Council - Regular Meeting

We'll get started in a second, but I want to make sure we have enough chairs. We have a lot of extra election equipment in here, and we want to make sure everybody has a seat. So did we find enough seats for all the audience members? All right, so it looks like we're set to go. All right. Welcome, everyone. I'm calling to order this council meeting of The Richfield City Council, it is October 13th, 2026, and it is 7.02 PM. And if you're able, please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Is there a motion for approval of the agenda?

It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. Is there any commentary or discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, and we've approved the agenda. Next, we'll move on to the approval of the minutes of the September 22nd, 2026 City Council Work Session meeting and the minutes of the September 22nd 2026 city council meeting.

It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye.

All opposed. And we have approved those minutes. Thank you. Next, we're going to do our proclamation recognizing indigenous people's day. And I would like to invite Oliver and Samantha Weaver to join me to accept the proclamation. Thank you. And then it should be so you can see, so you can stand so you can be on camera.

This is a proclamation of the city of Richfield, whereas Indigenous Peoples Day is a celebration of the cultures, lands, and languages of indigenous peoples throughout the land on which the United States is built. And whereas the Dakota and Anishinaabe people have lived on the ancestral lands of Minnesota for thousands of years, including the land of the city of Richfield, and Whereas indigenous peoples have served courageously throughout our history in all aspects of our society and deserve to be recognized and respected for all their contributions. And whereas Minnesota is home to countless

And if you'd like to say something, you're welcome to say something.

All right. Thank you so much. There you go. Next, we'll move on to the open forum. Before we get to that, there are a couple of items I wanted to address before we started the open forum. I understand that there's a lot of fear and anxiety in our society right now, including around gun violence and youth gangs. And we need to respond by coming together as a community. Violence is never okay and people should be accountable for their actions. Accountability, however, does not include scapegoating an entire community for the actions of a few. We may disagree about policies or solutions, but hate

We're getting to the end of it. You're at the end of it, so I don't want to interrupt you.

Now, anybody who's not a chair and anybody who's not the mayor, don't you know how hard that is?

I think our training needs some upgrades.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak for open forum? All right. Go ahead, and if you can either sign in or fill out a form afterwards for the minutes.

So hold on. We'll actually give you a chance to speak later. So this is for the hearings and stuff, so we'll go for that. I guess I should have explained that. No, no problems, because we're going to have several public hearings after this. Is there anybody that wants to speak that's not on the Charter Commission amendments or on... the different assessments that are coming up. So if you want to speak about an issue that's not coming up later in the agenda, you're welcome to come forward. Did you have a question? So that's going to be coming up shortly. And so we wanted to kind of keep the two

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak for open forum? For open forum. Yes, go ahead.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? All right, then we will close out open forum. Next, we'll move on to the consent calendar, and then after that, we'll get on to the public hearings that several of you are waiting for. So I'm going to turn it over to City Manager Rodriguez for the consent calendar. Thank you.

I move approval of the consent calendar. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion?

Just one quick comment. Definitely looking forward to Ultimate Frisbee program here in Richfield. It's a great sport. It's known being unique among sports that people who are young can engage in because there's no referee. The children involved, the athletes involved kind of self-regulate and they referee themselves. So it's definitely a unique sport and I'm very glad to see it coming to Richfield.

Okay, any other comments? It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent calendar. All in favor, please say aye.

All opposed? And we have approved the consent calendar. Next, we're going to begin the public hearings regarding the proposed assessments included on tonight's agenda. Rather than opening several public hearings with five separate motions, excuse me, We are going to open all the hearings with a single motion and accept testimony from the public in order on the items on the agenda. So the hearings will cover delinquent charges and fees, and those are proposed assessments for delinquent utility bills, false alarm charges, public health or safety hazard charges, weed eradication charges, and vaca

Thank you, Mayor. So just to be clear, I'm going to be reading a brief summary about each of these categories of charges, just so we're all on the same page about why they exist and what the legal basis is for the charge. And again, after I'm done speaking, the mayor will actually call people up and you'll be able to speak. So the first item just to explain is about the assessments on delinquent utility accounts, false alarm charges, public health or safety charges, weed eradication, and vacant property. And the summary for that is that Minnesota state statutes 444-075-429-101 and 429-061 prov

Thank you. So what we're going to do is open up the public hearing, and then after the public hearing's over, the staff can answer questions, and we'll go through each of them one at a time and make the motions for each of the sections. So at this point, any resident wishing to participate in a public hearing should proceed to the podium one person at a time and state their name and city of residence before providing comments. If you'd like staff to follow up with you after the meeting, please include your name and phone number or email address on the sign-in sheet located at the platform, or

I move to open the public hearing. Second.

All in favor of opening the public hearing, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. And this will address items 9A through 9E. So go ahead.

Thank you, and make sure you put your contact information on there so staff can get hold of you to follow up on this. Thank you, and I believe there is another gentleman that wanted to speak. You can come on. I guess we have two people wanting to speak, so you'll both get a turn.

Thank you. And did you get your contact information written down?

All right, and I believe we have another speaker.

You don't have to. You can just say the city.

Thank you. And make sure you write down your contact information. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? It looks like there is. Take your time. Go one at a time here.

Thank you. And make sure you write down your contact information so we can get back to you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak at the public hearing?

If you want to give them to us before you speak, is that what you're saying? All right, thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? All right, then a motion would be in order to close the public hearing. Second. It's been moved and seconded to close the public hearing. All in favor, please say aye.

All opposed? All right, the public hearing is closed. And so we're going to go through each of these one at a time. So the first one, is to approve the resolution authorizing certification of unpaid water, sanitary sewer, stormwater, and streetlight changes, false alarm charges, public health and safety charges, weed eradication charges, and vacant public property fees, registration fees to the county auditor to be collected with other taxes or said properties. Now, it's my understanding that everyone who spoke at the public hearing was on the solid waste one, So I didn't think we had anybody

I move approval of that motion. Seconded.

It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions about this? Staff, did you want to add anything about this particular one? We're available for questions. I had checked with staff earlier. This includes businesses, homeowners, multifamily residences, all of these could possibly be under that. Because I was looking at some of the water bills and I was trying to figure out why they could possibly be that big. But if it's a whole apartment complex, that would cause those bills to go up. Any further questions or comments? All right, so all in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? So we've

Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Did staff want to ask, add anything? Um, I know we had a number of people that signed in, so I want to make sure that we collect all those addresses so we can have staff please reach out to each of those people individually after the meeting so we can take care of that. Questions from council members? Council Member Hayford-Leary.

Well, I guess first off, I'm just wondering if staff can clarify what the setup is for the owner to be able to know that there's an unpaid balance. Do the garbage companies allow them to have separate accounts? How do they... keep the owner thing on file when there's a tenant in the house, or how was that arranged?

I guess I would just say, in terms of the charges that are in front of us today, the charges were incurred under the rules we have, but the situation of a tenant moving out and you have an opportunity to collect a security deposit back from the tenant, but you don't find out that they owed money until well after that's gone, that does concern me. That doesn't seem like a great approach right now.

But again, so you should be calling the city to ask about an account you don't have access to, but the city will look it up for you?

Okay. Is that communicated when people get a rental license? Compared to the way utility bills work, where there might be an agreement for the tenant to do it. I agree in terms of the validity of these charges. This is mainly a dispute between the property owner and the tenant. But I am a little bit concerned that we're not giving the property owners the appropriate tools to be able to address that issue. it would be hard for me to know if I rented a property that money was owed.

The way you've described it is that it's the person who's living there that gets the notice and not the owner of the property, correct?

I can see the confusion for an owner that, I mean, typically the person who has the obligation is the person who's given notice. And here it gives the impression that the person getting notice is not the person obligated. And so I can understand the confusion on the property owners that why am I not getting the notice If I'm not the person, when my understanding is that I've contracted with someone else to be responsible for it. And so the city's actions kind of gives the impression by giving the notice to the person residing there and not the person who's responsible for the debt. It kind of

I understand that, and there is a question about whether it's a good idea to contract with the person you're renting to. It's a questionable idea whether they should be contracting that responsibility, kind of foisting the responsibility on the rental. Renter, I get that. That is questionable whether they should be doing that. However, I can see also how the city's actions can confuse an owner because the notice is going to the person who's renting. And so hopefully that is something, as you mentioned with the renegotiation of the contract, that seems like an important thing to address and to

Other comments or questions? Yeah, go ahead. And then I have one.

Okay, just and then there was one only a single thing about a vacant property, which, you know, we have this conversation each year, I actually remember mostly being about people saying, I'm not using the service, and I don't want to pay for that actually, because this seems somewhat unique in terms, at least in my recollection, which isn't perfect. One person did mention the property that was vacant, and they felt they shouldn't be charged. Do we have like vacant property registration for a single family home? And if so, are they exempt if it's like a registered vacant property with the city?

Okay. But just to be clear, the cost to the city has already been incurred in this case if it was vacant? for the previous year, right? This is more of a preventing future charges advice?

Okay, thank you. So you will be following up with each of these property owners?

I would wonder if it would help rental licenses were brought up, if that could be added somewhere in the rental licensing process to remind people that this is what's going to happen and so that they're well aware of it so they can ask those questions to prevent future problems with that. And I do think when we look at renegotiating the organized hauling contracts, I think this should be brought up and take care of it because it's... I think it makes, it's pretty clear that it's an issue because it's basically between that and the vacant properties, the only thing that came up tonight, and it

All right, and so you will be following up with each of the people that spoke tonight. With that, if there are no further questions, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? And we have adopted the resolution. We're going to move on next to the special assessments for removal of diseased trees from property. So the motion would be to conduct, or excuse me, to adopt a resolution for special assessments for removal of diseased trees from private property for work orders from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025. Is there a motion for that? So moved Okay, it's been

Thank you, that's helpful. And then on the other side of the wall next to the street, this maintenance district takes care of that as well?

All right. Are there any other questions or comments? Since there are not, we'll take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed. And we have approved that. Next we'll move on to resolute or nine E which is the motion to adopt a resolution for special assessments for sanitary sewer line repair or replacement on private property for work order from August 2nd, 2025 through August 1st, 2026. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? I did have one question. I think it's a good service. You know, if your sanitary sewer line goes out, t

And from what she told me, it's because we soften our water and so the pipes don't get corroded so they last a lot longer, but I just wanted to address it since it was brought up by a resident. Any other questions? All right, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? And we've adopted that. Okay, next we have a public hearing. to consider the approval of some ordinances amending the charter. So I'm going to turn this over to Council Member Burke.

So the item for consideration is I have public hearing consider approval of the first reading of an ordinance amending sections 4.05, 5.04, 5.05, 5.10, 5.12, and 5.15 of the Richfield City Charter related to elections and petition requirements. The Charter Commission is recommending amendments to several sections of the Richfield City Charter relating to election petitions. The proposed amendments would align the Charter with petition form and content requirements established in Minnesota rules and reorganize the Charter's petition requirements to make them easier for residents to use and for

So... There will be, as mentioned, a public hearing. Any resident wishing to participate in the public hearing, please proceed to the podium one at a time and provide your name and address prior to your comment. Council will hear your comment. If you would like staff to follow up, please include your name and phone number or email on the sign-in document located at the podium. To ensure everyone has time to speak, each comment will be limited to three minutes in length. As a reminder to residents, the public hearing is a time for council to listen but not respond. questions are asked they may

It's been moved and seconded to open the public hearing. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. And the public hearing is now open. Is there anyone who wishes to speak to the charter commission amendments?

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak? Then a motion would be in order to close the public hearing. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded to close the public hearing. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? The public hearing is closed. And I want to thank Chair Bullock and the rest of the Charter Commission for all their work on this. I appreciate that. So now, do you want to move?

So I move to approve the changes to the city charter on the staff report. Recommend action on the staff report. Second. Second.

Okay, so it's been moved and seconded to approve the first reading of the ordinance amending sections 4.05, 5.04, 5.05, 5.10, 5.12, and 5.15 with Richfield City Charter. Is there any discussion? All right, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? And we have approved the changes. All right. So next we're going to move on to the proposed ordinance, item 10A, Councilmember Christensen.

Thank you, Mary. This is a consideration for consider the approval of the first reading of an ordinance amending Richfield City Code Appendix D fee schedule related to building, planning, and zoning fees, and schedule a public hearing for the second reading for the October 27, 2026 council meeting. City staff annually review department fees to determine if changes for charges, excuse me, for permits, and services are appropriate. Staff want to ensure the charges for fees and permits reflect the staff time and costs related to performing the services associated with those fees. Staff also works

By motion then, it's recommended to approve the first reading of an ordinance amendment to the Richfield City Code Appendix D fee schedule related to the building, planning, and zoning fees and schedule a public hearing and second reading for October 27, 2026. Is there a second? Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Do we have any questions for staff or any discussion? So I know we've looked at a lot of these as we've gone along, and thank you to everyone for all the updates and the changes. We appreciate that. Any other comments or questions? All right, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? And we have approved the amendments, or approved the motion. Next, we'll move on to item 12A, Councilmember Coleman-Woods. Thank you, Mayor.

The item for consideration is the appointment of youth commissioners to various commissions. Youth members serve one-year terms on city advisory boards and commissions, with current terms expiring August 31, 2027. The City Manager's Office recruits youth applicants on an ongoing basis to fill vacancies. For recruitment, the city shares information on its website, Facebook page, and reaches out to local high schools. The city manager's office forwards all applications to the city council for review. I move, and the recommended motion is to approve the appointment of the following youth commissi

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments? Go ahead, Council Member Hayford-O'Leary.

I just wanted to say it's great to see so many youth applicants in these roles. We don't always get these filled, so seeing four all at once is so awesome. I first got involved in city government in Northfield, where I was when I was in high school. I was a youth liaison or appointee to the library board, and so I know it's just a great way to get involved in public service.

Thank you. And I was very excited to see we had so many applicants. We used to have this many applicants, and then the pandemic hit, and it People didn't want to be online any more than they had to because they were already going to school online. So it's good to see this bouncing back and getting the youth involved again. So thank you to everybody who's applied. And we do have a few more vacancies if anybody's listening out there and would like to apply. Any other comments or questions? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? And we have approved the appointments. Thank you to all tho

All right. Is there anyone who would like to see, speak about this council member Hayford, Larry?

I guess I want to say first on the overall policy question, I'm not opposed to having a good exception policy. I would hope we'd have very limited exceptions. At this point, I don't know that I want to say where that should rank on the work plan. So this is not personally a priority for me, but I appreciate it is for other council members. So I think there is value in having the policy in place. I don't know how urgent it is. With regard to the current project, my position would be that staff should plant the trees as planned. I think in general we should think of our boulevard trees as a stre

Thank you, Council Member Coleman-Woods.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I would agree that there should be some sort of exception policy. I don't think that there's going to be anything that we can do about it, like, tomorrow. But I think there's something to be said for the contractor having planted the tree too close to folks' sewer lines. And there's, like, a stipulation or requirement of how close that they could plant them to. So if there's somebody that, you know, like... one person that I encountered, I think that there should be some sort of exception in that case. So if it's too close to the utility, I think that that should be the

All right, other discussion or comments? I do think it would be good to have a policy. And it sounds like we have worked with all of the individuals and worked out the vast majority of the complaints. So if we can at some point get to this and figure out a policy, that would be great. I don't want to bump anything currently because there's a lot of stuff that's been waiting for a long time. So any other comments or questions? City Manager Rodriguez, does that give you enough information to move forward? Yes. Okay. Thank you.

No. Thank you. All right. Then we will move on to council discussion and hats off to hometown hits or council liaison reports. Council member Coleman Woods.

Thank you, mayor. I appreciate everybody covering for me in my absence during my knee surgery. Thank you all. And I wanted to send a huge hats off to hometown hits to my husband. who is celebrating his 52nd birthday today and is patiently waiting for me at home, hopefully with dinner. But in the meantime, we also have had, yes, I appreciate Director Link for helping us handle some of the tree issues. I'm thrilled that we're getting this many trees in the southeast part of our neighborhood. to replace all of the ones that we lost. So I'm excited and thank you for all your hard work on this. I a

Yep. As the liaison to the Human Rights Commission, I want to thank the Human Rights Commission for being so open to having discussions about FLOC Sometimes, as a past member of the Human Rights Commission before I got here, sometimes I did wonder at times what we were doing there. And I'm glad that the public is getting more of a sense of what the Human Rights Commission is for. It is a place to bring concerns from the public to a commission. And then the commission reaches out to the city council and city governance to have those issues addressed. addressed I think considering what the circu

Thank you. So speaking of commissions, applications are now open for several commissions and they'll be open through October 31st. You can find the applications on the city webpage. As you can see behind you, we are in election season and the city clerk and her staff have been answering questions and helping with people with the absentee ballot process. But starting Friday, October 16th, it's going to be actual early voting going on in this room and there will be the actual machine that you can put your vote into and do early voting. So thank you for all the election judges and the city clerk'