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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025.05.12 CCM STUDY5/12/25 -1- MINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER IN THE COUNTY OF HENNEPIN AND THE STATE OF MINNESOTA STUDY SESSION MAY 12, 2025 CITY HALL – COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER The Brooklyn Center City Council met in Study Session called to order by Mayor April Graves at 6:04 p.m. ROLL CALL Mayor April Graves and Councilmembers Kris Lawrence-Anderson, Dan Jerzak, Teneshia Kragness, and Laurie Ann Moore. Also present were City Manager Reggie Edwards, Fire Chief Todd Berg, Interim City Clerk Shannon Pettit, and City Attorney Siobhan Tolar. CITY COUNCIL MISCELLANEOUS DISCUSSION ITEMS A RESOLUTION URGING THE MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO FORMALLY REINSTATE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CONSIDERATIONS IN THE HIGHWAY 252/I-94 PROJECT City Manager Reggie Edwards explained that the item should have been on the Consent Agenda for the Regular Session. Councilmember Jerzak stated the Resolution was well-written. There was a lot of concern expressed by the Hwy 252 Task Force. Mayor Graves added she plans to share the document with other mayors with the hope that others will pass a similar measure. Councilmember Jerzak stated that the primary concerns have always been safety concerns and environmental safety. Mayor Graves thanked Staff for their work on the item. It was the consensus of the Council to move the item to the Consent Agenda. Dr. Edwards requested that the Fire Department presentation from the Regular Session be moved to the Study Session to make the best use of time. Councilmember Moore pointed out that the weekly email indicated there weren’t any Study Session items to address. However, the Council has prioritized a list of topics to discuss. Items 5/12/25 -2- such as parliamentary procedures and water meter updates should be placed on the Study Session agenda in the future. Councilmember Jerzak asked for an updated schedule of future Study Session items. Dr. Edwards stated Staff has addressed all of the topics they committed to handle in the first quarter, so they are ahead of schedule. He confirmed an updated topic schedule would be provided to the Council. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson noted she would like to discuss the Council’s priorities before budget meetings begin. They created priorities during the previous cycle with the dot sticker exercise. Councilmember Kragness stated she would typically provide her budget priorities in her one-on- one meetings with Dr. Edwards. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson explained they need to decide priorities as a body. Dr. Edwards stated that there is a discussion scheduled to address budget priorities. The first meeting of the budget cycle will include a review of the audit and a discussion of Council priorities. As it stands, the budget is for June 30, 2025. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated the priorities should be discussed in May because the Departments will already be working on their budgets. Staff must know what Council is looking for before putting time into their budgets. Dr. Edwards confirmed he would look for a time for an earlier Work Session to address budget priorities. He explained that Departments begin to make their budgets based on what they believe their Departments need and could benefit from. The priorities are used to pare down Departmental budgets from there. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated she would still like a meeting sooner than June 30, 2025. Mayor Graves stated she would not be in favor of an additional May meeting because she is at capacity for her schedule. It could be a meeting in early June. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson pointed out the item could be discussed during an already- scheduled Work Session in May. If the Councilmembers are prepared for the meeting, it should be effective. Councilmember Moore added Council has clearly shown an interest in returning to budget basics. A nine percent increase is not acceptable or reasonable. She suggested the June 9, 2025, Work Session include a discussion of budget priorities. The Council has previously discussed the possibility of cutting Liquor Stores, but even more people are impacted by the budget. Therefore, it requires proper time to review. 5/12/25 -3- Councilmember Jerzak noted there are also fluidity concerns to reflect on, considering the Federal cuts that are underway. The City’s residents are in a difficult time. He offered to participate in a meeting even without a quorum. It would be helpful for the Directors to know the general desires of the Council in advance. The process of presenting a 16 percent wish list only to be cut down to seven percent is confusing to the public. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson pointed out that Hennepin County is looking at a huge tax increase, which will also impact Brooklyn Center residents. Mayor Graves stated it was the consensus of the Council to add a Work Session item to the first June meeting to discuss budgetary priorities. There is no need to do the dot exercise. Dr. Edwards asked if the discussion would replace the priority-setting portion of the first joint meeting with the Financial Commission. Mayor Graves stated the Work Session item will be in addition to the already scheduled meetings. Councilmember Jerzak asked if there are minutes to approve during the Regular Session. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated there aren’t any minutes. Interim City Clerk Shannon Pettit stated the last meeting was only one week ago, so there wasn’t enough turnaround time to prepare the minutes. There will be two weeks’ worth of minutes at the next Council meeting. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson asked for the draft minutes to be sent to Council in advance of the packet. She needs time to thoroughly review the minutes, and they should be ready before the rest of the packet. Mayor Graves stated there is a national public health organization called NACCHO that has created a handout regarding intersectionality and the Wheel of Privilege. She provided a copy of the document to Council and Staff. The document acknowledges how people may have felt marginalized or privileged in different identities. It addresses housing, education, age, wealth, body size, employment, citizenship, marriage, political affiliation, transportation access, mental health, religion, neurodiversity, skin color, language, gender, and more. She explained it is her attempt to promote additional learning because there won’t be a Council retreat. FIRE DEPARTMENT ANNUAL UPDATE Dr. Edwards introduced the item and invited Fire Chief Todd Berg to continue the Staff presentation. Fire Chief Todd Berg thanked Staff, Council, partners, and the community for their support of the Fire Department. In 2025, the Department looks forward to continued recruitment. They hope to expand the duty crew model from 12 to 24 hours over the next few years to give Brooklyn Center a faster and more standard response time. Chief Berg explained that 2027 goals include applying for and receiving a Federal SAFER grant to help with funding to initiate a 24-hour duty crew, continuing to work with other emergency 5/12/25 -4- responder groups to deliver an equitable and professional response to all service calls, continuing to support Staff’s emotional and physical wellbeing, and continuing to recruit paid-on-call firefighters. Chief Berg noted the Fire Department is staffed by five full-time employees and 25 paid-on-call firefighters. It takes 18 months to fully train a new firefighter. Brooklyn Center has a 12-hour duty crew from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily. Chief Berg showed a slide with an organizational chart. Chief Berg pointed out that in 2024, the Fire Department responded to 2,300 calls, which is 6.3 calls per day. 1,282 of the 2024 were medical-related responses, while 1,018 were fire-related responses. There were 11 structure fires and zero related fire deaths. Brooklyn Center received mutual aid seven times and provided mutual aid 13 times. The paid-on-call firefighters provided 16,596 hours of service, 2,353 hours of which were for training. Chief Berg added that the Fire Department has two full-time Fire Inspectors. In 2024, they conducted 319 inspections and 526 re-inspections. Representatives of the Fire Department attended 69 events, providing public education to the community, and have trained 5,432 people in hands-only CPR since 2016. Lastly, 1,245 students took part in Fire Prevention Week and learned about fire safety. Chief Berg noted that two rides to school for Brooklyn Center youth were raffled off as part of the 75th Anniversary Open House. They provided rides to Northport Elementary and Brooklyn Center Elementary. The kids were very excited. Other events were planned throughout the year to celebrate the Fire Department’s anniversary. Chief Berg stated that anticipated challenges and goals for the next few years include increasing staffing levels, fire truck replacement planning, firefighter safety, and community engagement. Chief Berg showed a pie chart with incident calls by type. The Brooklyn Center rates are comparable to Minnesota and the United States. However, Brooklyn Center has a higher proportion of false calls and service calls. An example of a service call is getting smoke out of a residence. Chief Berg showed a graph representing calls by hour of the day. There are significantly more calls received during the current duty crew hours. The calls are rather consistent on each day of the week. He also showed a graph of call types broken down by days of the week. Chief Berg added that the book is intended to be a quick reference guide for various emergencies. It is laminated and should remain on the desk. He listed the different types of emergencies the book addresses. The book also includes a list of addresses for each City building. 5/12/25 -5- Councilmember Kragness noted that the lowest percentage of calls the firefighters respond to are actual fire calls, which is important to note. Chief Berg agreed that it is important and speaks to the importance of prevention efforts. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson expressed her appreciation for educating local students and for the presentation. Councilmember Jerzak asked if any of the medical calls were mental health-related. He asked if the City’s embedded social worker has been involved. Chief Berg stated they don’t often respond to mental health calls. The Fire Department has asked the embedded social worker to assist with certain issues they have seen in the community, but they don’t directly handle many mental health calls. Councilmember Jerzak pointed out that a number of medical calls are lift-related. It would be nice to see the medical calls broken down by emergency type. Councilmember Moore asked what the 10.8 percent good intent calls. Chief Berg stated that good intent calls are situations where a third party sees smoke and makes a report. It could be a campfire or barbecue. Many of the calls are canceled en route. Councilmember Moore asked if the reporting numbers were in line with the State requirements. Chief Berg confirmed that it was correct. Councilmember Moore thanked Chief Berg and the Fire Department for their work. CITY MANAGER MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS ADJOURNMENT Mayor Graves moved, and Councilmember Kragness seconded to close the Study Session at 6:48 p.m. Motion passed unanimously.