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Home My WebLink AboutPSC 10.21.24 Agenda Packet COTTAGE GROVE PUBLIC SERVICES October 21, 2024 COMMISSION 12800 RAVINE PARKWAY SOUTH COTTAGE GROVE, MN 55016 COUNCIL CHAMBER - 7:00 PM A. Call to Order B. Pledge of Allegiance C. Roll Call D. Approval of the Agenda E. Approval of Minutes A Minutes 07.15.24 F. Open Forum G. Presentations A Preserve.Play.Prosper. Plan B Intermediate Water Treatment Plant H. Commission Comments I. Staff Reports and Materials J. Council Comments K. Adjournment 1 MINUTES COTTAGE GROVE PUBLIC SERVICES July 15, 2024 COMMISSION 12800 Ravine Parkway South Cottage Grove, MN 55016 COUNCIL CHAMBERS - 7:00 p.m. 1.CALL TO ORDER Chair Lisa Kons called the Public Services Commission meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2.PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Chair Kons asked everyone to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. 3.ROLL CALL Chair Kons was advised that Roll Call had been taken. 4.APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA Vice Chair Ron Kath made a motion to approve the agenda; Commissioner Tracy Jenson seconded. Motion carried: 7-0. 5.APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. APPROVE MINUTES FROM THE MAY 20, 2024 MEETING Motion by Commissioner Jenny Olson to approve the May 20, 2024 meeting minutes; second by Commissioner Jenson. Motion carried: 7-0. 6.OPEN FORUM Chair Kons opened the Open Forum. As no one wished to speak, Chair Kons closed the Open Forum. 7. PRESENTATIONS A. CONSTRUCTION UPDATES Public Works Director Ryan Burfeind stated every year in the summer, I like to give an update on a lot of our current construction projects and let you know how they’re going. I’ll also touch on some of our big ones that are upcoming and the progress that we’re making on those. I’ll speak about a lot of our road projects first, then I’ll move into our Water Treatment Plant projects towards the end. East Point Douglas & Jamaica Avenue: This is our big two-year project. I’ve got two screens here showing all the areas of work; obviously, the main Jamaica Avenue and East Point Douglas intersection we completed last year. You can see the roundabout in Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 2 of 14 pink, that was our first phase we started this year, and that went really well. Even with all the rain, they were able to get that done actually a little bit early and got that open before July 4. Then they moved into Phase 4, that’s the area behind Target, where due to the road conditions and how old it was it needed to be total reconstruction. The challenge with that was the corridor is narrow enough that there’s no way to legally have two lanes of traffic with the construction going on. The one-way traffic flow was better than it was when the roundabout was being worked on, but it was still a little confusing. They’re actually wrapping up the first phase of that one-way traffic, and towards the end of this month, they’ll be switching to the second phase and building the other half of East Point Douglas Road. At the same time they’re going to be working on a Mill and Overlay of East Point Douglas Road, in the blue; that section’s just not as old, the curb’s in a lot better shape overall. The Mill and Overlay will kind of be in front of Menards and down to the townhomes there, so that will wrap up sometime in September, and then the project will be complete. So, we’re all very excited for that. Vice Chair Kath asked Director Burfeind, I noticed they also took all of the lights down along there, are they replacing them with new ones? Director Burfeind replied yes, that’s a good question. They’re updating to kind of a new standard we have of an overhead, I call it kind of a Cobra-head style, a little more decorative style light that you see around the East Point Douglas and Jamaica intersection. It will actually match what’s on 80th Street, between Keats and Jamaica. South District Street & Utility Project: The area highlighted in blue is the actual project that’s happening this year. You can see other roads, labeled 100th Street and Ideal Avenue, those were done the previous two years; 105th Street is a new road you can see towards the bottom of the screen, that was also complete two years ago. With the South District Street & Utility Improvements, the main X, where 103rd, Hadley, and 100th all realign, that’s following the County’s Southwest Arterial Study. I maybe talked about that some in the past where 100th Street is a City street right now, but long term that’s going to be turned over to Washington County. They don’t have any County roads in the southern part of Cottage Grove, and they want to have a County Road that serves this area and meets all the County higher-volume standards as this area develops. That will also provide access down to Grey Cloud Island, which is in the future guided as a County Regional Park. During this big X area realignment, it’s tough with the road closures, but it’s really important from a traffic flow standpoint. All the right angles and stop signs are not conducive to a County Road, so it’s been kind of a challenge this summer. Right now, for example, Hadley is closed north of 100th Street. In the next couple of weeks, they have to make that tie in of the new 100th to the old 100th, so actually that will be closed with a detour down on 105th. So, there are a lot of detours, a lot of challenges, but we appreciate everyone kind of living through it this summer as we do the best we can. With some of these closures, it just lets the work be done so much faster. We looked at trying to do more bypass lanes, and you spend a lot of money on those and it can drag the project out almost longer than the full construction season. So, we felt some of these detours and closures were the better way to do that project. There’s also a lot of development happening down here: This is where the NorthPoint development is; there’s a new development, Graymont Village. Kind of right along that X where it says ‘Proposed 100th Street’, that’s where a new apartment, Norhart, was approved. So, a lot of new development that will use these new roadways. Restricted Crossing U-Turn (RCUT) Intersection Improvement: Another smaller one that’s a good safety improvement down at River Oaks, that I think I touched on briefly last year. This will start construction very soon. It’s a City-led project, mostly funded by MnDOT, though, through several grants that we were able to get from them. To orient yourself, on the north side is River Oaks, and the bottom right is Zywiec’s Garden Center. Right now, there’s a median that has the full access, and this is what some people call a J-turn; you see a lot of them on Highway 52. This is a lot more compact; sometimes on Highway 52, those U-turns are pretty far removed, ¼ mile or more, but these are fairly close to the current intersection. What it does is it prevents that full cross-through movement, but you still have the U-turns on either end, so people can make the motions they need to make to go north or south. It doesn’t necessarily increase the capacity, it doesn’t make gaps for folks on Highway 61, but it eliminates those right-angle movements and right-angle crashes, which are by far the most severe type of crashes that can happen at these high speeds. It removes those and yes, you’re pulling out into traffic, but you’re going with the traffic. If someone were to make an error in that judgment, it’s more of a rear-end crash if there is an accident, it’s much less severe pretty much across the board. It really can help in some ways improve flow getting out; if you leave River Oaks after a big event, everyone wants to wait to take a left, so it just backs up. With this, you can’t take a left, so people are really forced just to take that right and make the U-turn; you can actually see that traffic start to flow a little better as well, so, that’s a major improvement. Commissioner Nate Lotts asked that exit coming out of the golf course there, are you going to have curbing put in, just to separate the inbound and outbound, so it will kind of coax them to the right? Director Burfeind replied it’s actually going to be more striping, but right at the X on there, that’s where that median is being filled in; so, it will actually be a continuous grass median. I think that’s what they’re looking at is more of that type of situation. Commissioner Lotts stated sweet, this is a gamechanger for that intersection. Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 3 of 14 Director Burfeind stated yes, it’s really good. We’re happy that MnDOT was supportive, we were able to get the grant. Just due to things out of our control, it was going to be more expensive, and then MnDOT actually awarded an additional $300K; so, it’s about $1M in grant funding for this project. So, we’re very excited about that. 2024 Pavement Management: A smaller project but still always important is our 2024 Pavement Management. These are our neighborhood reconstructs that we like to do every year; this is in the Prestige Estates neighborhood, north side of 80th Street, between Jamaica and Keats. Total reconstruct, new curb, new pavement, moving along pretty well. The curb is complete and half the paving was done, and they were doing additional paving today. So, we’re looking to wrap that up probably sometime in early August. I should mention Jamaica Avenue is a Mill and Overlay that’s currently happening. Traffic has been flipped to the other side; if everything goes well with the weather, we’re hoping to also have that complete by the end of July, early August. That will be a nice improvement in the condition of that road, as rutting is very bad on that to the point where we had a hard time even plowing it in the winter, as a lot of snow got left behind in those ruts. So, we’re very happy to have that project done. County Road 19A and 100th Street Realignment: This is a major project we’re working on with the County, it’s about a $47M project; to date, we’ve received $14M in grant funds for it, and we have requests in for an additional $21M-$22M through the Federal government. There’s about $11M between the County and City CIPs. So, we’re really looking for that final $21M-$22M in grant funding to round out this project. We could start construction in 2026, there’s probably some that we want to do and money we’d like to expend that year, into 2027, and potentially wrapping up in 2028. So, it is a two-year plus project, it’s very large. This is that whole realignment of 100th Street to go directly from the Jamaica Avenue and 100th intersection right over to the interchange of Highway 61 and County Road 19, in that direction. So, everything in purple, if you’re wondering what that color is there, that’s 3M land; we’re working with them on that, and they could either develop it themselves or actually sell for development with the construction of these roadways. So, that’s the purple areas are that are highlighted. With this, we’re slightly realigning Miller Road and County Road 19. Also, on the top there, that road coming in is an extension of the West Point Douglas frontage road. So, that comes out of the Jamaica roundabout right now and it kind of dead ends by Public Works; so, that would actually continue down to 100th Street. Real quickly, I want to just show that we actually created an animation that helps visualize this; we were able to take the County’s design profile and actually create an animation that shows what the roadway’s going to look like. So, I’ll play that on the screen here. It kind of shows the project area, and then we kind of fly into the western extent of the project, so at the Jamaica Avenue intersection. You can see the old 100th Street alignment, and here’s the new alignment, looking east with the new bridge off in the distance. So, this is looking to support both new development and existing businesses in the area. The Jamaica Avenue intersection/interchange has a lot of challenges, opens up over 500 acres of new land in the immediate area for development with good access to the highway. This is part of the Mississippi River Trail Corridor, so we’ll have new, obviously separated trails along this new roadway. Here’s the new road section, as you go east. You can see where Miller Road ties in here that’ll continue to go down to 3M. But the biggest part of the project is this bridge over the railroad tracks, which also crosses a major gas line and the Met Council sewer that serves the whole East Metro. So, a big bridge, just the construction alone is $10M. That’s a huge safety improvement for this area to have that crossing be a new intersection with Innovation Road, and then we end at a roundabout at the interchange. So, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish, it’s a huge project, always going for new grants as it’s a big undertaking. Chair Kons said that animation was very nice. Director Burfeind stated yes, and what’s really cool is with the actual profile, the CAD profiles and Google with imagery, it’s like we didn’t have to fly a drone through anything. For what you get, it’s very simple to create, so it’s amazing what you can do with technology. It helps show a lot more of what we’re doing. As much as an engineer, I love the slow way, on the screen here that really gives life to the project. Commissioner Lotts stated I was just getting ready to pull up Google Maps to figure out where that was, so that was key. Director Burfeind stated we also did that because in dealing with the grants, we’re submitting for these grants with the Federal government, we actually submit that animation as well, so it can help them see what we’re trying to accomplish. 3M Settlement Projects: Director Burfeind stated shifting gears real quick, as I wrap up, I’ll talk about some of our water projects. There’s a lot going on in this picture here, but really all I want to highlight is we have a whole bunch of interim treatment plants that continue to provide the City with water that meets all of the health-based values, all of the new EPA values that came out this year. We have two additional ones, you can see some pictures on the side, those kind of metal buildings are the two additional ones that we’ve recently constructed. Those two red boxes, the one that’s kind of on the southern part of the screen that says LZWTP; that’s a Low Zone Water Treatment Plant, that’s a permanent treatment plant that’s under construction right now and we’ll complete next year. There’s another one up by the Central Fire Station that I’ll talk about; that’s our second permanent Water Treatment Plant. Also, down by the Low Zone Water Treatment Plant, which is right by the intersection of 110th Street and Ideal, we have a new office building for part of our Public Works staff being constructed next to it. Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 4 of 14 So, first, with those two interim Water Treatment Plants, they’re continuing to serve our City with fully-treated water, just on a much more cost-effective structure. The actual treatment on the inside matches exactly what we would do in a permanent facility, and we’re actually going to move these vessels into our permanent Water Treatment Plant so we’re not wasting them. It’s all funded by the State and through 3M, but we want to be very good with those dollars; it’s still public money so we need to be very cost conscious. These are Well 9 and Well 11, and these just actually became operational in May. If you’ve gone to the archery range behind the Central Fire Station, there’s that little road that snakes down, and Well 9 is right along that road. Well 11 is right across the parking lot from the Splash Pad, so if you see that metal building, that’s what that is. This is a new technology for Minnesota, ion exchange; so, it’s the first time ion exchange has been used for PFAS treatment in the State of Minnesota. We actually did a big pilot study three years ago, funded by the 3M Settlement, to prove this technology; this building is about half the cost as if we would have had to have done a GAC treatment plant like we had been doing in this temporary scale. We’re very excited to have that up and running, and it’s working very well for our City. The Low Zone Treatment Plant is the first of our permanent treatment plants. You can see some construction photos here from over the winter. There was obviously no snow over the winter, so we were able to keep building it right through that season, so that worked out well. The bottom image is just a rendering of what it’s going to look like when it’s complete; that will be operational in May 2025, so less than a year from now. Right next to it is that new office building, so this is for our Utility and Engineering Divisions of Public Works. This has been in the works, separately, for a while because we are completely out of space at our facility, and this was the most practical way to relocate some of the divisions because it will be right by that treatment plant, so it will work really well with the Utility Division. The Engineering Division just works a lot with them, so that was another easier division to move, actually outside of City Hall, and that freed up space at City Hall. On the bottom is a rendering, and on the top is a picture I took last week, so it’s kind of that same view and how it’s coming together. We’re very excited to get that building open and operational over the winter. In the future, we would move all of Public Works and Parks there; this was built to expand to accommodate the whole department over time. Lastly, that Intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant, this is our second of two permanent treatment plants that will serve our community. It’s going to go right behind the Central Fire Station, kind of north of those water towers. This is going to be a very similar facility to what is being built down by 110th Street, just larger, because it is about 2.5 times the capacity for treatment. This will serve everything kind of north and east of Highway 61. We’re doing our final design right now, we just got all the grant funding from the State to do that, and we look to start construction next spring. That’ll be a full two-year build, so it will be spring of 2027 when it would actually be completed. Here's just a rendering of what that one will look like. Obviously, it’s more in a residential area so we’re trying to make it so its aesthetically pleasing; with this facility, we’re really trying to mimic the Central Fire Station architecture. It’s a big building going into an area with homes, we’re very aware of that. So, we’re really trying to focus the design to minimize that impact, with semis not having to back up, so we’ll have drive through for everything. Any type of deliveries will be on far east side of the building, away from the homes. On a day-to-day basis, there’s maybe one or two Public Works pickups that come and go; the semis for changeouts of the treatment media, this will be an ion exchange treatment plant, like our new temporary ones, so that’s like once every six years. It’ll be a larger building, but it’s going to be very quiet and hopefully a good neighbor for those homes there. Director Burfeind stated that’s the last of my updates and asked if there were any questions, and none were asked. B. 2024 ANNUAL USE OF FORCE PRESENTATION Captain Brad Petersen stated thank you for giving me the time to talk about last year’s Annual Use of Force report. We’ve been doing this for a handful of years, and typically this happens in the winter or spring season; we postponed this presentation so that we could tackle the Police and Fire Departments’ Strategic Plans because those were more pressing issues. Captain Petersen stated I’m not going to paraphrase everything from the Chief’s Message, but I want to emphasize our Department’s profound commitment for community safety, progressive policies and tactics, innovative training, and state the fact that we are well ahead of the reform curve. We’ve been there for a number of years; typically, things that you’re seeing in the media and from politicians about changes and reforms to police policies and practices, we’ve done 5-to-10 years ago. That’s been a consistent theme in Cottage Grove for at least a decade now; things like crisis intervention training, deescalation, bars on certain tactics, we did that years and years ago, so, we’re well ahead of the reform curve on those things. As you know, things are changing very rapidly in law enforcement, and so we’re striving to be a very agile, adaptive, resilient agency and be very innovative and ever changing in the way we train and coach and train our officers. It’s all about being accountable to the community and emphasizing safety for all community members and our officers as well. Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 5 of 14 Mission Statement and Vision Statement As you know, these are brand new to our department with our new Strategic Plan. I just want to emphasize the fact that our Use of Force program in this report and doing things like what we’re doing tonight, having these forums with the community members, fits very well into our Strategic Plan. It’s very important for us to have these listening sessions and educate and listen to the public and adapt to what the public wants from us. We feel like we have a very good recipe for success when it comes to our tactics and training in our Use of Force program. What we’re doing here tonight is a very important piece of that puzzle. As I mentioned to the commission before, we’re looking at the commission to be our citizen advisory panel. We want to bring things to you, bring information to you, bring ideas to you, and you be that sounding board from the community back to us, to tell us whether this is a good idea or not. So, tonight, I’m bringing to you statistics and information about our Use of Force from last year. I’m really hopeful that you can give me some of your thoughts and guidance. Use of Force Report Procedures Just for those who don’t know and the listening audience, when there is a Use of Force incident, all officers are required to report that through a series of mechanisms. The sergeant will also respond to the scene and do an investigation. When that call is completed, the officers go through a reporting sequence where they report all the information that will then feed into our Use of Force Database. The sergeant does a QA on that, and then all that information, along with things like reports and squad video and the whole package then goes to a Use of Force Review Committee. Every single Use of Force that happens in Cottage Grove is reviewed by this committee on a quarterly basis. So, during that review, we’re doing things like deciding whether the Use of Force is reasonable, within policy, whether there is any equipment or training or policy issues, and we’re looking at every single Use of Force with a lens of was this preventable? Could we do this better? Would different pieces of equipment or a different tactic change the outcome and make it safer, reduce liability? Things like that. So, we’re really looking at every Use of Force under a microscope and trying to minimize the frequency that we use force. After that Use of Force Review Committee does their analysis, all that statistical information gets fed into a real time dashboard so we have access to literally any question you could ask about location, time, date, frequency, race, injuries; whatever you want to know, we can provide you real time information about that. Last Year’s Statistics I’ll just give it some context: As you know, our City’s population is growing rapidly. Along with that, our call volume is rising drastically. In the purple line, you can see our population, which is showing a slow, steady incline. In the light blue color, you can see how drastically our Calls for Service increased last year. Despite that, our crime rate is on a steady decline; so, to me, that says we’re doing something right. So, we had a little over 43,000 Calls for Service last year, and that’s everything from calls we get from Dispatch to our proactive checks of businesses, parks, vacation checks, that’s encompassing every single thing that we did last year. Of the 43,000+ Calls for Service, we only had 82 incidents that involved any amount of force at all. Just for your information, we require our officers to report very minimal Uses of Force, whereas other departments don’t require officers to report until higher thresholds. So, we’re capturing more of those incidents and more of that statistical data. Of those 82 incidents, there were 103 people involved. So, as you can imagine, sometimes we’re dealing with multiple people. We might do a felony stop on a vehicle and point our firearms at 4 people in that vehicle; so, that’s how we can get more people than incidents. On this graph, you can see our call volume steadily increasing over the last about 7 years, but despite that, our number of Uses of Force is remaining very stable. So, you’d expect and what you see in some other communities is that as the call volume increases, the Uses of Force follow that trend. Over the last decade here, we’ve really been emphasizing things like deescalation, crisis intervention training, changing our tactics, and those are things that are keeping our incidents of Use of Force down. Like I said, every time we have an incident, we’re looking at it through the lens of how can we prevent this in the future? The sheer fact is we can’t ever reach 0, using force is just an aspect of our job that’s going to happen sometime. Sometimes we have to use force, so it’s not completely avoidable, but there is plenty of opportunity to avoid Use of Force in some situations so we strive to achieve that. This graph shows that about 2/3 of our Use of Force is a response to a call that we’re dispatched to; so, it’s not something that we were self initiating, we’re not policing aggressively with an over zealous nature that’s then resulting in a lot of Use of Force. These are incidents that we’re getting called to, we’re kind of just dealt the cards that we’re dealt, and we have to deal with it to make sure that the victims, witnesses, community members are safe. Demographic Data You can see on the graph on the left that about 2/3 of the people that we use force against are not Cottage Grove residents; so, what we’ve learned over the last about 5 years is that about 2/3 of our crime is not committed by people who live in Cottage Grove. Our belief is that some of the people who are prone to crime use the suburbs as a soft target; they come here to commit retail theft and prey upon our community. So, naturally, their drawn to our attention and oftentimes they end up having Use of Force used against them. That kind of feeds into the data regarding race. You can see that we’ve got a pretty good dispersion Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 6 of 14 that closely mirrors the demographic composition of our community, but not quite. It’s not a direct translation because as I just said, people that we’re using force against aren’t our community members, so we can’t make that one-to-one comparison or apples-to-apples comparison. We have to take into account that the people that we’re using the force against are not from our community. So, I don’t put a whole lot of emphasis or stock on that statistic or that graph just because I know that it’s not showing that we’re using force disproportionately against any one particular race. The third graph shows what we’ve already known: Drugs, alcohol, and mental illness are huge contributors to Use of Force. So, we’re doing things with our Community Impact Team to reduce that effect. We’re out there in the community, trying to mitigate the amount and problematic nature of drug and alcohol abuse, putting a lot of assist on mental illness, homelessness, things like that. Particular Uses of Force Unarmed Tactics: This shows the different forms of unarmed tactics; escort hold, grappling, takedown, all the way to a higher level of force, which would be striking. Naturally, we’re using those lower levels of force more often than the more harsh forms of force, like striking. That is in line with our training, we want officers to use the minimal amount of force necessary to control a situation. So, I’m really happy when I see this graph, that we’re using those lesser forms of force more often than the higher levels of force. Intermediate Levels of Force: Taser, PepperBall, 40 mm. impact, OC sprays, and batons. We’re using the safest levels of force more often than we’re using those forms of force that are going to most likely cause injury. Don’t be freaked out by the number of uses of the Taser. As you’ll see here in a moment, those are threatened or displayed Uses of Force. So, even when an officer pulls out his Taser and says, “Do X, Y, and Z, or I’m going to use my Taser,” those are reported as an actual Use of Force. So, out of the 25 uses of the Taser, you’ll see that 20 of those were actual threats; so, we only used the Taser 5 times last year. PepperBall is a very successful tool that we implemented a couple years ago. You’re seeing that being used more and more often with a lot of success. The beauty of the PepperBall is that it’s a very, very safe tool; in fact, it’s our only non-lethal form of force. So, it’s very safe, very effective and you’re seeing that used more and more often. Baton hasn’t been used in literally two decades; so, this year we implemented a change where we’re actually giving our officers the opportunity to decide not to carry that anymore. About half of our officers decided to ditch that, and you’ll see in a later slide what they’re replacing that with. So, when I talk about the PepperBall, the thing that I like about that is it gives us a lot of options. Of course we have the option to impact the person with that pepper projectile, but there are a lot of other options; I can shoot the floor, the ceiling, the wall around them, and expose them to that chemical irritant. I can do warning shots, there are a lot of options besides just impacting the person. So, our officers are trained and coached to start with those safer and lower levels of force before they impact a person unless it’s absolutely necessary. What you’re seeing on this slide is that we didn’t impact anybody at all last year. We did area saturation, which means we shot around them, we used a lot of threats and displays of that tool. Lastly, on the right, you see the PepperBall Blast; I’ll save that discussion for a little bit later, that’s a new tool that we just implemented. Again, 40 mm. Impact, we didn’t actually deploy that at all last year, we took it out of the car, maybe threatened it or had it available to us, but we didn’t impact anybody with that. Police K9: We used the K9 a lot as a search and tracking tool, but we did not have any apprehensions or bite last year. Of course, there are times when we take the dog out, we might make its presence known, we may threaten its use, but we didn’t actually have any apprehensions last year. You can see how often it is being used to search wooded areas, buildings, etc., so it’s very useful. Chair Kons asked are any of these business related or workplace violence related, or are they all non-business? Captain Petersen replied all of the above. So, the numbers that you’re seeing are representative of everything from workplace, public venues, and private residences. If you have specific questions, I’ll be happy to jot that down and I can go right in and data mine that out. Restraints & Sedation: Captain Petersen stated this references our enhanced restraints. So, when somebody continues to be noncompliant, combative, resistant, do things that would cause self injury or injury to others, after they’ve been handcuffed, we have a number of ways that we can control them: Spit hood, so they’re not spitting at people. Hobble restraint conjures up an image of somebody being hogtied in the prone position; that’s not what we’re using that for. We restrain their feet together at the ankles, and then when we put them in a squad car, that leash is then secured in such a way that they can’t kick out windows and injure themselves in the back of the car. We would never ever hogtie somebody and put them in a prone position, especially for transport. Soft Restraints and Sedation aren’t functions of the Police Department; those are EMS functions that the ambulance crew would do, but they are techniques or situations that the Police Department and the EMS Department face a lot of liability and a lot of scrutiny, so we track those and report on those as well. Soft restraints would be when you put somebody on a stretcher in the ambulance, they’re essentially just soft handcuffs that bind their hands inside of the stretcher. As a last resort, we use chemical sedation, where they’re given a medication to sedate them and put them in a comatose state for lack of Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 7 of 14 better words so that they can’t harm themselves or somebody else on the way to the hospital. So, we see those being used fairly frequently. As I explained to you last year, we’ve had a couple individuals in our community in group home settings who are responsible for the bulk of these situations. We’re starting to get a handle on that; the one primary person, a juvenile, who we were having a problem with last year has since left; so, we’re not dealing with him, but there are a couple people that we deal with on a repeated basis that we have to use soft restraints and chemical restraints. We try our very hardest not to use this or be very smart about how we use them in these situations. Pursuits and Use of Force: Last year, we had 19 pursuits, which thankfully is down from the previous year; in 2022, we reported approximately 32 pursuits, if my memory serves me correctly. We only had to use Stop Sticks once and used the PIT maneuver three times. The Blocking Maneuver is a new technique that we implemented last year where we’re trying to mitigate the threat to the community that pursuits cause, and we’re doing that by essentially sacrificing our squads. We’re making intentional contact with the fleeing vehicle or a vehicle that we think might flee, blocking it in with physical contact at low speeds, causing minimal damage and preventing that vehicle from fleeing. We’re using this in situations where we might find a stolen vehicle ’s in a Walmart parking lot. Rather than waiting for that vehicle to leave, get on Highway 61, and then activate our lights, and giving that offender the opportunity to flee, we’ll just block it in, in the parking lot, and don’t ever give them the opportunity to flee. We’re also using this at the end of pursuits; so, when they surrender, crash, get spun out in a PIT maneuver, we’re using this technique to block them in so they can’t resume their flight. Vice Chair Kath stated I think we were presented at one time that the Police Department has drones and we follow; he asked so are pursuits part of a drone follow, too, then, these numbers we’re seeing? Captain Petersen replied no, this has nothing to do with drones; in fact, we’re not using our drones at all to track or pursue people who flee in a vehicle with our drone. We’re using State Patrol’s planes and helicopters for that. If somebody’s fleeing on foot, we would certainly use a drone for that, though. We can’t get our drones launched in time and they simply can’t fly fast enough to keep up with a fleeing vehicle. Deadly Force Incidents: As you know, deadly force incidents are a very rare thing, thankfully; we haven’t had one since 2019. However, our officers were kind of remotely involved in this incident in Woodbury within the last couple months; our officers were not the actual officers who used deadly force. Therefore, you’re not seeing it in these statistics. In Cottage Grove, a Cottage Grove officer has not used deadly force since 2019. Despite what the media and some politicians and that public narrative says, deadly force is very, very, very rare. I’m not saying that doesn’t mean it’s not very impactful in the community, it’s not something we should try to mitigate the effects of, but it’s simply to try to educate that it’s extremely, extremely rare. As you can see on the bottom of the slide, 0.00057% of any Calls for Service resulted in any use of deadly force. Injuries: Our tactics training, practices result in a high level of safety. So, last year, we only had five minor injuries to the subjects. Those five minor injuries also include things like they weren’t actually hurt, but they wanted to see a medic or our policy requires them to be checked out by a medic or they required some decon. For example, when we use PepperBall, our officers are required to do some decontamination to mitigate the prolonged effects of the PepperBall, and they’re required to be checked out by a paramedic. So, that’s going to be represented in the five minor injuries. We didn’t have any subjects that required transport or any significant medical treatment; likewise, we didn’t have any real significant injuries to our officers. We had one twisted ankle that resulted in a few hours lost. So, a very safe year for everybody involved, which we’re very proud of. Use of Force Review Committee Determinations When our Use of Force Review Committee takes a look at these incidents, first of all, we’re looking at is this reasonable, and is it within policy? 100% of those incidents were deemed reasonable and within policy. Five of them were identified as opportunities to improve, whether it was a training issue, tactics, doing a better report, things like that. We didn’t have any of those cases that were referred to Command for Internal Affairs investigations. Once again, I’m proud to say I think this is the third year in a row with zero citizen complaints regarding Use of Force; I don't know another agency that can report that same number. I can’t tell you how monumental, important, and hard to achieve that is; when we’re using force on people in the community, it’s not something that they’re happy about. Even if we do everything right, they’re very, very likely to call and complain or have ideas of how we could do it better. So, for three years in a row to say that we haven’t had any citizen complaints is a true testament to the fact that we’re doing everything right and our officers are doing things in a very professional manner. Use of Force Trends Some themes to sum this up: Force, in general, is very seldom used; deadly force is extremely rare Most of the time we’re resolving these incidents with deescalation, CIT strategies, or the mere threat or display of force being used Very low injury rates, which indicates our tactics and training are very effective Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 8 of 14 Our officers are doing a great job, they’re making great decisions, they’re being very professional, and they’re doing it in a way that represents the department very, very well Captain Petersen asked if there were any questions so far. Commissioner Jenson stated my question is not related to Use of Force, but the call volume seems like it really went up in 2023; any themes or is that something you guys are digging into to understand why? Captain Petersen replied sure, there are a couple of things that contribute to that: One is our community is growing, and so naturally, that’s just going to generate more Calls for Service. Probably the most significant reason there is a huge jump is we really stressed or exercised our officers to do a better job of documenting the work that they’ve been doing for years and years. So, over the years, they got kind of lax about logging in their park checks and their business checks and their community engagement; they were doing the work, they just weren’t hitting the keystrokes to give themselves and our department credit for the work they’re doing. So, we really stress we want you to log all of this, and that represents the bulk of that jump. Vice Chair Kath stated this is just a comment. As a commissioner and a resident, it just puts your mind at ease that you guys are doing such a great job. I just want to applaud you and the whole team of our officers and the work they’re doing. The thing that I heard, too, is you’re looking for improvement, too, even though you could rest on your laurels right now, pretty substantially, but you’re not; you’re constantly looking for process improvement and that’s important. So, thank you so much for that. Captain Petersen stated absolutely, I’ll make sure I bring that message back to the guys and gals. 2024 CGPD Training Plan Captain Petersen stated our Use of Force program and therefore our Use of Force statistics wouldn’t be so good if it wasn’t for our training program. Thanks to the support of our City leaders, with the HERO Center and the amount of time and money and resources that we have dedicated to training, that’s the only reason that I can report these numbers to you. It’s because we have the time, the money, the resources to invest in training. Statistically, we know that agencies that don’t invest in training pay more in lawsuits and liability and injuries in the long run. If you invest on the front end with training, you can mitigate those numbers. Our goal is to exceed the Minnesota POST Board standards for professionalism and professional development and make sure that our officers are very proficient in their duties. There are some skill sets that you don’t have time to look up, there is some information that we don’t have time to look up, there are lives on the line when we’re called upon to rescue a hostage; they need to be very, very skilled and knowledgeable about how to do that when those tactics are appropriate. Those are perishable skills, so we need to practice those throughout the year; even though we don’t actually do real-life hostage rescues very often, but when we’re called upon, the public demands that we’re good at our jobs. That requires training time. Also, there are those lower stress, lower-priority issues that the officers need to understand, too; they need to essentially know every law, every statute, every ordinance. When the public calls us there, they expect us to know all of that, and that requires training for officers to stay fresh and current on that. Our practices and laws are constantly changing, year to year to year; so, again, it requires a lot of training time. So, our goal is basically just to provide the best service to our citizens that we possibly can knowing that lives are at stake, there’s a lot of liability, there’s a lot of safety at risk. Training Emphasis Instructor and Leader Development: This past year we really wanted to emphasize leadership development. We had a lot of turnover this last year, we had a lot of promotions, a lot of people in new roles, just a lot of growth and a lot of newness in the department this last year. So, with that, we’ve devoted a lot of time to everybody understanding their roles and responsibilities and developing those new leaders in their roles. Risk Mitigation and Deescalation Strategies: We continued to emphasize risk mitigation and deescalation. Safer Vehicle Intervention Tactics: As I talked about, we had implemented a lot of tactics and training surrounding vehicles. What we noticed in 2022 is that a lot of our close calls and injuries and liability was in and around vehicle pursuits and Use of Force around vehicles and things like that. So, we put a lot of emphasis this past year in making that safer and smarter. As you can see from this chart, at a bare minimum our officers are getting 92 hours of In-Service Training per year. On the right, you can see how those numbers are devoted. It’s not 92 hours of shooting and wrestling, it’s everything from mental health awareness to officer wellness to First Aid, anything you can think of. The officers have an opportunity to go to professional development and leadership trainings and external courses; so, on average, our officers are doing about 150-200 hours of training per year. Of course, officers in specialties, like those who are S.W.A.T. members, might be doing 500 hours of training per year. PepperBall Blast As I said previously, we gave officers the opportunity to drop their baton this past year and most of them now are carrying the PepperBall Blast in its place. This is based on the PepperBall system, but it does not shoot a spherical ball that contains a pepper powder, it just shoots a cloud of pepper powder. Its got an effective range of about 10 feet; it can be used at a one-foot Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 9 of 14 standoff. It’s really intended as a self-defense tool, so if somebody’s attacking me, I can pull this thing out, deploy it, shoot a cloud of powder onto their face and deter them. It could also be used to buy me time, space, and distance because we know that we don’t want to be in the position where I’m close to an offender who’s attacking me and I don’t have time to think about my options and I need to make a snap decision under stress. So, this gives me an opportunity to use this, create some time, distance, and separation and either get away from the problem or use my tools and brain to control the problem in a smarter way. 2023/2024 Equipment & Policy Updates One of the things we have been working on recently as we work through the budget process is getting new Tasers. So, Taser informed us at the end of 2024 that our current Tasers will no longer be supported after 2025. So, we’re working with Council to hopefully secure the funding to get new Tasers in 2025. I’ll leave it at that. We also invested in robots and drones. Again, we’re trying not to put our officers in positions where they’re in harm’s way or we need to make decisions in close proximity with time compression. So, we’ll put technology in there to scout a location out or communicate with an offender or subject. That’s just safer for everybody involved. This is a PepperBall pistol. Our C.S.O.s and Reserves were formerly carrying Tasers; we decided that the Taser is not the best tool for them. A Taser is really a control tool vs. a self-defense tool. So, we decided that this PepperBall pistol would be a better self-defense tool for them. So, they’ve been equipped and trained with this tool. We haven’t had any deployments yet, I don’t expect to have very many of these ever. I can’t think of a single Taser deployment from our Reserve or C.S.O. programs ever, so I think this will be very much the same. We probably will never have a deployment and if we do, it will be very few, but it gives them an option to defend themselves if they find themselves in that situation. Captain Petersen stated after everything I’ve talked about, I’d like to bring your attention to this incident. It talks about our officers demonstrating the best tactics, best practices, having great equipment, great training, working well as a team, and having a very good outcome. Without all those things we’ve been talking about tonight, this could have had a very different outcome: We were called to an address where family was calling 911, saying their family member was experiencing mental illness or a mental health crisis, and he was threatening to kill family. Our patrol officers arrived very quickly and evacuated the family members to safety. At that point, once the family members are out, and there’s nobody else in harm’s way, we could really slow down that incident, focus on creating time, distance, space, and negotiating with that subject and using our CIT skills. ’s exactly what we did, we made contact with the subject, who was inside, tried to use our negotiation skills. We even had S.W.A.T. negotiators come, try to talk this person out of the house. Meanwhile, our officers are using things like robots, drones, shields, PepperBall 40 mm., to have all those plans in place if we needed them. After a lengthy period of time, we realized that due to this individual’s severe mental health crisis, we weren’t going to be able to talk him out of the house. So, we implemented a tactical plan using PepperBall to coax him out of the house. That’s what we did, we used the PepperBall, he surrendered peacefully, and then we got him into custody and got him to the hospital where he needed to be to get care. So, it was a great outcome for everybody involved. Great demonstration of all these tools and tactics and policies that we have to have a safe outcome. 2023 Annual S.W.A.T. Report As you know, we have a multijurisdictional S.W.A.T. team that comprises about 70-to-80 members throughout the County. It’s a Tier-2 S.W.A.T. team, with Tier-1 being the highest, capable of everything including hostage rescues. So, the theme continues here where our call volume is increasing annually. The major reason for that is S.W.A.T. made a decision about two years ago to do a lot more proactive work, meaning we’re getting involved in community events. So, rather than responding reactively when there’s a problem, we’re deploying proactively to make sure or try to prevent problems. For example, at Strawberry Fest, you see S.W.A.T. officers there, at Lumberjack Days in Stillwater you’re seeing S.W.A.T. there to try to deter any problems; but also, we’re engaging the community and learning from the community, teaching the community, recruiting. It’s a great opportunity for S.W.A.T. to get out there and engage with the community. There were 64 missions last year, and a large number of those were those security missions or community engagement missions. In fact, 22 of them were QRF, 24 of them were PR events, very few of them were traditional S.W.A.T. missions. There were 5 warrant services, 1 hostage rescue, 0 barricaded individuals, and 3 mutual aid calls where we’re called to Hennepin County or Dakota County to help them out. So, really only less than 10 traditional S.W.A.T. missions, whereas in past years, you would see in the neighborhood of 20-to-30. Again, we’re teaching our officers to deescalate a lot of these situations, we’re not doing those high-risk search warrants that were really typical for S.W.A.T. to do in the past; we’re finding smarter ways to get those people into custody. We’re giving our patrol officers the tools and training to resolve a lot of these situations safely that would otherwise have been S.W.A.T. missions in the past. So, you’re seeing those traditional S.W.A.T. missions decrease. Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 10 of 14 We didn’t do any no-knock, nighttime search warrants last year. We do still reserve that ability to do those for very, very high- risk situations, but we did not have any last year. In past years, there had been very few of those as we’re doing things like surround and callouts, where we’ll show up to a search warrant, surround the house, use negotiators to call the subject out to us rather than doing those high-risk dynamic search warrants that aren’t safe or smart for anybody. S.W.A.T. Training Plan Our S.W.A.T. officers are getting a lot of training, and that’s by virtue of NTOA standards; they’re getting minimally 190 hours of S.W.A.T. training per year to stay proficient in all those high-risk skills and knowledge. 2023 S.W.A.T. Accomplishments We ordered a brand new armored vehicle, so now we’re going to have three armored vehicles in Washington County. As you know, Washington County poses some geographical challenges with its shape; it’s very difficult to cover that county with our current two armored vehicles, response times are just not satisfactory. So, the Sheriff’s Office purchased a new BearCat, which will hopefully be here by the end of the year. One of the kind of unique things that we’re doing is our negotiators and our tech operators are being cross-trained as tactical operators. What we found is as we try to use our negotiation skills and CIT, it was sucking our negotiators closer and closer to the problem where historically they would be in a command post, or a trailer, or someplace off site, communicating with the subjects. When they talk to some of these individuals, they’re having to be too close to the problem, which obviously causes some potential problems. So, we wanted to give them all the tools, training, skills to be comfortable in those situations. So, we’re cross-training them as if they were tactical operators, but their primary focus is still negotiations or operating drones, robots, things like that. Captain Petersen stated that was a lot of information, I tried to summarize it as much as possible, but I’d love to hear some of your thoughts or feedback guidance. Commissioner Kelsey Moyer asked for the robot operators, do they have certain training or programming that they go through, too, or how are they? Because you said there are drones and robots; so, I don’t really know what to picture when you say robots, I just don’t know how that works. Captain Petersen stated we have quite a number of different robots. So, some are very small, smaller than a shoebox, to some being as big as this podium, and they give us different capabilities. The small ones basically we can drive into a situation and just get to see what’s in there, but we can’t interact with the environment besides just seeing. We do have some that can do two- way communication, so we can drive that robot in there, have two-way visual and two-way communication where we can talk to a person from a safe distance. We have others that we can drive in that have manipulator arms that can grab things, lift things, carry things, do all the things that you see on the movies. Yes, to operate any and all of those, there is different degrees of training that our operators go through. So, the same thing for the drones, we have drones that are meant to be outside, we have drones that are meant to be inside to fly in confined spaces, and our operators are trained to fly those as well. Commissioner Moyer stated so, they’re not self-operated? There’s always somebody doing something. Captain Petersen replied there’s nothing autonomous, they’re always operated by a person. Commissioner Moyer asked for the PepperBall pistol, how will that be placed? I guess there will be training for that, but there’s also been an incident, “I thought I grabbed my Taser, but I grabbed my gun,” and that’s kind of the same structure. Is that something that is kind of like being focused on? Or are they placed on the same side, or how does that work? Captain Petersen replied for that very reason, our sworn police officers will never carry a PepperBall pistol. Only our non- sworn officers, our C.S.O.s and our Reserves, because they don’t carry a pistol. So, they’ll be carrying it on their duty belt, on their strong side; it’s very brightly marked, it’s yellow, and it doesn’t look like a firearm. But there will never be an opportunity for an officer to use that; we’ve written that into our policy that the sworn officers won’t even pick up that PepperBall pistol, they’re prohibited by policy from using it. Commissioner Moyer stated I would just think that would be hard in just such a quick decision, like how to, oh, gosh, what did I grab? Captain Petersen replied yes, that’s a real thing, and so we don’t want our officers carrying both, a pistol and a PepperBall pistol. Commissioner Moyer stated I like that, thank you. Chair Kons stated that was exactly my question, are officers still using Tasers and if no, were they going to replace them with the PepperBall pistol? So, the answer’s no, I got that, but that’s great news. One more quick question regarding the S.W.A.T. information that you just went over. You said you had 64 record-breaking missions, which is fantastic, but what I didn’t know is were they real events or were they practice events or were they partnerships with other communities? Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 11 of 14 Captain Petersen replied those were all real events. Let’s go back to that slide so I can cite stats. So, 24 of those were public relations events, so they invited us to come to talk to the Boy Scouts or they wanted us to do a recruiting table at Park High School for their career day; those would be PR events. The QRF event is more of a security mission where we’re invited to be there, three-or-four operators will be there for Strawberry Fest to try and deter or respond to any problems that happen. So, 46 of those events were proactive in nature, not real incidents; 6 of those were hostage rescue or warrant service, things of that nature. Chair Kons said that’s excellent; it sounds like you guys had a great year last year. Captain Petersen stated yes, and those are the years we like to see where we can get out and engage with the community and not respond to problems, that’s a great year. Chair Kons said thank you, well done, congratulations. Commissioner Jenson stated thanks for the data and the transparency. I really appreciate the balanced approach of safety for the community as well as for your officers, so that’s really good to see. Captain Petersen replied great, thank you. Chair Kons stated I echo that; thank you for your passion to keep our community safe, it’s much appreciated. Captain Petersen replied thank you. Commissioner Lotts stated I actually just came up with something. The new BearCat, have you guys determined like prestaging locations yet? Captain Petersen replied that’s still up to some discussion. The thought is the brand-new one will be at the Sheriff’s Office, of course, because they’re buying it. The old BearCat, which is probably going to be refurbished, the thought is that’s going to go to the Forest Lake-Hugo area, and they will keep our MRAP for now. So, there’s some discussion and some wiggle room of how we’re going to move those chess pieces around, but that’s the initial thought. Commissioner Lotts stated cool, I just wasn’t sure if we needed to start having some foresight for facilities to store this thing. Captain Petersen replied I wish, I would love to have the BearCat, but. 8. BUSINESS ITEMS A. HUNTING MAPS Captain Petersen stated before you is a memo that has the recommendations on it, the changes to the archery map. So, this is the 2024-2025 hunting season’s archery map, which you see displayed here. It has the recommended changes already made to it. I also have available the 2023-2024 hunting map, so the previous version, if you wish to see it and compare the changes. Essentially, the Planning Department has recommended a couple changes: We’re removing a parcel of land in the southwest portion of the City, which is adjacent to the DNR’s land, at about 103rd and Hadley Avenue. We’re removing two parcels of land at 90th and Keats, and a small piece of land by Hope Glen Farms and East Point Douglas Road, another small portion by Highway 61 and Kimbro Avenue, and two parcels in the north part of the City near 65th Street. The Police Department is a part of these recommendations if you so wish to discuss them or identify these a little bit closer on the map, we can work through that. Would you like to have that discussion at this time, or do you want to just go ahead with that recommendation? A female commissioner asked is it primarily because of development or because of requests from homeowners? Captain Petersen replied it’s all development related, so some of this has been rezoned or now it’s too close to something that developed on an adjacent parcel, so now it’s too close, things like that. I should also say that there haven’t been any significant changes to our hunting ordinances; as you can see from the memo, there were no hunting-related complaints last year. We did have a couple complaints of hearing gunshots throughout the town, and we had one complaint that an arrow ended up in my yard, but they weren’t hunting related. So, there were zero hunting complaints last year, so our ordinances are very effective, do what they’re supposed to do. Our hunting map is doing what it’s supposed to do, so we don’t see any reason at this point to make any significant changes other than those five minor changes that I outlined. Chair Kons asked can you circle the areas that you just mentioned that you’re going to remove? I wasn’t able to check that as fast as you said it. Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 12 of 14 Captain Petersen replied the first one is right down here, at 103rd and Hadley, this triangular, pink-shaped portion. Chair Kons asked so there’s no archery currently, or is this the proposed map? Captain Petersen replied both; so, formerly, there was hunting allowed in this triangular area. So, last year, you could hunt there, and we’re proposing now that there should not be hunting there. Chair Kons stated okay, so the pink is what we’re proposing, okay, got it. Captain Petersen stated 90th and Keats, which would be right in here; there were a couple spots where you could hunt. Chair Kons stated, okay, but there’s still 6 yellow plots right there, too. Is that okay? Council Member Thiede stated those are private residences, so they can hunt on their own land; obviously, you can’t go hunt on other property without permission. Chair Kons stated I’m good with that, I’m just trying to figure out why we moved some, but not others, but it’s a private residence, okay. Captain Petersen stated Hope Glen and East Point Douglas, right down in this area; I apologize, but I don't know the exact parcel. Chair Kons stated that’s okay, just the general area is good. Captain Petersen stated and 65th would be up in here somewhere. Chair Kons stated okay, thank you for that, I can figure it out that way. Captain Petersen stated so what we just talked about is related to archery; we’re not recommending any changes to the firearms map, so we don’t see any reason to change that based on the development or future plans at this point. Chair Kons stated I’m okay with moving forward with that recommendation. Motion by Vice Chair Kath that we accept the hunting maps as has been presented this evening. Motion was seconded by Commissioner Lisa Rediske. Motion carried: 7-0. 9. COMMISSION COMMENTS - None. 10. STAFF REPORTS AND MATERIALS Gary Orloff, Superintendent-Streets, gave highlights of the Street Department, Forestry, and Stormwater work being done: The big thing is we got the thin overlay started about two weeks ago, we’re out in old Cottage Grove, off of 77th Street, kind of by the old fire station there. A lot of pleased residents, it’s pretty much finished up those three streets off 77th that were in pretty bad shape. This year we’re looking at putting down about 2,000 tons in that process. We have two interns that have started Emerald Ash Borer treatment; they have roughly about 450 trees to treat, and they do about 30 a day. We have two sweepers out, sweeping the Business District, so anytime it hasn’t been raining, they’ve been out. Mowing: We’ve got the big tractor out now in rural areas, so he can only make one pass back; again, that’s kind of been limited with the amount of rain, but we’re getting caught up on that. Stormwater: Our guys are in catch basins that actually have cement rings in them, under that metal grate you see, so ’re doing what’s called a tuckpointing process. Between the rings, they tuckpoint and mud in there, and that prevents big cave-ins that can cause the road to cave in, and it’s up to a $5K process to get that thing back in. They can get in and out in about 20 minutes per catch basin. He asked if there were any questions, but none were asked. Director Burfeind stated there’s one other Public Works update I would like to add. That’s related to our lead service line inventory project. A little while back, the Federal EPA had revised the run of copper rules that required every water supplier in the country to inventory every water service connected to their water system, really looking for lead service lines. Now, what’s interesting in Cottage Grove is we know we do not have lead service lines, just from our experience and really how new of a city we are; but the challenge is you have to have proof of that, either through construction specifications or City Ordinance. In 1981, lead was just banned, so you know after that everything could not be lead, but there are about 1,300 homes that were built between 1958 and 1961 that were before our City Ordinance went into place requiring copper services. Those three neighborhoods, the south side of Highway 61, in that Thompson Grove neighborhood, and one in the Thompson Grove Estates, kind of by Armstrong Elementary, we know have copper water services, many of our employees live there. We know what’s in place, but you have to have proof. Unfortunately, constructions specs were by a different company, not the engineer, Bonestroo, that the City signed on with in 1961. So, we have to physically do survey inspections to show that. So, a lot of communities did a self-completed survey process so residents in those areas received a letter a few weeks ago with just a QR Code, and it’s very Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 13 of 14 simple. It goes right to a GIS database that we created, they just put their address, and then show a picture of their service line, it shows that it’s copper, which we know it is, and then it’s completed. So, about 100-to-150 of those have been completed, and we’re sending out another letter asking for residents to do the survey with another two-week window. But at that point, we will have to work to complete them all ourselves with our own staff, so it’s a little bit of an effort for our Utility Department, but it’s the requirement. We’re still better off than cities like St. Paul, who have over 100,000 services, and they’ve been doing this for years to try to document those. It’s a little bit of work, but if you hear about this letter that folks are receiving, I know when they got it, a few folks didn’t know if this was legitimate, wondered what is this, even though we have all of our information on there. It is the City of Cottage Grove asking for this for about those 1,300 homes. So, if you know someone who asks you about that, it is a survey we’re looking for them to complete. So, that’s my only update. Commissioner Lotts asked how many did you get back? Director Burfeind replied right now, we’re at about 150. So, we’re hoping with our second-round letter, if we can get to 300 or 400, we’re trying to get as many as we can without our staff. But it will be very quick; we’re actually planning to probably just start while we do our meter appointments and things like that, we’re doing them, naturally, to check more off. But we’ll just start either calling folks or just going door to door and seeing if they’re available, because it’ll take us about two minutes to complete it. So, it’s very quick. Commissioner Lotts stated that QR Code idea, whoever’s that was, was fantastic. I don’t know who generated that, but that’s a dynamite idea. Director Burfeind stated yes, it was actually really slick where our administration team could develop the code, and our own GIS staff could create the database, and it feeds right into a database that the State is looking for. So, it will go right to them, basically, so it’s very quick and efficient. Captain Petersen stated I gave you a copy of our Quarter 2 newsletter, so feel free to review that. Send any questions or concerns my way, and I’ll just highlight a couple of the major things: As you know, we implemented the new Strategic Plan, so we’re making tons of progress on that, and by all metrics and measures, officers in our department are doing a great job with all those goals and Strategic Plans. We’re very proud to say that we had CPR-AED saves in the last quarter, so our patrol officers saved four lives with the rapid response with CPR and AED in the last quarter. I’m excited to say that we just posted for our Embedded Social Worker position, so that’s going to be a great addition to our Community Impact Team; that’s going to really help address some of these community issues like homelessness, chemical abuse, alcoholism, mental illness, things like that. That’s kind of the missing link of our Community Impact Team, and so, getting that person on board is going to be a great asset. Along those same lines, we’re really close to implementing a Therapy/Service K9. So, we’re putting together the final pieces of that, a couple funding, policy, and acquisition pieces; I’m about 98% sure that that’s going to happen early in 2025, so that’ll be super exciting. Obviously, this is our busy season for community engagements and special events. So, our officers have been out hitting all those smaller events, lemonade stands, playing in the park, and things like that on a constant basis, all day long. We’re also planning and engaged in those bigger events like Strawberry Fest and our upcoming events, like Night to Unite, and things like that. So, we’re super busy engaging with the public. Upcoming Events: Night to Unite on August 6; the Cottage Grove Open House on September 16; a Citizens Academy is starting in October, so if you know anybody who wants to learn more about the department, engage with the department, we’re still looking for some people to fill up that Citizens Academy. Chair Kons asked how do you sign up for the Citizens Academy? Captain Petersen stated either follow the link from our website or any of our social media or call one of our Community Impact Team members, or really just talk to anybody and we’ll get them hooked up. Captain Petersen stated like I said, there’s tons of really good information in this newsletter, so when you get a chance to digest that, I’m sure you’ll have some questions or comments, so you can feel free to direct those my way at any time. Thank you. 11. COUNCIL COMMENTS Council Member Thiede stated good evening, everyone. One of the things I’ll say in terms of activity and you guys have got the presentations, too; we’ve got both the Fire Department and the Police Department Strategic Plans at Council, and had very good discussions and they were received very well. It was an excellent job that was done, so good work. Also, I guess one of the other things is we’re working on budget right now, so there’s a lot of that activity. Public Services Commission Meeting July 15, 2024 Page 14 of 14 We also just appreciate kind of a response back, but we just put out an offer for a new Communications Manager. So, if there are things that you think would be better on how we communicate to the public or internally, now is definitely a good time to kind of get some of those comments in. Talk to your peers and your network and everything else and just see if there’s certain things that people would like to see to get better, more complete communication. Because even sometimes when we think that we’re doing a good job of communication, you talk to somebody and they say, oh, gosh, I never heard about that, right? So, anything that we can do to improve that would be great. Talking about communication, I think you all should have recently received the Water Quality Report. I looked through it, it looked pretty good and everything, but definitely if you have any feedback or comments related to that and how there might be better ways to communicate things to the public, etc., that would be great to get feedback on. Council Member Thiede asked if the commissioners had any questions for him. Chair Kons stated this may not be a Cottage Grove question, but the construction on Highway 61 that they’re preparing for, “Expect Delays,” what are they doing? Council Member Thiede asked Director Burfeind to answer that. Director Burfeind replied that’s a good question. So, as you head north, I’m assuming you’re talking about into Newport, towards 494, that’s just some concrete pavement repairs. If you remember in Cottage Grove last year, it was much more extensive, but we were down to one lane for probably a couple months. This is just some smaller repairs they had to do to the concrete pavement, so it was just last weekend, then this coming weekend, assuming the weather cooperates, is when they’ll be doing it. So, it was down to one lane over this past weekend, as you probably saw. It is on the weekend, so that helps minimize that traffic delay. If everything goes well, they’ll do the same next weekend, and then wrap up that work. Chair Kons stated that’s huge, that’s great. Director Burfeind stated we reached out to MnDOT because the sign just said, “Starts July 12, Expect Delays,” and that’s very open ended. Chair Kons said, yes, we didn’t know what it was. Council Member Thiede asked so is the work on 80th Street where you’ve got Highway 61, that was not part of that work, was it? Director Burfeind replied no, that was separate. Council Member Thiede stated so, that was a separate thing, which I think caused a lot of people to be confused. So, that ’t related to the other, and it’s being done at night or over the weekends, right? Director Burfeind stated that’s correct. MnDOT did a redo; that was a MnDOT job because they own that 80th Street bridge, and then the interchanges there. That pavement was in terrible condition, so they finally fixed that. But I know it was very painful for that day and a half, during the day while they did that work. That’s a little bit of a Band-Aid; the City’s going to be redoing the rest of 80th Street in 2026, and they’re going to fully redo those interchanges as well, but the pavement was just so poor they had to do something. 12. ADJOURNMENT Vice Chair Kath made a motion to adjourn the meeting; a female commissioner seconded. Motion carried: 7-0. The meeting was adjourned at 8:21 p.m. Minutes transcribed by J. Graf and reviewed by Kari Reubish. To:Public Services Commission From:Zac Dockter, Parks and Recreation Director Cc:Ryan Burfeind, Public Works Director Pete Koerner, Public Safety Director Date:October 14, 2024 Subject:Preserve.Play.Prosper. Plan Preserve.Play.Prosper. Plan The City of Cottage Grove is a great place to live and a destination where recreation takes center stage. The city is committed to delivering high-quality public services and amenities that benefit all residents, businesses, and property owners. In 2022, we embarked on a journey to reimagine recreation and our connections to the great outdoors. During this time, we listened as residents shared their desires for a wider array of recreational opportunities and family-oriented activities, preservation of natural habitat, and enhanced connections to parks and nature. Based on this feedback, research, and planning, the City of Cottage Grove developed a plan to invest $36 million to elevate the quality of parks, recreation, and outdoor spaces for people of all ages and abilities. This plan – Preserve. Play. Prosper. - includes investments and upgrades to three recreation destinations in our city: Hamlet Park, Mississippi Dunes Park, and River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center. The goal is to encourage play and support active living in Cottage Grove while boosting community pride and the local economy. This November, residents will consider whether to approve a half-percent local sales tax to finance the Preserve. Play. Prosper. plan. Our residents helped inform the plan’s vision, and their feedback will continue to shape what these community gathering spaces become if the referendum is approved by voters. The Preserve.Play.Prosper. Plan houses a very informative website linked from the City’s webpage. This site includes the most current project plans, financial impacts, voting information and frequently asked questions. We encourage interested parties to visit this site and learn more about the program. Local Option Sales Tax Background Local governments in Minnesota can use the local option sales tax (LOST) to fund up to five capital projects such as public buildings, parks, and other amenities. Each proposed project must meet the statutory requirement of regional significance at the state legislature. LOST is simply a sales tax that is collected within the geographic boundaries of a city or county. These taxes apply to the same items and services as the general state sales tax. Items exempt from regular state sales tax are also exempt from the LOST, including many essential items such as groceries, prescription and over-the-counter medications, baby products and clothing. Revenues collected stay within the specific city where it is charged. Cities can explore creating and collecting LOST, but the process to do so is defined by state law. Before LOST can be collected, it must receive approval from the state legislature, the local governing body (the city council), and the voters via a ballot referendum. The proposed LOST would be one-half of one percent (0.5%), or $0.50 on every $100 of taxable purchases. State law requires the tax to automatically sunset once funds required for the projects are collected or a specific length of time approved by legislation, whichever occurs first. A LOST would reduce a homeowner’s share of the cost to improve or construct city facilities, spreading the cost across a broader geographic area to support amenities that serve the region. Project Review The City has spent the past two years studying whether a local option sales tax could provide a positive impact to Cottage Grove residents. Below are highlighted points in time for this process: January 15, 2022Strategic Planning Session with Council to provide initial direction on LOST February 9, 2022Council Workshop to brainstorm potential projects April 5, 2022Staff session to detail project ideas and develop community engagement plan June-August 2022Community engagement process December 21, 2022Council Workshop to discuss LOST process January 4, 2023Council Workshop to discuss LOST financial impact January 11, 2023Council Workshop to provide direction on three LOST projects at: 1)Hamlet Park2) Mississippi Dunes Park3) River Oaks November 13, 2024Approval of Special Law by MN Secretary of State Office June 26, 2024Council Resolution approving referendum on local option sales tax Preserve.Play.Prosper. Plan Projects Hamlet Park ($17M) The Hamlet Park project is designed to enhance Cottage Grove’s oldest and largest municipal park. The plan will make improvements to the northern trail entrance, complete the baseball field complex to the south, install a synthetic turf field, splash pad, concrete skate park, new playground, art opportunities and a new park building. Mississippi Dunes Park Development ($13M) This future park along the banks of the Mississippi River near Grey Cloud Island will renovate 20 acres of public space at the former golf course. Improvements will be focused on habitat restoration, recreational access to the river (fishing, boating, paddling, etc.), outdoor educational options, trails and an interpretive center. River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center ($6M) Improvements to River Oaks Golf Course & Event Center are designed to increase appeal of the facility to a broader audience both locally and regional while also diversifying business opportunities. The project consists of the addition of a winter mountain biking course and a Himalayan putting green. Building and patio renovations will expand both features and allow for expanded services such as patio experiences, simulated golf programs and more. Financial Impact A preliminary estimate from the City’s financial consultant Ehlers, Inc. is calculating annual sales tax of $1,209,000 through LOST. Based on this annual sales tax, a 25-year bond of $15,900,000 could be issued to generate capital for the aforementioned recreational improvements. Inflation and contingency are included in the project budgets as recommended by the financial consultants. The consultant further recommends that project estimates are valued higher than the revenue generation estimates to account for unknown sales tax growth. However, having a tiered construction strategy would assure projects are completed only as funding is available. In the table below, tier one improvements would be the primary construction goals for the first five years. Tier two and three improvements would be completed within the 25-year LOST life cycle as funding is available (tier two as the primary objectives over tier three). Timeline – October 2024Public education efforts for the Preserve.Play.Prosper. Plan November 2024Referendum Winter 2025Develop project plans and specification Summer 2026Commence work on Tier 1 projects 2027Review Tier 1 project costs and analyze actual revenue receipts to plan next steps Staff Recommendation Receive staff presentation on Preserve.Play.Prosper. Plan. To:Public Services Commission From:Ryan Burfeind, P.E., Public Works Director Date:October 15, 2024 Re:Intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant Update Background In August of 2021, the 3M Settlement Agreement Conceptual Drinking Water Supply Plan (CDWSP) was finalized, and the funding became available for the planned projects for mitigating the PFAS contamination in the East Metro. Included in the CDWSP was two permanent water treatment plants for Cottage Grove. The first of these, the Low Zone Water Treatment Plant (LZWTP) was bid in 2023 with construction well underway. The second, and larger facility, will be the Intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant (IZWTP). Staff are currently working on the final design IZWTP and have reached the 30% design milestone. The treatment plant will be st located just south of the Central Fire Station, near the ground storage reservoirs on 81 Street. A mailing was sent to properties in the area in February of 2024, updating them on the intent and location of the IZWTP. An open house was recently held on the project, with 850 surrounding homes invited. The meeting was held at the Central Fire Station in the evening of October 10, with three residents attending. Discussion Design The plant is being designed to utilize Ion Exchange (IX) technology for the PFAS removal, with a pretreatment process that will remove the iron and manganese in the water. Removing the iron and manganese prior to the IX treatment is necessary, to ensure the filters do not prematurely fail. This requirement was discovered during the City’s IX Pilot Study, which was funded by the 3M Settlement. While IX is a different technology than the GAC that is typically used, it follows a very similar process to GAC with pressurized treatment vessels that hold the media. Cottage Grove does have full scale experience with IX treatment, as the two newest temporary water treatment plants utilize this technology. IX was selected for this facility for two primary reasons. First, it will require a smaller footprint than a GAC facility, which is important given the site constraints. Secondly, the pilot study showed that IX had a longer effective life when removing the type of PFAS that is more prevalent in the intermediate zone wells. While the facility is much larger, it will have similar components to the LZWTP. This includes a filter room, pre-treatment room, pump room, chemical rooms, control room, back wash tanks, clear wells, and pump chambers. The access, circulation and parking for the plant are being designed to work with future softening treatment, if it were to be implemented. On the following page is the draft site layout. For larger delivery vehicles, there will be a connection to the Central st Fire Station, as the necessary area is not available to turn around semis and go back out to 81 Public Services Commission Intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant Update October 15, 2024 Street. These types of deliveries would be very infrequent and would have no impact on the fire station operations. This has been reviewed with the Fire Department Staff. A new entrance to th 80 Street is also being contemplated, to further reduce any impact on the fire station. Finally, access control gates will be installed at both entrances to the water treatment facility. As a general design concept, the natural depression at the site is being utilized to reduce the overall height of the building. The archery range is not intended to be impacted by this facility. The exterior design of the IZWTP is being designed to complement the Central Fire Station. With it being located in a residential area, the more aesthetic elements of brick and stone are being incorporated into multiple sides of the building. Also, windows are included throughout the building to provide natural light and further break up the exterior façade. The majority of the taller treatment rooms are built with precast panels, which will have a thin set brick finish cast into the concrete panel. The general height of the building will be 33 feet. The design will also include a landscaped berm along the west side of the building, to provide better screening from the residential homes. Finally, staff intend to follow the required setbacks from industrial use to residential use. As a reminder, these facilities come with very little noise or traffic. All treatment operations are fully enclosed in the facility, and typical traffic will only include one or two public works trucks each day as staff operate the facility. On the following page is the concept rendering of the facility. This will be further refined throughout the design process. Included with the packet are additional building elevations and floor plans. Public Services Commission Intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant Update October 15, 2024 As part of this project, improvements are also being proposed to Pine Tree Pond Park. Due to the treatment plant being built on existing park land, the city will be seeking reimbursement from the State for the value of the land. This funding will then be used to build the proposed park improvements. The City Parks Department is working through this process, with direction from the Parks & Natural Resources Commission. Improvements may include a new playground near the fire station, additional trails, a beginner disc golf course, and a boardwalk over Pine Tree Pond. Schedule Below is a schedule for the Intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant: May 1, 2024: City Council Workshop October 10, 2024: Open House October 21, 2024: Public Services Commission Meeting October 28, 2024: Planning Commission Site Plan/Preliminary Plat Approval November 20, 2024: City Council Site Plan/Preliminary Plat/Final Plat Approval March 2025: Bidding May 2025: Begin Construction Recommendation Receive information and provide feedback on the Intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant. e_IZWTP/193805302a-md.rvt360://193805302_Cottage_Grov BIM 41'-0" TYP HEIGHT 33'-0" MAX HEIGHT 43'-8" e_IZWTP/193805302a-md.rvt360://193805302_Cottage_Grov BIM 274'-0" 60'-0"184'-0" 72'-0" 119'-8" UP 116'-0" 56'-8" UP 97'-0" 352'-0" 40'-4" 12'-4" 86'-0" 47'-4"38'-8" 71'-8" 135'-4" 52'-0" 78'-0" 51'-4" 26'-0" 18'-0"106'-0" e_IZWTP/193805302a-md.rvt360://193805302_Cottage_Grov BIM 262'-0" 78'-0"184'-0" 72'-0" 12'-0" 116'-0" 352'-0" 18'-0"28'-4" 38'-8" 125'-4" 1'-4"24'-0"1'-4"41'-4"1'-4"24'-0"1'-4"24'-0" 26'-0"26'-0" 18'-0"130'-0" e_IZWTP/193805302a-md.rvt360://193805302_Cottage_Grov BIM UPUP e_IZWTP/193805302a-md.rvt360://193805302_Cottage_Grov BIM Innsdale Ave. S.