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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020/09/29 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session Official minutes City council study session St. Louis Park, Minnesota Sept. 29, 2020 The meeting convened at 6:30 p.m. Councilmembers present: Mayor Jake Spano, Tim Brausen, Rachel Harris, Larry Kraft, Anne Mavity, Nadia Mohamed, and Margaret Rog Councilmembers absent: none Staff present: City Manager (Mr. Harmening), Director of Operations and Recreation (Ms. Walsh), City Attorney (Mr. Mattick), Deputy City Manager/Human Resources Director (Ms. Deno), Director of Community Development (Ms. Barton), Housing Supervisor/Deputy Community Development Director (Ms. Schnitker), Assistant Housing Supervisor (Ms. Olson), Police Chief Harcey, Deputy Chief Kruelle, Racial Equity Manager (Mx. Sojourner), Senior Management Analyst (Ms. Solano) Guests: Shawn Sorrell, consultant 1. Notice of eviction Ms. Schnitker presented the report. Councilmember Mavity stated the council is close to finalizing this. She thanked staff and the community for their work and involvement. She stated the staff recommendation has come forward as a 7-day notice and noted this is important, essential, fair, and still gives landlords rights to use eviction as needed. She added it hits the right balance on this issue. She asked if the information from the city attorney will be put on the website and also if the city will proceed with an ordinance for 7-day notice. Mr. Mattick stated the information will be privileged. He added the council can proceed with an ordinance. Councilmember Mavity stated moving forward on this seems to agree with the city’s values and to ensure our renters have adequate protections for evictions on their records. She stated it is time to move forward on this issue. Councilmember Kraft asked if this is the first ordinance like this in the state. Ms. Schnitker stated yes. Councilmember Kraft asked if Minneapolis was looking to do this and what their outcome was. He added this makes sense to him. Ms. Schnitker stated Minneapolis did implement several housing policies, but did not implement a notice of eviction. Councilmember Kraft asked Mr. Mattick about moving forward with the ordinance. Mr. Mattick stated there is a path forward with this ordinance and the council can discuss further. He stated usually there are not oppositions to rental licensing, but there is no specific statute or case law on an ordinance such as this, adding it can be challengeable. DocuSign Envelope ID: D095ADA2-87EF-42EF-A44B-A6030224EB2C Study session minutes -2- Sept. 29, 2020 Councilmember Mohamed stated this seems like an extra layer of protection for tenants, and it makes sense. She stated she was surprised the city did not already have this, and added she supports this. Councilmember Brausen asked if a court challenge comes, will the Minnesota League of Cities pay the court costs. Mr. Mattick stated there would be some coverage, but there are fees the city would also pay, as it does depend on how the city might be sued. Councilmember Brausen stated he is not concerned about the city being sued, and he will support it as a measure to protect tenants. Councilmember Rog stated she is also supportive. She asked about unintended consequences the council might not be seeing. She stated it seems most landlords do provide this to tenants. Ms. Schnitker stated staff did hear from owners and landlords that they would send a notice to tenants right away to cover the 7 days, so they could file an eviction at the end of the 7 days. Ms. Schnitker added this would formalize the process in some cases and added this process typically is governed by the lease. Councilmember Rog asked if there is a way to monitor the ordinance to ensure it is working. Mr. Mattick stated if passed and a landlord does not follow the ordinance, but follows state law, the city could look at the city licensing if needed. Mayor Spano asked if this creates additional work for city staff. Ms. Schnitker stated there will be work on the front end to educate managers, owners, and landlords, but there are newsletters and meetings in place for this. She added the rental community works with STEP also, as the city does not have emergency funds itself, and so staff would potentially be making more referrals. Ms. Barton added if tenants contact staff about notices, staff will make referrals, and contact landlords as well. Ms. Schnitker stated when the city has a role, there is higher expectation on the part of tenants that the city does something, so there may be an uptick in this work. Mayor Spano asked if there were any implications with race issues on this. Ms. Schnitker stated there is a significant number of people of color that are renters in the city and there is a disparity in the percentage of persons of color that rent, so this does add some added protection for the rental community. She added most landlords are doing this already. Mayor Spano stated 44% of those living in St. Louis Park are renters and part of the BIPOC community and this has implications. He asked staff to consider this when updating reports to council. Councilmember Harris asked what problem council is trying to solve, when most landlords already provide a process to help tenants pay rent. She asked how many in the community deal with an eviction problem. She stated she supports tenant protection but wanted to hear more about this. Ms. Schnitker stated staff has heard from tenant protection groups that this is a problem, and from what staff knows, for the most part, the city has good landlords. She stated DocuSign Envelope ID: D095ADA2-87EF-42EF-A44B-A6030224EB2C Study session minutes -3- Sept. 29, 2020 landlords want to keep buildings rented and to collect rents, so it’s in their best interest to work with tenants. She added this is not an issue that has come to the city from tenants themselves, but from the housing rental advocate groups. Councilmember Harris stated unintended consequences might be increased fees or higher security deposits. She stated this feels like an issue. She is open to this but is not convinced it is solving a wide problem. Councilmember Mavity stated she is glad Ms. Schnitker stated this is done across the country and that Minnesota is in the minority of states that does not have a policy like this and this might be a good place to begin this conversation with local and state leaders. She pointed to the smoking ban and organics collection as areas where St. Louis Park has led in the past. She stated most landlords do the right thing and work with their tenants. She added this is for tenants without protections and this is a simple, easy way to help rebalance and cure issues before eviction happens and so that eviction is not on a renter’s record. Councilmember Rog stated she looked at the Hennepin County evictions in St Louis Park zip codes. There were 166 filings and 72 evictions in 2019. She stated she does agree strongly there is value in formalizing city processes in this way, even if it only helps a few. She added it is very important that when creating a new ordinance, we do everything we can to ensure there are real remedies for folks, and adequately supporting rental housing through STEP and other organizations. She stated two of the plaintiffs on the Hennepin County website show large property owners in St. Louis Park, adding it might behoove the city to work with these owners on eviction issues. Councilmember Kraft asked why the council decided to do this and what was the rationale. He asked if it wasn’t a problem in St. Louis Park, why do it. Ms. Schnitker stated tenant groups said there were concerns that tenants did not understand the eviction process, so this was brought forward as an additional policy. Councilmember Kraft asked if staff could look more into what happened with Minneapolis on evictions before council votes on this. Councilmember Mohamed asked if the eviction ordinance is something the council may see some push back on. Ms. Schnitker stated there are concerns in the multi-family areas that they are being regulated more, adding there could be some push back from landlords and owners. 2. Policing discussion- continued Mr. Harmening stated staff will provide data to the council this evening. Mr. Sorrell, Chief Harcey and Deputy Kruelle will provide additional information and facilitate a conversation about the issues, concerns, and potential next steps related to city policing. Councilmember Kraft noted several key areas. He noted the use of force data indicates a possible racial bias – intended or unintended – within the St. Louis Park police force. If there is a bias, then how should it be addressed? He pointed out in 2018 and 2019 there was a 50% use of force incidents by police involved with people of color in St. Louis Park. He added 8% of the DocuSign Envelope ID: D095ADA2-87EF-42EF-A44B-A6030224EB2C Study session minutes -4- Sept. 29, 2020 city’s residents are people of color. Chief Harcey stated he can break down the incidents by race further, and noted it shows some trends. Councilmember Kraft asked about this and noted it’s a flag and asked why that is, adding he would like data on this. Chief Harcey stated this reflects systematic racism, the issue is more than a policing issue and is related to affordable housing, food stability, and educational opportunities. Chief Harcey noted the city’s police are very transparent on reporting. The police department tracks all use of force anything beyond standard handcuffing. He pointed out other agencies do not report all levels of use of force, and some do not report data at all. He noted St. Louis Park police have been very transparent and the data is also on the city’s website as of today, adding the only others that he is aware of that do report this data on their website are Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Richfield. Mr. Harmening added each use of force issue would need to be looked at deeper and it would be helpful to understand the context of what was happening at that time. Chief Harcey agreed, noting the incident data has been broken down within racial groups and could be made available to council. Councilmember Kraft stated he appreciates this transparency, adding he is looking for further analysis and data breakdown within racial groups. Mx. Sojourner pointed out the police do not only serve our residents, but also folks who come here, work here, play here, and St. Louis Park does bump up to other cities as well. Councilmember Brausen stated he agrees with Councilmember Kraft and appreciates the data around this. He noted the injury incidents were low, but of the 120 incidents, over half involved were black. He added he wants to see context around this to understand this better. Councilmember Mavity added the questions on data and transparency are helpful and as policy makers the trend lines are clear in terms of the racial disparities. Councilmember Rog appreciated the data shared. She stated she shares the same thoughts as other councilmembers. She noted 21st century policing is called community policing, and explained what critics and proponents believe about it. She asked why the community policing model was implemented in St. Louis Park. Chief Harcey stated it was implemented over 20 years ago and was done to build trust and partnerships and legitimacy within the community to solve problems. Some of the issues were at the Meadowbrook complex, which was one of the biggest reasons for moving to community policing. Councilmember Rog asked if community policing has reduced crime and restored trust in St. Louis Park, do we know, and how do we know. Chief Harcey stated he believes it has built trust and legitimacy in the community. Councilmember Rog asked if these problems still exist and are there unintended consequences that warrant council surveillance and looking at police problems that are actually more social problems. DocuSign Envelope ID: D095ADA2-87EF-42EF-A44B-A6030224EB2C Study session minutes -5- Sept. 29, 2020 Councilmember Mohamed stated this data was good to have. She was surprised to see how many black people were stopped, adding this seemed like a red flag, but noted the comments from Mx. Sojourner about how many folks travel in and out of St. Louis Park helped her to understand this better. She asked what is next and stated she is looking forward to future conversations about this data. Councilmember Harris noted the de-escalation and mental health data as it relates to use of force and asked how staff is trained in escalation or de-escalation. Deputy Chief Kruelle stated the training mandates are being reviewed and updated now. He added crisis intervention training is part of this, which has been done for years. Additionally, this is tracked, and outcomes broken out to see how often crisis training is used in de-escalation. Councilmember Harris stated given the changing needs with policing, does staff feel they have the resources needed to focus on de-escalation, mental health, and reduction of force. Chief Harcey stated the force has the correct number of officers currently, and funding is available right now as well. He added with the police reform act, the force is still evaluating actions needed which may require additional training funds. Mayor Spano asked if the police have considered something less formal to help facilitate trust building. Chief Harcey agreed that events like National Night Out and working with neighborhood groups are great opportunities to do this. He added listening sessions with the community are great opportunities as well. Deputy Chief Kruelle stated sometimes things that don’t show up in community policing are the best work of the police and are important aspects of what the city and police do. He noted this includes work with the school resource officers who help to identify students that need help or are struggling. Mayor Spano noted a conversation he recently had with an older gentleman and his son about beat cops and how they interacted with residents years ago. He added community policing seems to be the 21st century attempt of doing this and building long-term relationships with the community. He stated opportunities for this work should be focused on. Councilmember Mavity added community policing is what we should be doing, and she agrees with this. However, she added it is difficult to have this conversation as it seems a critique of the police force. She noted the conversation does need to happen though, due to systemic racism. She asked if the city’s community policing can be improved with substantial changes. Chief Harcey stated systemic racism goes back a long time, and the police force has been working on this for a long time. He noted the city’s work on racial equity and added it’s not only a policing issue, but it’s a community issue. Chief Harcey gave an update on the use of force policy workgroup. He noted the recent legislation stated all Minnesota police forces must update their use of force policies to meet the state requirements by December 15, 2020. He stated the police department has met with the HRC, PAC and the MAC to provide information on our use of force policies and the committees helped develop a subgroup. The workgroups first meeting was September 22 in which the group examined the current policy and the model policy and provided input on updating the DocuSign Envelope ID: D095ADA2-87EF-42EF-A44B-A6030224EB2C Study session minutes -6- Sept. 29, 2020 city’s policy. He stated the next meeting of the workgroup is Oct. 27 and the hope is to continue moving forward on these policy updates. Mr. Sorrell discussed systems thinking with the council. He asked the council for information they would like to take a deeper dive into that align with the city’s strategic priorities. Items shared by the council included: • Examine purpose behind having police officers with guns in certain situations • Design a system where there are more civilian workers in the community • Examine purpose of school officers • Include ourselves (council and residents) in model of service delivery • Include origins of data – account for race bias for those asking for service from police • Evaluate why more African Americans are involved with use of force-disparities • Construct training for police relating to racial impact of policies • Convey statistics of resident and non-resident in use of force calls and de-escalation • Evaluate neighborhood patrol system – how to know we are successful • Uncover why apparent racial disparities in use of force • Determine ideal mental health outcomes and evaluate how best to achieve them • Reframe conversation to be about community safety more broadly, including but not limited to police • Remain open to possibility that 21st century policing might not be best way to achieve our goals • Shift conversation to making changes as chief noted in community safety that is outside of police department • While we need to continue to gather data, we should not get lost in data, see trends in St. Louis Park, region and across country and need to make changes now • Evaluate effectiveness of DARE program • Determine how to measure achievement of PDs objectives • Ensure implementation of 8 Can’t Wait • Evaluate mental health social worker in lieu of public safety The council discussed the above concepts in detail and worked to develop a draft action plan regarding policy considerations that align with the city’s strategic priorities. Upon discussion these concepts were named, narrowed down, and grouped into the following table. DocuSign Envelope ID: D095ADA2-87EF-42EF-A44B-A6030224EB2C Study session minutes -7- Sept. 29, 2020 It was the consensus of the council to prioritize columns 1, 2 and 4 of the policy considerations. Mr. Harmening stated staff will pull the information together and distribute to council for further discussion in the near future. 3. Future study session agenda planning and prioritization Mayor Spano stated the budget, capital planning discussion and Ward 2 councilmember appointment are the topics for the next study session. Ms. Solano stated so far, 4 applications have been received for the councilmember seat. Councilmember Brausen stated he is supportive of the Platia Place TIF district as noted in the written report. DocuSign Envelope ID: D095ADA2-87EF-42EF-A44B-A6030224EB2C Study session minutes -8- Sept. 29, 2020 Councilmember Kraft commented on the financial report and noted he wants different data included, specifically in the written commentary. He asked for more information at a glance relative to revenue and expenses and also where we are vs. where we thought we would be, especially in light of the upcoming budget discussion. Mr. Harmening stated staff is working on an updated approach for the financial report, as it is presented to council. Councilmember Rog referenced the SWLRT pedestrian improvements and commended staff on the excellent job they have done on community engagement, especially during COVID. She added she is excited about these pedestrian and bikeway improvements, and that the inclusion of a multi-use trail here, clearly indicates staff was listening to community input. Communications/meeting check-in (verbal) Councilmember Kraft asked about doing a retreat sooner vs. later, especially with the appointment of the Ward 2 councilmember seat. Mayor Spano agreed but was not sure it could happen in November or December. Mr. Harmening stated he will be sending a communication on staff interaction with city council related to the city’s governance model and the charter. The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. Written Reports provided and documented for recording purposes only: 4 August 2020 monthly financial report 5. Palatia Place project update 6 Beltline Blvd SWLRT Pedestrian Improvements (4022-2000) ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Melissa Kennedy, city clerk Jake Spano, mayor DocuSign Envelope ID: D095ADA2-87EF-42EF-A44B-A6030224EB2C