HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013/07/15 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session Iif St. Louis Park OFFICIAL MINUTES
MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL STUDY SESSION
ST. LOUIS PARK,MINNESOTA
JULY 15, 2013
The meeting convened at 6:30 p.m.
,Councilmembers present: Mayor Jeff Jacobs, Steve Hallfin, Anne Mavity, Susan Sanger, Sue
Santa, and Jake Spano.
Councilmembers absent: Julia Ross.
Staff present: City Manager (Mr. Harmening), Police Chief (Mr. Luse), Deputy Police Chief
(Mr. DiLorenzo), Director of Operations and Recreation (Ms. Walsh), Environmental
Coordinator(Mr. Vaughan), and Recording Secretary(Ms. Hughes).
1. City Council Policy Discussion — Committee Appointment Process and Legislative
Contacts
Mayor Jacobs opened the floor for discussion regarding the process to be used for appointing
Councilmembers to outside boards or committees or for the Mayor and/or Council to have
discussions with outside elected officials.
Councilmember Hallfin stated it was his understanding that occasionally meetings are put on the
schedule with little notice and Council needs to have some way to appoint someone to attend a
meeting on a moment's notice. He felt that the decision to appoint someone to a board or
committee or to attend a meeting on behalf of the City in those situations where Council cannot
meet to discuss the appointment beforehand should ultimately be the Mayor's decision to make
since he is the highest elected official. He added it would be great if Council could meet and
discuss these decisions in advance but that is not always possible.
Councilmember Sanger agreed with Councilmember Hallfin but felt the decision to appoint
Councilmember Spano to the CMC could have and should have come back to Council for study
session discussion.
Mayor Jacobs agreed.
Councilmember Sanger felt if Mayor Jacobs has a scheduling conflict and cannot attend a
meeting on short notice, the Mayor Pro Tern should be asked to attend, adding she would have
been happy to attend the CMC meeting.
Councilmember Santa stated she did not have a problem with Councilmember Spano attending
the CMC meetings and was not willing to change the Council representative attending these
meetings, adding the City needs to have a strong presence on the CMC and consistency was
important. She suggested that if a situation arises in the future where the Mayor cannot attend a
meeting with elected officials or a committee meeting, that the Mayor deal with the situation as
best he or she can and to bring it up at the next Council meeting so that Councilmembers are
aware of the situation.
Councilmember Mavity supported having Councilmember Spano continue to attend the CMC
meetings, adding she felt it was important for the Mayor to attend these meetings whenever
possible because all the other cities are sending their mayors to these meetings. She urged
Council to make sure the process is more transparent moving forward.
Special Study Session Minutes -2- July 15, 2013
Mr. Harmening requested Council direction regarding a meeting on July 25th with Edina.
Mayor Jacobs stated that Mayor Hovland has scheduled an informal meeting on July 25th with a
number of mayors and he was unsure whether he could attend the meeting so he has asked
Councilmember Sanger to attend as Mayor Pro Tem.
2. Deer Management Update
Ms. Walsh presented the staff report and reviewed four options for Council consideration as
outlined in the staff report.
Councilmember Sanger stated there has been some question from residents about appropriate
notice and it was her understanding that once approval is given to remove deer, a contractor is
hired but residents are not notified of the exact date or time of the removal efforts because the
City needs to retain some flexibility due to weather conditions, etc.
Mr. Harmening stated that some other communities provide notice with a range of dates where
removal efforts will be undertaken without providing specific dates.
Councilmember Mavity stated it would appear the DNR's process for counting deer and issuing
permits may be a holdover from prior years and less applicable to an urban environment. She
felt a key question for the City to consider was whether the DNR process is effective and
applicable to the City's current situation and she believed that question should be addressed with
the DNR and neighboring cities in order to make sure the process reflects an urban environment
and the past experiences of the City. She urged the City to ask the DNR for clarification to make
sure the DNR is reviewing its policies to make sure they are applicable in an urban environment.
She indicated the whole policy seems ineffective because the largest deer population is in a
corner of the City adjacent to Minneapolis near Theodore Wirth and Golden Valley and felt that
any deer management policy must be coordinated with adjacent communities. She requested
information about the range of the firearms being used.
Mr. DiLorenzo explained that the range of the projectile is one mile with a downward trajectory
of 30-60 yards maximum and the firearms use frangible rounds that explode on impact.
Councilmember Mavity stated she was not comfortable with a mile long trajectory based on the
City's past experience of human error. She suggested that the City meet with the DNR to talk
about how their policies are applicable in an urban environment and whether a different approach
should be used as well as a meeting with Golden Valley, Minneapolis, and possibly others to
discuss coordination of deer management efforts.
Mr. Vaughan stated that Minneapolis has previously indicated it is not interested in wildlife
control and the City has tried contracting with Golden Valley in the past. He advised that the
DNR has addressed the Biological Carrying Capacity but does not address the Cultural Carrying
Capacity and it was doubtful the DNR would be interested in addressing this with Council.
Councilmember Sanger stated that the City has to achieve some sort of balance with its deer
management policy and felt if the City takes out some of the deer and Golden Valley takes out
some of the deer that hopefully these joint efforts would reduce the herd to a manageable level.
Special Study Session Minutes -3- July 15, 2013
Councilmember Spano agreed that managing the deer population has merit but did not believe
that shooting deer was the way to manage the population given the incident last fall and asked if
there was a way to manage deer that does not involve firearms.
Mr. Luse advised the City has conducted trapping and baiting in the past but there were issues
with contamination and disabling of the traps by people opposed to this method.
Mr. Harmening stated that fundamental disagreement exists about the proper size of the herd and
until agreement is reached on the proper size of the herd, any discussion about how the City
manages the herd through trapping or shooting is secondary. He stated if agreement is reached
on deer removal,he felt the City could do a shoot safely in the community.
Councilmember Hallfin agreed this was a difficult issue for the City and agreed the City needs to
define the problem first before trying to solve it.
Councilmember Mavity stated she could not support the discharge of firearms in an urban
environment for this purpose at this time.
Councilmember Santa stated the City has a policy in place for culling the herd and Council
should address the issue of how to vet contractors to ensure they are going to follow the
established guidelines as well as what the Police Department can do to ensure public safety in
this environment.
Councilmember Sanger agreed and noted the City has received repeated confirmation from the
Police Department that it is safe to discharge firearms in the City for this purpose. She
questioned whether the City should use the Police Department rather than contractors to manage
the deer population given the previous experiences with contractors to help ensure more
consistency and compliance with the current requirements, adding she would rather have the
Police Department discharging firearms with their known safe practices. She stated there are
many people upset about the damage caused by deer and the close calls with cars and was
concerned that if the City did not do its best to try to manage the deer problem that rogue
residents might take matters into their own hands and felt the City has a responsibility to manage
the deer population.
Councilmember Mavity suggested the City consider the use of deer contraception and stated
there is evidence-based research available that indicates this works in a closed environment. She
reiterated she did not think discharge of firearms was warranted at this point.
Councilmember Spano stated he would like to have Council look at option#4 to defer a decision
and have staff bring back additional information. He stated he does not have confidence in the
way the City is currently managing the elimination of coyote and deer and would like City staff
to come back with a policy that can give Council a greater level of comfort that community
safety is being considered particularly given the incidents that have occurred in the past. He
stated he would also like Council to consider non-firearms related options, e.g., trapping and
contraception, and felt it was incumbent on the City to exhaust all options that do not involve use
of a firearm in a densely populated environment. He added he felt it was Council's
responsibility to first consider all options available and to have a plan in place if use of firearms
is determined to be the best approach to manage the deer population.
Special Study Session Minutes -4- July 15, 2013
Councilmember Sanger requested confirmation that the DNR prohibits cities from rounding up
and moving deer to other locations.
Mr. Vaughan replied that this was correct.
Mr. DiLorenzo added the DNR also has to approve the use of birth control and the DNR has not
done that in the past.
It was the consensus of the City Council to defer a specific decision with respect to the current
Deer Management Program and to direct staff to bring back additional information to allow
Council to be better informed on its policy options.
Councilmember Mavity requested confirmation that the current deer management policy is not in
effect and that the policy has been suspended at this time prior to further work by staff.
Mr. Harmening stated that Council will discuss the deer management policy again in the next
month or two and before doing any kind of shoot.
The meeting adjourned at 7:23 p.m.
Written Reports provided and documented for recording purposes only:
3. Southwest LRT Update
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Nancy Stroth, ty Clerk Jeff Jac• .s!Ma °•r