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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 05/18/2021 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP & OPEN PODIUM TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 CITY CENTER 5:00 – 6:25 PM, HERITAGE ROOMS 6:30 – 7:00 PM, COUNCIL CHAMBER CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Ron Case, Council Members Kathy Nelson, Mark Freiberg, PG Narayanan, and Lisa Toomey CITY STAFF: City Manager Rick Getschow, Police Chief Greg Weber, Fire Chief Scott Gerber, Public Works Director Robert Ellis, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, Parks and Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, Administrative Services/HR Director Alecia Rose, Communications Manager Joyce Lorenz, City Attorney Maggie Neuville, and Recorder Katie O’Connor Workshop - Heritage Rooms I and II (5:30) I. RACE AND EQUITY INITIATIVE UPDATE Getschow stated tonight’s presentation will be on the process of the race and equity initiative. The August workshop is set aside to report on the results. Megan Yerks, Human Rights and Diversity Commission (HRDC) staff liaison, introduced those who have been involved with this initiative including HRDC members, DeYoung Consulting, and the human resources manager. Yerks stated one of the initial statements made by Council about the initiative was the sentiment of wanting to understand the experience of an Eden Prairie resident from a perspective that they will never have. This statement has been a guide to this project. They have been gathering a comprehensive view of what the residents are seeing and experiencing in Eden Prairie. The initiative project statement was put together with DeYoung Consulting when developing the framework for the project, and DeYoung Consulting has helped communicate this project statement clearly with the people they are interacting with. The project statement reads: The City of Eden Prairie would like to find ways for the City to become more responsive to residents’ diverse needs and to advance racial equity, diversity, and inclusion. We will be actively engaging with the community to learn about our members’ needs. We will also complete a review of current policies and procedures to identify barriers. As a result, we hope this project will create and strengthen community relationships, encourage shared decision making and minimize disparities wherever possible. Yerks stated there are six areas of inquiry: emergency response; facility/program accessibility and culture; recruiting, hiring and retention; connection to community; community experience; and developing future leaders. There has been a lot of feedback on the emergency response portion for both the police and fire departments. In regards to facilities and programs the questions pertain to whether residents feel like the spaces and City Council Workshop Minutes May 18, 2021 Page 2 events are designed for them, comfortable for them, and honors their tradition and culture. In regards to recruiting, hiring, and retention a consistent response is it’s important to the community for City staff to represent the community. Residents feel more comfortable when they see people who look like them, but it is also helpful for insight when decisions are being made. The connection to community looks at how the City and residents communicate with one another and the level of trust between the two. Community experience is an area where the City may not have much control over experiences with neighbors and organizations, but it also helps the City see the bigger picture. In regards to developing future leaders they reviewed the resources and opportunities available to young people. Narayanan stated he likes the project scope. Case added the six categories are very thorough. Yerks added she and Commission Member Philip Skeie has also reached out to the City of Brooklyn Park, and they are doing a similar project but focusing on the police department. Yerks stated the project began in December with defining the project and working with DeYoung. The internal scan took place in January. In February DeYoung Consulting primarily reviewed literature on best practices. In April they hosted community listening sessions. On Friday they concluded all of the organizational and resident interviews. The internal and external outreach is complete. Through the summer there will be data analysis and a review of the findings. The reporting of the findings will happen in July. The internal scan involved 37 documents from three inquiry areas. Emergency response, primarily from police, amounted to 33 percent of the documents. Connection to community documents came from communications, amounting to 19 percent. Recruiting, hiring and retention covered 47 percent of the documents including the hiring process, equal employment opportunity (EEO) statistics and summary, recruitment partnerships, retention data, trainings, the employee handbook, work plans, employee surveys, action plans, performance evaluation, and the Race and Equity plan. DeYoung Consulting has worked on an analysis of the documents. The second part of the internal scan involved internal interviews. These were conducted through individual interviews and focus groups. In regards to emergency response there were a lot of factors they considered when deciding who to interview: a unique perspective, longevity of experience, strength of peer relationships, and uniqueness through a community-based role. They spent a lot of time talking with police officers throughout the chain of command. There was also a focus group with police leadership. In regards to hiring, recruitment, and retention they conducted individual interviews with human resources and a focus group of diverse employees. In regards to connection to the community they conducted interviews with City leadership. In regards to community experience they held a focus group with customer-facing employees. The interviews and focus groups were conducted by DeYoung Consulting. There were a number of conversations internally to discuss the process, and they did their best to provide anonymity. Yerks provided an overview of the external outreach process. They wanted to see how the intentions of the City as a service-provider were translating to the community. Resident input was provided through World Café Events conducted virtually. There were four sessions total, three were conducted by DeYoung Consulting and one was conducted by HRDC. Two of the sessions were for the general community, one was focused on the youth population, and one was more specific to the Somali community. They did targeted outreach to recruit participants and worked with community liaison partners to ensure diversity in participants. There was wide diversity in gender, race, experience, and age. City Council Workshop Minutes May 18, 2021 Page 3 Case inquired if there will be a report on this information in August. He inquired if they leaned on the liaisons to invite people to the conversation or if there was criteria for who they would like involved. Yerks replied they did lean on the liaisons. Most of the criteria was focused on race, but there was inclusion of persons with disabilities and the LBGTQ community. They focused primarily on race but other themes of intersectionality emerge. Although they talked about race there were many differing perspectives when talking about immigrant versus non-immigrant or English speaking versus non-English speaking. Nelson inquired if the conversations also captured parents of school-aged children. Yerks confirmed there were conversations including parents and their concerns. There were also conversations about the division of City responsibilities versus the school district. Yerks stated one areas they focused on was the expectation of confidentiality, yet the necessity of transparency from the City. This is why the interviews and all but one of the community listening sessions were conducted by DeYoung Consulting. The World Café Event conversations included five areas of inquiry, excluding the hiring and retention area of inquiry. Questions focused on strengths and opportunities for improvement. They also talked about an ideal experience and if they had a magic wand to change anything. They received a lot of the feedback about the value of the time spent by leadership in the community. They also acknowledge that there are residents who do not want to have these conversations with the City or there is not a level of trust with them to feel willing to share their experiences. To help capture those voices, they hosted community organization listening sessions. Non-profit organizations gave input through virtual conversations facilitated by Commissioners. There were 14 participants from six Eden Prairie organizations. Instead of asking what the organizations would like to see changed, they were asked what they have been hearing from the community. The notes were submitted to DeYoung Consulting Freiberg inquired why conversations were had with police department leadership only and not the fire department. Yerks responded part of it was due to budget and the other part due to scheduling. Conversations were had with the fire chief. Commission Member Tyler Aman provided insight on the community organization sessions. They were able to express their clients concerns, and once the conversation opened up they had a lot to say. Case inquired which organizations were involved. Yerks responded People Reaching Out to People (PROP), PROP Shop, Eden Prairie Community Foundation, Eden Prairie Schools Early Childhood Program, Interfaith Circle, and TreeHouse. Some of the organizations went to their clients and collected experiences from them prior to the community organization session. Narayanan inquired how the Commissioners felt about the process. Aman replied he has felt the process is going in the right direction, but it will continue to be a process of checking in with the community. He added in regards to the LGBTQ community, he speaks from experience of not experiencing negative responses within the community. Yerks added the City annually participates in the Human Rights Campaign. The City receives a municipality equity index score annually, and Eden Prairie has remained in similar standing with neighboring communities. City Council Workshop Minutes May 18, 2021 Page 4 Yerks stated in June 2020 a communitywide survey was conducted via Polco about race and equity. This was done separate from the initiative, but it has provided additional insight into community perspectives. There were 812 participants and the data can be disaggregated for deeper analysis. The demographics mirror the demographics of the community. Perceptions of experiences of another race sometimes match and sometimes do not. It provides a snapshot of information. Nelson inquired if they have access to this type of data. Case added it would be helpful to have data regarding topics of interest and questions they receive to support the conversations. Getschow added the survey results are separate pieces of information and can be sent to Council. Skeie added in a conversation with a fire fighter they made a comment about how the sticker for the back of their vehicle made them feel like they could hopefully be perceived as less of a threat when driving around the Twin Cities. This would have never occurred to him. Yerks stated in mid-June a draft report will be completed by DeYoung Consulting. In late June the City Project Team will review the draft report. In mid-July it will be reviewed by HRDC. Late July the final report will be completed by DeYoung Consulting, and mid- August or early September the report will be presented to Council. Karen DeYoung added the perspective of ethnicity came up a lot in the project. Parents of school-aged children spoke up. The process was based on a model called appreciative inquiry. This looks at the positive core of the organization. Lastly, there was a discussion on the metrics and how they plan to measure progress in the future. Anna Peters, with DeYoung Consulting, added although they weren’t able to interview fire department leadership, they were able to interview some firefighters. Commission Member Sana Elassar added she primarily focused on the community liaison role. This will be a continuous process after the report is delivered. II. HOMETOWN CELEBRATION Lotthammer provided an update on the Hometown Celebration Fourth of July event. This year the Fourth falls on a Sunday. Initial conversations have been about the comfort of parents and children attending large events. When they thought about the two days leading up to Fourth of July, they decided on a family-friendly night on Friday at Staring Lake. The focus will be on smaller fireworks without the large booms. People will be spread out at stages and there will be food trucks and entertainment. This will be from 6-9:45 p.m. The Saturday event will also be held at Staring and focused on a “strike up the band” theme from 7-9:30 p.m. This will include entertainment and a time to honor veterans. Allie McIntosh and Synergy will be the entertainment on the Fourth at Round Lake Park. This will wrap up around 3 p.m. for those coming in for the performance, fireworks, and food trucks. Case inquired if there will be booths and tents for people to occupy in the midway. Lotthammer stated there will be limited booths focused solely on those with direct involvement to the festivities. Nelson inquired if the City will go back towards offering the option for booths next year. Case added he would like to see that option return. City Council Workshop Minutes May 18, 2021 Page 5 Open Podium - Council Chamber (6:30) III. OPEN PODIUM A. TOM ROBERTS – RIVERVIEW ROAD Tom Roberts, 11015 Bell Oaks Estate Rd, stated there should be a sidewalk on Riverview Road. There are many people who are walking along the road. There is still an opportunity for a developer to do this. Case responded the Council had this conversation about ten years ago with resident about installing a sidewalk with curb and gutter. Case asked if staff can reach out to Roberts and include Council in on the conversation to educate them about whether a trail would be assessed. Roberts inquired if some have paid in for these improvements. Case stated he does not personally know, but the City would have the information. IV. ADJOURNMENT