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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-01-17 City Council Work Session MinutesMINUTES OF THE EDINA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION COMMUNITY ROOM, CITY HALL TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2023 5:30 P.M. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Hovland called the meeting to order at 5:3 I pm. ROLL CALL Answering roll call were Members: Agnew, Jackson, Risser, and Mayor Hovland Absent: Member Pierce Staff in attendance: Scott Neal, City Manager; Gillian Straub, City Management Fellow; Chad Millner, Engineering Director; Cary Teague, Community Development Director; Stephanie Hawkinson, Affordable Housing Development Manager; Perry Vetter, Parks & Recreation Director; Josh Furbish, General Manager- Liquor Operations; Police Chief Todd Milburn; Jesse Meyer-Ruud, I.T. Support Supervisor; and Sharon Allison, City Clerk. Others in attendance: Senator Ron Latz; Gary Carlson and Alex Hassel, League of MN Cities (LMC); Patricia Nauman, Metro Cities, and Katy Sen, Messerli Kramer. 2023 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES AND POSITIONS Manager Neal introduced Senator Ron Latz. Senator Latz described the senate make up and said bipartisan consensus was important to him. Latz said how they would be working on passing a 2-year budget to take effect in July. He spoke about the surplus and asked that everyone tempered their expectation because it is not much considering inflation, world events that impacts the economy and other uncertainties that impacts the budget. Latz said they are committed to passing a budget and avoiding a special session. He said they plan to work on policies or issues such as K- 12 funding, Affordable Housing, Restoring the Vote, Public Safety Initiatives, Family Medical Leave, and others. Neal spoke about issues that were priorities for Edina such as LOST, bonding bills for South Metro Training facility and the Highway 62 pedestrian bridge, and additional funding for Fire Station 2. Latz noted that projects that are regional in scope were more likely to be funded. Other priorities were environmental bills to reduce greenhouse gasses, affordable housing, land trust homes and challenges keeping them; public safety initiatives related to recruitment, retention, and preventing violent crime. Neal spoke about adult use cannabis and how licensing regulation at the local level gives cities controls, but the current bill has licensing regulation at the state level. Alex Hassel, LMC, reiterated the importance of local controls like alcohol and tobacco licensing and how local law enforcement was completely left out of the bill. She said LMC would be seeking changes to the bill. Latz stated he supports a well-regulated system like alcohol licensing. He expects the bill to pass this year and likely with bipartisan support. Patricia Nauman, Metro Cities, talked about their priorities some of which were housing, preserving abilities for cities to be flexible, bonding bills, street racing bill, multi-jurisdictional policies, others mentioned previously, and more. Gary Carlson, LMC, said priorities included highway funding because people were not driving as much or is driving electric vehicles, leading to a decrease in gas tax contribution. He spoke about police and fire duty disability and how they are seeing an increase of officers across the state that were not working because of PTSD and they have a proposal to get them into treatment so they can get back to work. He said the Respectfully submitted, ------.._./ haron Allison, City Clerk ADJOURNMENT Mayor Hovland adjourned the meeting at 6:35 pm. Minutes approved by the Edina City Council, February 7, 20 es B. Hovland, Mayor Edina City Council Work Session Meeting, January I 7, 2023 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding was a priority. Hassel said paid family leave was being seriously considered and they are working on an exemption for cities that already offers robust paid leave packages.