City of Bloomington, MN Council Minute 2020, 9 Dec 2020

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From YouTube: Council Minute December 9

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Mayor Tim Busse provides a rundown of the December 7 City Council meeting, including the approval of the 2021 budget and the new Council meeting schedule. He also congratulates the 2020 Omar Bonderud Human Rights Award recipients.

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Hello bloomington, I'm mayor tim busse, and this is the council minute for the week of december 7th.

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This week's monday night council meeting covered the budget, a new council meeting schedule and the.

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Recipients of the 2020 omar bonderud human rights awards. Last week I talked with you.

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About the city council's review of the proposed budget and tax levy for 2021. as a reminder, the.

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Council was considering a tax levy increase of 2.7 percent, the lowest increase since.

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2012. this week the city council held a public hearing on the proposed tax levy in the budget.

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We had only three people testify at the public hearing. One asked about the funding.

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For the motor vehicle office and the other two expressed support for the proposed budget and.

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Indicated they'd be willing to pay even more in taxes to support work. The city is doing.

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In important areas like racial equity, after the public hearing, the city council voted unanimously.

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Zero with council member lohman being absent to approve the budget and the tax levy, I appreciated.

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The comments of my colleagues on the council, who each expressed that not everything they wanted to.

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See was in that budget, but the budget was a good compromise and one that we could all support for.

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My part, I was strongly supportive of the budget recommendation from the city manager, because.

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Of the four values at the core of the proposal: first, it honored the work of the community budget.

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Advisory committee, those nine residents, put in an incredible amount of time to understand the budget.

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Study the issues engage with residents and make some hard decisions about the priorities from a.

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Resident's perspective, their recommendations carried a lot of weight with the city council.

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The second and third values of this budget go hand in hand to minimize the impact of tax increases.

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On residents, especially in a year when so many are experiencing financial hardship, while at the.

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Same time, limiting painful reductions in city services that many residents rely on for their.

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Quality of life and fourth, this budget and the levy they were prepared with an eye to the future.

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They anticipate that we may not be out of the woods with this economic downturn just yet.

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And the budget is designed to limit tax levy increases in 2022 and 2023.

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All of this is not to say that this budget process was easy, quite the opposite. Actually,.

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Numerous difficult decisions had to be made to arrive at the city's 2021 budget, but one.

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Of the most difficult is the decision to close the motor vehicle office at the end of march in 2021.

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This will result in the layoff of eight city employees, the financial performance of the.

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Motor vehicle office has been stressed over the past couple of years in part, because that the.

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Fees that the state allows local offices to keep for providing licensed services, they have fallen.

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Significantly, behind what it takes and what it costs to provide those services with numerous.

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Other competing demands for the city's limited resources. The city council came to the difficult.

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Decision that it will no longer supplement the revenues of this service with local property.

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Tax dollars now I want to be very clear that this is in no way a reflection of the hard work.

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And this outstanding service put in by our motor vehicle employees, who have persevered through the.

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Challenges of this pandemic, while knowing that the closure of this office was being discussed.

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I know that many residents of bloomington have appreciated the convenience and friendly service.

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At bloomington's motor vehicle office, our staff will be working to see if a private.

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Office can get state approval to operate in bloomington and keep that convenience factor.

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If it doesn't work out, licensing services are located nearby in both richfield and at southdale.

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I want to close this section by saying. Thank you. Thank you to those of you who took the time.

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To thoughtfully and carefully participate in the community engagement sessions.

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Around the city's budget, your voice is important and what we heard from you absolutely matters for.

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Quite some time now the city council has been discussing how we can improve the experience.

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That people have at our council meetings and how we can make it easier for people to participate.

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This week we acted on a proposal to change how we conduct our city council meetings.

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The most noticeable change is that we will begin our meetings an hour earlier at six o'clock. Each.

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Monday, an earlier start time means that we'll have fewer meetings where issues that are important to.

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People are happening at an hour of the night that makes it inconvenient for people to watch.

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Or to participate too often this past year or two, our meetings have been going until 11 o'clock.

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Or even to midnight- and we just should not be conducting public business- that late at night.

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Because of that council also directed staff to change our rules or procedure.

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So that there is a hard stop on our council meetings so that they do not go past.

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11 o'clock, the other important change, is to move public comment to the beginning of the meeting. If.

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You, our residents, are going to make the effort to appear before the council and share your concerns.

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We want to respect you by making it clear and predictable when public comment will be accepted.

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So after the pledge of allegiance and the approval of our agenda, we will have our public comment.

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Period and it will happen before all the other agenda items, that means you should be able to.

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Count on that time between about 605 and 625, if you don't want to stay around for anything.

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Else on the agenda, you can go about the rest of your busy life and for those who aren't.

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Able to attend the council meeting at that six o'clock hour. You can always email us at.

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City dash council at bloomingtonmn.gov, or leave a voicemail for us at the number on your screen.

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All of those messages are shared with the city council prior to our council meetings. This change.

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In our procedures continues, the commitment our council made to transparency and engagement.

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At the beginning of the year, we moved all of our council meetings to the city, council, chambers and.

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We began televising all of our meetings. You might recall that we used to hold our study meetings in.

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A different room and those weren't televised, the public's business should be accessible to you. The.

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Public these changes are intended to improve your access and your experience, participating.

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In city council meetings, one of my favorite recognitions every year is the presentation.

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Of the omar bondaroot award, the award is named for the first ever chair of the bloomington human.

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Rights, commission and recognizes an individual, an organization or business that has made significant.

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Contributions toward ensuring the rights of people here in bloomington, this year's honorees.

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Karum law in the organizational category and derringer functions in the individual category.

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Both have inspirational stories to tell, and we are very fortunate to have them here in bloomington.

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Kharam law advocates for immigrants and their families. Mr functions is a paraprofessional in.

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The dean's office at valley view middle school. Our staff put together a pair of excellent videos to.

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Show how they're making a significant contribution to ensure the rights of people in bloomington if.

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You see them around town be sure to thank them for making bloomington a better place for all of us.

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Be sure to check out the videos on the city's website and the youtube channel or just hang.

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Out here, because we've added the videos to the end of this update and you can watch them, then.

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Well, that's a wrap on this week's council minute. We'll see you next week, stay safe, bloomington.

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One of the things that I'm trying to do is be a voice, show positivity.

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And show that for our young males in this building, our young african-american males that you can.

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Be a positive piece: you can have an impact and definitely not be afraid.

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I think the biggest thing for me is: I look at myself as a role model, I'm a father first, I.

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Have three children and I have a 19 year old son? I try to be a positive fixture, not just in his life.

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But in to those who I come in contact with, while here I interact with the students- and I.

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Try to lead by example, it's a not very easy at times and with the last six months it has.

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Definitely been a new experience not just for them, but for myself as well after the george floyd case,.

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I felt I needed to speak up not just for myself, but for my son. I needed for him to be able to.

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Be comfortable as a young african-american male in society today, I wanted him to not be hampered.

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Or hindered in speaking up and so the best way, I felt that could happen is by me being able to.

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Speak up for him or more so speak up for myself. I went to the administration of my building and.

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Ran some ideas by them and they supported me with that and thus gave me the confidence to.

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Speak up, and there are things that bloomington public schools will be doing in the future.

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To better make people feel more accepted, whether it's with the staff, whether it's students.

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And as the community as a whole, I have the opportunity to dispel myths and stereotypes.

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That society has put on black men and I'm not trying to be a martyr, but what I am trying to do.

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Is show that I I can make a difference and if I can be a positive piece for our young men.

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And and a positive influence with our young women in the building, then I will continue to do that.

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Because I want people to see not just the good in people but the positives. And even though we all.

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Have weaknesses? Our weaknesses can be a strength as well, because that is how we get better. When I.

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Did hear that I had been nominated and then I was receiving this award. It's very humbling.

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I have been working with youth for the better part of my life and to be recognized.

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For my efforts, it means a lot, I'm very honored, that the people that I do work with.

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Value what I do bring. This is not something that I take lightly. It is a responsibility.

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And it is something that I definitely although receiving this award, it's not something that I'm.

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Going to stop doing, um I will continue trying to be the best me. The best person that I can be.

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We do immigration law and our clients are families that are trying to be reunited.

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We represent employers that sponsor work visas for their personnel. We help long-time permanent.

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Residents of the united states become citizens of this country, and we also help individuals who.

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Are facing possible harm or hardships if they are returned to their home country to be able.

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To potentially stay here, I have been doing this work for 28 years. For the last 25 years, we've been.

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Working here in bloomington and I'll tell you that we've seen lots of changes in immigration over.

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Those years and there isn't a day I come to work where I don't feel like there is something new and.

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Exciting and potentially stressful to greet us, but we do enjoy the work we do here and we work hard.

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The reason why myself, why I'm passionate about this type of work and specifically immigration law.

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Is that the type of work that I do often times is work with asylees and individuals that are.

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Coming to the united states in very desperate situations, and that work is not only is it hard.

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But it's very rewarding when it goes in favor of the the individual. The reason that I'm also.

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Passionate about what I do is that I work with a dynamic group of people here at karam law.

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That are also passionate about what they do and that passion is definitely contagious and.

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When an individual wins a case or is successful in being able to stay here or bring their family here,.

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We all celebrate, we do this work, because we feel that also that we're supporting.

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The medical workers, many of our clients and men at the immigrant community, are medical workers, but.

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They're also bus drivers and they're teachers and they're the it professionals that allow.

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You know people to be able to work at home, and so you know, the work that we do is just has a ripple.

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Effect on to uh the rest of the community around us, and and so although kovitt has slowed things.

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And made it different, it has certainly hasn't changed our our passion for what for what we.

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Do here honestly, I feel very humbled by the city of bloomington recognizing what we are doing here.

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The idea that immigrants are deserving of an equal platform to be entering our workforce and and.

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To be together with their families, creating strong families and strong communities together.

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And our city of bloomington valuing the work we do is really rewarding and it fulfills us.

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And the people that come here to work every day they come here with a passion for helping others.

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And to recognize that through our omar bonderroot award is such a great reward for us.

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It's humbling, of course, we're grateful for the recognition to our immigrant community for sure.