal way to file a complaint and um It's on the website. It's on the police website. Thank you for the city attorney. It's on the police website, how you can file a formal complaint against the officer.

Do you know how many of those are filed every year?

I don't off the top of my head. I do not.

Okay. And in my final minute, I'm curious, there's an item on the consent agenda and consent agenda items generally don't have public discussion. And that item is about signing onto an MOU with Hennepin County Sheriff's office. I would like to register my sincere concern about BPD signing on to an MOU without any sort of documentation. I understand it's about human trafficking and that that is a concept that we try and keep hush-hush and that we don't want to inflame things. But I would just like to register my deep concern about BPD signing on with another law enforcement agency without any kind of public documentation.

I appreciate that, and I do want to clarify, this isn't being hush-hush. This is probably some confidentiality that needs to be maintained to do their job correctly.

I can appreciate that, but even saying that it is confidential would go a long way, as opposed to just the lack of information.

Very good. I appreciate that.

I recognize my time. I will sign on the sheet. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. I appreciate what all of you are doing.

Thank you as well. Thanks for being here again this week. Sally. Sally.

COUNCILMEMBER VICTOR RIVAS SAID AT THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING ON MAY 18TH THAT HE CHANGED HIS MIND AFTER CONSIDERING ALL THE FACTS. I SPOKE WITH COUNCILMEMBER RIVAS BEFORE THE MEETING AND HE SAID THAT I HAD IT WRONG WHEN I SAID THE CITY COULD NOT OPT OUT. I DID NOT HAVE IT WRONG. THE CITY CAN'T OPT OUT OF THE SHARED AGREEMENT. I asked the city manager specifically whether the city can opt out. And specifically, can they opt out to use it for winter hockey? The city manager did not reply. And that's my question tonight for the council. If the city wanted to use the Smith Park parking lot for winter hockey, can it opt out of the shared agreement?

I'M SORRY, REPEAT THE QUESTION AGAIN, BECAUSE THAT DOESN'T MAKE LOGICAL SENSE TO ME, SALLY, BUT GO AHEAD, PLEASE.

SO I WANT TO KNOW IF THE CITY CAN OPT OUT OF THE SHARED AGREEMENT. THE WAY I READ IT, IT CAN'T. THERE'S NO CITY GOING, OH, WE'D LIKE TO USE THE PARKING LOT FOR WINTER HOCKEY, AND SO WE WANT TO DISCONTINUE THE SHARED AGREEMENT. WE DON'T WANT TO CONTINUE IT ANYMORE. SO MY QUESTION, WHETHER THE CITY CAN OPT OUT, SPECIFICALLY, OPT OUT TO USE THE PARKING LOT FOR WINTER HOCKEY.

I WILL HAVE TO LOOK INTO THAT, AND I'LL HAVE OUR ATTORNEYS TAKE A LOOK. I DON'T KNOW IT OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD. IT'S KIND OF AN INTERESTING SPECULATION, BUT WE'LL TAKE A LOOK AND WE'LL GET AN ANSWER TO YOU.

And to that I say, you voted last week, and I sent everyone the question, concerned that we couldn't opt out, that reading that shared agreement, we couldn't opt out, and yet you voted. Everyone voted, and nobody here wants to chime in.

Your specific question is whether or not we could opt out to put in an ICE rank, and I have no idea what the answer would be there.

Can we opt out in general? Do you believe we can opt out of that agreement?

THE AGREEMENT, THERE ARE A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT AGREEMENTS. THE SHARED AGREEMENT. THE AGREEMENT THAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, IF YOU RECALL, AND I MENTIONED THIS IN THE COUNCIL MINUTE, WE COULD HAVE OPTED OUT, BUT THEN IT TAKES THE AGREEMENT ON BOTH SIDES. SO, I MEAN, IT'S NOT AN OPT OUT. IT'S BASICALLY AN AGREEMENT ON BOTH SIDES TO EXIT THE AGREEMENT.

RIGHT, WE CAN'T OPT OUT. WE CAN'T DECIDE, YOU KNOW, WE'D LIKE TO USE OUR SMITH PARK DIFFERENTLY. WE DON'T NEED THAT MANY PARKING SPACES. WE WOULD LIKE MORE GREEN SPACE. WE DO NOT HAVE THE OPTION TO OPT OUT.

I will get an answer to your question, Sally. Even though I don't quite understand it, I will get an answer to your question.

Will the previous agreements allowed opting out, like after the 10-year term was up?

Again, I will have the attorneys get you language on that.

As I understand it, Mr. Mayor, Opting out was just a one-sided function. That does not mean that it can't be either dismissed or executed differently or modified or amended or any of the other many things that we could do. It's just that we can't unilaterally say, go F yourself. That's what it means. And I don't, that's okay. I think that's why we're fine with it because we wouldn't want to do that anyway.

It's more specific. It says that they have to have reached for us to terminate the agreement.

Unilaterally. To unilaterally dismiss the agreement, they have to do something bad. That's correct. But any agreement of two parties can be renegotiated between the two parties. And that is all on the table for us.

Okay. Councilmember, thanks. Please check back in your email because I'm seeing an email sent to you on May 20th that has the complete Dar Al-Farouk use agreement. AND SPECIFICALLY IT'S BROKEN OUT BY TERMINATION. SO THE CITY MANAGER DID INDEED RESPOND TO YOU.

YEAH, HE DIDN'T SAY, HE DIDN'T ANSWER THE QUESTION. HE SENT THE AGREEMENT. AND THE AGREEMENT SAYS THAT IT CAN BE TERMINATED IF THERE IS A BREACH. AND THEN IF THERE IS A BREACH, THE TERMINATION MEANS THAT YOU GUYS CAN'T UPHOLD THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT. THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT REQUIRES SO MANY PARKING SPACES. IF THEY BREACH AND WE TERMINATE, THEY DON'T HAVE TO HAVE THOSE PARKING SPACES. WE'RE ALREADY IT'S ALREADY INJURIOUS. THEIR PARKING IS ALREADY INJURIOUS TO OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, AND THAT TERMINATION MEANS THEY DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE THOSE PARKING SPACES. THEY CAN FILL UP OUR NEIGHBORHOOD MORE THAN THEY ALREADY DO.

SALLY, WE'RE AT TIME NOW, BUT THANK YOU MUCH. WE'VE HEARD YOUR CONVERSATIONS BEFORE, BUT WE APPRECIATE IT. THANK YOU. THAT'S TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE. COUNCILMEMBER, COUNCILMEMBER, THANK YOU.

AND THE FACE THAT YOU'RE GIVING ME RIGHT NOW IS TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE.

DEBORAH.

Hi.

Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. Thank you. I know I only have four minutes, so let me look at the time. Thank you for inviting residents to listen. And I am Deborah. My husband Mark and I live in District 2 with Sean. And we've lived here 31 years and raised our daughter here. We love our city. We really appreciate all the work you do. I'm here tonight to bring some information from on-the-ground observations about the fiber optic installation. working in Bloomington, and there are three primary concerns we have. And I kind of polled my neighborhood a little bit to get their input as well. I think the overarching theme here is respect. It really feels like there's been a lack of respect for our neighborhood. Evidence includes a fight on someone's lawn between two of the contractors, not with any resident. kind of rolling around and I don't know what the disagreement was. There was some joy riding, racing up the streets with little children nearby and insufficient communication about really what's gonna happen, particularly with long periods where there's holes dug and then don't see them for a long time. We never know when they're going to show up, what they're going to be doing next. Sometimes there's eight or more workers. Sometimes it's just two guys digging some holes. We do respect their hard work, and we appreciate high-speed Wi-Fi. It's an asset if you can pay for it. But there is a professional way about going about things, and three areas for improvement is what we suggest. Communication and information, safety, and response to damages. The ITG contractors began work in our area the first week of May. They did hang a doorknob flyer with a number that you could call. I and neighbors have phoned. It goes to a voicemail and you kind of don't hear anything back. I have left an automated message. A possible remedy for the city, because I know it's not your responsibility, but maybe if you could provide that URL that I just got from Priyanka, thank you, today, about fiber optic installation process would have maybe really helped. So if they put that on their doorknob flyer, we could have just gone in and answered some of our own questions. The second is safety. Unlike T-Mobile, which did their installation about a year ago, this ITG work has been much more invasive, where they're up, you know, 10, 15 feet almost in people's yards. They dig very, very deep below gas lines, and they're exposed, and they're exposed for weeks. You can just go up and peek in and see the pipe and see holes and see the gas line right there. So injury, loss of power, which happened in our neighborhood, and inadvertent gas line damage is all possible. I know they're doing their best, but, you know, things have happened. They do have cones, but sometimes they're to the side of the hole. And really, anyone can... walk through a yard, have kids playing, balls go down in the holes, people twist ankles, that kind of stuff. So a light cone really isn't a preventive aspect, maybe not sufficient. Power was down, it was cut in our neighborhood right in the middle of a work day. and I and other women and men came running out trying to figure out what was going on. It really is very disruptive. I know it wasn't intentional, and they say, oh, the utility markers didn't mark correctly, but there were flags and markers everywhere, and I was there watching. Everything was marked. But I understand, you know, you kind of sometimes need to finger point and pass the buck. Anyway, it might have been an honest mistake, but it was a very difficult day. A possible remedy would be to require them to have maybe a better way of covering the holes. Putting a cone upside down and then another one and tape to it would be harder to move if it was stuck in the hole. And finally, the issue of damages. One neighbor with a sprinkler, she had several sprinkler heads that were damaged when T-Mobile came through, and now she's had others just this weekend, and she still doesn't have remedy from the past year damage. They dig up a lot of big holes and then they just sort of plop the grass that came up with some sod back on. Of course it dies. They throw some seeds on and nothing sprouts because it's just a few seeds on damaged lawns. So I thought perhaps the contractors first should come through with actual living sod and follow up on the holes maybe within a week or two before everything dries up. Then it's up to the homeowner to water. In addition, claims should be addressed with at least one month, I think. Another remedy could be the city takes action, you know, something, even if there's a warning or something to the contractors. You know, they've gone through the channels. It hasn't happened. Please take care of this. So thank you for listening. I am here just to bring information to you because we're on the ground.

And Debra, don't disagree with anything you've said because we've heard it for the last two years, the last two summers. We've heard variations of this for the last two summers. Please call City Hall because we have a plan in place. We've had the processes in place for a couple of years where we go out and we try and hold the contractors accountable. They're working in the right of way, so they have the right to do that, but they have to follow some rules and regulations. And I know that over the past couple of summers, we've uninvited a couple of contractors from working in the city of Bloomington because of their shoddy workmanship. So please let us know, and our crews will get out there.

Okay. I'll let my neighbors know.

Good. Please do. Thank you. Elizabeth. Deborah, did we get you to sign in? Could you sign in, please? Right up here in the...

Okay.

Okay. Sounds good.

OK. Hi. My name is Elizabeth, and I am going to fly through this because there's a lot of people behind me that need to talk tonight. OK. So I'm here to talk about Bloomington Parks. On page one, you will see just an overview. I got a lot of this from the city website, so you will probably be familiar with it. THE THING TO HIGHLIGHT ON PAGE ONE IS THAT OVER 99% OF THE CITY IS WITHIN A HALF MILE FROM A PARK OR A CONSERVATION AREA. THIS, OF COURSE, WAS BEFORE CREEKSIDE WAS DEMOLISHED. PAGE TWO IS A MAP OF ALL OF THE BLOOMINGTON PARKS AND OPEN SPACE. IT JUST KIND OF GOES OVER WHO HAS JURISDICTION OVER THIS. THE THING TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS IS THAT THE CITY-OWNED PARKS ARE ZONED AS RESIDENTIAL. Number three, the guiding decision. So who gets to determine what happens to Bloomington-owned parks? We have things, some safeguards in place. We have site plan reviews that are reviewed by the Planning Commission and City Council. We have a park system master plan that's kind of just a guiding thing. It's not really legally binding. And then we have some zoning restrictions. It does have some limitations and loopholes. We'll go over that. The problem is, is all of these three safeguards have arbitrary guidelines, and they can ultimately fail the parks and the residents that use them. We will use Creekside as an example, which brings us to page four. So let's see how this played out. Creekside was zoned as residential one, the city. DEFINES RESIDENTIAL FOR ZONING FOR RESIDENTIAL USES AND THEN COMPATIBLE INSTITUTIONAL USES AND THEN ALSO TO MINIMIZE THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS FROM INCOMPATIBLE LAND USES. SO COMPATIBLE IS LANGUAGE THAT HERE IS ARBITRARY. IT DEPENDS ON WHO IS READING IT, WHAT THEY WANT TO USE IT FOR. And then even I would say in Creekside that zoning there are secondary safeguards like institutional use zoning ordinances that were supposed to protect Creekside additionally and That safety net also failed page five So, this is really interesting because the way that the community center was able to be built is we took residential parkland and residential land that was actually intended for residential use eventually. That was noted. And then we used a PD overlay to use residentially intended land and parkland to come together for a building that is neither residential or parks and open space. So that's a failure as far as protecting parks. I'm not saying the project was a failure. Protecting parks, just so we're clear. LET'S SEE, WHERE DID I... PAGE 6. SO THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND SURROUNDING AREA WAS NOT PROTECTED. AGAIN, THE CITY DID NOT ASSESS THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT. I KNOW YOU ALL SAW ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDIES. I KNOW YOU ALL TRUST THE STAFF THAT YOU HIRED TO DO THAT. I AM HERE TELLING YOU, PROMISING YOU, I CAN PROVE THAT THERE ARE HUGE HOLES THAT WERE MISSED, AND WHEN THOSE WERE MISSED, THE RESIDENTS WERE No one was held accountable, and there was no one to advocate for us residents. Let's fly to page seven, which we don't need to spend a lot of time on, but this is just other ways the city could not use park land, but it doesn't apply to Creekside. Number eight, I did a ton of research on this, and if any of you would like more information on it, but basically it compares Bloomington to our surrounding neighboring suburbs, and we came in last place for how our park land is protected. St. Louis Park, Minnetonka, Edina, and Minneapolis are just miles ahead of us as far as protecting their parkland. I would love to share this information with you if you are interested. Page nine, let's get the conversation started. So all of you council, mayor that live in Bloomington, you chose your homes because they were within a half mile or closer, a lot of you, to green space. So where's the closest conversation? city operated park or green space to your home how much further away is the next one um what if that were transformed how would it affect your quality of life your neighborhood your home value i have answers to all of those because that all happened to me and none of them are good and i think if you went out into the neighborhood um i know i know if you went out into the neighborhood and you asked residents these same questions you would have similar feedback to what i i would tell you And then I'm going to turn over to the reason I know that you would get these answers is because I have dug deep, deep, deep, deep into the archives of what Bloomington has done to research what residents value. They value outdoor green space. They value the accessibility and the 48% equity. No matter what neighborhood you live in, no matter if you can walk or drive, Bloomington residents value that a park is close to them and accessible. NOW, I'M ALMOST DONE, I PROMISE. I DID NOT COME HERE TO COMPLAIN. THAT BRINGS ME TO MY LAST PIECE OF PAPER. POSSIBLE OBJECTIVES. REZONE THE PARK LAND TO STRENGTHEN THE PROTECTION. ANOTHER OPTION IS ADOPT A NO NET LESS LOSS OF PARKS ORDINANCE. SO IF YOU TAKE AWAY GREEN SPACE, YOU'RE REQUIRED TO REPLACE IT. THE LAST THING IS SEEK A CHARTER AMENDMENT FOR PERMANENT PROTECTION. So I'm actually I'm actually asking for action on this. This is not controversial topic. This is not a partisan issue There is no reason that this should not be pursued for the safety of our Bloomington parks So who wants more information and who's gonna do it?

Elizabeth we'd love to continue the conversation with six minutes now. So I appreciate all of this and Staff will be in contact. Okay Brian

I'm a resident who lives at 9911 Newton Avenue. So far, here's an update on the damage that has been done to my home already. I have $42,000 plus of foundation damage, new foundation damage done by the vibrations of this construction. And that is proven by one of the top foundation companies in America. The Twin Cities. Some of the other things done are my sidewalk has separated from my steps by about an inch and a half so far. The land is literally sinking around my home. I have vertical cracks in my vaulted ceilings in my home that reach all the way to the roof. One of the cracks expands and contracts with the temperature. Some of the plaster is now falling off my ceilings. Now, this is on a beat-up 13-year-old home. The right side of my front entry door is now one half inch lower than the left side. The question is, will I even be able to close my front door after the new destruction, which hasn't even started in front of my house? My home is literally sinking to the right. My retaining wall in front of my house has collapsed from the vibrations. My garage floor of my 13-year-old home, which wasn't cracked before, has now got zigzag cracks going all the way to the back wall. My driveway is sinking probably so far an inch and a half, and it is cracking now. And you haven't even started the construction directly across the street from me. I would like to challenge you or invite you to come and see the damage that you are wreaking on the Newton Avenue residence. I'd like to invite everybody here to come. You can come and look at my house and you can probably look at Ms. Cambrone's house, of which I totally agree with her, and see the incredible destruction you have done. I have now been told by realtors that my house is worth exactly zero. It cannot be sold in its present condition until all the repairs are completed. Well, that's not going to happen. So please, come and see for yourself what you've done to us. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thanks for, I mean, those are serious allegations. I appreciate you bringing those forward and staff will be getting back to you. Thank you. Jim. Brian, could you sign in, please? Thank you. Good evening, Jim. I missed your last name when you said it out there.

Bowman, B-O-M-A-N.

Thank you, Jim.

Go ahead. And I'm here to talk about traffic in Bloomington, primarily 106th Street between Xerxes and Lindale. This is the new Bloomington freeway. I invite everybody to come and sit there between 4.30 and 5.30 and watch your traffic. There is hardly anybody that drives a speed limit. We had stop signs put in at one point. One person complained and they were taken out after two weeks. 106th Street was never to be a thoroughfare. When the bridge went in over Nine Mile, no truck traffic was allowed and any trucks had to go to a residence, period. Maintain 30 miles an hour. Bloomington denies that that ever existed because they turned the road over to Hennepin County. You need to look back into that. This needs to be changed. These trucks are driving through at 50 miles an hour with a semi. And you can't get cops out there to ticket them because you got two officers to take care of the traffic. Last Friday night, we had a major accident. Two people died. And nobody was speeding. It's that stupid turn lane. You took a four-lane road, made it two lanes with a turn lane in the center. People are passing in it. It's irresponsible. This needs to change. This is a second accident. In a week and a half there, one was on Thomas, car went through the stop sign, T-boned the car. This one, a Metro Mobility collided with a motorcycle, drug it up on the neighbor's yard. Two people were laying there dead. This is ridiculous. And Bloomington doesn't seem to care. I drive that road every day. If I'm doing 30 miles an hour, I got people passing me. They use a turn lane to pass. You get up by the school during school time, it's 20 miles an hour. The school buses aren't even slowing down. They go by 35 miles an hour. They speed so they can get down to the freeway to go to Burnsville. And I have only seen a police car up there monitoring the traffic once in the last nine months. And I go through there at 730 to 740 every morning.

Jim, we're at time. I don't mean to cut you off. We're at time here. What I'm going to do is I'll tell you, I'm going to talk to Chief Hodges about upping the enforcement there because, no, we shouldn't have semis at 50 miles an hour. We shouldn't have school buses speeding in that area either. Absolutely not. And I'm also going to ask our traffic folks, our environmental folks, to get out there and see what could be done. You said there was a stop sign there for a while.

It was on Thomas and 106, and that was... Like 30, 35 years ago? One guy. I got to sleep during the day because I work at night. Got to take it out.

It predates all of us, so we'll take a look back into that. But I appreciate it. I'm going to cut you out, Jim. We've got to get downstairs for our meeting. But I appreciate you coming in.

If you can do it on 84th Street with stop signs, you can do it on 106th Street.

Sounds good.

Anybody else want to speak about it?

Jim, we've got to get downstairs, so I've got to adjourn this meeting. I would ask that you sign in so we have your contact information and we can get ahold of you. Thank you. Council, we are over time here. I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you, everybody, for coming in tonight. I appreciate everybody here. Thanks.