City Council - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting of the Saint Paul City Council to order. Roll call, please.

Johnson. Jose. Here. Kim.

Here.

Yang. Here. Bowie.

Here.

Coleman.

Here.

Council President Nacre. Here. Sixth president, one absent that being council member Johnson, and she's expected shortly.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our city council meeting. Thank you so much for joining us. We invite everyone to join us in standing for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Consent agenda items two through 15 are before you for your consideration.

Is

there anything to be taken for separate consideration? Seeing none, I'll take a motion from vice president Yang for the balance of the consent agenda. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Six seven in favor, none opposed. The consent agenda is adopted. Item number 16 is resolution public hearing 26 dash 59 authorizing the right of write off of police staffing costs for qualifying free public cultural events and festival festivals and community events, and the public hearing on this is closed.

Miss Bui. Thank you,

I just wanted to share that I actually would be motioning to withdraw this item. I just wanted to share a few words about this write off. It actually have I learned a lot about how OFS and SPPD does their billing and there was one of the organizations that have shared with us that the attachment that was on that item was actually not accurate. So we wanted to make sure that we cleared clarified the record and ensure that OFS how they do the updates on the the invoices are important. We have a lot of work to do moving forward in our policy committee meetings and our public safety committee meetings on how to streamline and better clarify the process.

I also just wanted to say on the record, I really appreciate the mayor's proactiveness, her the mayor's office proactiveness and looking for funds. I'm super excited to share that we have some support and some interest to invest in some of these organizations such as St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation and some other foundations in Saint Paul. So I will be withdrawing this item, but my commitment to ensuring that we're supporting our events and festivals still remain the same, still remain strong. We're just going to take this off and re approach this conversation through a much more centered policy lens.

So thank you again for the discussion that we have had and we made some progress, but we will follow-up in the future on some of those foundations and promoting the funds that will be made available for those organizations.

Great. Thank you, Ms. Bui, and I want to thank you for your leadership and flexibility in finding the best ways to support our community events and festivals. Festivals. Thank you. And Oh, I'm sorry.

And there

it looks like Ms. Johnson and Ms. Yang.

Yes. Thank you, Councilmember Bowie, being able to just set the tone for, I think, what the conversation really transpired. I agree with you being a part of those meetings and actually just seeing where the conversation started to where it's landing now. I appreciate just being walked through the full journey and the partnership and really getting to a place where we have, I think, a really big deal in St. Paul Minnesota Foundation's willingness to administer a grant program to distribute one time funds to the organization named in this manner is actually really important and I think imperative to having those conversations publicly because it allows other stakeholders to sometimes come in and also be able to support us in that endeavor.

So that's a huge that's not a small feat. That's not something that I think should be brushed over lightly at all and is a huge testament to what it looks like to take a pause and take some time as well to explore alternatives. And so I just want to say thank you for that opportunity.

Ms. Yang.

Ms. Ms. Thanks, Council President. I also want to commend you, Councilor Bui, for your leadership and looking into this matter here. I don't believe you would have the outcome that we have today if it weren't for you really looking into this and spending that time and energy.

And just really hearing out the communities, the organizations that have that outstanding balance. And I want to say thank you to Meir Herr for her partnership in this and really the community partners that are willing to help us problem solve this. And so to me, it's just really grounding in just thinking about our roles as council members. That's always worth it to really take that time to dig more and give ourselves that time to really get more questions answered, to really have conversations with stakeholders, understand them. I really appreciate that grounding. And so again, thanks for your leadership.

Thanks, Ms. Yang. Ms. Bouley?

And just one more comment here, because I know there's been a lot of people who've either been watching and looking for some level of action to be made. And there has been some questions around regarding the security credit that we did pass some weeks ago. That is live, it's online. So for some of those organizations who may have questioned whether they are eligible, I encourage you all to apply for that credit. It is live.

It's embedded inside of the security permits website or excuse me, application. So I just wanted to make that clear because there has been some questions around what does that what does the future looks like for some of these organizations. We're going to be working really diligently to make sure that we have some external funds to be able to support them in their endeavors for their events. Thank you.

So this item will be withdrawn?

Yep. The item will be withdrawn. Item number 17 is first reading of ordinance 26 dash 17, administrative ordinance establishing the minimum qualifications for the vacancy for the position of fire chief pursuant to the provisions of section twelve point twelve point one of the city charter.

So this brings us to the ordinance section of our agenda. All of our ordinances or our city laws have three readings at least. Our first reading, we have a staff report typically to give some background information on what the ordinance is proposing. At the second reading, the next week, we have a public hearing to hear public testimony on what's being proposed. And at the third reading the next week, we typically vote to adopt the ordinance or amend the ordinance, and sometimes we need additional time if there are amendments being proposed.

So you'll see today that our sections are divided into first reading public hearings and sometimes final adoption, although we don't actually have any final adoptions today. This item here is before us for a first reading. We actually our staff who are going to give a report on this, unfortunately, are out sick today. So unusually, we will not have a staff report at first reading. We will have a staff report next week when it comes back for public hearing. So this item will lay over until next week for public hearing.

Yep. Item is laid over to March 18 for second reading public hearing. Item number 18 is second reading public hearing of ordinance 26 dash 16, granting the application of Xcel Energy to rezone property at 325 Commercial Street from H 1 Residential to I 1 Light Industrial and amending the chapter 60 of the legislative code pertaining to the zoning map.

And this brings us to the public hearing section of our agenda. So if you're here to testify on an item in the public hearing section, when your item is called and I call the public hearing, we'll just ask you to come up, stand right in between the two microphones. You won't have to adjust them, and you don't need to lean over towards them. They should pick you up just fine. We ask that you start with your name and where you're coming from. You'll have two minutes to testify, and when you're done, we ask you to sign in on either of the two sign in sheets. So with that, this is a public hearing for item 18. Is there anyone here to speak on this item? Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms. Johnson to close the public hearing and lay the matter over till March 18 for final adoption. All in favor, aye. Aye. All opposed?

Seven in favor, none opposed. The public hearing is closed and the item is laid over to March 18 for final adoption. Item number 19 is ordinance 26 dash 18, amending section one ninety three point o four of the legislative code to temporarily extend the pre eviction notice period in section one ninety three point o four from thirty days to sixty days.

Miss Kim. Hi. Sorry. Thank you. So I am bringing before you a version two, And it includes a few changes that aren't substantive in any way.

But last week, what we discovered is while the language itself doesn't need to be changed in terms of intent, but using it to be more clarifying will be important. Because if we don't understand what the language is saying, then how do renters and landlords and folks that are impacted understand the language? So to be very clear, this doesn't substantively change anything, but just really makes it really nice and clear what we're trying to accomplish. The changes to sorry. This change makes it clear that the temporary extension of the pre eviction filing notice from a thirty day to sixty day starts on May 14 and goes through December 31.

That was the intent and what was written, but it wasn't very clear. So we're just gonna make it very explicit. So the change, the only change that you see in writing is that we are very explicit with the date to be May 14. Ordinance 26 dash 18 extends the existing tenant protections ordinance that is not into effect until May 14. As such, the item can only go into effect on May 14. So this also clarifies that the notice sent to tenants on the December 31, timeline are still within the temporary extension period and are subject to the sixty day notice. So, hopefully, Dan is that okay. Lawyer agrees that I'm trying to be as clear as possible. Perfect. So I really appreciate the support.

And just to calm everyone's fears, the changes are not substantive. It's just to be as explicit as possible.

Thank you, Ms. Kim. So to be clear, the entire tenant protections ordinance takes effect on May 14. And this extension of the pre eviction notice from thirty to sixty days also takes effect on May 14. Yes. The same time as the tenant protections ordinance. Yes. Great. So we will take a vote on version two, and then we will hold the public hearing. All in favor of version two, please say aye.

Aye. All opposed.

Seven in favor, no opposed. The ordinance is approved. Or sorry, the amendment is approved, my bad.

Not. All right, and we will now hold a public hearing on version two of the ordinance. If you're here to testify on this item, please come on up. There's a bunch of folks. Feel free to line up on both sides. And, again, you'll have two minutes. They do go by quickly, and it's my unenviable job to keep you to them. There is a clock right in front of you when you are testifying. Come on up. Welcome.

Katie Great. Thank you.

And you can testify or sign them when you're

done. Yeah.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Katie Rois. I work for the Froggtown Neighborhood Association. I want to say this is a great idea, obviously extremely needed. We opened a rent relief fund yesterday for to the public, and we had over two fifty folks within eight hours. And that so we know it's a crisis. Ours is for Frogtown Rondo only. So, still, that number was incredible. We're working through it right now. But the need is obviously impacted more by the metro surge than we have need outside of that.

Our rents are too high. We all know that. We've got a housing problem. But that surge really is getting people. And so, we have a with that housing crisis added to this eviction crisis, I think it's essential that we do this, and hopefully we get the mayor on board. Yep. All right. Thank you.

Thanks so much. Make sure to sign in. Laura Welcome up.

Laura Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for having me. My name is Laura Russ. I'm with an organization called Aon. Aon is a nonprofit affordable housing provider. We have several 100 homes here in St. Paul, and thousands in the entire Twin Cities Metro. We're here along with 12 of our other large nonprofit affordable housing providers to oppose this extension. And the reason for that is based on our own experience. Housing providers succeed when residents succeed.

Evictions are costly, disruptive, and something responsible operators work very hard to avoid. We work with residents through payment plans, rental assistance, and outreach long before an eviction filing occurs. We have especially continued to do so in the last several months as mutual aid has so wonderfully poured in and allowed us connect that to residents. The challenge with extending the pre eviction notice period is that it adds additional time and uncertainty, which unfortunately oftentimes only leads to residents being further in debt. If timelines are extended further, the gap can grow up to four months.

At that point, the financial hurdle for many residents to overcome is just too great. And the unpredictability of rental assistance even being available to them is too uncertain for us to want to put them in that potential position. Fortunately, our own and other public sources of data have recently shown that residents are keeping up in a predictable way with their rent payments so far the last few months and so far in March, which we're very heartened by, and it shows all of our collective efforts have been resulting so far in outcomes that we all want, which is to keep residents stably housed. Disrupting that process puts the stability of housing at risk, which ultimately impacts the very residents we're all trying to help. Thank you for your time.

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Good afternoon, council members. My name is Dante. I currently reside in the Como Park neighborhood where I've lived for the past seven years. I'm a lifelong resident of the Twin Cities and a leader with Twin Cities United Performers. I do not need to reiterate the horror and pain that we have all experienced under this cruel and clumsy occupation by the federal government over the past few months.

Every Saint Paul resident I know has been impacted by ICE. And as the son of a Mexican immigrant, I personally have lived in a state of grief and fury as I have watched neighbors who look like my family be ripped out of their homes by this barbaric administration. As I process this collective trauma with my fellow Minnesotans, one theme stands out, a collective frustration with the response of our elected leaders. I am outraged at governor Walz's inaction and unwillingness to enact an eviction moratorium when we need it most. I was exasperated to see Jacob Fry's veto today of pause evictions save lives in Minneapolis, and I am bewildered at mayor Her's decision to deny an independent investigation of Saint Paul Police Department's actions on Rose Street on November 25.

I understand that we are but one city standing against the full force of a multibillion dollar federal police apparatus, But today, I am coming before you to implore you to use the power that you have as our city council to extend the eviction notice period to sixty days. This policy will not only give breathing room to the residents who need it most, but it is a step towards aligning the interests of landlords with the interest of tenants as we must all demand ICE out with one unified voice. And importantly, it shows that you, our elected leaders, take seriously the commitment to using every tool at your disposal to protect your constituents. Thank you.

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Good afternoon, all. My name is Regan Reek. I'm speaking on behalf of Michael Dahl Award for Resident and the Public Policy Director of Homeline. I'm the managing organizer of Homeline. Homeline operates a free confidential legal advice hotline serving renters across Minnesota.

Last year alone, we advised nearly 2,900 Saint Paul households. Evictions were the second most common reason people called us. This year, the pace is not letting up, and we are hearing from households who are afraid of eviction, something many have never had to face before because of the federal occupation. For the sake of your constituents who stand to lose their homes through no fault of their own, home line urges you to temporarily extend the pre eviction notice period to sixty days. Home line is seeing a sharp increase in renters seeking help paying rent, a 71% increase compared to this time last year.

The level of need now exceeds what we saw during the early months of the COVID nineteen pandemic. What is especially concerning is what renters are telling us about the broader impacts. Many report food insecurity, skip medications, and foregone medical treatment. Housing instability is cascading into every part of daily life. Impacted tenants need time to piece together the funds needed to pay their rent.

Mutual aid and city funding may help some renters, but it is not enough, and fourteen days is often not enough time to secure assistance. It takes time to catch up on bills after returning to work. It takes time to access emergency assistance. It takes time to ask for help from family and friends, many of whom may be struggling themselves, and it's taking time, far too much time, for the state government to allocate the resources renters needed to need to catch up on rent. Give your constituents the time they need to stay in their homes and pay their rent. Without that time and without adequate adequate resources, we fear many renters will join the ranks of those experiencing how homelessness or severe housing insecurity. Thank you.

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Hi. My name is Lisa Nelson. I'm here on behalf of the Hamlin Midway Coalition, and the Hamlin Midway Coalition supports the proposal to require sixty days notice before landlords can file an eviction action rather than the current thirty day notice. In neighborhoods like Hamlin Midway, nearly half of renter households are already cost burdened by housing alone. This doesn't even include rising costs for food, childcare, medical bills, student loans, or everyday essentials like diapers, formula, hygiene, and medical supplies.

For many families, even a short disruption income can quickly lead to housing instability. Extending the notice period to sixty days provides critical breathing room for renters to access emergency rental assistance, seek legal support if a notice violates tenant protections, connect with community and mutual aid resources, or find other solutions that may prevent an eviction filing. The Hamlin Midway Coalition also appreciates the City of St. Paul's leadership in expanding emergency rental assistance funding and passing additional tenant protections that improve notice requirements and provide safeguards when affordable housing changes ownership. Together, these actions represent a thoughtful and practical approach to housing stability on a local level while highlighting the need for additional action at the county and state level.

The Hanlon Witten Midway Coalition supports the temporary sixty day eviction filing notice requirement as a measure that can help keep neighbors housed and provide families the time they need to navigate solutions. Thank you.

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Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jessica Shaminski, and I am a policy attorney at the Housing Justice Center. I strongly urge you to pass this temporary extension to the pre eviction notice period. Families need time to access rental assistance and stabilize their households. The reality is that fourteen or thirty days notice just isn't enough.

Expanding to sixty days would provide critical breathing room for tenants to secure assistance, pay overdue rent, and avoid the devastating consequences of eviction. This extension will prevent evictions and ensure that vulnerable communities do not become unhoused. Now I want to combat some of the opposition narratives we've heard. First, extending the pre eviction notice period does not delay help for tenants. Landlords don't need to wait until an eviction or until they've issued an eviction notice to connect tenants with assistance.

Landlords can and should engage with tenants as early as possible. There's nothing stopping them from connecting tenants with mutual aid or other resources well before the threat of an eviction filing. And for the sources of rental assistance that require an eviction be filed first, the council should be pressuring those providers to change that policy. Second, if a tenant ultimately faces eviction under this extended notice period, the accruing rental balance will not change how hard it is for them to find new housing. It is just as hard to find future housing after being evicted for three months rent as it is after being evicted for four months rent.

The main difference is that the extra month greatly increases the tenant's chance to redeem with rental assistance. Furthermore, families need this extension now, not two months from now. This ordinance should take effect immediately after passage and approval. This council already unanimously agreed that an eviction moratorium was necessary to reduce harm and protect our neighbors. By passing this pre eviction extension notice or notice extension, this council can prevent homelessness, make sure landlords get paid their rent, and ensure our neighbors are safe from ICE. Thank you.

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Thank you city council. My name is Kathy Bennett. I'm the executive director of the twin cities housing alliance. We represent more than 100 housing providers across Saint Paul and the Twin City which accounts for thousands of rental units in the city. Our mission is simple to expand housing options across all income levels and ensure existing housing remains safe stable and affordable.

I' m here today to urge you to not support extending the notice of eviction filing period. We fully recognize that there are renters who are experiencing real financial hardship due to operation metro surge. Housing providers see this every day and work hard to keep residents housed wherever possible. They are our neighbors and care about their residents safety and security. Eviction is not a first choice. It's the last resort and can cost up to $10,000 per unit. The current process already provides significant time to access assistance. In reality, an eviction notice does not mean immediate displacement. From a notice to potential move out is often three to four months. By far, the majority of eviction filings are resolved before that time.

During the eviction timeline, many residents are connected to rental assistance, ultimately remained housed, and, oftentimes, their eviction filing is redacted so it does not go on their record. Extending the notice period risks unintended consequences. It places additional strain on housing providers who are still recovering from the pandemic, facing rising insurance, labor, and maintenance costs, and operating with very limited reserves. Longer delays also disrupt owners, many small minority owned businesses, ability to pay their mortgage, tax, and insurance payments threatening property upkeep and long term affordability. Most importantly delaying action allows unpaid rent to accumulate damaging renters credit and making future housing harder.

The most effective and responsible response in this moment is targeted rental assistance. We stand by you to help secure that. Thank you for your consideration.

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Hello, members of the council. My name is Ben Helvic Anderson, and I'm with Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. Beacon is a leading provider of site based permanent supportive housing in Minnesota, and we serve over 200 residents here in St. Paul. As a collaborative of over 70 congregations, we are also leaders in statewide housing advocacy.

We led the Bring It Home Minnesota Coalition that created a new Minnesota rental voucher program, helped create the metro sales tax for local affordable housing aid, often known as LAHA, and chair the Our Future Starts at Home campaign for statewide dedicated housing revenue. I've just come from our lobby day at the Capitol where hundreds were advocating for supportive housing and emergency rental assistance. The real fear, chaos, and harm created by Operation Metro Surge has exposed the precariousness of our housing system that we have been advocating around for years. Too many Minnesotans are living on the edge and now wondering how they will pay their rent. We believe the most effective solution is increasing targeted emergency rental assistance, and are really grateful for you as this council moving forward on that.

We, along with the other nonprofit housing providers, are concerned this policy result in unintended and preventable harm. Our experience is that longer timelines produce worse outcomes for for residents through larger balances and higher eviction rates. We recognize that this may seem counterintuitive, but it is based on our experience that delays increased debt loads for many residents, and this well intentioned proposed policy would be counterproductive to its stated aims. We appreciate your goals, and Beacon is committed to continuing to partner with this council to provide quality supportive housing, work for the stability of our residents, and advocate for policies so all people have a home. Thank you.

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Hello. My name is Steve Tuckner. I live in the North End Of St. Paul. During Metro Surge, neighborhoods all over the city set up their own networks to help patrol, deliver mutual aid, and try to help out people who, you know, were rightly afraid of getting picked up by ICE. And the one thing we know about this is that the safest place for them was in their home. And, you know, getting evicted makes them, you know, very, very vulnerable. And so whatever we can do to prevent people from getting evicted and that involves a lot of things. We could do an eviction moratorium. We could do more rental assistance.

This is just one piece, but I think this is an important piece to allow people, that some people are starting to go back to work, to give them time to catch up on their rent. And I think that if we're weighing who we should be considering more, landlords or people who have been targeted by metro surge, scared in their home for months, I think we should help out the renters.

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President Nacre and members of the council, thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Nancy McMurray, and I have the privilege of serving as the director of family services for Project for Pride and Living. PPL is a Twin Cities based nonprofit with fifty three years of impact, and we own and operate more than 1,800 units of affordable housing around the cities. The heart of our mission is simple. We help individuals and families remain securely and confidently housed.

We work alongside residents to create payment plans and connect them to resources. We know many St. Paul residents are still living with fear and instability following Operation Metro Surge. We share your urgency in protecting these families from displacement. Our goal, like yours, is housing stability.

While we support the intent behind extending the eviction notice period, our experience shows it will unintentionally make things harder for residents to remain remain housed. Intervening quickly when a resident begins to fall behind on rent has proven to be the best way to support their housing stability. And the reason is simple. The further a resident falls behind on rent, the more the more likely they will not be able to recover. Extending the notice to sixty days often leads to households falling two or more months behind on rent, a level of debt that is far harder to overcome and one that increases the likelihood of them losing their homes.

The most effective solution has consistently proven to be targeted rental assistance, paired with early intervention. We applaud your recent investment of an additional 1,420,000.00 in emergency rental assistance, as well as the additional investment of $500,000 from LAHA. Without enough assistance, a longer notice period only grows unpaid balances and deepens hardships. We share the same important goal of keeping people housed. But based on our direct experience, expanding and targeting rental assistance and not extending timelines is the most effective way to keep people housed.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

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Good afternoon, council members. My name is James Dirks, and I am a member of Unidos Sanctuary City Committee and a proud resident of Frogtown in Ward 1. Housing stability is deeply personal to me. I struggled with housing and security for four years before finally reaching a stable place to live recently. And this was before the economic crisis and metro surge so I cannot imagine what a lot of people are going through.

I became homeless after being forced out of a living situation very Thirty days is very quickly as well. During that time, I was also stalked and harassed which made the living situation even more dangerous. Losing housing that fast does not just mean losing a place to sleep, it creates instability that exposes people to violence, fear, and long lasting harm. It's very common. When someone suddenly loses housing, the system meant to help

them

or doesn't supply enough assistance to catch them to help them. It can take a long time to access emergency shelter and emergency assistance, even for people in the most vulnerable situations. And once someone enters that system, it tends to limit their freedom and ability to stabilize their life and find new housing. Despite the current arguments that have been made, going homeless is very expensive and costs a lot more than any extension will cost. During my time experiencing housing insecurity, I met many others in similar situations.

Many had stories worse than mine, but what I learned is that homelessness is like a vortex. Once someone falls in, it pulls them in deeper and takes enormous effort to get them back out. That is why this amount that you that is being proposed in the policy is very important. I urge you to support this policy, the sixty days that people need. In reality, they need more.

And thank you for your time.

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Thanks for your time. I'll speak from a little different angle. What about us?

Sorry, can you just start with your name and where you're coming from?

My name is Malik. I'm from a Rondo neighborhood.

Thank you.

What about us? I'm a landlord. I got a couple rental properties, and I'm gonna give you just a couple scenarios. Had a tenant burn my house down from an unattended candle. The city, six months in, still hasn't given me a final police report for me to move forward with my insurance. I had an electric socket that I had to replace and upgrade and bring the code. It cost me 6,300. I had a furnace go out at another rental property that cost me 5,500. I'm not a hedge fund. I'm not a big capitalist company.

I'm just a small mom and pop landlord. But I personally feel like we run the city as far as rentals go because we have thousands of landlords that have one or two rental properties. How do we survive? How do I take food off my table for my daughter? I have an eviction right now in court. He didn't pay rent in February. My first court date is March 19. After that, they're gonna give him seven days possibly to vacate. If he doesn't vacate, I'll have to get a writ. That writ's gonna take another additional five days.

After he doesn't move. After that five days, it's gonna take up to three weeks for the sheriff to come physically remove him. That's four months almost. Once we add on to this new length of time, how do I make a mortgage for four months on the back of all the other negative things that I've experienced? Everybody's talking about the renters. I I'm I'm all for it. You guys have a ton of resources that you guys can give the rental assistance for, but burdening me and other small landlords with six to four months of back rent and no income, and I have to come up with it. So now we have a tenant have a negative spiral. Now we have a negative spiral for a landlord. I don't think that's fair.

We talk about fair, just and equitable. Just put your hats on and just think from a landlord's point, what's fair, just and equitable for us?

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Hello, council president and council members. My name is Tony Arts. I'm a ward three president in the Mac Groveland area. I'm also a member of the Unidos Sanctuary Committee. I'm providing testimony in support of ordinance twenty six eighteen to temporarily instill a sixty day pre eviction notice period. As outlined in the ordinance, the impacts of operation Metro surge have been widespread and ongoing. These actions have created fear, instability, and significant economic harm for families across Saint Paul. The loss of wages and economic security for many households has been severe. I happen to work closely with school communities in Saint Paul and I want to speak some of the disruptions students are experiencing. Students as young as kindergarten have been escorted to their buses as ICE agents have circled school grounds.

Families have been separated due to detention. The economic health of families has been severed as those working have been detained or due to the rampant and profiling nature of these operations, all workers and households have been sheltering in place. We are only beginning to understand the full impact this is having on the health and well-being of our students and communities. This has created generational trauma. The need for this sixty day pre eviction notice period is so important.

Our community members are doing all they can to hang on financially. Mutual aid networks have strained and worked for months to secure rents and provide for one another as community members. Local businesses are doing what they can to stay afloat afloat to avoid shuttering. At this time, we need action from the city level to mitigate further economic harm and to prevent mass evictions across our communities. I urge the council to pass ordinance twenty six eighteen and help keep Saint Paul families in their homes. This is the work that we need to be doing. Without action, we risk seeing a possible wave of evictions across our communities. A sixty day pre eviction notice period gives families time to stabilize and prevent short term disruption from becoming long term homelessness. Please pass this ordinance swiftly and move to full passage. Thank you all very much.

Thank you very much. Make sure to sign in. I'm going to do a last call. If you're here to speak on this item, now is your time to get in line. Looks like we have two more speakers at the moment. Welcome up.

Good afternoon. My name is Norma Roberts Akizimana. I live in Frogtown, Ward 1. I've been a resident, property owner, and landlord there for over twenty years. I support with all my heart at least a sixty day extension.

To think of my neighbors, friends, and family that live in the neighborhood, what they have been suffering from the last few months, and to think about being evicted on top of everything else. We know there's programs out there, rental relief, mutual aid, but I fully support sixty day or more, if possible. So, yeah, I would appreciate you thinking about that. Thank you.

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Hi. My name is Sarah Mullins. I live in Ward 1. I am testifying in support of the ordinance. I just want to call out a others have spoke to the great disruption of Operation Metro Surge. When that kind of stuff happens, it disrupts your whole life. And one thing I just want to point out, as a renter for twenty five years in St. Paul, we don't sit around as renters thinking about having a lawyer on a retainer, right? And so knowing you have legal rights and being ready to exercise your legal rights properly so that you can make your fair case and be represented fully in the process processes that exist can be a shock. Right, so I just want to call that out.

I looked at the materials that were posted, I saw the two page diagram, oh here's how long it actually takes to evict. And at the end of the packet was home line, and all of the calls they've received asking for assistance, and how they are overwhelmed with the number of renters asking for assistance, legal assistance at the same time. So I support the extension, I commend the council for everything you're doing to provide renter assistance and live into the vision where people are stable in their homes and they're not displaced, right? That's the outcome we all want. But I just wanted to remind everybody that we're not all lawyers.

We don't all have a lawyer handy to turn to and say, Exactly what kind of lawyer do I need to help me here so I know how to advocate for myself? And when you have that in addition to ICE, in addition to food insecurity, in addition to everything else, like I think this is a reasonable temporary accommodation. So, you for that consideration.

Thank you very much. Make sure to sign in. And welcome up.

Hello, my name is Nadi. I'm reading on behalf of Twin Cities United performer Autumn. Hello, my name is Autumn Vagle, and I'm a St. Paul Hamlin Midway resident, graduate of Hamlin University, and organizer with Twin Cities United Performers. I work for a nonprofit in downtown St.

Paul and have worked with many St. Paul businesses and business owners. I also perform in a local band, I have insight into many different aspects of the Twin Cities community and a deep love for our capital city. What I have witnessed firsthand in my own neighborhood and all of the communities that I'm connected to is the absolute reckless display of violence during Operation Metro Surge has left a deadly stain of intimidation on many Minnesotans. So many in our communities have feared and continue to fear leaving the safety of their homes to pursue the lives that they've known, too scared to go to work, school, college, get groceries, and key essentials.

While this feeling of fear is slightly going away, it is still a stain. And as you can imagine, has left tremendous negative impact, especially with families with low means. Not earning income, rent is still due each month. It is the government's responsibility to operate for its constituents. I am writing this testimony to urge Saint Paul City Council to provide the most minimal relief for my neighbors by extending the eviction notice to days, which is what is being asked of Minneapolis as well. This will provide neighbors more time and honestly a bit of deserved grace to fulfill their rent during this unprecedented time. I ask you I ask that you have this today and also urge you to continue to support all related community relief efforts and oppose ICE and all federal and local police violence in our city. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Make sure to sign in. All right. Seeing that there is no one else here to testify on this item, I will take a motion from Ms. Kim to close the public hearing. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Seven in favor, none opposed. The public hearing is closed.

And I want to thank everyone for coming because we will take a final vote next week at third reading, unless there are amendments proposed. I know sometimes we prefer to make comments today while there are folks here in the chamber, so I would look to my colleagues to see if anyone has any comments to share. Ms. Kipp.

I'll just go briefly. I really appreciate sort of the thoughtfulness of the approach and all the testifiers that come out today. Today, we saw across the river, save lives, hold evictions get overturned in Minneapolis. And so if this stands, and I'm looking forward to continuing to earn the support of my colleagues, this will be the only one in the state that I know of that is standing, standing up for renters in our city and standing up for folks that have been most impacted by operation Metro Surge. There was some conversation around, like, for communications, like, making sure that the cities match.

So for clarification, that doesn't matter anymore. Minneapolis doesn't have one. But mostly, for me, it's also, I heard the ability to access resources time and time again. Today, the senate, I believe, is passing or passed their tenant protections bill. The house is poised to do so the same.

This December timeline allows the state to respond to this massive, emergency for renters time for them to secure vendors. And, maybe one could be the city of Saint Paul, and get money out the door and still be within that timeline. So pausing evictions does save lives. This is our ability to maintain that protections for our families and for our communities. Yesterday, I testified at the People's Hearing on Immigration with the chair of the US Human Rights Commission, and I shared one of the stories about one of my, one of my neighbors who very recently went back to work cleaning houses, and in between going from one house to another, she was picked up.

Even though the surge is over, the threat to our residents is still very real. The data shows that the reduction in number doesn't change their tactics, it doesn't change their violence, and continues to not, they continue to enforce, broken immigration policies with violence here in Minnesota. So I just really wanna emphasize the note that I heard that it's the surge is over, but the agents are still here and families are still under threat. So I really appreciate everyone, everyone's testimony today.

Thank you, miss Kim. Any other comments? Otherwise, this will lay over until next week, for final adoption or amendment.

The item is laid over to March 18 for final adoption. Item number 20 is resolution public hearing 20 six-fifty six, proving the application of Minnesota Run Series podium sports marketing for sound level variants in order to present amplified sound for the Mighty Mite Sissipi ten ten mile event on Saturday, 06/06/2026 at 226 Spring Street Upper Landing Park and 25 Mississippi River Boulevard connected to Shadow Falls Park.

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?

57 in favor, none opposed, the resolution is adopted. Item number 21 is resolution public hearing 20 six-sixty five, authorizing the city to amend project and accounting unit budgets and city special funds to align with the 2026 adopted budget.

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak on this item? Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms. Johnson to close the public hearing and approve. All in favor, aye. Aye. All opposed?

Seven in favor, none opposed. The resolution is adopted. Item number 22 is ABZA 26 dash three. Considering the appeal of a decision by the Board of Zoning Appeals denying two variances from City Council Resolution twenty three dash one four four two for a hotel at United Village Block D at 1560 University Avenue West.

And on appeal items like these,

we usually have a staff report, so welcome up.

Good afternoon, president, council Nacre, a member of the council. For the record, my name is Yaya Diatar, and I'm the zoning administrator, and I'm here with Kaswapeng Yang. She is my colleague in DSI. So we presented an appeal over the BZA, the Board of Appeals, that had a technical denial, and I'll explain later, of a variance at 1560 University Avenue. I will now walk through the slide presentation here.

This slide is the subject property located actually at 1560 University Avenue in the West. The scope of the work is, if you look at it, this is a 1.65 acre parcel. This is what's proposed is an apartment of a hotel that is a 158 rooms with Ground Floor commercial space and 206 209 90 structured parking stalls. This slide here shows the hotel that you see in blue there, and then to the west of it is the Loon and also the Bailey Garden, the Southeast Corner of University of Snelling. And to the south of it is an office building and also restaurant buildings in yellow.

And to the south of it is of course the soccer stadium, the Lune Stadium, Minnesota United Stadium. I'm going to slide four. So, slide summarizes the project approval history, which is really relevant to the various currently being talked about. In 2024, the planning commission and city council approved eight variances in the conditional use permit related to the height associated with the development of the hotel parcel. Three of those approved variances addressed windows and door openings on the other facade of the building, not the north facade, and that is where the variance was about.

So, the request for you today is a separate variance for the north phase only, which is along University Avenue. United Village, I must say, is currently under construction with the hotel footings already in place and also the foundation. If you move to the next slide. So, the city council resolution 20 dash fourteen forty two required that Ground Floor facade along Arterial Street, which University Avenue is, have window and door openings comprising at least 50% of the facade length and 30% of the facade area. And, that was that's due to requirement.

And, the proposal was for 43.1% opening length, which requires a variance of 6.9%. And then, 23.3% opening area requiring a variance of 6.7%. I'll move to the next slide. So, this showed the exterior rendering of the north facade. The area subject to the variance is the Ground Floor only, not the upper floor, just the Ground Floor.

I'll move to the next one. This shows the corresponding floor plan indicating the proposed uses along that frontage, including restaurant, retail and lobby areas along the north facade. This summarizes the various application against the six findings, and the staff recommended approval based on the fact that staff deemed the variances all having been met, the findings. The record before you also contain letters from District 10 Union Park and also the media chamber of commerce supporting the various. The slide nine outlined the action by the board of zoning appeals and the matter before you this afternoon.

On the February 17, the BCA hearing, the board of zoning appeals, one member contested one of the six findings, specifically finding number three that talks about practical difficulty, and that followed the motion to deny. The motion failed because we had four voting for the motion and one voting against. Because it did not get the four votes one way or the other to pass, that failed. And subsequently, a second motion was made to approve. The motion did not get seconded and also was denied.

So pursuant to fifteen ninety nine Minnesota statute, motion to approve failing is a denial. The denial is the decision before you today on the appeal. And with that, we are available for questions if you have any.

Great. Thank you so much. Are there questions for staff before we open this up? Ms. Johnson.

Thank you so much for the staff presentation as well. And I appreciate the presentation. I mostly was just wondering if in the presentation and I don't think I caught it the things that were cited for finding number three?

Council President Council Member Johnson, you repeat?

The things that were cited from the I guess, the developer, like what were the things cited in finding number three that were meant to demonstrate those practical difficulties with compliance?

So, I understand you're asking what the basis for staff recommending approval in finding three, right? Correct? Yes. Okay. So mainly because hotel operations are a unique combination of public facing areas, spaces, and back house operation. They do not lend themselves to having windows as required by the code. And that would suggest of staff finding that this is a practical difficulty, compounded also by the fact that this hotel has four frontages facing so it's facing four streets.

Okay. Thank you.

Great. Thanks, Ms. Johnson. Any other questions before we open up the public hearing? Not seeing any. Thanks so much. Stick around. So for this public hearing, we'll actually first give the appellant five minutes, and then other folks who are here to testify on this item will have two minutes. We give a little special consideration to those appealing so that they can have time to make their case. Welcome up.

Hello, council president Acre, council members, my name is Mike Ham. I am a resident of Ward 5 in Como Park. I am an advisor to the United Village Project, and I'm here in that role. I'm with my colleague Carolyn Wolf from the TEGRA Group, who is our project manager. I am here really enthusiastically supporting the staff recommendation for this, for the variance and for this project.

We believe that it properly recognizes the practical limitations of the overall site and the constraints that Mr. Diata talked about by having a building that is faced by four streets that we're trying to comply with, including University Avenue and Allianz Field, and issues unique to our project, which is a hotel, which we're trying to orient to that site, maximize the visitor and customer experience, and also maximize the interface between the community and the building. We also believe the staff report is correct in pointing out what we' proposing as practical mitigations for the fact that we are not able to achieve the glazing on the Ground Floor in the form of dimension in the building, additional public art, and articulation with awnings. I thought I had some visuals here that I could access, but I'm going to do my best to describe a couple of things that describe that enthusiasm. The first really doesn't

I think help is on the

way. Yeah.

Doesn't really need it that this council, our work with community, including the district councils and the business community, was expressed to choose this location for the hotel. We could have chosen to put it back further off prop off University Avenue in a way where it would have less impact by this these challenges, but the the hotel offering directly on University Avenue where the excitement and the vibrancy of guests going in and out of the building would match with the excitement and vibrancy of University Avenue was intentional, and it comes with some challenges that we need to create to solve in the design. So that was very intentional. The flip side of the building also is very intentional as it extends the gardens that are adjacent to the restaurant into the green space and the courtyard that leads up to Alliant's Field. So that presents challenges the future variances that we work through that' what we work through with community and we' grateful for folks understanding that parking ramps and great public spaces need those areas.

We're also very enthusiastic about what the building looks like. In Mr. Diata's presentation, you saw an image of the front of the building. It's a, we think it's a very handsome building that, that respects the community and intersects greatly with what's going on in University Avenue, a perfect front door for a hotel that leads up to University Avenue. And, oh, great.

I'm gonna skip. This is the overhead image I wanted to show with the drone, what's under construction. Down on my cursor is Allianz Field. This is the office building that is currently under construction. These are the two restaurant pavilions that are nearly complete in terms of their structure and this is the subject property here that will be facing all four streets when Asbury is complete when Simpson is completed through, the parking ramp in the hotel will face all of those sides of the street.

And this is the front of the building. And the spaces that we're talking about here that we talked about with community are this is a vertical shaft, which is essentially the stairwell and the elevator that's going to serve the parking ramp. And in working with community, we thought it was more proper to have a solution that includes large scale public art. This is a placeholder for what's being created rather than create additional glass there. The community actually reflected really wisely on that on a call we were at, that creating prominent glazing there would be confusing the community as it would look like an entrance, and we'd have people that are unfamiliar with the building approaching the building in an area that they were not supposed to be.

These other areas here you can see the vertical shaft that is adjacent to the check-in function that you'd expect at a hotel when you enter. That's where our design team and working with your staff and the community, that's the proper place for that vertical integration. There's other spaces here that are restrooms on either side where glazing is inappropriate to create dimension inside the building.

And that is several seconds over time, Mr. Harm, so maybe one concluding remark.

Yeah. And it's in our working with community about variances, treatments like the awnings and the dimension created by the interspersing of the white exterior and the dark exterior, that those are better choices than creating what we'd call a false window. We've all seen those in places where you create glazing that has obscured glass in the back that doesn't doesn't realize the benefits that the code is meaning to intend. So with that, I'll stop. Carolyn and I are available for questions. We support the recommendation that staff made on this, and we appreciate your consideration.

Thank you very much. Make sure to sign in, and we'll now have a public hearing where two minutes per person. So, welcome up.

Good afternoon. My name is Mark Morell. Sorry about my voice. I live at 1984 Carroll Avenue. I'm co chair of Union Park District Council's Land Use Committee. Union Park supports the requested hotel, window, and door variants. Our letter provides a detailed discussion of a rationale, but one area Id like to highlight from that letter, it's the zoning district's requirement for an activated streetscape. I think of activated streetscape as a requirement that that first level is not a private space, but it's a public amenity, it's a neighborhood amenity, it's a coffee shop, it's a grocery store, it's a place to exercise. I believe the primary reason for the window and door requirement is to highlight those amenities. Windows invite those on the outside to explore what's in.

They invite those on the inside to explore what's outside. Why does Union Park think it's okay that this hotel or any hotel doesn't need to meet that requirement? One word, luggage. The 1st Floor of this hotel has some areas where windows are not appropriate, the check-in area and the bathrooms, But it also has a restaurant. Those has huge windows. Those are on the South Side. They don't get to count on the North Side. So, what's left is you've got a wine shop and you've got a library. And those have relatively small windows. So, if the council requires more window space, if they require more windows, what you're doing is you're giving the people on the inside a great view of the folks unloading and loading luggage.

You're going to remind them that their vacation is going to come to an end. If you're on the outside, you're going to be the entertainment for the wine shop and the library. So, Park District Council thinks that the proposed design's got the windows right. It's balancing the invitation, clear entrance, with some privacy for loading and unloading. We support it. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Twenty seconds left.

Nice job. Make sure to sign it. You balanced out, mister Any other anyone else here to testify on this item? All right. Seeing none, I will take a motion from Ms. Bui to close the public hearing. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Seven in favor, none opposed. The public hearing is closed.

Ms. Bui. Thank you so much, counsel president. First, I just want to say thank you so much to our staff for providing the technical report, and also, Mr. Holm for just giving us an update around the reasoning behind the development, this multiyear, multiphase development.

Even before my time here on the council, there's been several variances and several readings where this project has came before the council. And also just wanna say thank you, Mark, for the colorful interpretation and just giving us a imagery around just what the experience would be like based off of the vote that we'll take today. I just want to just come out just saying that I anticipate on adopting the staff's recommendation. I can give some reasons why. Well, one, when I first came into this office with the former PD director Nicole Goodman, This area where the United Village sites at has needed a change, a update to the zoning code for a while.

It has been a project, a priority for both district councils. Also, I think it's really important to set in motion that we are making a vote that is going to be barely telling around whether we are pro development or not or whether we, you know, whether we are making decisions that is going to support development here in St. Paul and in Midway, I want this development to move forward. And we have heard from our staff members particularly around the rationale and the findings and interpretations on those findings. And it's really important that we're building at the speed of consensus and us being a consensus body and hearing from our developers who have earned not only support from our both district councils and the midway chambers and stakeholders, it's just really important that we we support the expertise particularly coming from our staff.

I won't list off the findings because you've already heard from them. But one of the things that really makes it clear to me that this is not a practical difficulty just based off of economics alone. That the uniqueness of this design and the layout, it doesn't make sense to have larger windows or expand the windows. And I see this as an opportunity for us to adopt the staff's recommendation. This was a failed vote due to membership and due to attendance, not a failed vote due to the majority deciding not to pass this variance.

So I'll look to, or I guess I'll motion for us to, would that be Grant the appeal. Granting the appeal, thank you. Was like, I forgot. Granting the appeal for this item.

Thanks, Ms. Bui. So the motion on the table is to grant the appeal. Is there any discussion of the motion? Ms. Coleman.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Council Member Bowie. I strongly second Council Member Bowie's recommendation, and would like to say a big note of gratitude to staff, and to our project team who came out to speak today, and to our union practitioner council representative. I really will just echo everything that council member Bui said, the only thing that I really want to underscore is how much I appreciate the community engagement that's gone into this up until this point. As you saw in Mr. Diata's presentation, there was no opposition from the community to this proposed variance. In fact, this is my neighborhood. I hear about this from folks all the time. I think people are very excited for this to be done. People are very excited for United Village to be the economic engine in our community that it is going to be.

I just on behalf of the community, think that people are excited about this project, wanted to move forward. And in addition to there being nothing on the record voicing concern about the variance, there has been I promise you that in midway when people are talking about the challenges, are now talking about the 43.1% window and door openings of the facade length of the hotel. So I'm excited to support this.

Thank you, miss Coleman. Any further discussion of the motion? Otherwise, we can take a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye.

All opposed? Seven. Seven in favor, none opposed. The motion of intent is to grant the appeal. Item number 23 is resolution public hearing 26 dash four, public hearing on grievances about federal immigration operations.

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak on this item? Seeing none, I will take a motion from Ms. Yang to continue the public hearing to March 18, and I will look to Ms. Yang for some comments.

Thank you, Council President. I first want to say thank you to everybody who's been coming week after week to come and testify. When we first did the public hearing here, we had a mass of people come in week after week and really shared to us such vulnerable stories about what they were experiencing during Operation Metro Surge. I want to say thank you to my colleagues. Your support for extending the public hearing week after week as well has meant a lot to me personally.

When I had this vision around having the public hearing during our council meetings, it was really around making sure that our residents felt heard. And when I'm at the table here as a council member, I ground myself in the experiences that I had coming here to City Hall, being the person that sat on the benches, like many of you, or coming up to the podium and testifying about something that I care deeply about. And that is really important for me to continue centering in my leadership here because it's also what guides me in how I need to show up as a council member. And so the public hearings here have been very, very valuable to me and I believe very valuable to the city too, because it has provided us key input to understand what exactly our residents need during operation Metro Surge so that we can deliver through the form of action, through the form of policy. And we've done that through passing the ordinances around limiting the use of masks from law enforcement officers across all bodies of government, requiring for identification of law enforcement officers as well.

And we still have more work to do. I want to name that. I do have a motion to meet today, is that I would like to move that we continue the public hearing, but that next Wednesday would be our last public hearing. We still have a lot of ideas and initiatives that came from the community members to work on so that we can bring it into fruition, get it to the finish line. And I know that this is a council where we are very committed in doing that.

I know a couple of us, a few of us here at the table are even gonna be in meetings with the mayor staff to have direct conversations about that too. And so there's still a lot of work ahead of us, and I want to name that just because we are not going to be having public hearings in the council after March 18, there's no indication at all that Operation Metro surge is over. And I want to be really clear about that because, we had a public hearing about the pre eviction filing notice and wanting to amend the date for that to having a sixty day notice. And it's because we know there are many families still living in fear who can't afford their rent because of many reasons. One of them being that they have a family member who is detained, and maybe that person was an income earner.

We have children who are still afraid of going to school, and people who are afraid of going to work as well, and people who are still in detention centers, in county jails as well, waiting to be returned home. That is really personal to me. Many of you know that my uncle, my dad's younger brother, he was detained earlier in February. We were able to get him released five days after detainment. And he's the first person that I know who was able to get released in such a short amount of time.

And it really was because of partnership and support from the Twin Cities Habeas Collective. My uncle, even though he was living in his lowest time of his life being detained, right before he got released, there were so many of the people who was at the county jail with him. They heard about him getting released. They asked him, can you help us too? He took the time to take down all of their contact information so that we can get help for them.

And I connected with the pro bono attorneys over at the Twin Cities Habeas Collective, and they shared with me that 10 more people who were detained alongside my uncle got released. I mean, today's my birthday. Some of you know that at the table here. One of the best gifts that I received today was getting a text during your HRE board meeting that another person who will be connected to the Twin Cities Habeas Collective is getting released this Friday. There are still many people out there who are waiting to be reunited with their families.

And I want us to remember that. And I want us to remember that just because, again, we're not going be having the public hearing, we're going to wrap it up, people can still reach out. Residents and anybody can still reach out to each of the council members here, to the mayor's office as well, to express their grievances, to let them know, to let us know what type of support you need, or maybe your loved ones need, your neighbors need, and that the work, again, is not done. I keep saying this over and over. I know we will prevail. We will prevail. So again, thank you, everybody, for your support. And come back again and join us next Wednesday for this public hearing.

Thank you so much, Ms. Yang. I support the motion, and I want to thank you for your leadership in bringing this to us. I think having a standing public hearing was, to your point, just one of the ways that this council has responded and changed the way that we do business in response to this unprecedented time and this emergency. So thank you for your bravery and leadership in bringing it up.

And I also want to echo what you said about not only are there lots of ways to contact us separately outside of public hearings, but there will also be public hearings in this body. We have a public hearing every time we consider legislation, and we will be considering additional pieces of legislation, as you mentioned, related to defending our community and continuing the response. So, look forward to continuing to have folks come for public hearings that will be tied to those items as well. Any further discussion of the motion? Seeing none, all in favor say

aye. Aye.

All opposed?

Seven in favor, none opposed. The public hearing is continued to March 18.

That

brings Legislative us hearing consent agenda items 24 through 26 are before you for your consideration.

We need to figure out who does that first. I always forget. This is there's okay. My understanding is that there is not anyone here for hearings, so what we'll we're going to do is hold a public hearing on all of our legislative hearing items. So if you're here for item 24, 25, or 26, this is your public hearing. Please come on up. Seeing none, I will take a motion from Ms. Jost to close the public hearing and adopt the items with the amendations and recommendations of the legislative hearing officer. All in favor, aye. Aye. All opposed?

Seven in favor, none opposed, the legislative hearing consent agenda is adopted.

This brings us to the end of our agenda, and normally, we would go straight to good news from the wards, but we have some very special guests in the house today. We have fourth grade Girl Scouts from Groveland Elementary who are here with us. And I know Councilmember Jost, who's your council member, made a special point of letting me know that you were here. And I was wondering if you might oh, I'm so sorry. Not you.

Council member Coleman.

Council member Coleman, who's your council member, also made a point of telling me Council member. Anyway, we're all your council members. And we were wondering if you wanted to come up and stand in between the two golden columns and tell us your name and your favorite thing about Saint Paul.

And their favorite cookie.

Oh, hey.

There we

Oh, and your favorite cookie,

obviously. That's my request. Your favorite cookie.

And if you have any cookies, here. Just kidding.

But, yes.

But if you did, we would like to like know.

You take Venmo?

And we do fully expend to pay for everything.

This way, if anybody asks you if you were here and if you deserve your government badge, you can point them to the live recording of this that is happening right now and all the five cameras that are pointing right at you, and you'll be able to show that you were here. So welcome up. Would anyone like to start with your name and your favorite thing about Saint Paul and your favorite cookie? You're all gonna have to go, so you might as well get it over with.

Vivian will start. Right, Vivian?

Yeah, Vivian. Go, Vivian.

You can come right on up and stand in between the two microphones, and they'll pick you up. I think

there's the microphone.

There you go.

She'll scream straight.

Yep. Hi. Welcome. My name

is Vivian. I think that my favorite thing about Saint Paul is just that I like the friends and like the family that I have here. And I think that my favorite cookie is either the lemonades or the peanut butter patties. I can't decide which.

Nice. Thank you. Welcome up.

Hi. My name is Maeve. I like Saint Paul because of all the friends I have in this place and all the schools that I've been to and the friends I've made. And my favorite cookie are either Thin Mints or peanut butter patties. Nice.

Welcome up.

Hi. My name is Gigi, and my favorite thing I don't really have a favorite thing about saveball, but

Because you have so many favorite things?

Yeah.

Okay.

List them all. I just wouldn't wanna live in any other city.

Oh, yes.

And my favorite cookie is thin mints and peanut butter patties.

Nice. I haven't heard any caramel delights yet, not to put anything in anybody's mind. Go ahead.

My name's Lucy, and one thing I love about Saint Paul is that everyone here works together to support each other. And my favorite cookie is lemonades.

Right. Nice. Welcome up.

My name is Elena, and my favorite thing about St. Paul is all the nice people. And my favorite cookie is peanut butter patties.

Speaker Yeah, peanut butter patties. Yeah, gotta try peanut butter My patties. Speaker

name is June. I don't know my favorite thing about Saint Paul, but my favorite cookies are Thin Mints and peanut butter patties.

Speaker Nice.

My name is Ada. My favorite thing about Saint Paul is my school and my favorite cookie is the caramel delight.

There we go. My

name is Aoife. My favorite thing about Saint Paul is how strong our community is, and that when someone else in our community is hurt, we're always there to help them. And my favorite cookie is caramel delights. And do not say you don't like them because they're caramel in them, coconut, because you can't taste the coconut.

A 100%. Could not agree more. Thank you.

My name's Lydia. My favorite thing about Saint Paul is the community, and my favorite Girl Scout cookies is either the peanut butter patties or adventure fulls.

Oh, no. Thank you.

My name is Mora, and my and my favorite thing about Saint Paul is the community. My favorite, Girl Scout cookie is the peanut butter patty. Nice. Okay. My name's Aliyah, and my favorite thing about Saint Paul is the community, and my favorite cookie is the

peanut butter patty. Very nice.

I think we have a

crowd favorite.

My name is Olivia, and what I like about Saint Paul is the community and that we're really kind to each other. And my favorite cookie is caramel delight.

Here we go. My

name is Cora, community, and my favorite cookie is peanut butter patties.

We Oh, want to thank you all so much for coming out today and being part of our meeting. And if you stick around for just a little bit longer, we're going to wrap this up. We might be able to take a picture with you as a council. We'd love to do that. We're all girls too. So that could be fun. Thank you all so much. Oh, and I'm so sorry. We have some discussion. No, we don't. We do. We do. Miss Johnson.

Oh, I I am sorry. I I had to keep my hand up because as a fellow girl scout, I would love to if any of the girls know the girl scout promise. It's okay.

Chair Square Johnson, we we didn't hear it.

I just wanted to know that, but yeah. So on my honor, I will try to serve God and my country and help as many people as possible and to live by the Girl Scout law. And we do and we have our three fingers. And this is the formal way of being a Girl Scout. And it's something that is like ironed out in your memory forever. As a fellow Girl Scout and someone who grew up in Girl Scouts, I just want to say it's so awesome that you guys are coming out to City Council because I didn't do that as a Girl Scout and I never got my badge. Was something

I feel like you have it now.

Out there.

And I will just say that I think it is awesome that you guys are here and I I love that. And I I just genuinely wanted to be able to just say welcome to the city council chambers. It's really, really rare for cities to have an all women city council. So I want you to just take a look around the room and around the space. And if no one else tells you ever, just know that one day you can be anything that you want to be.

And do really, truly anything that you want to do. And a lot of what you're learning now and the friends you talk about and the community that you talk about that we all experience here in St. Paul is something that you get to cherish for as long as possible. And so just keep each other in mind. Part of being a Girl Scout is a sisterhood that you build with one another too and the cookies that you eat. But that's okay too.

Thanks, Ms. Johnson. All right, thank you. Don't go too far.

We'll be right back to you but feel free to take a seat.

All right. Is there any good news from the wards? Ms. Kim.

Yeah. I'm going to steal a few people's one, I think, but I just want to give, for the folks in the chambers with us, a warm welcome back to what I'm going to call our chair square Johnson, our HRA chair, and our budget chair Johnson's first day back from maternity leave. So please give her a warm welcome back to the chambers. And it's also so I think this is where we can enlist your help, which I think it was Kevin. Do you need help from UP? So it's a Girl Scouts that can help us. It's also our vice President Yang's birthday today. And so, I'm wondering if folks can help us sing happy birthday to our council vice president. Alright. Ready? 01/23.

'31. I'm 31

today. That was so

sweet. I appreciate

you all. Thanks, Ms. Kim.

Other good news from around the wards. Ms. Yang. Yeah, thanks, Council President. I encourage folks to look at the Greater East Side Community website. They do have events happening every month all the way up until May. So the one I want to highlight is that on Thursday, March 26, from 05:30PM to 7PM, they have a seed starting workshop, and that will be at the Kramer Community Room.

Thanks, Vice President. Other news from around the wards? I can just share one which I think was mentioned briefly earlier. This was something that I know many of us have heard from small businesses and from residents in our wards during Operation Metro Surge and beyond about the need for property tax relief and deferrals if possible. I heard from a small business owner in my ward with a request, could property taxes be deferred?

I reached out to Ramsey County and I'm sure many others did as well. And good news, yesterday the Ramsey County Board did approve two months of property tax deferral for eligible households and small businesses. So property taxes can be paid up to two months late with no late fees or any kind of problems at all. And this is something that I think will hopefully help along with all the other measures that we've been taking at this body just to give some relief, give some breathing room to folks who have been suffering. So, I want to make sure people know about that, and it is all very clearly on the Ramsey County website, and I hope folks can help promote that to constituents as well.

Ms. Johnson?

And I just wanted to add, not only is March International Women's Month, I just want to make sure to shout out Georgia Fort. I actually returned today wearing her Protect the Press shirt. And a lot of the efforts that are happening in our community are around not only support for some of our independent journalists, but also some of the proceeds are also being donated to organizations that defend press freedoms. So I was really intentional today about coming back and coming back in my full power and coming back in my full self. Part of that also is to ensure that I'm standing alongside such powerful women that are really shaping across multiple industries, including journalism.

So wanna give a shout out to Georgia Fort, and who is a fierce e sider and business owner and independent journalist and woman of the time. And also just to share with folks, if you like the shirt, you should get it and support press and support defending the press.

Thanks, miss Johnson. Miss Jost?

This isn't exactly news from the wards, but I just wanted to recognize that this Saturday is pie day. It's March 14. And board And council member Coleman brought pie today. I think it's probably all gone by now, but I just wanted to when I'm not here, I'm an engineer, and it's a big deal in our community. And so I wanted to share that with everyone. And I'm looking forward to buying pie. So I'd encourage everyone to go out and buy pie at your local bakery in your ward or in Saint Paul. There's a few in there's Hot Hands Pie and Biscuit in Ward 3. There's also Highland Bakery. I know there's wonderful pie places all throughout the city, so encourage people to buy pie, or pizza, I guess, works too.

Thank you. I'm glad that we did a shout out to Pie Day, and thank you for also supporting a St. Paul Business Award winner. Ms. Coleman?

Two things. First, on that note, also be very nice to the people who you buy your pie from because this is their second busiest day of the year,

I learned.

No

way. As I picked up the pies this morning after Thanksgiving. And apparently, there's a lot going on at your local pie shop and so be nice to folks and tip them when you pick up your pies. This is the good news that keeps giving. Last week, I talked about how the CVS was coming down this Monday, and I'm back again to talk about how the CVS is going to come down sometime next week. We hope Monday or Tuesday. It's gonna be so fun when it finally happens. That's all.

Thanks, miss Goldman. Suspense. This is killing us. Yes. One

day.

Any other good news? Otherwise, I think we'll close our meeting and welcome our Girl Scouts up to up here if they'd like to take a picture.

Alright. Thanks so much for

a great meeting. We are adjourned.