City Council - Regular Meeting

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

Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our St. Paul City Council meeting. We appreciate you joining us today, and 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, Consent agenda items 5 through 23 are before you for your consideration. I know we are taking item 21 separately. Is there anything else to come off of consent? Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Vice President Yang for the balance of the consent agenda. All in favor, say aye.

Ms. Bui. Yes, Council President. It is with good spirits to just uplift and just celebrate. I know usually for the year-round funds, there are not a lot of conversations around it. But I just wanted to uplift this church in my ward, which actually was my childhood church, which makes this really special. They're celebrating their 25th year anniversary. And they just moved into the ward in St. Paul. where they purchased a church that was vacant for some years. And in this church, they are also agreeing to maintain and expand the Frogtown Recovery Cafe, which is a grassroots recovery peer-led or

Thank you so much for highlighting that and lifting that up. I'll take that as a motion for approval. Is there a discussion of the motion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Seven in favor, none opposed. The resolution is adopted. I'm going to move to suspend the rules to consider resolution 26-1479 for neighborhood house. All in favor of suspending the rules, please say aye.

Thank you so much to my colleagues for being willing to suspend the rules to take up this item. This was a very last-minute addition to the agenda. Neighborhood House, which is in my ward, has been trying to reconcile this lease agreement with the state. And we got the breakthrough just before the agenda was published. And being able to approve this today as opposed to a week from now really matters in terms of the timing for this agreement for our neighborhood house. So I wanted to be able to bring this forward today. And this will allow them to get through this funding snag that they've been

So I'm bringing forward this item. I want to thank my co-sponsor, Councilmember Jost. This is a resolution that calls upon the City of St. Paul and Ramsey County to end our contracts with flock safety. I'm bringing this forward after we've had a lot of deliberation and conversation about this issue. a policy committee meeting a couple months ago in which we discussed the use of FLOC and other automatic license plate readers. I've been reviewing how other cities have been approaching this issue. And then most importantly, hearing from our community members loud and clear who are seriously conce

Thank you, Council President Naker, and thanks for bringing this forward. I agree. I don't think that this technology meets the standards of the values that we have for our city or how we operate public safety. I think it's our understanding our St. Paul employees have used this technology responsibly, but the public trust in these tools has eroded, and I'm very concerned about it. I support this because I think we should end this contract until we have other stronger safeguards, our accountability measures are in place, or we can consider alternative forms of technology. As you mentioned, our

Other discussion of the motion? Vice President. Thank you, Council President. I will be supporting the resolution and just wanted to highlight that I'm The majority of communication we've received, my office, we've received from Ward 6 residents and also folks overall who just wanted to let council members know about where they're at on flat cameras has been to call for any of the use of flat cameras. And so I wanted to really echo everything that you both shared. Also, I really appreciate the opportunity to connect with Senior Commander Kurt Hallstrom. He might have a different title now. It'

Awesome. I am going to be supporting this resolution. I do think that an ordinance is the next best step. FLOC is one piece of the mass surveillance pie in many ways, and there are other worse actors out there. So having more of a one size fits all resolution or ordinance that just bans any kind of surveillance that is related to this type of data. and sort of the vast capacity and market share that these types of companies have I think is going to be the next best step. So I'm supportive of the resolution and I'm looking forward to supporting something that addresses an underlying issue aroun

Thank you, Council President. Thank you for bringing this forward. I share a lot of the sentiments that have already been shared by my colleagues, and I will certainly be supporting this resolution today. I think that sometimes a council action like this can be seen as ending a conversation or the final step in a process. really seems to me that there is deep commitment on this council and in this body, based on the conversations that I've had, to make sure that that is not the case here, recognizing that, yes, as others have said, this is one technology, one tool, one corporation that has rig

Thank you, Council President. I also want to share that I'm in support of this resolution, and thank you for bringing this up swiftly. I appreciate just even using what's been kind of like a reoccurring theme in discussion today from the Public Safety Committee to even now around what's the city's and the council's levers. And I think this lever... We're pulling in terms of calling on the mayor and Ramsey County to take action. It seems really appropriate and timely. I appreciate the concern around public trust and the erosion of it. I think one of the levers that we have as a city, representa

Thank you, Ms. Johnson. And thank you to everyone. I'm grateful for your support, grateful for your eloquence. And I will say, I want to echo this theme that I'm hearing of this is a step. It is not all of the steps. I think one of the things that we actually learned during our fight back against Operation Metro Surge was that we couldn't wait for the perfect to do the good. And just because we couldn't do everything didn't mean we didn't do anything. And we pulled every single lever at our disposal. So in this case, this is a lever that we can pull today. And then we will be having future con

So for those who are joining us for the first time or are not one of our billions of YouTube subscribers, I upped it to billions today, I feel like. I feel like we're growing. We're on YouTube for anyone who wants to watch us there. Whenever we consider an ordinance, city law, we have three readings of that ordinance at the least. The first reading is a staff report where we learn what's in the ordinance. The second reading is a public hearing where we hear testimony from the public about what's being proposed. And the third reading is when we take a final vote. or we call that final adoption.

Thank you, Council President. I zipped through my comments last week. And so I did want to take a moment to recognize Assistant Mayor Erica Schumacher. The partnership from the mayor's office has been really great on this. I appreciate her being very responsive. just making sure that we moved along in this process from beginning to end and look forward to all of the work ahead in this. I will reiterate my thoughts that the slate, it has a stellar representation of St. Paul residents, community leaders, and professionals in emergency services, and I have full confidence in their leadership, exp

Thanks, Vice President. Take that as a motion for approval. Is there any discussion? Ms. Kim.

Yeah, I just want to extend the gratitude to Vice President Yang for pulling the team together, but also kind of weighing and balancing all the different experiences that were coming to the table. And I think that the slate is a great combination that effectively connects the expectations of our community members when it comes to interacting with our fire department. with the operational realities of our fire service. So I just really appreciate and commend the combination of expertise, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the innovative and strong leadership candidates that they'll bring

Other discussion of the motion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

This brings us to the public hearing section of our agenda. So a couple of housekeeping notes for these items. And in this case, we're actually going to, it looks like, I believe, have a staff reporter first. But for most of these items, we won't have a staff report. When your item is called and you are here to testify on that item, you will come up. You'll stand between those two microphones. You'll have two minutes, which do go by quickly. There's a clock right in front of you to help you. And I'm here to help you as well. Please start with your name and where you're coming from, and then gi

Thank you, Mr. Newton. Are there questions for staff? I'm not seeing any. Thank you so much. Don't go too far. Thank you. All right. So with that, this is a public hearing on item 26. If you're here for this public hearing, please come on up. And I forgot to say, but you don't need to adjust the two microphones. They will pick you up just fine. So you can just leave them where they are and you can stand straight up and they'll catch you. Welcome.

Thank you so much. Make sure to sign in. Is there anyone else here to speak on this issue? If so, welcome up.

Thank you very much. Make sure to sign in. Is there anyone else here to speak on this item? Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms. Coleman to close the public hearing. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Seven in favor, none opposed. Public hearing is closed.

Ms. Coleman. Thank you, Council President. Thank you to Mr. Newton and the Public Works team who have been working on this for many months, and that included many public presentations and conversations with the Macro Community Council and their Transportation Committee and our office and a whole host of research and engagement that went into this. And of course, thank you to the residents who have been both here today to testify on this matter, but also who have engaged in the process at any of the various points, or otherwise reached out to our office with their opinions. I think that, so I w

Thank you. Ms. Coleman, is there, so the motion is to, didn't the motion inform the government?

Move to not modify. Or it's better to move. Motion to not adopt the findings. Motion to, we'll take that as a motion to not adopt the findings, the staff findings. So and to not modify the permit parking area. Is there a discussion of the motion?

Ms. Just. Thanks, Council President. I'll just add, Council Member Coleman and I share the McAllister-Groveland neighborhood, and I support your decision. I agree that I don't think that it solves the problem, and I do just have general concerns about parking permits in areas, generally speaking, with the notion that you can pay for a permit and now you, as Council Member Coleman said, have privatized the public right-of-way, that it doesn't feel equitable, especially if there are areas across the city where folks might be more challenged to be able to pay for a parking permit. And I don't bel

Thanks, Ms. Jost. Other discussion? I will just say I will be supporting the motion. I appreciate your thoughtful reasoning on this, Ms. Coleman. I think another aspect that you touched on that I want to reiterate is that we struggle with parking enforcement as it is with both the meters that we have and the permit parking areas that we have. And one of the things that I've heard from my constituents in areas where there is permit parking is that there is not enforcement. And so then residents are actually paying for a service that they are not receiving. And I would feel uncomfortable, frankl

The motion is to deny the application to expand the permit parking area. All in favor say aye.

This is a public hearing with no staff report. Is there anyone here to speak on this item? Seeing none, I will move to close the public hearing and approve. I just want to note that this is the Green Cities Accord is a program that's really nifty. It allows organizations to do carbon offsets and essentially purchase trees that are then planted in the city of St. Paul. And so this is upwards of $70,000 coming to the city to plant trees, which we know we desperately need, coming from those private companies' offsets, which is good news for St. Paul. And the climate. So I'll move to close the pub

Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms. Bui to close the public hearing and approve. All in favor, say aye. Aye.

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

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak to 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?

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak to this item? $2 million for our Parks and Rec Department from the Legacy Fund. Good news. I'll take a motion from Vice President Yang to close the public hearing and approve. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed?

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak to 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?

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak to this item? It's also a good way to learn about all the great events coming up in our community if you listen to the sound level variances. Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms. Kim to close the public hearing and approve. All in favor, say aye.

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

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak to 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?

Great. Wonderful to hear. I will move that we have found it abated and that no further action is required. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed.

Ms. Mormont, is there anything to be taken for separate consideration?

Ms. Moorman. Council President, this is a- Yes, I'm sorry. We will have a quick staff report, and then we'll open up the public hearing. So just wait one moment.

And the advantage of waiting to, so essentially this is an appeal of a registration, vacant building registration renewal notice. You're saying the better course is to appeal after the actual bill has been sent?

Thank you, Ms. Mormont. Any further questions for staff before we hold the public hearing? Doesn't look like it. All right. This is the public hearing. So if you're here to testify on this item, welcome up. And the two minutes do go by especially fast with these items, so please make sure to focus on your ask to the council.

Thank you very much. Thanks. Make sure to sign in, and I'm going to close the public hearing, and then we'll talk about the situation. All right, is there anyone else here to testify on this item? Move to close the public hearing. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed?

Ms. Moorman, can you remind me when work is completed prior to the end of the year of the vacant building registration fee? I know we have some prorating ability. And then in this case, the notice was sent out late. So maybe that even changes our prorating ability. Can you lay out what happens if work is completed earlier than next February?

And waiting to pay the fee does not incur any additional charges? There's no need for Mr. Mulcahy to pay that right now? Correct. All right. Thanks, Ms. Moorman. I am going to move, Mr. Mulcahy, first of all, Thank you for coming down. I am sorry about the delay in your notice. It sounds like this is an issue that we are going to be dealing with with a lot of different properties. And so in some ways, you are the bellwether. And I'm glad that you're raising this issue now so we can start to consider how we will deal with it. I am going to not wave to deny the appeal today at Ms. Moorman's reco

Ms. Moorman, is there anything else to come before us for separate consideration? I'm not aware of anyone else here to testify. All right. Given that, we were going to hold a, this is awkward, but we're going to hold a public hearing on all of our legislative hearing items. So if you're here on item 37 through 46, this is your public hearing. And we will, as soon as we complete this agenda, we will be holding our special meeting with its own public hearing on surveillance. But this is on these items. So is there anyone here to testify on any of these items? Seeing none, I'll take a motion from

Thank you, Ms. Moorman. That brings us to the end of our agenda. And before we close and begin our next agenda, I'd like to look to my colleagues, if they can stay, to see if there's any good news or news from the wards. Vice President.

Thank you, Council President. This is a few weeks out, but I wanted to share that the Eastside Freedom Library is having their annual Labor Solidarity Picnic. It's on Saturday, September 12, 1 PM to 4 PM at the library. And there will be live music from the Twin Cities Labor Chorus, and Emmett Doyle picnic food and soft drinks will be provided. Sounds like fun.

Thanks. Sounds like a good conversation. Ms. Kim.

My good news is actually retrospective. Last week on Thursday, we had the city's first inaugural State of the Youth Address. It was a blowout. We had over 120 participants. It was standing room only. We had speakers that talked about the impacts of Metro Surge, youth jobs, housing, and housing and climate. We had youth that participated through our Youth on Boards program. And when I tell you they owned the room, they owned the room. At this point, I think we should just hand over all of our systems of government to our youth. I think they would do a lot better than we We are at times. And so

Thanks, Ms. Kim, and kudos. It sounds like an incredible inaugural year. Many to come.

Ms. Bui. So I get some news from the ward, also news outside of my ward. But the first event is this Saturday, August 29th from 5 to 9 p.m. It's the 25th anniversary celebration of United Church of God in Christ. It's going to take place at Wilder Foundation. They were the recipient of the year-round fund, so we just want to support them as they're expanding and expanding some of their community services. And then the other item that has been talked about for a while is the state fair, the grandstand. This Saturday it's going to be Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, so many, I don't like to say old schoo

Great. Thank you, Ms. Billy. Any other good news or news? I'll just share that tomorrow is our downtown action series, 4.30 to 6 p.m. at the Union Depot. All who live in, work in, visit, or care about downtown St. Paul are welcome to come and hear about tangible progress in the last 60 days on a variety of different fronts. So I hope you can join us. With that, we are going to adjourn this meeting. We are going to need two minutes, roughly, for our technology department to transition to a new meeting. So we'll take a quick stretch break, very, very quick stretch break. And then we will reconve