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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025.10.27 EDAM10/27/25 -1- DRAFT MINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER IN THE COUNTY OF HENNEPIN AND THE STATE OF MINNESOTA WORK SESSION OCTOBER 27, 2025 CITY HALL – COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER The Brooklyn Center City Council/Economic Development Authority (EDA) met in Work Session called to order by Mayor/President April Graves at 8:41 p.m. ROLL CALL Mayor/President April Graves and Councilmembers/Commissioners Kris Lawrence-Anderson, Dan Jerzak, Teneshia Kragness, and Laurie Ann Moore. Also present were City Manager Reggie Edwards, Police Chief Garett Flesland, City Attorney Siobhan Tolar, and City Clerk Shannon Pettit. ACTIVE DISCUSSION ITEMS HOSPITALITY ACCOMMODATION ORDINANCE UPDATE DISCUSSION Dr. Edwards explained that this is a continuation of a conversation related to the hotel industry and the changing landscape regarding the Hospitality Accommodation ordinance. Dr. Edwards introduced City Clerk Shannon Pettit and Deputy City Clerk Ellgren to present this item. Ms. Pettit stated that the presentation's purpose is to continue the conversation on reforming the language in the Hospitality Accommodations ordinance and to review completed work to understand what is and is not working. She stated that she is seeking general direction from the Council/EDA on the best approach regarding these issues. Ms. Pettit referenced the earlier presentation by Ms. McIntosh, in which she mentioned the number of Police calls regarding hotels, noting that in 2024, the Brooklyn Center Police Department received over 2,000 calls for service to hotels. Past inspections have indicated health, safety, and fire safety concerns, as well as long- term lodgers. Ms. Pettit displayed a slide with crime statistics from the Police Department that compared the number of service calls received by apartments and hotels. Despite there being a similar number of hotel rooms to apartments in Brooklyn Center, the number of calls is over double to hotels. She noted that the number of calls received by hotels between October 2023 and October 2025 was 4,877 calls, which accounts for 6.2 percent of the total calls to the Brooklyn Center Police Department. The Police Department also provided information about the top 10 types of calls for service at hotels, with the number one being 410 calls regarding an unwanted person at the hotel. 10/27/25 -2- DRAFT She stated that there have been 66 drug overdose calls at the hotels in the last two years, with a total of 270 overdose calls across the City for the same time period, which means that 24 percent of overdose calls occurred on hotel property. She noted that when comparing the hotels to the areas of the City that receive a lot of overdose calls, there is a lot of overlap. Ms. Pettit said there is a significant overlap between hospitality regulation and enforcement within the City, state, and county. Ms. Pettit stated that the City's goals for the hotel ordinance are to increase public safety and streamline the process for the City and the hotels. Some of the proposed updates to the ordinance that have been discussed include the calls for service and the points system. She stated that it is clear the points system is not working, and after reviewing multiple ordinances from neighboring communities, the points system should be replaced with a nuisance call system. She stated that adding definitions to reflect nuisance calls would be more effective. Ms. Pettit noted that the licensing levels could be updated with language to align with what is reasonable and enforceable for City Staff, as well as cost-effective for properties and business owners. Ms. Pettit stated that there are a lot of inspections crossover happening between county and state levels, and she would like to remove the City’s required annual inspection requirement while still allowing City Staff the ability to inspect on an as-needed basis. This would reduce strain on City Staff as well as eliminate duplicate efforts. This would not include Fire inspections. Ms. Pettit said she would also like to refine the language to provide City Staff with clearer guidelines on how to enforce ordinance violations. She noted that there have been past issues with hotels, and the ordinance is not clear on how to move forward when issues do arise. Ms. Pettit stated that Dr. Edwards would step in to finish the presentation. Dr. Edwards explained that there are several potential approaches the Council/EDA could take on this ordinance. He noted that the Council/EDA would have to come back and approve any changes made, but wanted the Council/EDA to consider the different options. The first option is to maintain the status quo, which would mean the Council/EDA would opt to maintain the current approach. Dr. Edwards stated that the current approach lacks the ability to coordinate and address strategic concerns, such as crime-related issues, while still being costly due to the intensive Staff time required. The second approach would be a more focused approach, which would limit duplicate inspection efforts, focus on nuisance calls related to public safety with new definitions, and refine language in the ordinance to address life and safety issues. The third approach would be more aggressive, expanding boundaries for calls of service, increasing fees, and reducing points allowed for levels. There would be more inspection requirements for fire, police, and Community Development. There would be increased City Staff hours to allocate to enforcement. There would also be increased property safety requirements for businesses. This approach could address some issues related to crime, but it may also put some hotels out of business and is not necessarily the most effective solution. Dr. Edwards said these are all points of discussion that the Council/EDA could think about to address some issues with the current ordinance and thanked Councilmember/Commissioner Jerzak for giving him some feedback and insight from years of experience with code enforcement. Dr. 10/27/25 -3- DRAFT Edwards stated that the Council/EDA is aware that the City is facing challenges with its hotels, related to crime and other issues. He said that, thinking about moving forward with the ordinance, the Council/EDA needs to consider how it could envision changing its approach to one of the three approaches he outlined above, and asked for the Council/EDA’s general thoughts. Mayor/President Graves thanked Dr. Edwards and Ms. Pettit for their presentation. She asked about taking the focused approach, if the City would still receive the results of the county and state inspections, and be able to track those inspections. Ms. Ellgren said part of the effort in taking that approach would be to build those relationships with the county and require results from inspections from the hotel. If the hotel cannot provide documentation of the inspection within a year, the City will reach out to the county to determine the status. She stated that if there have been multiple inspections for bed bugs and other safety- related issues, then those need to be disclosed as well, and it is on City Staff to build relationships with the county to ensure the City is getting that information while having an ordinance in place requiring that as an attention for the hotels. She noted that, currently, the ordinance also does not require a Minnesota state hotel license to be on file, and it should. Mayor/President Graves said she does not want to relinquish agency and accountability measures without ensuring that there is a more efficient way of doing so. She noted that, based on what she has heard, the focused approach seems most sensible to her. She asked if changing the calls to nuisance calls would also change the focus of the response and utilize different resources. Ms. Pettit said it is very clear what constitutes a nuisance call, and if the Police Department knows the type of call, it allows them to utilize other resources. Councilmember/Commissioner Moore asked if both the Police and Fire Chiefs weighed in on this, and if they were in support of the focused approach or some combination between that and the aggressive approach. She asked if the City planned to use this as another revenue stream, like the code enforcement. Police Chief Garett Flesland stated anecdotally that the current system is very cumbersome and is not getting the City where it should be. He stated that there is a pretty comprehensive work group working on this, with representatives from both the Fire and Police Departments. He noted that the focused approach is in alignment with a particular community located east of Brooklyn Center. He said that he also wanted to address Mayor/President Graves' previous question and note that the Police or Fire Department would not necessarily respond differently to a call. Still, they do have new resources that they did not have a couple of years ago. He stated that when it comes to holding a business accountable for the type of business it operates, he has a preference for the focused approach, as it is more common sense. He added that this approach places a lower burden on Staff to track and validate every call for service and utilizes some existing statutory language for nuisance property, spelling out the conduct. This approach would allow the Police to determine if that conduct is something they want to endorse within the community and can take action if necessary, much quicker than they have in the past. He noted that this approach could also prevent ongoing issues at hotels down the road. 10/27/25 -4- DRAFT Mayor/President Graves said her previous question was related to how to hold the hotel accountable, and how the Police would respond to a nuisance call, since a nuisance call can be for a broad range of things. She stated that her other concern was whether preventative aspects would be introduced to also reduce the number of calls. Chief Flesland said the new ordinance would allow the Police to pivot a lot faster than they have in the past, and prevent bigger problems down the road. Councilmember/Commissioner Lawrence-Anderson asked what the Chiefs' preference was regarding the different approaches. Chief Flesland said his recommendation is a focused approach, leveraging primarily a particular ordinance that the City does not have to adopt word-for-word, but rather adopt a substantial portion of it. This would provide flexibility, as articulated in the document, for the Police to respond effectively based on what is observed at the property. He noted that it would not involve overly policing the hotels or waiting a year to crunch the numbers, but rather addressing specific issues at specific properties when they arise. Mayor/President Graves asked Fire Chief Todd Berg to weigh in. Chief Berg said he agreed with Chief Flesland, as the focused approach would align well with the new Chapter 5 Ordinance as well. He stated that the reason the fire inspections would be left in the ordinance and the rest would not is that the state only inspects these buildings once every three years, and the City needs to conduct an annual general inspection. He added that the points system in the old ordinance does not apply to the Fire Department and is primarily for law enforcement. Mayor/President Graves said having a fire inspection annually versus every three years could also be beneficial as a last line of defense for the City if the ordinance that is crafted is not being followed, an inspection by the Fire Department could raise a red flag at the property to further investigate if other issues were to arise. Dr. Edwards highlighted that participants of the work group include Staff from Fire, Police, Community Development, Community Prevention and Health and Safety, so these ordinance changes are based on all Staff recommendations. He added that as this process moves forward, Staff will share data with the county to help make recommendations on how to draft the ordinance. Mayor/President Graves noted that this is in the beginning stages, and Staff will bring back a draft with specifics for the Council/EDA to consider in the future. Ms. Ellgren stated that even with the new ordinance, if issues should arise, code enforcement could still do inspections, but it would not be a requirement of the hotels’ licensure. If the hotel was found in really bad condition, the City would still have some options to ensure code enforcement. Councilmember/Commissioner Jerzak said he really liked the focused approach, but wanted to note that they should be careful not to discourage hotel staff from calling in for domestic incidents, and to be aware of those types of situations. He noted that this is a fair and simple ask for a very complex set of circumstances of human behaviors, present economic factors, mental health issues, addiction, shelter issues, and various other factors that are out of their control. He said the figure of 66 overdoses on hotel property is very sad, and City responders are responding to it, but not doing anything to prevent it. He continued that those individuals may be better off in a controlled 10/27/25 -5- DRAFT environment rather than on the street, and that has to be taken into consideration as well. He said that there is no one-size-fits-all ordinance, and they do not have to reinvent the wheel; however, the most important part is to allow the ordinance to adjust the policy as needed. These changes would still allow intervention if necessary. He stated that he looks forward to receiving Staff input and continuing to receive reports on what is happening with the hotels to ensure that the Council/EDA stays updated. He said the most important part of this process is the designation of who is primarily in charge, and a single point of accountability has been established, with contributions and engagement from all the Departments in the work group. Mayor/President Graves added that is what the Council/EDA wants the Departments to be doing and working together. Mayor/President Graves said there is a consensus from the Council/EDA on the Staff recommendation. ADJOURNMENT Mayor/President Graves moved and Councilmember/Commissioner Moore seconded adjournment of the City Council/Economic Development Authority Work Session at 9:09 p.m. Motion passed unanimously.