HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-2-05 City Council Meeting Minutes
COTTAGE GROVE CITY COUNCIL February 5, 2025
12800 RAVINE PARKWAY SOUTH
COTTAGE GROVE, MN 55016
COUNCIL CHAMBER - 7:00 P.M
1. CALL TO ORDER
The City Council of the City of Cottage Grove, Washington County, Minnesota, held a regular meeting on
February 5, 2025, at Cottage Grove City Hall, 12800 Ravine Parkway. Mayor Bailey called the meeting to order at
7:00 p.m.
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The audience, staff, and City Council Members stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
3. ROLL CALL
City Clerk Tammy Anderson called the roll: Mayor Bailey-Here; Council Member Clausen-Here; Council Member Garza-Here; Council Member Olsen-Absent; Council Member Thiede-Here.
Also present: Jennifer Levitt, City Administrator; Tammy Anderson, City Clerk; Karla Bigham, Washington County Commissioner; Ryan Burfeind, Public Works Director; Zac Dockter, Parks
and Recreation Director; Joe Fischbach, HR Manager; Pete Koerner, Public Safety Director; Korine Land, City Attorney-LeVander, Gillen & Miller, PA; Gretchen Larson, Economic Development
Director; Brenda Malinowski, Finance Director; Emily Schmitz, Community Development Director; Dan Starry, Washington County Sheriff.
4. OPEN FORUM
Mayor Bailey opened the Open Forum. As no one wished to address the Council, Mayor Bailey closed the Open Forum.
5. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Motion by Council Member Clausen to approve the agenda; second by Council Member Thiede.
Motion carried: 4-0.
6. PRESENTATIONS
Accacia Masonic Lodge No. 51 Donation and Presentation
Staff Recommendation: Accept and approve the donation of six Fire Suppression tools ($6,000 value)
from the Accacia Masonic Lodge No. 51.
Mayor Bailey stated our Public Safety Director, Pete Koerner, will start us on this presentation. Mayor Bailey asked the Council Members to join him in front of the Council dais.
Director Koerner said it’s an honor to be up here to accept this donation from the Masonic Lodge No. 51. We’re happy to have them back; they were here a year ago, when they donated
six of the Fire Suppression devices. Their
goal was to get those in all of the squads, so now we’re going to be up to 12 of them, as they’re donating six more tonight. They’re valued at $1,000 each. I can tell you right after
the first donation came in to the Sheriff’s Office, I know one of the deputies went to a house fire, was able to deploy it, and so the fire caused way less damage, as the Fire Department
was able to put it out. So, we really appreciate this donation. They will now give an introduction on it and what their lodge is about.
Lloyd Cheney, the current Master of Accacia Lodge No. 51, the Masonic Lodge, gave the history of the Accacia Lodge: We’ve been in Old Cottage Grove since 1865, so, it was founded by
a lot of the farmers in the area and a lot of veterans who came home right after the Civil War. So, the first and second Minnesota guys were founders within our Lodge. There’s lots
of history in our Lodge; if you go past it, we’ve done a lot of renovations to that old building. It was the first Congregational Church from 1865 until 1965, and our Lodge was about
a half mile down the road, tucked away down there. When the members of that church, some of whom were in the Lodge, purchased the building and the church built a new church, and we
have been there ever since. So, this is our 160th year, and we’re in a 160-year-old building, which is pretty darn cool.
Master Cheney said without further ado, he introduced Brother Mitch Boren, Brother Rich Purcell, Brother Jeff Lennartson, and said we’d have more guys here, but this is a Scottish
Rite night, so many of our guys are over in St. Paul tonight. The FST (Fire Suppression Tool), this is the device itself, and it comes in a case and it can be deployed so a police officer
or a first responder will come and maybe see smoke in a structure, a fire, or whatever, and there’s a pin device here; you clip it, pull the pin, and you toss it into the structure,
in the fire, and it will go from basically 1000 degrees down to below the flashpoint in a matter of seconds. It is not CO2, it’s safe for all humans and animals in the building; in
fact, there was a house in St. Paul Park, I think it was last February, and there was a save, and they saved the animals in the building. So, of course, the structure itself will not
burn down as the Fire Department will get there to extinguish the remaining fire.
Master Cheney stated this program was first started by a Minnesota Grand Lodge and Minnesota Masonic Charities. These devices cost right around $1,000 each, and the Lodge puts forth
a portion of that money and the Minnesota Masonic Charities and Grand Lodge puts in the rest, and then we donate to our local City Fire and Police.
So, with that, this will make it 12 devices, and we’ll try to get all your squad cars outfitted going forward; we’ll do one more final donation, if we can, by the end of the year,
that would be great. We’ll see where our fundraising is, but we do a lot of fundraising throughout the year, with our events: The Spaghetti Dinner, which you guys come to, our Pancake
Breakfasts, which are wonderful, and we also do a raffle every year, Sportsmen & More raffle, where we take a bunch of stuff and raffle it off, and that contributes to our funds.
Also, we raise money for our scholarships, so, there are scholarships that are available for local students in the high schools. Minnesota Masonic Charities also puts out scholarships,
not only for new postsecondary options, but other education as well. So, if you’re a young person or you have young people at home or people looking for scholarships, ask the City Council;
I’ll leave some of my cards and you can contact me, and I will point you in the right direction.
Master Cheney said I think I covered all that and I covered this, so I will make the presentation, and maybe we can get a photo there. He said thank you, we love the community,
we love being here, and if you’re looking for a good Pancake Breakfast, it will be on Easter Saturday, the Saturday before Easter, come out. We’re also doing an Easter Egg Hunt for
the kids, and if it’s not nice weather, we’ll have it inside the Lodge. Our picnic is August 19, I believe, and you’re all welcome to come to our picnic and our Spaghetti Dinner in
the fall.
Mayor Bailey said fantastic, so let’s give them a round of applause for this amazing donation. Everyone applauded.
Mayor Bailey said as he just mentioned, their Spaghetti Dinner is absolutely amazing; I don't know what it is in the recipe, but it is very, very good. So, I think basically all
of us, well, we have our new Council Member, so that’ll be coming, so we’ll do that. Again, on behalf of all of us, our citizens and everybody, I mean, it’s groups like yourself that
make this community an amazing place to live and work and play. And the fact is that if we didn’t have some of these types of devices, obviously, we’d have homes like the one you referenced
in St. Paul Park that could in essence burn to the ground or injure people. These are some neat, new devices that will obviously get in
all of our squads at some point. I again just want to thank you from all of us in the City of Cottage Grove and our Public Safety teams, Police, Fire, and EMS, and of course, the Council.
Thank you! Everyone applauded.
Motion by Council Member Thiede to accept the donation of the Fire Suppression Tools from the Accacia Masonic Lodge No. 51; second by Council Member Garza. Motion carried: 4-0.
Police Officer Badge Pinning and Swearing-In Ceremony
Staff Recommendation: Recognize Officers Lauden Rinzel, Officer Anna Weiss, Officer Marshal Freeman, and Officer Tyler Harris.
Mayor Bailey stated Director Koerner will start this and then Jennifer Levitt, our City Administrator, will be administering the oath. He stated I want to acknowledge that Karla Bigham,
our Washington County Commissioner, and Dan Starry, Washington County Sheriff and some of his group are also here this evening, so we want to welcome them to Cottage Grove.
Director Koerner stated I actually wrote a couple notes this time because this is just a monumental thing for us to bring on our four new officers; when I say new, they’re not brand
new, it’s been a year to get them to this point, but I’m really proud to just stand in front of you to introduce our four officers here. We also have three additional officers who started
last week in the Academy and three C.S.O. candidates.
These four officers went through their field training and the Officer Academy. Sergeant Lindeen was going to talk tonight, but she just said in the interest of time, she asked me
just to mention that. Each of these four officers were sworn in on their first day; however, this is our time to celebrate them successfully completing our Police Academy and field
training. Each of these officers is already out on their own and making contributions to the organization.
As their family members tonight pin their badge, I just want to take this moment to remind each of us what this badge represents: This badge represents our vision of the Cottage
Grove Police Department and our Core Values. This badge represents the trust that the public has in us, it represents our commitment to the profession and our community. Each of these
officers display our Core Values of Integrity, Humility, Respect, Courage, Honor, Professionalism, Initiative, and Wellness. This badge is just more of a reminder of that.
As police officers, you also represent the Public Safety Department, our entire profession, our City organization, and most importantly, the community. With that, I’m going to do
one introduction at a time, we’ll get each of them up here, and then have the family come up and pin the badge.
Director Koerner said we’ll start with Officer Lauden Rinzel, if you’ll come over by the City Administrator.
Director Koerner said I do have to admit I did play around with your bios, some of yours were very short, but I’ll just do brief introductions.
I’m especially proud of this one, as Lauden grew up in Cottage Grove, attended Park High School where he met his wife, Jasmine. Lauden grew up in our law enforcement family as well,
as his father, Greg, has served over 30 years and is currently our Deputy Director. I can tell you Lauden earned this position, his dad actually has taken another role so he didn’t
supervise him, so that’s pretty neat. Lauden started his career as a Reserve Officer for Cottage Grove, and then he also transitioned to being a Community Service Officer (C.S.O.) with
us; while doing that, he also worked parttime with Woodbury Public Safety as a C.S.O. while he attended law enforcement school. Lauden was hired as a Washington County deputy, about
five years ago. He worked in patrol, he was a S.W.A.T. member, and a Field Training Officer. He had a great experience there, but he returned home, so we’re grateful for that. Lauden
is currently our Traffic Enforcement Officer, so I’m sure you’ve seen him on some of those social media posts. Lauden has his two children here and his wife, Jasmine, will pin his badge
after our City Administrator administers the oath.
Administrator Levitt asked Lauden to raise his right hand and repeat the oath after her, which he did. Administrator Levitt congratulated Officer Rinzel, and everyone applauded.
Officer Rinzel shook hands with Mayor Bailey and the Council Members.
Officer Rinzel’s wife, Jasmine, pinned his badge. Everyone applauded and a photo was taken.
Director Koerner said next we have Officer Anna Weiss. Anna is another officer who grew up in a law enforcement family. Anna grew up in Forest Lake and graduated from Forest Lake Hight
School; Anna knew, I think even during high school, what her passion was, and she went on to attend Alexandria Technical and Community College. While she was there at school, she was
hired here as a C.S.O. and committed many, many weekends to work as a C.S.O. with us. When she completed her schooling, she continued as a C.S.O. She went through our process, was selected,
and she began last year on February 5, 2024, so a year ago. Anna also enjoys spending time with her family, being active, and traveling. So, congratulations, and in a moment we’ll have
your dad, retired Captain Greg Weiss, come up to pin your badge.
Administrator Levitt asked Anna to raise her right hand and repeat the oath after her, which she did. Administrator Levitt congratulated Officer Weiss and everyone applauded. Anna
shook hands with Mayor Bailey and all of the Council Members.
Anna’s dad, retired Captain Greg Weiss, pinned Anna’s badge, after which everyone applauded.
Director Koerner said I’m going to go off script a little bit because when I asked Officer Marshal Freeman for a bio, it was like, I’ve been a cop, let’s do this. So, like I said, he’s
a man of few words, but Marshal is also local; he grew up in St. Paul Park, and he graduated from Park High School. After school, Marshal joined the United States Air Force and did
eight years of active duty, and part of that time you were a K9 handler as well. After that, he came back to Cottage Grove. Marshal is currently a member of the Air National Guard.
Prior to coming to us, he worked three years with the Minnesota State Patrol, in the East Metro. I know the poor guy, every call he went on or when on coffee breaks, he was heavily
recruited, even a neighbor I think pressured him to come on board. So, again, like I said, Marshal is a man of few words, but when I talk about our Core Values, specifically, humility,
here’s just a quick story: As a member of the Lions Club, I had someone track me down, one of the coaches at Kingston, and he said hey, one of your cops showed up. And I’m like, oh,
gosh, what did we do, that was my first thought. One of your officers, turned out it was Marshal, stopped by a soccer practice with 12-year-olds, and he played with them for about 15
minutes. I think they scored quite a few times on you, but they definitely wanted to pass that along. When I saw Marshal in the hallway, I told him, hey, I got this nice report, and
he’s like, yeah, that’s why I came here, Chief, as he wants to do community engagement. So, we’re really excited to have you. I hope I get this right because I asked, who’s pinning?
And he’s like, yeah, the wife and kids will be here, too. But Marshal’s wife, Olivia, will be pinning your badge, and your children will be coming up as well. So, with that, I’ll turn
it over to the City Administrator.
Administrator Levitt asked Marshal to raise his right hand and repeat the oath after her, which he did. Administrator Levitt congratulated Officer Freeman, and everyone applauded.
Marshal shook hands with Mayor Bailey and the City Council Members.
Officer Freeman’s wife, Olivia, pinned his badge, along with their three children, after which everyone applauded. A photo was taken of Officer Freeman and his family.
Director Koerner said last, but not least, I tell you if we could contain his energy, we’d solve the energy crisis, right, Tyler? I’m proud to introduce Officer Tyler Harris. Tyler was
raised in New Richmond, WI, and is a graduate of New Richmond High School. He began his career in law enforcement as a Police Explorer with the Washington County Sheriff's Office. His
commitment to public service continued when he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he currently serves as a military police officer in the Marine Corps Reserves. In May,
2022, Tyler joined the City of Cottage Grove as a C.S.O. while pursuing his education at Century College where he earned an Associate Degree in Law Enforcement. During his studies,
he also served as a firefighter for the City of New Richmond, as a C.S.O. of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, and he further advanced his training by completing his skills program
at Rasmussen University. In June 2024, he began his role as a police officer with our department. So, he is one of those unique candidates that we wanted him so bad, we hired him when
he was finishing his training. He started with the Academy right away, and then once he became POST eligible, he started as a police officer. So, he’s another one that didn’t listen
to his family, as his dad’s a proud Commander with Washington County. So, we have three that didn’t listen to their parents tonight. With that, I’ll turn it over to Administrator Levitt.
Administrator Levitt asked Tyler to raise his right hand and repeat the oath after her, which he did. Administrator Levitt congratulated Officer Harris, and everyone applauded. Tyler
shook hands with Mayor Bailey and the Council Members.
Tyler’s mother, Heather, and his father, Tim, were present; his father, Tim, pinned Tyler’s badge, after which everyone applauded. A photo was taken of Officer Harris with his parents.
Director Koerner said we’d like to get a photo of all the officers who were just sworn in, along with their families, with all the Cottage Grove officers in the backdrop. Multiple photos
were taken.
Mayor Bailey said all right, let’s have another round of applause for our new officers here in Cottage Grove, and everyone applauded. He said thank you, there are a lot of proud
parents and family members here tonight.
February 2025: Black History Month
Staff Recommendation: Proclaim February as Black History Month.
Mayor Bailey stated February 2025 is Black History Month, and I’ve asked Council Member Clausen to read the proclamation this evening. Council Member Clausen read aloud the proclamation.
Motion by Council Member Garza to proclaim February 2025 as Black History Month; second by Council Member Thiede. Motion carried: 4-0.
7. CONSENT AGENDA
A. Approve the January 8, 2025, City Council Special Meeting Minutes.
B. Approve the January 22, 2025, City Council Regular Meeting Minutes.
C. Approve the November 18, 2024, Public Services Commission Meeting Minutes.
D. Accept and place on file the minutes from the December 16, 2024, Planning Commission meeting.
E. Approve the issuance of rental licenses to the properties listed in the attached table.
F. Authorize executing a service agreement for towing and impounding of vehicles with South East Towing, Inc.
G. Receive the 2025 State Fuel Contract pricing under State Contract Number 263096.
H. Authorize Public Works to advertise and sell surplus property on Cranky Ape and/or MNBid.
I. Approve Change Order #5 for the Utility and Engineering Building in the amount of $23,993.66.
J. Authorize service agreement with Oertel Architects for the Ice Arena lobby/office programming and
concept design services.
K. Adopt Resolution 2025-012 awarding the 2025 Hamlet Pond Maintenance project to the quote
supplied by New Look Contracting, Inc. in the amount of $97,592.00, and the appropriate officials are
hereby authorized to sign all necessary documents to effectuate these actions.
L. Adopt Resolution 2025-011, providing for the sale of the $10,000,000 General Obligation Bonds,
Series 2025A.
M. 1) Adopt Resolution 2025-013 approving the Final Plat for Prairie Dunes 1st Addition. 2) Approve the
Prairie Dunes 1st Addition Development Agreement with Pulte Homes of Minnesota, LLC, with minor
modifications as approved by the City Attorney. 3) Adopt Resolution 2025-014 approving the Prairie
Dunes 1st Addition Development Plans dated December 13, 2024, prepared by Westwood
Professional Services, Inc., subject to final approval by the City Engineer in writing.
None of the Council Members wished to pull any Items on the Consent Agenda for further comment and/or discussion.
Motion by Council Member Thiede to approve the Consent Agenda; second by Council Member Clausen.
Motion carried: 4-0.
8. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS
Approve disbursements for the period of 1-17-2025 through 1-30-2025 in the amount of
$2,511,892.70.
Motion by Council Member Garza to approve disbursements; second by Council Member Clausen.
Motion carried: 4-0.
9. PUBLIC HEARINGS - None.
10. BID AWARDS - None.
11. REGULAR AGENDA - None.
12. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS
Council Member Garza said I do see that we’re having a Fish Fry at River Oaks on February 28, so I think everybody should get down there and enjoy some great fish. Other than that, you
guys have a wonderful week.
Council Member Thiede said well, I guess, sticking with my general theme of Strawberry Fest and so forth, there is a first Bingo fundraiser at River Oaks on February 22nd at 11:00 a.m.
Other information is available online at strawberryfest.com. Other than that, I’m good.
Mayor Bailey said I was just going to real quick say that I’ve seen the picture of the button for this year, and it looks amazing, by the way. I know you talked about it in the
past, but I’ve seen it out on social media now, so whoever designed it did a really good job. It’s a fun button for this year, fantastic.
Council Member Clausen said everybody loves software upgrades, right? We all look forward to those. Well, over the last week or several months, our Finance Department and Utility Billing
people have been working diligently to get a new utility software system up and running. I know that takes a lot of people, it takes Finance, IT, the Utility people to get everything
working on time. Throughout the change, I know that staff has been receiving like upwards of, just last week, 500 phone calls from citizens asking about, having questions on how to
navigate the new system. It’s a lot of time, it’s a lot to ask the staff to do, and it seems to be going pretty well from what I hear, so a shout out to the staff and everyone that
worked so hard on that. Thank you.
Mayor Bailey replied fantastic, and that is true. The great news about that is it’s the questions were more about do I need to reset up my account? Obviously, the answer was yes;
so, if you’re watching, that is the answer, but nice job in the transition.
Council Member Garza said I can say that setting up your account is extremely fast and easy, it takes a couple of minutes, not a problem. You can pay your bill, set it on automatic
payment, and forget about it.
Mayor Bailey said it’s funny because that’s, I asked my wife the same question, I said, oh, by the way, did you know you have to do this? And she said of course I knew. And I’m
like okay, as long as it’s done!
Mayor Bailey said I don’t have anything else to add for this evening at this point.
Council Member Thiede said I guess we can mention, I guess there’s a Blizzard Bash down at Ravine Park, and that’s on February 15th, so that’s not this weekend, but the weekend after.
And we might even have, if everything comes down from the sky on Saturday and so forth, we might even have some snow to take advantage of the free use of snowshoes and sleds, and you
can strap on the skis and things like that. So, that’s on February 15th, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Ravine Park. Mayor Bailey said awesome, thank you.
Mayor Bailey said the next item on our agenda are workshops, which are open to the public, so we’ll be going into the Training Room. There are three items on our workshop this evening:
The Minnesota Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) Participation, the Police Annual Use of Force Report, and the Police and Fire 5-Year Strategic Plan Update.
We do not have any workshops closed to the public this evening, so we won’t be adjourning in here, we’ll adjourn in the Training Room. So, everybody have a great evening, and we’ll
see if we get that snow this weekend. Take care, everyone.
13. WORKSHOPS - OPEN TO PUBLIC - TRAINING ROOM
MN Law Enforcement Support Office (MN_LESO) Participation
Staff Recommendation: Authorize Cottage Grove Public Safety to continue participating in the Minnesota Law Enforcement Support Office program and the State Plan of Operations (SOP).
Mayor Bailey said Sergeant Bailey will be speaking on this.
Sergeant Bailey said so, if you’re not aware, we are still part of the Minnesota LESO program, and we’ve been a part of that now for a few years, I don’t even know how many years, probably
at least four or five years. If you’re not sure of what the LESO program is, ultimately, it’s excess equipment that the military has and they no longer use or need. Before just getting
rid of it, they open it up to law enforcement agencies that take part in their program and allow us to get equipment from them. That helps us save a lot on costs and ultimately allows
us to do our jobs safer, easier, and give us different products, such as medical equipment and stuff as well. So, it definitely saves us the costs.
In May, 2022, the Executive Order was signed, pretty much giving requirements that we have to follow in order to be a part of this program. One of them, obviously, is an annual
notice given to the City Council, which is us telling them that we intend to acquire controlled property from Federal sources, and then we also have to give notice to the community
that we’re going to acquire controlled property. Along with other things, such as community engagement and input, we have to do training on the products that we receive from LESO, documentation,
as we’re held accountable for all of that product. So, our department obviously made a policy and amended our policy and practices to abide by this Executive Order.
Some of the LESO program requirements are we have to conduct annual training on all of the controlled property, and we also have to have security and accountability measures to
ensure that it is just being used for law enforcement purposes only. We are not allowed to sell, trade, exchange, use it for personal use, any of that equipment, and we cannot transfer
it to another agency unless they are part of the program; it has to actually be transferred through the program to them. We also must do an annual inventory every single year, and if
anything is lost, stolen, or broken, we have 24 hours to report that to the LESO. We also have our MRAP, our armored vehicle, which is from LESO, and we have to do annual training on
that, which we do.
So, there are two types of property that we get from the LESO program:
The first is not controlled property, so, it’s like the AEDs and medical supplies, rescue equipment, clothing, tools, and what have you; we receive that equipment and it’s pretty
much transferred to us, after a year, ownership is then fully given to us. So, LESO, and the military, does not maintain ownership of that after one year.
The controlled property is different, however. The Department of Defense always retains ownership of that; so, it is really just a loan to us, and that’s going to include the armored
vehicles, robots, the night vision that we have.
Over the past four years, we’ve acquired multiple items, controlled and not controlled, a lot of rescue equipment and medical supplies, AEDs, First Aid kits, clothing, different protective
equipment, masks; and then we have also received in the past our armored vehicle, this is a controlled property, as are armored vehicles, ballistic protection, robots, and night vision.
So, we currently have those items of controlled property.
Honestly, us getting all of this stuff, it pretty much allows us to be ready and prepared if some type of a disaster would happen, we would have the medical equipment, supplies, and
it allows us to be more safe with the armored vehicle on these high distress, very dangerous calls that we might be going on. So, most important, LESO saves us a lot of money. The amount
of money that we have saved on this equipment, I don’t even know what that number’s at anymore, but it is very high. So, we’ve definitely had a lot of cost savings because we’ve been
a part of this program.
Sergeant Bailey said so, this is a bunch of property that we have obtained from the LESO program; again, it’s not just our armored vehicle or stuff for our rifles, or our night
vision. It’s ladders, ropes, rescue equipment, just a bunch of cold-weather gear, different types of clothing, backpacks, tools that have been utilized for our department, over at the
HERO Center. So, we have obtained a lot of equipment that we definitely do use.
We obviously engage with the community multiple times throughout the year, at different events. And then, obviously, we tell our patrol officers please try to engage with the community
as much as you can while we’re out patrolling. We do that, and we talk about our MRAP vehicle at community events, and we do demos, and we answer their questions and talk to the community
about it. We ultimately have a lot of support from the community with all of the items that we have obtained through LESO.
So, ultimately we’re asking the Council to authorize us to continue to participate in the LESO program, and then also authorize acquisition of controlled property, including firearms,
accessories, optic sights, night vision, and so on.
Mayor Bailey asked Council if they had any questions at all at this point.
Council Member Garza said that sounds like an amazing program, for one, for what we get. So, I do have a question, and maybe I missed it, so I apologize if you’ve already answered
this; it sounds like are you, are we purchasing these things at like a deeply-discounted rate, or is it just given to us?
Sergeant Bailey replied no, we’re not; yep, they’re just given to us. Most costs, a lot of times, sometimes it depends on the item, like if it ships, it might just be like a shipping
cost. But other than that, everything through the LESO program is free, we’re not having to pay anything to that program to obtain these items.
Council Member Garza asked so, how do you; is it like an online shopping thing, you choose and bid on what you want, and if it’s available, you get it, or?
Sergeant Bailey replied yeah, so, it is an online program, LESO program, that we have access to, and you can go in that program, and they’ll show a list of things that are available
in different locations. So, it’s spread out among different military bases, actually, all over the world. But it’s all spelled out, and you can go in there, and you can search specific
things that you’re looking for, a specific item that we’re in need of, and then you put in a request. Ultimately, a lot of times it comes to first come, first served. But like with
the Department of Defense, you can always comment, say we actually do need this. So, different, like Federal agencies, they get a little more priority over us on all the items, but
then ultimately, it’s a waiting list, and finally, it will be like yes, you got approved to take this.
Council Member Garza said thank you. And maybe this is something that you may not be able to answer, but just a question; with everything, would this be something that would be
affected by like the Federal order, by different departments, with this program? Is it something that would be affected that way, does anybody know?
Administrator Levitt replied, well, the thing is, all Federal programs are seeming to be affected in some way, shape, or form until, I mean, it may not be at this moment, but this
program may change. So, we’ll just keep on using it.
Mayor Bailey told Captain Brad Petersen to go ahead.
Captain Petersen said I’d like to comment on that, too. So, the Executive Order, that Nick referenced in 2022, was really restrictive, with the number of agencies participating
to get equipment, there were all kinds of requirements on as a deterrent, to discourage departments from participating. In addition to that, they really restrict the amount of product
that was servicing this program. So, over the last two years, we’ve gotten almost nothing from the program, to the point that we’ve stopped shopping, pretty much; we just stopped looking
at the website. My guess is that with the new President and new leadership team, that will probably change, and we’re hoping that that pipeline will open up again. Just as a point of
clarity, in the last five years, we’ve gotten in excess
of $10 million of equipment from LESO. So, that’s been a huge asset to departments in the community, a huge cost savings. These are things that we otherwise would’ve had to pay for or
gave us an opportunity to get things that we never could’ve afforded. So, it’s been a really good opportunity for us.
Council Member Thiede said like an armored vehicle.
Mayor Bailey replied yes. But one of the things I’ll just mention to you, Council Member Garza, when we first went through this program, what you’re referencing is there’s, if you
think about what was going on, what? Four years ago, when was it? Captain Petersen replied it started in 2019, I believe.
Mayor Bailey said, okay, so there was kind of this wave of demilitarizing, as they tried to say, the Police Departments, whereas if you even just heard what Nick was sharing, is
yes, there are important pieces, like AEDs, clothing, all that kind of stuff. So, we’ve always said as a Council in the past, we were 100% supportive of continuing with the program,
even though they’d tighten it up. Like Brad just said it, my comment was going to be I would expect a change by Executive Order, that’s probably going to free it up and loosen it up
a little bit more, just because of all these other ones that have been out there.
Council Member Thiede said I don't know, he’s kind of ticking a lot of people off.
Mayor Bailey replied, well, I don’t think this one; I mean, the general public, most of the public isn’t even aware of this program, to be frank with you. But I absolutely think
if he does loosen it up, it’s a benefit for us.
Council Member Garza said either way, either they do or don’t, I mean, then something else comes up. You just keep on shoppin’ and you’ll find something.
Council Member Clausen said thanks for that, thanks for letting us know. Anyway, what my question was, does that program or does a similar program exist but on the Fire side?
Fire Chief Jon Pritchard replied yeah, there’s something, I even looked into their portal, but there was a program, but it’s very limited. I’ve used it at previous Fire Departments,
I’ve looked at it, but it’s just not as robust as the City needs; like medical supplies are hard to find, and I think it’s kind of probably layered down, but it’s something that did
exist, I just don’t know for sure if it still exists.
Deputy Fire Chief Nick Arrigoni replied so, it’s the exact same program. The problem is the pecking order is tiered; so, it’s Federal customers first, then Law Enforcement, and
then Fire, and then there’s NTO below that. So, by the time Fire gets to pick, all the good stuff’s gone, generally.
Council Member Clausen said we could buy something for them. Mayor Bailey said I was going to say that, well, we are kind of a joint; Council Member Clausen said we’re a Public
Safety Department. Mayor Bailey said good point. Council Member Clausen said thank you.
Mayor Bailey asked so, do you actually need a recommendation this evening for this? Administrator Levitt replied yes. Director Koerner replied we need two separate authorizations. Mayor
Bailey said, so, if one of you Council Members would like to make the first motion.
Council Member Garza made a motion to authorize the Cottage Grove Police Department to continue participation in the Minnesota LESO Program; second by Council Member Thiede. Motion carried:
4-0.
Council Member Clausen made a motion to authorize the acquisition of controlled property, including firearms, accessories, and optics, night vision, and robots; second by Council Member
Thiede. Motion carried: 4-0.
Sergeant Bailey said thank you.
Police - Annual Use of Force Report
Staff Recommendation: Receive the 2024 Annual Use of Force Report.
Sergeant Bailey said we do thank you, Mayor and Council and City Administrator, City staff, for allowing us to be with you tonight and share our 2024 Annual Use of Force Report. I’ll
go over all the Use of Force data from last year, and then I’ll also cover some of our S.W.A.T. data from last year as well.
I’ll let you read through Chief Koerner’s message, but ultimately this report just shows the accountability that we hold on ourselves to make sure that what we’re doing is effective
and working and safe, and that we really focus hard on training and making sure that we’re up to date on all the latest policies and procedures and Best Practices.
Our Police Department’s Mission Statement and Vision Statement again talk again about how we invest in all sorts of safety, wellness, and training. We employ the best equipment,
technology, and practices in our organization.
So, in the Cottage Grove Police Department, we have a culture of excellence within our organization, and it’s not just one thing that allows that; it takes multiple things to create
that culture, and it starts with clear and effective policies, being transparent, engaging with the community, holding ourselves accountable, and we have a good, strong oversight of
our department and our officers. And then it kind of goes again in investing in our training because that is the best equipment for our officers so they can do their job well and safely,
for themselves and the community. And it also entails collecting that data, right? I’ll get into that with our Use of Force database, and analyzing that data so we can constantly change.
At the center of all that, it ultimately creates that culture of just continuing to learn, you’re never too old to learn something new. So, we don’t want to get stagnant, we want to
keep learning and improving, and we ultimately just have that commitment to always find a way for our department and ourselves to improve.
Use of Force Report: Use of Force kind of starts with that officer, that officer is going to believe he’s probably going to be involved in a Use of Force, or immediately after a Use
of Force incident happens, they’re required to notify their supervisor on duty; and then they will complete a narrative of the incident, but then they create a separate Use of Force
Report.
When that sergeant or supervisor gets down there, they’re going to assess for injuries, coordinating medical aid, whether it’s for the subject or the officer or anyone that’s involved,
and coordinate that medical treatment for them. That sergeant is going to gather as much information as possible: They’re going to interview the police officer, kind of get their side,
as far as what happened; but then they’re going to go and try to convince the subject to talk with them, talk with the subject to figure out their viewpoint on what happened, along
with any other witnesses that might have seen what took place. And then they’re going to make sure everything, all the evidence, is collected properly. When they go back to the Police
Department, they are going to wait for that officer to complete that narrative for that incident and that Use of Force Report. The supervisor is going to review both of those and ultimately
make sure that it’s documented properly, everything that needs to be in there, and making sure it’s accurate.
Once that sergeant reviews that Use of Force Report, they really have two options: They can either read it and say no, it’s missing things or we need more clarity on this, and they
can send that back to the officer and talk with that officer. If everything is good, they will then push it forward to our Use of Force Review Committee.
Use of Force Review Committee: Our Use of Force Review Committee consists of four people: Two sergeants (myself, as I’m in charge of and am a lead instructor for our Use of Force program,
and Sergeant Lindeen, who is the lead instructor for our firearms program training); and then two officers, one from our Investigations division and one from Patrol, who are also instructors
within our department. We meet quarterly, and we review every Use of Force incident that happened that quarter. In this review, we read the Use of Force Report, and then we will actually
go into the incident and read the incident report, and then watch any body cam videos, any squad videos, any audio that’s available. We’re going to be looking for making sure everything
went the way it should that we trained for, making sure there are no policy violations.
Once we review everything, we have three options that we can do as a Use of Force Review Committee: 1) We can say it’s reasonable and within policy, and then we close out the case
and it’s good to go, and the data is in our database. 2) If it’s reasonable and within policy, but we might have seen something that maybe is something that we need to work on in training,
or maybe it’s a piece of equipment that wasn’t functioning the way its supposed to, or maybe there’s something in our policy, so maybe we need to look at that policy. So, it’s still
within policy, so it’s still reasonable, but then ultimately, we’ll check that, it gets closed out, and we will be documenting things that maybe we need to talk about or work on in
training and talk to the officers about. 3) If we do believe that there’s a policy violation, we can refer it to our Command Staff. When we do that, the Command gets notified, we’ll
sit
down and talk about it, and then they can review it as well, and make a determination if there was some type of policy violation.
Also, in the Review Committee, we look at all the data, we analyze the data, we collect it throughout that year, and we use it to kind of modify our training plans for the next
year or even sometimes immediately in that year or after the quarter; we modify the training plans to make sure we are addressing any type of problem or issue we might have run into.
2024 Use of Force Statistics: This is kind of a snippet of what our database looks like once all the numbers are in, and I’ll talk about a lot of the numbers here. We’ll look at our
2024 Use of Force statistics: There are three lines here, the blue line, which is our population; the orange line, which is Calls for Service; and the gray line at the bottom is our
crime. So, from 2019, you’re looking at that blue line, our population, and it’s increasing. With that, you’ll see that our Calls for Service volume is also increasing, with a big increase
in 2022 and 2023. The interesting thing about this is if you look at that gray line, our crimes are actually decreasing. I think multiple things go into that, on why it’s decreasing
despite having higher population and higher Calls for Service; I think one of the main ones is just our officers feel that they have enough support from their Council and their administration
that they’re not afraid to go out there and do proactive police work, and hold people accountable as they are committing the crimes. And word of that travels fast of cities that are
not allowing people to get away with crime in their cities. An example I like to use is we’ll talk about pursuits, I’ll talk about pursuits here in a little bit, but we have multiple
times been involved in pursuits, we end up getting the person stopped, and we take them into custody; the first thing they say to us is, “What are you doing? You’re not allowed to pursue
us.” Well, no, we are, we are allowed to, and we’re going to hold you accountable. So, that words travels fast among people who like to go to cities and commit crimes, that hey, don’t
go there because if you get caught, they actually hold you accountable.
Council Member Garza said it also shows our neighbors, just for 2024, that we have that many calls, so when people see something, they’re saying something, and that’s really awesome.
Sergeant Bailey said last year, we had 41,160 Calls for Service, and out of those Calls for Service, we had 90 Use of Force incidents. So, if you kind of look at this graph, it
goes all the way to 2017, you see that Calls for Service going up, but what you actually see is the Use of Force stays relatively the same; within 2024, less than ¼% of our Calls for
Service resulted in a Use of Force. So, that’s a positive variable number and that’s a good number, and there’s a lot that plays a factor in that. I think the biggest factor is our
training, our tactics that we train our officers with, and especially deescalation. We try our best to deescalate the situation to get the subject to comply so we don’t have to use
force, as force is the last thing we want to have to use. So, we’ll go above and beyond and try to get to them in time to comply, it’s a lot safer for us and the community to do so.
Pursuits: This is a graph of pursuits. You can see in 2022, we had 32 pursuits, and then in 2023, we had 19, and in 2024, we had 15 pursuits. So, literally, half the amount of pursuits.
Again, why that number dropped so drastically I think basically is because of a couple factors: 1) That word of mouth is going around, like hey, Cottage Grove will pursue you, and they
will hold you accountable. 2) We have adjusted and adopted different training methods to try to not even allow the person to flee in a vehicle, with blocking the vehicle; waiting for
them to park somewhere and then going in and blocking them in so that they can’t even have the chance to run from us.
This graph shows all the different Uses of Force that we have or do and the frequency they happen. If you look at the left side of this graph, this is kind of a low level of force, the
Escort Hold. It’s really just grabbing someone and holding them by the arm and escorting them somewhere; 61 times we had force where he used the Escort Hold, and then the other two
are your grappling and your takedown, to take someone down, or wrestling them down to the ground. But if you look at the center, where you’re starting to get to like the Less Lethal
options, like the PepperBall, the Taser, 40-mm. impact, even our K9s. You’ll see the orange is just displayed, but we didn’t even deploy any of that, that’s just being displayed or
threatened use to the subject. If you look at the actual amount of times we actually deployed, for the PepperBall it was three; for Taser, it was only two; K9 apprehension, we didn’t
have any apprehensions with our K9, the threat of our K9 being there itself was enough to get the subject to comply.
And I want to touch on the chemical restraint just because I know we talked about this last year. So, we did have six of them last year, where our medics had to chemically restrain
someone just because it wasn’t safe for us to transport them or keep fighting with them; so, our medics, if they feel it’s necessary to use chemical sedation, it
is six times, but a lot of that is still coming from the group homes. I know last year we had to keep chemically sedating an individual multiple times, the same individual in multiple
incidents, resulted in chemical sedation, which caused those numbers to go up. So, we had six of them, and, again, a lot of that has happened because we are dealing with someone in
a mental health crisis, and a lot of times they’re from one of the group homes.
Mayor Bailey asked is he the one that’s gone now? Is that the one that’s in? Sergeant Bailey replied yes.
Captain Petersen said, so, that particular individual is gone, but we’re still having issues at the same group home with different subjects at the group home.
Council Member Garza asked do we feel that the new social worker situation, is that maybe going to help with some of this here, with like sending them to situations? Are they planning
on going to situations, or are they just going to?
Captain Petersen replied generally, a social worker comes into play after we’ve stabilized the situation. So, they’re not going to deal with somebody who is acutely in crisis. We
have to go in there and control the scene, which oftentimes will result in a Use of Force or something. But then, in the long-term plan, the social worker definitely plays a role.
Mayor Bailey said I don’t want to get off your slide stuff here, but my question is if we keep having problems with this particular group home, what options do we have? I mean, are there
options out there that we can deal with?
Captain Petersen replied so, other than that, we don’t have many options at this point. We did involve Child Protective Services last week, and they’re exploring their options.
But, as you know, the State and the County control all licensing and really, the City has very few options.
Mayor Bailey said I mean, is that something we can or I can talk with like our County Commissioner or Jennifer can?
Captain Petersen replied this one’s licensed through Hennepin County. Mayor Bailey replied oh, this one’s through Hennepin County, which Captain Petersen confirmed.
Captain Petersen said another thing that comes into play, too, is oftentimes these patients aren’t even residents of Washington County, they’re coming from often Dakota or Hennepin
Counties and can be placed here in our group homes. So, that even further limits our options because we’re used to dealing with our own Social Services network. Mayor Bailey said okay.
Captain Petersen said you know, Hennepin or Dakota County doesn’t really care if we have a problem here.
Mayor Bailey said I just don’t like it.
Administrator Levitt said I think the main reason the mayor’s bringing it up is when we met with the School District, they were very nervous about sending their kids to the bus stop
near that specific place; Mayor Bailey said yes. And, so, they were wondering what action we could take in regards to that. So, the School District is feeling that. Mayor Bailey asked
could we address that?
Director Koerner replied we can put together more of a response; I mean, I’m on a first-name basis with half of the people in that neighborhood because I call them, you know?
Mayor Bailey replied yeah, and I’ve gotten messages, and then it got brought up when we met with the School District.
Director Koerner said I can put together a detailed response for them as to what we could do and everything.
Mayor Bailey said I mean, I don’t blame them to be concerned with that kind of stuff going on there.
Director Koerner said and Council Member Garza, just to speak to this one, also, as Captain Petersen said, that our social worker will deal with a lot of people in crisis, but to
me, when I see this number that we only used 60 or 80 Uses of Force incidents, less than 1%, that’s amazing. And if I look back to 25 years ago, as a street officer, there was no such
thing as deescalation, talking to people; I mean, it was right to the pepper spray or something, so, to me, these numbers are just amazing, that we rarely use force out there, so.
Council Member Garza said I agree.
Mayor Bailey said you know what’s interesting to me then, too, just to piggyback, if I’m the average Joe citizen, I don’t consider me, I don’t consider 61 Escorts to be a Use of Force.
I’m thinking, like you said, that middle part is really, truly Use of Force, if you will, because you’re almost having to use a tool versus just guiding somebody into a squad.
Director Koerner said and back in the day, you didn’t document if you handcuffed, but now we have to, that’s the way you document things.
Sergeant Bailey replied yeah, so, that’s one thing we wanted to make sure, when we created this Use of Force Reporting, is that we count very low-level things as force, compared
to a lot of other agencies; they wouldn’t count an Escort Hold as force. So, we count Escort Holds as force; when you put handcuffs on someone during a Use of Force incident, that’s
actually smart during that incident that you put handcuffs on them, as that is technically a Use of Force event in that circumstance.
Council Member Clausen said well, it shows that we are using force, but it shows we’re using appropriate force. So, those lower Escort Holds, those are important to capture.
Injuries: Sergeant Bailey said, so, we also track injuries for subjects and officers. So, last year, we had eight injuries to subjects, which six of them were paramedic evals for minor
injuries, and two of them were decontamination; so, it was either PepperBall or OC spray, something that the officer’s responsible for deconning them. And we had ten injuries to officers,
and they were all minor injuries; they did not result in any lost work hours, there were no major injuries. If you look at that number again, especially for the subject injuries, I
want to point this out: So, in 2019, we had 22 of them, and then it went down to 18, and then in 2021, it dropped to 8, and then it shot back up in 2022 to 15. And that’s what we use
this data we collect for, like what’s causing these injuries? Is it a certain tactic, or is there a better tactic available for all of us to use? So, we adjust our training and adjust
what our different techniques would be for wanting to take someone down or whatnot; and we started utilizing that and training on that more. And then, honestly, I believe it’s effective
because now this last year we only had eight, and again, they were all minor injuries. And as far as the officers, we track it: If an officer got hit in the face, it’s a minor injury.
If they have an injury that needs to be looked at, it needs to be bandaged up, that does count, and so, we only had ten for that.
Captain Petersen said, if I may, I want to get back to why we had an increase in officer injuries. So, dating back a couple years ago, the trend began to start eliminating Taser
use and putting more and more restrictions on OC and PepperBall and things like that. So, our option then is to go hands on every time we’re arresting somebody in a difficult environment
and it’s going to result in bumps and bruises and scrapes; so, that’s likely why you see an increase in the number of injuries to our officers. It’s not good or bad, it is what it is,
so that’s just kind of the hand we’re dealt.
Council Member Garza said that makes sense, thank you.
Sergeant Bailey said this slide kind of shows the residency; so, 52% of our Use of Force incidents happen with someone who did not live here in Cottage Grove, and 48% did live here in
Cottage Grove. So, over half of our Use of Force incidents happened with someone who was not from here, but was coming to our City to commit a crime, and it ended up with us using force
on them. So, we’re not just using force on the citizens of Cottage Grove, and a lot of times it’s people who are coming here from another city to commit a crime. And in the demographic
here, they break it down for the race: So, 59.36% of Use of Force incidents involved those who were White, 26.74% were Black, and then we have Asian, 6.24%, Native American, 2.94%.
So, that’s a similar proportion to the demographics here in Cottage Grove. So, we’re not using force on one race, more than another.
Like I said, we had a total of 90 Use of Force incidents last year, 100% of them were deemed reasonable. Out of the 90, 87 were reasonable, within policy, and 3 were reasonable, within
policy, but an opportunity to improve, whether it was tactics, training, or equipment needs. And then 0 cases were referred to Command for any type of policy violation. We did break
our four-or-five-year streak of 0 Use of Force complaints, as we had 2 complaints regarding force last year, but they were unfounded.
Sergeant Bailey said so, to try to sum all of that up, ultimately what this data is showing is force is seldomly used, and use of deadly force is extremely rare. Most of our incidents
are resolved using our deescalation strategies and very minimal force. Low injury rates to subjects, low injury rates to officers, so it shows that our
tactics are safe, our training is effective. Ultimately, our officers are using very good judgment, very good practices when dealing with subjects of an incident.
With that, I’ll look at and give you an overview of what our training plan is for this upcoming year. So, every officer in our department will have a total of 90 hours of inhouse
training. We will have 56 hours of just a monthly inservice, you can see that on the side, how that breaks down into different categories, how long we’ll be training, the amount of
hours we train in each category. And those are just inhouse hours, that’s not including external training that officers put in for and go out and do outside our agency. This is just
inside our agency itself.
Equipment Policy Updates: So, this year, we are replacing our Taser X2s and going to the Taser 7s, and that transition will be happening in April, as Taser is not supporting their X2s
anymore; so, we need to just update to their Taser 7. We amended our policy to give officers a choice on some of the less-lethal options that they carry, so they get a choice of the
PepperBall Blast or the REPULS spray or REPULS safe, its like OC spray, just a different brand. It’s a lot easier for officers to decontaminate ourselves; so, they have to either carry
PepperBall Blast or REPULS spray and they have to carry either a Taser or an asp baton. So, we amended our policy to give officers that option.
Sergeant Bailey asked if there were any questions on the Use of Force database, and none were asked.
Annual S.W.A.T. Report: Sergeant Bailey said I’ll just touch quickly on our Annual S.W.A.T. Report. As most of you are well aware, we are a multijurisdictional team compromised of members
from departments from each city, along with the Washington County Sheriff's Office. So, there are 43 tactical officers on the team, 15 tech, 15 rotators, 5 paramedics, and a chaplain;
out of those, Cottage Grove provides 6 tactical officers, 2 tech members, and 2 negotiators. We are a Tier 2 team because we do base that off the NTOA standards for a S.W.A.T. team;
we’re a Tier 2 team, which shows that we are equipped and trained enough to do a hostage rescue mission, an active shooter mission, high-risk warrants, barricaded subjects, and civil
unrest.
In 2023, we had 64 missions for our S.W.A.T. team. As you can see, in 2019 it jumped to 43, and it’s kind of been going up since then. Around that time, as you’ll see on this next
slide, a big reason for that is we were doing a lot more arrests with a quick response or were at differing events throughout the cities, all over the county. We’re doing a lot more
P.R. events as well, getting out there and engaging the community. So, last year, we had 33 QRS events that we completed; again, that’s like here, with the Strawberry Fest, the Food
Truck Festival, but eight cities all over the County are liking that. It’s just in case something were to happen, but it’s also good P.R., we’re out there talking with citizens in those
communities, and they like seeing us, so it’s really taken off. So, we’ve been having to do a lot of those.
We also had like barricaded subjects, we had two hostage rescue missions last year, and then a handful of warrant service missions as well.
Director Koerner asked Sergeant Bailey if he could quickly comment on that. Cottage Grove, we were kind of the test community; do you remember about 4-or-5 years ago, we were like
the first ones, we were like, we’re going to do a demo at the Strawberry Fest, and Woodbury and some of the Stillwater people were like, oh, my God, you’re going to bring S.W.A.T. to
your event? Now, they’re all like we’re doing that at Woodbury Days, we’re doing that. So, I mean, it just speaks volumes, I think, for our community with how lucky we are that they
support us. So, it’s like, why wouldn’t you have a K9 demo here? So, it’s just another reason, it’s great that we have the support. When we first started doing this, we were like how
are people going to respond? It’s been incredible, so, thanks.
Sergeant Bailey said, in 2024, we did zero no-knock warrant operations, and obviously, no knock and nighttime warrant service, they are only for the most dangerous situations where
really no other safer options exist.
Training: As far as members of our S.W.A.T. team, everyone received 190 annual training hours last year, that’s 10 hours each month, with the addition of a Spring inservice, which was
hosted at our HERO Center, for 30 hours, and then a Fall weeklong inservice at Camp Ripley. This last year we transitioned over to McCoy for that 60 hours in that one week. We have
our different specialties, our snipers and our breachers amongst our team; they have additional training each month, or quarterly, along with our negotiators and tech team, they are
now training monthly as well. Again, that’s so we meet those NTOA standards. Plus, we send multiple different operators to different courses and conferences, so that’s additional training
hours they get. Any new operators need to do our 40-hour basic S.W.A.T. course before they are allowed to be active on the team.
Accomplishments: A big one was Washington County ordered our new BearCat, through Lenco, and it was supposed to be here soon-ish; however, Lenco has contracts with Federal agencies,
and if a Federal agency comes in and requests armor, they get bumped to the top of the list. Well, a Federal agency came in and requested 140 or 170 BearCats, so we got pushed way down.
So, we are behind, but we’re hoping still to have that new one by the end of this year. In the meantime, our current BearCat is getting refurbished, and that should actually be back
in service here, hopefully by the end of this month or early next month if all still goes as planned.
Sergeant Bailey said that is all I have. Does anyone have any questions?
Mayor Bailey asked if Council had any questions; none were asked, but Council Member Garza said thank you, and Council Member Thiede said good job.
Sergeant Bailey said thank you very much. Mayor Bailey said sounds good, thank you.
Police and Fire - Five-Year Strategic Plan Updates
Staff Recommendation: Receive the Police and Fire Five-Year Strategic Plan Update.
Director Koerner said I’ll just start this before I turn it over to Captain Petersen. Since we were having the workshops to do this, LESO and Use of Force, I just thought this would
be a good opportunity to give you; I know at the Strategic retreat we had a whole board on everything. So, in the interest of time, we’re not going to go through everything, but we’ve
accomplished a lot. What I’m looking for out of this workshop, afterwards, is really how do you guys want feedback in the future? We do the quarterly reports, I know at the Strategic
retreat, we kind of talked about some of the dashboard stuff that the Fire Chief provides. So, that’s what we’re kind of looking for is just a high level, highlight of a lot of our
accomplishments. In the future, it’s not going to be a workshop every quarter or anything, but just to kind of show you what we’ve done. In the future, how do you want it reported back
to you? We’re accomplishing a lot, and we want to get that out to you. So, with that, I’ll turn it over to Captain Petersen and then Chief Pritchard will give an update on Fire and
EMS.
Captain Petersen said as the Chief said, we’ve talked a lot about our Strategic Plan and our successes, and I do have a presentation prepared, but I would much rather have a discussion
to your particular interests. So, if you have any particular interest after we talked about our Strategic Plan and you’ve seen our Annual Report, I’d be happy to do those now and we
can just lay the focus on that. Otherwise, I’ll forge into my prepared presentation.
Mayor Bailey said well, if you’re okay, why don’t you go ahead and do your prepared presentation, and then, I guess I’ll tell you in advance what I’m interested in on both sides
is kind of where we’re at, from a staffing level. And then maybe whether you have it tonight or not, response times and things like that on the Fire side for medics. That’s probably
the biggest interest that I have is just how are we doing with getting ourselves staffed where you want to be?
Captain Petersen replied I have the answer to both questions.
Council Member Thiede said and then again, the changes and so forth, because we just recently saw a lot of this and I know I’ve seen it more times than others, but.
Director Koerner replied it’s still relatively new with the last year’s workshop and everything.
Captain Petersen said there are a lot of changes, it’s a lot to digest, so, I know we’ve been throwing a lot at you.
Pillars of our Strategic Plan: Captain Petersen said as you know, there are five pillars to our Strategic Plan: Core Functions, Community, Taking Care of our Officers, making sure that
we have the Best Equipment and Practicing Technology, and then Preparing our Organization for Growth. So, these next few slides are going to organize our discussion under those pillars.
Core Functions: We have a number of metrics to help us gauge success and progress in those Core Functions: Patrol Functions, Traffic Safety, Investigations, etc. You can see what some
of those metrics are, and on a quarterly basis, you are getting that quarterly report that’s showing you all that data. As we get more and more data coming in, we’re starting to establish
trends and be able to be more predictive and reach more conclusions based on that data, so, that’s been awesome. So, in the next slide, I’ll show you a few of the collect data that
I think are most meaningful that were extracted from our Annual Report. There were two noteworthy actions that we focused on
this last year that bear mentioning: We added the Traffic Safety Officer, we added a third K9, and added a Crime Scene Team just recently. Our All Hazardous Plan was updated and we did
a bunch of Emergency Management training and some drills; so, there’s all really good stuff going on in our Core Functions.
In terms of the metrics, you can see how many proactive checks we’re doing, and so, despite the fact that our officers are doing a lot of Calls for Service, in comparison to other
agencies, they still have a fair amount of time to go out and be proactive, check the parks, check the schools, patrol our business communities, stop and talk to citizens, things like
that. So, that’s one metric that helps us decide, do we need to add more officers? Do we need to consider a different response model? And the fact that we still are doing a ton of these
proactive checks, and that number is not declining, indicates to me that we had at least a bare minimum number of officers on the street to achieve their mission. And, again, that’s
just one metric that we use to make that decision, but that’s a really good sign. Calls for Service and Response Times, you can see that in comparison to the Benchmark Survey, we’re
about 30 seconds faster for Priority 1 calls; again, what that means is we have enough officers, and our response model is working. We’re beating other agencies, which is a great thing;
the faster we get there, officers are controlling the scene, and can save lives.
Cottage Grove has extremely low crime rates, both for person crimes and property crimes. As you can see on the top, we’re averaging 7 crimes per 1,000 vs. 10; and with property
crimes, we’re about a third of the national average, so extremely safe. The same thing with mental health calls and overdoses, they’re way lower than our competitors. I shouldn’t call
them competitors, but they are, those are the averages. Traffic Safety: We’re right on par, where we need to be. Be advised we’re doing more DWIs and as Nick said, our pursuits are
trending down, which is a really good thing, because we know pursuits are very dangerous and fraught with all kinds of liabilities and risks; so, it’s a good thing that our pursuits
are trending down, but our officers do still have the power to chase when it is prudent. So, it’s not, those numbers aren’t declining by virtue of us tightening the screws on them and
restricting them from doing their job, they’re just being smarter about when they should and should not chase. Like Nick said, we’re doing things to try to prevent that pursuit in the
first place.
Clearance rates is another place that we’re excelling. Our detectives are averaging about 80% clearance rates, which means 80% of the cases that get referred to them are getting
solved, and that case is resulting in a criminal charge. When you think about some of the cases that get referred to them with very minimal leads, they’re getting out there and doing
incredible detective work, and they have some time, frankly, to invest in these cases so that they can pursue charges on these cases. Frankly, most agencies are so overburdened by the
huge call volumes and lack of staffing that their detectives are averaging 2, 3, 4, or 5 times the amount of cases, and they just don’t have time to invest in these cases that are lower
severity or there are no good leads. And, so, their clearance rates are generally around 40% or 50%, for most departments; and look at us, we’re up at about 80%.
Out of all this data, the thing that I’m most proud of is our Police Services Survey. We’re averaging about a 94% satisfaction rate overall, and it’s just unbelievable for police
agencies to achieve a satisfaction rate like that. So, above all else, that’s what I’m most proud of.
Council Member Thiede asked what’s the sample quantity on that? How many people?
Captain Petersen replied, so, right now, it’s at about 100 respondents. And the odd thing is, it’s not odd, but interesting, when the first surveys started coming in, you know,
it was at 90-some percent, and I thought it was by virtue of this being a small sample size. But as more and more keep coming in, it’s holding steady right there, it’s not dropping
at all. The other thing is that we don’t really choose, we’re not sending these surveys out to people who we expect to be happy with our services; it’s going out to random samples.
And it’s available on our website, it’s available on social media. We hand it out to everybody on the street after delivering our service, and so, there are plenty of people that we
expect wouldn’t be incredibly happy with us that are giving us good marks.
Captain Petersen said all right, we’re moving on to Pillars of Our Community. There aren’t a whole lot of really good metrics for this, but one of those is our Use of Force data that
Nick just talked about; so, we rely on a lot of intangibles, and that’s a mark of progress by things that we’ve done and accomplished and it has been a lot in the last year:
One of the really cool things is that we’re now using our post-service commission as a Citizen Advisory Board, which is another way that we can give the community an opportunity to provide
feedback on our services and give input on our decision making. We put a lot of effort into branding and leveraging social media to get our
message out there to the community and engage the community. We know that it doesn’t reach everyone in the community, but this is a really powerful tool.
We’re also starting the process of upgrading our website, just recently, so hopefully within the next six months, we can see that come to fruition.
Our Annual Report got published, and that was something that I personally was a little bit nervous about because to throw that much data out there without explanations, it can easily
run wildly, especially on Facebook; but there was overwhelming support behind that, very few off-color comments, and one comment was specifically addressed by a community member, which
is pretty cool to see.
Community Impact Team is doing great things, we added a social worker.
Another cool thing is that our Explorer Program and our Reserve Officer Program have been revitalized. At one point, our Reserve Program was down to about six Reserves, now it’s up to
about 15; we didn’t stop taking applications, but we had to stop taking people on, and we just kind of put them in a holding pattern. With the Explorer Program, we’re up to around 17
Explorers, and they’re doing great in the competitions; again, that’s starting to increase that recruitment pipeline super early, and a lot of these Explorers will hopefully be future
police officers here.
A lot of work went into investing in our employees, making sure that they feel appreciated and people are recognizing Cottage Grove as an Employer of Choice. There are some good metrics
there that shows we’re doing a good job and Core Values are acting positively. All of these things that you’ve heard us talking about, that we’ve asked permission for and you’ve authorized,
have made a huge difference there. Labor contracts went a long way to making our employees feel appreciated and establishing us as an Employer of Choice. The C.S.O. Cadet program is
a landmark in our recruiting efforts, and then we’ve done a really good job about recognizing our employees and awarding them appropriately.
A couple technology and practice type things that have changed recently: We did the ALPR, which is an Automated License Plate Reader; that testing phase didn’t go so well, so we shelved
it and started to look at FLOCK. We’ve got a proposal that’s ready, I’m just waiting on the bundling piece. That’s a really exciting opportunity that’s right there, at our fingertips.
We’re revisiting the ALPR thing because Motorola came back and they offered us a free trial for an entire year for our whole fleet, so we’re going to definitely seize that opportunity.
Mayor Bailey asked what is FLOCK?
Captain Petersen replied it’s cameras that we position throughout town; it also has a license plate reader on it, and so, it basically gives us alerts whenever there’s a stolen
vehicle or a KOPS Alert or a particular vehicle we’re looking for. It’s a really great tool, and a big piece of it, to me, is an investigative piece on the back end; so, if I’ve got
a burglary report and it says that there was a white sedan canvassing the neighborhood that might be related to this case, I can literally go in and search Cottage Grove and all the
surrounding areas that use FLOCK for a white sedan, even with a partial license plate, at this time and place. It will give us potential leads to assist us in our investigation.
Council Member Thiede said I believe the ALPR, and that’s with Motorola, is a competitor to FLOCK; what would you say the differences are?
Captain Petersen replied Motorola’s system network that we’re testing is squad based, its in our squad cars. They do have a stationary camera feature that we haven’t tested or explored.
FLOCK is more of the stationary camera piece.
Council Member Thiede said so, I’ve got to believe, though, that it can’t be just, it’s probably a combination of both; I imagine a certain part of it is the access they have to
different databases and information. It’s not just reading a license plate, it’s been effectively using some AI or some interpretive type of deal to go out and get information and provide
you some feedback, based on the information that it collects wherever that information is.
Captain Petersen replied right, so, both systems use proprietary software; they access both NCIC and BCA DMV records, things like that, to search for queries based on whatever parameters
we set up, it’ll alert us in that proprietary software.
Council Member Thiede asked so, are you just finding that the stationary readers that FLOCK has, you’re obviously positioning those in certain places to read those, is giving you more
information than having it right in the squad car?
Captain Petersen replied they both have pros and cons. The pros of the FLOCK is that they’re 24/7; every single car that drives by is getting read and queried, whereas in the squad
car, not every squad car is at 80th and Jamaica, 24/7.
Director Koerner said there’s a lot of challenges with the Motorola, but at night it’s not always picking up; I mean, it works fine in a business parking lot or something, so. But
their technology is also getting better, so that’s why we haven’t closed the door on them.
Council Member Thiede said and some of the FLOCK video analysis where it’s picking up is doing a little bit better. Captain Petersen said yes.
Director Koerner said kind of, but we’ve also been working with our IT Department, Bryan has looked at FLOCK, and he can kind of design it with the parked cameras and stuff, too;
so, there’s a lot of additional things that we can benefit from.
Captain Petersen said the back end of FLOCK, the investigative piece, is what drove us; so, those other agencies who have been using FLOCK, it’s proven to be a very good tool to
help them solve crimes on the back end, as well as being able to detect those stolen vehicles and things like that to patrol officers.
Mayor Bailey said that incident that was at the Woodbury Target, was that using FLOCK? Captain Petersen replied yes. Mayor Bailey said that’s what I thought, okay.
Mayor Bailey said and then, Brian, and you already said it, Woodbury is using FLOCK, and would we able to talk together and link up together?
Brian Bluhm, IT Manager, replied yes. Everybody in the country that uses FLOCK can choose to share data; and. so, not every agency chooses to share, but why wouldn’t you?
Mayor Bailey said right, exactly. Thank you.
Captain Petersen said and just an example, too, we had an incident like at Hadley and 97th, or by Hadley and Greene, a shooting, right, last year? We read off the license plate
once we finally got it off a Ring camera of one of the houses. Woodbury heard us air that, and then they ran that through their FLOCK, and they were able to say, hey, what time was
that at? Well, I have that vehicle, it just hit a FLOCK camera at 11:30 p.m. in St. Paul. So, they have access to that so then we could see where that vehicle was and where it went.
Just so you know, we had a committee that, they were working with FLOCK, and we planned out or we discussed how many cameras we’d need at full implementation, and then would fill
that in stages. Stage 1 of implementation, and so, ideally, we’d like to start with between 6-to-12 cameras in Phase 1, that’s dependent on our funding sources or exploring different
funding options. So, once we secure that funding piece, we’re ready to run.
Mayor Bailey asked what is the cost of a camera? Captain Petersen replied that would be $3,000 per camera, per year. Mayor Bailey asked $3,000? He said I’ll be honest with you,
it’s not as bad as I thought.
Council Member Garza said no, not at all.
Director Koerner said we’re looking at some different business partnerships; like in Hudson, Uline got like 12 for that community. I mean, obviously, they have one near there to
help, so. TJ Maxx actually has a grant out right now that we’re looking at, so that would help; we’re looking at our Business District, too, and maybe some associations could pay for
one.
Council Member Clausen said one last question, Brad, while we’re talking about cameras, with our portable cameras and trailers that we have, right, that’s after my time, can that be
integrated into S.W.A.T.?
Captain Petersen replied yes, if; so, there’s a piece of S.W.A.T. where they’ve got like a, I’m not a techie, so, I’m not going to go through this, but they have a piece of technology
where you can take all of your different video sources and streams, run them through their technology, and then it implements all those capabilities in S.W.A.T.
Council Member Clausen said of course the cameras would also be much, much, higher than that, so that might be hard to.
Director Koerner said that’s what Brian is talking about, with the park building here and some of those, so, right now. It doesn’t have to be their actual FLOCK camera system.
Council Member Clausen said okay.
Director Koerner replied yes, so, but you’re right with ours, so, I’m with Brad on that, but that’s our IT Department.
Captain Petersen said that piece was kind of expensive, I’ll give him that, that was a little expensive, but it would be cool.
Captain Petersen said I’m not going to get into all of this, but if you have specific questions, but just know that we have spent a ton of time and some long-range planning and preparing
to grow with our community and adapt to the changing challenges and needs of our community. We envision ourselves and we brand ourselves as being innovators and leaders, and we’re committed
to that. We’re doing a lot, I was going to say doing a lot with a little, but that’s not right to say; we have the resources we need at this point. Would we like more? Yes, but honestly,
we fare better than most communities in terms of maintaining adequate staffing. But relative to other agencies, we do and achieve a lot more, we offer a lot more services and better
service to our community than most communities do. It’s even, I’m still impressed and a little bit amazed sometimes how we manage to keep all these balls in the air and do what we do
with the number of officers and resources that we have. When you look at the dollars and cents, we are doing more, reporting better with four budgets and the amount of overtime compared
to our best mark averages. I just don’t know how to say it other than just by every metric and way you can measure it, our department is doing great.
Captain Petersen said with that, I’ll open it up for questions. Mayor Bailey asked Council if they had any questions.
Director Koerner said there was one that you had mentioned with like the staffing; I know Jon has some for Fire, but as far as police staffing, I mean, when we got the DUI grant,
and as I mentioned, we have the three new officers that have just started. So, we’re at, we have the authorized staffing of 48, and we’re able to, Marshal is being deployed, so we’re
able to move hiring up; a couple of our C.S.O. candidates can’t start as fulltime police, and so, we’re at that point where, fingers crossed, we’re going to be at our 48 officers.
Mayor Bailey asked so, even with the deployment? Director Koerner replied well, we’ll be at 47, but we use some of those savings with him being gone for 10 months to push one of
our hires up. So, I think last year the reorganization that we did with the Community Impact and Administrative Sergeant, actually, Sergeant Coffey has recently gotten hurt on a medical;
Sergeant McCormick’s kind of been able to do both, and he’s doing his Community Impact, but he’s also taken some of the Saturdays. So, we’re not feeling the real pinch right now, but
three months ago, we had a lot of maternity-paternity leaves and things, so now things are.
Mayor Bailey asked so, no other issues right at the moment? Director Koerner replied the sky is not falling right now. Mayor Bailey said well, that, but I’m also looking like down
the road, because you’re talking about looking to the future, with retirements.
Director Koerner replied, yes, and we have that planned, kind of with our succession planning and obviously, with our staffing plan, our ultimate goal is to have eight officers
on every patrol shift, and we finally hit eight on one and the other is seven. So, we have to give people their time off when we do the training and everything, so, that is kind of
our future plan and why we need these additional two patrol officers. Our level of service, I think Brad hit it with all of the specialties, and look at our clearance rate with Investigations
because we’re not robbing them; every time someone gets hurt, we don’t pull someone out of school or pull someone out of our specialties. That’s when people get upset, when we start
moving their schedules.
Captain Petersen said all things being equal, I would love to add three officers to each set, so we’d have eight patrol officers per shift. That would give us that cushion where
if somebody gets hurt, pregnant, leaves for another agency, whatever, we can absorb that impact and not have to pull people out of specialties or whatever. I think that’s where we need
to be. Granted, as the community continues to grow, we’re going to need to grow with the community, but adding those three additional officers would be ideal, but we understand it’s
a balancing act.
Council Member Garza asked are these action pictures from training?
Captain Petersen replied yeah, so, remember I told you that we had a PepperBall talent shoot and a pro shoot? That was one of the photos that we got from the training catalog.
Council Member Garza said with this first picture, too, it looked like he was in an action movie or something like that.
Mayor Bailey asked well, this one was the one that was out at The Gooch, right?
Director Koerner replied this was in Las Vegas when our department was featured, and it’s all over their Facebook. And as part of that, they’re giving us some money for some different
wellness things and stuff.
Council Member Garza said that’s very cool.
Fire Chief Jon Pritchard said Mayor, Council, thank you so much for having us, and with the Police Department’s Strategic Plan, it gave us the opportunity to talk about our Strategic
Plan. So, I just really want to open it up with questions and discussion. I selected a few kind of pieces from our Strategic Plan to talk about, just as a taste, but I think we really
can discuss just about anything, including an update on our staffing and response times, too.
So, we selected a few parts from our overall Strategic Plan just to show the progress that we’re making in some of this. We have a Strategic Plan scorecard that we actually use
every week in our Chief meetings, we actually go over that and measure our progress towards those goals to ensure that we’re remaining on point. I think this really shows both police
and fire that these are living and breathing documents, that we have actual metrics for most of them, and some of those are if it’s not on here, it is not done.
One of the big ones that we really looked at is how do we provide services? So, this is just kind of fresh off the press, we gave all these just a few weeks after the end of the
fiscal year, to allow all the responses to come in and we did our EMS Survey. We got 132 responses from that, and what we saw with our EMS Survey is 97% of respondents strongly agreed
or agreed they were treated with respect, and they were satisfied with the care they received. Our goal is over 90%, so, we’re incredibly happy with this goal. My background was working
fulltime in hospitals and nursing leadership, and we were lucky to see over 60% in the hospital, so this is phenomenal work that we do to provide that care for our folks. We’ve been
diving more into our outcomes, quality improvements, quality assurance on things like chest pain, our heart care, stroke care, and we provide exceptional care, while we’re also providing
an exceptional experience for our folks.
One of the goals is budget and planning, and a big thing for me is financial stewardship. So, when we’re asking for resources, we need those resources, and we’re going to do it in a
cost effective way. However, of course, there’s tough, crucial conversations when we need resources, such as being heart ready.
But one thing we’re really proud of is how we can trust our fleet. Really, since I kind of came on as Fire Chief, it’s what type of model do we run? This is a more career, fulltime
department, so we don’t need many trucks because we don’t have to drive to a station; we have five stations around the City, and they all have to be close enough for people to drive
from home, so that gives us the opportunity to be more efficient with our fleet. So, not only have we kind of reduced the amount of vehicles we have, which has greatly reduced the costs
in terms of maintenance and upkeep, now we’re also not needing to replace them. We have to look at, when we buy a truck, it’s not about how cool does it look, how many lights does it
have, it needs to meet six different types of things, it needs to spray water when we’re using it on a fire. So, with this new tender that we’re buying, right, Brenda? We budgeted $650,000,
and that was basing it on quotes, like this is what the typical thing costs, but we got that at $507,000. And this isn’t like hey, if prices stopped increasing, this is because we looked
at what do we really need to provide exceptional service, not to be the coolest truck on the block; we even reduced it from 4 to 2 speeds because typically, when we respond with a fire
tender, we’re bringing water to a rural area, and we do that with two people. And, so, we saved a significant amount of money in that, and that’s a huge cost savings for our residents
and our City, so, we’re very proud of that. We’re going to get this piece of equipment, it should arrive late this year or early next year, and that’s going to allow us to do a great
job. So, this is our fiscal stewardship that we really want to look at, when we can save money and not out of doing a bunch of extra stuff that we don’t need.
Workload and Services: We have a second Deputy Chief, which I cannot say enough for, Deputy Chief Peterson; he started in October, 2024, and he’s done phenomenal work in our training
programs, safety and professional standards. He’s only been a few months into the job, but he’s already bringing in national training to Cottage
Grove, and there are only six places in this country can do, and that’s through some of his connections with some of the work he does. So, we’re incredibly proud of that, we’re sending
more people than ever to train this year, and that’s all because of the Council allowing us to get that extra resource. And I’m happy to say because we’ve said it a lot, the Fire Department,
as part of the City’s organizational study we did citywide, we have now completed that organizational study and received those positions that were identified, so thank you; that’s a
huge accomplishment and has had such a huge impact on our department on a daily basis to have the appropriate number of chiefs and administrative-type positions.
Growth Trends: Brad really alluded to it in that we can find the appropriate venue to share our 2024 data. However, just a quick, fun fact is our call volumes went up 61% since 2017,
and that was when our current staffing levels were established. We also have, as we mentioned, our model is changing as well, so, this is what really prompted that Station 4 discussion,
to be a standard coverage site. So, the standard coverage site means that we will then take our finalists to do final interviews for them. And this study is going to be very comprehensive:
They will look at community risk, they’ll look at like the railroads that go through town and have a materials risk, demographics, what are our response times, what is the national
benchmark, and also, where should we place stations if we need more stations, what does the future look like? And they do phenomenal work, there’s a lot of them out there, there’s a
lot of firms that do them. But really, that’s going to help us determine future needs. So, it’s a very exciting thing, and it’s very exciting to review the proposals because there’s
a lot of great stuff in there.
One thing we’re very excited about is that we’re getting back to our career staffing numbers that we’re authorized for; so, we’re going to restart our shift-based Life Safety inspections.
That’s our program when we go into occupancies, pretty much any non-single family home; we even go into apartment buildings, but we go and visit them, and our goal is to do over 90%
of the occupancies in Cottage Grove every year. It’s the best way in which we can engage the community, provide great customer service, provide those connections with those places,
but also make sure they’re safe from fire and other hazards.
Based on our collective bargaining agreement, we promoted specialty positions, just like the police have for their different things. So, our Fire Inspector/Driver, so they get that
extra little, as they do all the work for fire inspections, and they have to be able to drive a fire truck. And, so, they’re starting those, and we’ve already had great success in that
goal. We’re not going to quite hit 90%, just based on the resources we have and the time available between running calls, but every one we do is just having that great of an impact,
and we’re really excited to get that started and get it up and going. We have three phenomenal people who are going to lead that effort for us, along with Steve Zaccard, our Fire Marshal.
Council Member Garza said I was going to say I had, I just actually had this encounter, as we had new windows put in, and when they came to sign off on the permit, our contractor
said, oh, yeah, and by the way, they’re checking your fire alarms. And I hadn’t had any encounter that, you know, I thought they only do that in rentals and stuff; so, I asked the inspector
when he came, he said well, when we get the opportunity if we come in and do a sign off on a permit, we try to check. And it was a blessing because my fire alarms were from 2017, so,
thank you, that was terrible.
Chief Pritchard said next year with the Safe Haven program, where we get home safety surveys; we have a box of old alarms, and so, 2017 isn’t bad. We found one from the early 70s,
and we tested one last week that we needed carbon data, that’s how old it is. So, it’s just a huge part for our community to reach out to this program.
Chief Pritchard said then, one of probably the most proud moments for me, personally, and for our department, was one of the big reasons I chose to be fulltime healthcare leadership
is I was really upset at not seeing the community-based paramedics being out there, really changing people’s healthcare. And that’s what our Fire Department really gives you the chance
to do, especially when you run your own ambulance service. Some communities have paramedics, but left such a huge space for us, and community paramedics really are to be life changers
for people. They’re in the community, they respond to the community, and they have that one-on-one relationship with folks. And a big part of the Case Management Unit is, of course,
mental health, substance abuse disorders, it’s not just the mind, it’s not just potential living situations, but there’s also a huge medical component with that. And by imbedding that
community paramedic within that team, that really creates a more holistic response, and then you throw the social worker in there, and you’ve got like the premier model: You’ve got
medical, mental health, and then the police/law enforcement aspect. And our Captain Chelsey Flores, she did her clinical, her community paramedic, and that was her project to do that,
and through that, she was successful, and now she sees clients, she co-responds with our CMU, and it’s just amazing the things that we’re seeing. To the group home discussion, she’s
been involved in creating plans of care, developing better response plans for our paramedics when we have to go there. So, she’s literally playing that role, and then Deputy Chief Arrigoni
and I are both community paramedics, but of course Deputy Chief Arrigoni plays a big role in leading that effort.
So, really, I can answer the questions about the staffing, as that sounds like it’s kind of the biggest one. Currently, we are authorized for 16 fulltime folks, and we’re at 15; we posted,
got three good candidates, and those candidates decided to take opportunities elsewhere, so we just reposted that again. We felt very fortunate we found those three great candidates,
and right now, there’s probably like 35 open fulltime positions in the metro, as we speak. So, we’re literally competing against some other departments in the metro with similar jobs.
However, we have done a phenomenal job in the quality folks that we have, they truly have changed the culture of our department in a great way.
One of the metrics we use is what percentage of time do we reach our minimum staffing, because, realistically, that’s our goal. With the amount of people we have, our minimum is
really our goal, and we’re now at 92% of the time in January that we’re at our minimums or above. You compare that to kind of like the low, as last year we were like doing that 50%
of the time, so we’ve made monumental strides to do that, while not just picking any candidate, but picking the right candidates. So, we’ve made huge strides in that.
Our parttime staff continues to be a struggle with both recruiting and retention; we’re currently at nine people and sometimes we hire them, we try to onboard them, and then they
don’t even start, that’s very common within that group. So, we’re going to be posting here soon, we really need to try to prioritize this fulltime posting because they work 2,800 hours
a year, roughly, vs. 432; however, we’re going to be posting for that soon, with a goal of trying to get six of those folks to fill out our roster for parttime.
Director Koerner said that focus will be a later summer hire because fire training isn’t until.
Chief Pritchard replied, yeah, we’re going to try to do one for already certified folks because there are some certified; so, what we just thought of, too, not because we’re doing
this, but we pay people to attend Fire School. We can get reimbursed for the training through the State of Minnesota; however, the amount is about $5,000 or $7,500 per person just in
salary when you send them to Fire School. So, we wanted to try to get some folks that were already both Fire and EMT certified, but then we will do that later, probably in the Spring,
to try to; we can hire them as an EMT and then send them to Fire School in the Fall.
Administrator Levitt said well, Mayor and Council, there is one thing Jon didn’t put up there, and he’s probably too humble to say it, so I will say it. I think the biggest thing that
has happened in the Fire Department over the last year is the culture changed. I’ve done retention interviews down there, I’ve done new employee interviews, they’re selecting our organization
because of the culture. I mean, they want the training opportunities, they like how command staff is actually engaged in the field, they respond with them, they have their back. The
state of the art equipment and training, they don’t have to bid on it. The fact that we give them actual time off, they’re not penalized for being sick, that goes a long way. The other
thing is Jon sends out a weekly announcement, it has the title: Operations, People, Training, and Community Risk Reduction. He puts a ton of time in every single week to ensure that
every person in the Fire Department knows exactly what’s going on. So, if any firefighter ever tells you that they don’t know what’s going on in the Fire Department, that ain’t true,
because I read them every week; and it’s how we’re going to respond, how we’re hanging up hoses, or what we’re doing, everything is getting communicated in detail to them. So, I want
you to know the organization has changed, the transparency, the communication, the openness, and I’ve seen the team dynamic change radically. That’s something we can’t put on a graph,
it’s something we can’t put on a chart, but it has happened, and I want to just say that Jon has done an outstanding job to lead that culture change.
Chief Pritchard said thank you.
Mayor Bailey said so, Jon, when you talk about minimums, is that like per shift?
Chief Pritchard replied yeah, so, it would be 4 people total that provides 2 ambulances, 24 hours a day.
Director Koerner said 24 hours is what we’re referring to, and Chief Pritchard agreed.
Mayor Bailey asked how many shifts is it, 2?
Chief Pritchard replied it’s 3 shifts. So, full-timers are assigned to one, and then part-timers work 12-hour shifts to fill those shifts up.
Mayor Bailey said okay, so if it’s, when you said 90%? Chief Pritchard replied 92%. Mayor Bailey said so, 92% of the time we’re at least at that. Chief Pritchard replied that is
correct.
Chief Pritchard said and we just pulled data for January; so, one of the things we did that parttime conversion in December, so we hired a fulltime person, and I stole this idea from
Roseville, White Bear Lake, and other folks: We have 16 fulltime people. I’m not a mathematician, I had asked Brenda to check my math on this, but 16 doesn’t divide by 3 very well.
So, we actually put 6 people on one shift, the other two shifts have 5 fulltime people, and then they fill with parttime. In January, so, it’s only 31 days of data, we actually saw
that 40% of the time, we had 5 or 6 people, and 22% of the time we actually had 6 people, or more than our minimum. So, then that provided us 2 ambulances and then a 2-person fire engine,
which is the stage we really need to be at. Because if two ambulances are gone, we don’t have a fire engine coming from Woodbury, Newport, St. Paul Park as the first responding engine.
So, but we know with our volumes, it’s not realistic just to do one, nor would I recommend that at this time.
Mayor Bailey asked if the Council had any questions at this point; none were asked.
Council Member Garza said he’s rocking it, that’s what it sounds like.
Mayor Bailey said I know you were asking earlier, what do we want to hear, on a consistent basis. I think if you, I mean, we definitely don’t need to do workshops quarterly or anything
like that; but if you, almost like what Jennifer puts out weekly, and I’m not saying you guys weekly, I’m saying quarterly, if you just want to give us the highlights. Hey, we hired
a new firefighter, fulltime, that starts on this day, or hey, here’s how many Explorers we have, you know what I’m saying? Those are some of the things that would be kind of neat to
see as it’s part of the Strategic Plan.
Director Koerner said, so, they could just give a quarterly report, at least.
Mayor Bailey said that’s what I’m saying. I don't know that you need to reinvent the wheel, and it isn’t like you need to. I mean, if there’s something drastic that’s happening
or whatever, and you go hey, we probably should come and chat with you about it, then obviously, you know, feel free to do that. But I don’t think you need to just push paper, so to
speak, for the sake of doing that for us. Do you know what I mean?
Mayor Bailey stated he will set up a meeting with Mayor Keith Franke.
Mayor Bailey said all right, anything else, Council? No one spoke.
Mayor Bailey said thank you, everybody, for coming in here tonight. I’ll look for a motion to adjourn.
14. WORKSHOPS - CLOSED TO PUBLIC - None.
15. ADJOURNMENT
Motion by Council Member Thiede, second by Council Member Garza, to adjourn the meeting at 9:05 p.m.
Motion carried: 4-0.
Minutes prepared by Judy Graf and reviewed by Tamara Anderson, City Clerk.