City of Minneapolis, MN 2023 Minneapolis City Council and Committee Meetings, 9 Jan 2023

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From YouTube: January 9, 2023 Policy & Government Oversight Committee

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Additional information at:
https://lims.minneapolismn.gov

A

A

Good afternoon everyone, my name, is Jeremiah Ellison and I am the chair of the Palestinian government oversight committee.

A

um I am kind of getting back into the flow of things and recovering from uh from being out, and so I am going to pass. The uh the chairship of the meeting over to my vice chair, Robin wensley,.

B

Thank you, chair, Ellison, I'm, glad to have you here, happy New, Years everyone.

B

um We have a Quorum here, so I'm going to call to order our regular meeting for today, January 9th 2023 um I'll now have the clerk call the roll.

C

Councilmember Vita present councilmember Chavez president councilman McCoskey present councilmember Johnson president Vice chair Walmsley.

B

C

And chair Olson here you have six present.

B

Thank you. Let the record show that we have Quorum per usual. We have a substantial uh consent agenda. We have 29 items on it which I'll read for the record right now. The first is authorizing a collective bargaining agreement with the Minnesota uh Teamsters Convention Center custodian units. uh The second is accepting a bid for epoxy grade 60, reinforcing bars and miscellaneous materials. uh Number three is accepting a bid for the Target Center sanitary piping repairs. Project number four is accepting a bit for foulwell and 46th Avenue South Ada pedestrian ramp program.

B

Number five is accepting a bid for the Minneapolis Convention Center exhibit 8, exhibit Halls a b c and d door replacement. Project number six is accepting a bid for the Target Center floor, repair and coding phase two projects: number 7 is accepting a bid for the Target Center food service equipment grabbing go stands. Number eight is accepting a bid for concrete sidewalks, curves and gutter and alleys and driveways approaches.

B

Number nine is accepting a bid for electrical services at the minute Minneapolis Convention Center number 10 is authorizing a contract with Exxon Enterprise Inc for a patrol car video management system. For the police department, number 11 is authorizing a contract with the affordable housing connections to provide affordable housing, trust fund home monitoring. Consulting Services number 12 is authorizing a contract with Cal America for meter parking payment application. Services number 13 is authorizing a contract Amendment with ASC acquisition.

B

Company LLC for Minneapolis parking ramp, sign replacement project number 14 is authorizing a contract Amendment with Bentley Systems Inc for the licenses and maintenance and support of the Bentley Suite of product of products. Number 15 is authorizing a contract Amendment with change equals opportunity for group violence. Intervention services number 16 is authorizing a contract Amendment with the Minneapolis downtown improvement district to provide Outreach Services number 17 is authorizing a contract Amendment with uh say tool, I'm not going to mess up the pronunciation on this one here for labor standards, collaborative enforcement services.

B

Number 18 is authorizing a contract Amendment with cost planning and Management International Inc for owner's project representative services for the public service building project number 19 is authorizing a contract Amendment with Ram Construction Services of Minnesota LLC for ramp, B, waterproofing and structural repairs. The number 20 is authorizing a contract. Amendment with Michael's Corporation for cleaning and lining cast iron water mains number 21 is authorizing a contract Amendment with M.A Mortensen for construction manager.

B

Services for the public service building 22 is authorizing a contract Amendment with messenger construction code Inc for the Minneapolis Convention Center for corridor selling replacement projects. Number three is authorizing a contract Amendment with Pioneer Power Inc for cooling, coil replacement project number 24 is authorizing a contract Amendment with questions and solutions.

B

Engineering Inc for consulting services for the public service building number 25 is authorizing a contract Amendment where Wheeling Event, Staffing Services Inc for building and event security at the Minneapolis Convention Center number 26 is authorizing a contract amendments for property, maintenance, Mowing and snow removal. Services. Number 27 is authorizing contracts for building automation systems.

B

28Th is approving a legal settlement for Casey white Charles thoughts versus towns, Hawk Diner versus the City of Minneapolis. At all. um Is there any discussions on any of these items? I see councilmember Chavez.

D

Okay, Wesley I'd like to pull out number 20 for a separate voting discussion.

B

Awesome clerks, please remove that item for a separate vote. um I also put myself in queue. um I wanted to uh make comments on item 28 um and items uh 20 specifically uh when it comes to items 20 the contract Amendment with Michael's Corporation for cleaning and lining cast iron water maze. I just wanted to know for the public record we've seen this particular vendor come up a couple of times.

B

um My residents have reached out to me about uh the problem nature of this, this company and some of the Affairs that they've been a part of and concerns about why public dollars are going to them. So, in light of this, my office has reached out to procurement to initiate a conversation about how we can strengthen our Contracting processes to prioritize using corporations that aren't participating in troubling political activity and just raising ethical standards for our contractors um when it comes to items 28 I just wanted to know for the record again.

B

This is a legal settlement that reflects a failure on the part of the city to comply with the state data practices, because MPD did not turn over documents that they were legal legally required to. So again, another example of how mpd's, not compliance with the law, is costing taxpayers dollars once again, so I want to put those uh notes on the record and then we will remove item 20 for a vote. Is there any other questions on the consent item?

B

If not, if we could take a uh vote on the rest of the consent agenda, all those in favor say: aye aye, all those and not in favor, say nay, all right. The consent agenda has passed. That said, we will now oh uh pass it to councilmember Chavez for comments on item 20.

D

Oh, thank you. Ken wants the I know that Mitchell's Corporation is a wisconsin-based company. I was wondering if staff was here in the room that could just walk us through our efforts to hire locally in this contract process and what that looked like.

B

Do we have any staff who could speak to this item.

D

If not, I can just follow back up I see.

B

Director Johnson.

E

B

E

I apologize uh Vice, chair, wansley and councilman Chavez. Could you repeat the question? I did not catch all of.

D

That yeah, thank you all director, so the Mitchell's company is a wisconsin-based company. I just want to figure out like the efforts to hire locally for the specific contract and how what that process looked like.

E

Is sure um council, member Chavez and council members, we have the target market program for programs or for bids under 175.. This obviously did not qualify for that, so we follow State Statute was does not allow us to um select via geographical area, so we have to go by low bid for an item such as this.

D

Thank you, you're.

E

B

Awesome, oh I see their councilmember Johnson.

F

Thank you, madam chair I was wondering if any colleagues could maybe expound on what the concerns are. I know troubling activities was mentioned, I think that the owner of this company might have run for governor of Wisconsin as a Republican or senate, or something like that in Wisconsin. But aside from his run, I was wondering uh for office. Is there anything more that there are concerns with and then I'll note on the bid tabulation sheet? I looked at that on the limbs file I see Michael's Corporation, the bid amount was 3.6 million.

F

The next closest bid was 5.3 million from Jay Fletcher, creamer and son, so I'm sure that probably had something to do with the selection. But I was wondering if any colleagues could elaborate on the concerns.

B

Thank you, council, member Johnson um I can speak to the the political activity piece. um The president of the company, um in terms of the concerns around political activity, is also ran as a very explicit election denier.

B

uh Very much in uh did not lend a lot of opposition to the Insurrection on January 6th um and also the concerns that I've heard from my constituents is also the company's involvement in building the Keystone Pipeline, which um of course, and concerns of climate, Justice and also indigenous sovereignty, um was a major. uh You know, pipeline fight um that really jeopardized the quality of our water and also jeopardize that sovereignty of our indigenous Nation.

B

So I want to note that, as part of the problematic history, that's been uh involved with that company I can't speak to the bid necessarily I, don't know if council member Chavez has nothing on that, but I will know for the record. Those were my concerns around some of the political activity.

F

Thank you for elaborating on that. So I certainly understand that the Keystone Pipeline piece of that this Council has taken a position in opposition to the Keystone Pipeline and so obviously that's a significant concern, but I guess maybe I'd ask our City attorney uh Mr City attorney.

F

If you were able to share any details, you know I'm curious. The political positions of owners of companies is that something that legally can come into purview for us when deciding whether or not we approve a contract with them. Is that something that's legal for us to do is to say we don't like your politics, we or ideology.

G

Vice, chair uh wansley, councilmember Johnson; uh no, it's that's not a permissible Factor, as uh Lori Johnson mentioned. There's a state law and we're required to take the lowest responsible bidder, um and then there are considerations related to that. I could have our contracts attorney. Take a look at and get back to you if you'd like, but no in terms of political speech and and First Amendment speech. That's it's not a proper consideration for a word of a bid.

F

Thank you that that's helpful, that's what I thought was the case. So you know I definitely have some concerns about the fact that, on the record at this council meeting that was articulated as one of the uh concerns or reasons that would give some pause over this contract. uh Mr attorney I'm also curious on the Keystone Pipeline issue, because this is where I do see. You know some uh potential concerns here about a contractor. That's in opposite, essentially, working in opposition to a city position.

F

Is that something that we can is that legal for us to uh potentially not go with a contract with somebody for their work on a project that we have taken a position against.

G

uh Vice chair one's a councilmember, Johnson I do not believe that that's a proper consideration as well. um This this particular contract doesn't have um anything to do per se with the Keystone Pipeline, it's its own, unique or its own distinct matter, and then the again the state bid law would apply.

F

Thank you, Mr attorney. Well, I'll just add my own uh commentary. Then obviously you know I I am not uh an election denier I believe the elections were uh completely legitimate in 2020 and I. Think it's disgusting, the election uh misinformation that's out there and you know. Just the other day we had the anniversary of the Insurrection that happened in our nation, which is a stain on American history among other stains in American, history and I.

F

Think everyone that was involved in that needs to be held fully accountable in the eyes of the law and I. Think it's extremely unfortunate that anybody, let alone a large uh business owner, might hold uh the uh differing views on those two issues. I also think we need to make sure we are handling this matter properly from legal standpoint and from a fiduciary responsibility standpoint, and it's out there on this bid. uh We can see exactly what options we had.

F

One was 3.6 million dollars and one was five point three, and if we're rounding up 5.4 million dollars- and so that's you know, 1.8 million dollar difference, and that is not insubstantial in our city, and it in fact, is actually what we're legally required to go with. These are processes and if we have concerns around our processes, let's have that conversation, but you know other than that. I think it it.

F

It doesn't make sense to single out a company uh just because we don't like somebody's politics in it when doing so or potentially taking an action other than approval would be illegal.

F

That's my comments. Madam chair.

B

Thank you, councilmember Johnson I, see council member Ellison and then I'm in stack.

A

uh Thank you, Vice, chair, onesley, uh just had one quick question. I'll obviously I'll be supporting this for two reasons. One is for all of the reasons I think councilmember Johnson just uh Illustrated, but the other is just because we we have the water main issue and my ward affected three four and five of my understanding not too long ago and so I get the urgency of us needing to take this contract on. But I did have a few more questions. I know that we've made some changes with.

A

um uh You know with our own target market program, uh not just taking lowest bid, but I'm gonna be rusty on my verbiage here, but uh I think best value is is how we're categorizing that now I also know that we've had contracts that uh they get awarded at one level, but we, but they come back to Pogo again and again, um with adjustments and and higher amounts and um and just sort of wondering, um I know we have to follow state law here.

A

So not looking to kind of litigate that, but let's say this company: how do we protect ourselves against the company kind of coming back, saying: hey we're having overruns we're having delays, we're having you know, price increases, uh and then we don't end up filling that 1.8 million dollar Gap over time anyway.

A

um Just sort of wondering if we, if state law, sort of, has any Protections in that in that what in that regard um and uh and uh and if we would and if we have any interest as a city in applying some of the changes we've made to Target Market to state law, uh so yeah.

B

E

B

Oh, thank you director, Johnson. Yes,.

E

Yes, councilmember Ellison I will attempt to answer that broad question um we do have to stay within the confines of the state law. Of course, part of that is contract management. We are very careful about change orders. We know that those can drive up the price of a contract.

E

We want to make sure if there's any uh plan or or generally not a plan, but if there's any chance that a contract is going to expand that we follow whatever bid requirements are for that potential expansion, so, for instance, in the past, if there was a contract- and it was intended to be around 900 000, but there was potential, it would be more than a million. We would bring it to council.

E

We no longer, of course, do that, but um that that's how we try to look at it from a procurement perspective is what is worst case. There are times when things change, soil conditions, unforeseen weather conditions in a contract. It could be a professional Services contract and there's something else that needs to be explored.

E

So there are changes that happen, but those contract managers within the Departments are charged with carefully monitoring that and making sure that everything that we are paying for is a service that we have received and that they have done their due diligence to make sure that there is no attempt to make up a difference in a contract. A procurement can't really manage that piece of it because they aren't there seeing the work done.

E

They aren't approving those invoices that goes back to the contracts and we heavily rely on the contract managers to do that and I do believe in conversations with Public Works. They are very well aware of that and to manage those contracts.

A

Thank you so much sure.

E

You're welcome.

B

Answer your questions. Thank you, director, Johnson um I had me on stack and then I see, uh council, member Vita um I just wanted to note. You know, for the public, the legislative body is charged with two clear functions: oversight in budget um two of three and I will hopefully take those serious and in terms of taking this serious, is in. This committee is to be able to scrutinize uh the activities and of our vendors that are being you know, supported through taxpayer dollars and I've.

B

Seen a number of contracts pass through this committee, um that's not being the first one clear which was used to uh in the deportation of our residents again, something that harms um again undocumented residents that we all represent in our community in the city. um So I do think it's important that we do follow the activities of the the companies that we are supporting using taxpayers dollars and to raise the ethical standards of those vendors to make sure sure that they are not harming our residents that they're providing basic services to so.

B

We should ensure that Equity exists across the board and I see this as an opportunity, um as council member Johnson offered to initiate an ongoing conversation of how we can raise those ethical standards and also bring in the city attorney's office, which I will share.

B

There are times where our city attorney's office in the past when it came to rent control when it came to the 15 minimum wage, so that we could not pursue something as a legislative body and I'm glad that our residents encourage and pressured the legislative uh contingency of this government to say no, you need to stand with us.

B

You need to make sure that we do have a city that honors uh you know wages, quality wages for our workers and also ensure that you know we're protecting a housing affordability for our residents as well, and that allowed us to actually move legislation forward like a 15 minimum wage and hopefully very soon, a strong rent control policy that just you know, couple months years ago, our city, the attorney's office, that we couldn't do either so I, see this as an opportunity again to see how we can continue. These conversations raise that bar.

B

That is part of what I see as powerful of our oversight and budgetary functions of this Council, and look forward to figuring out how we again can raise those ethical and Equitable standards um in partnership with our staff, um with that I will pass it to council member Vita. Thank.

H

You chair, wansley I, just had a question about of the timeline, because council member Ellison brought up the point that this is the water main that affected our Awards and I was just wondering. um Is this? Are they going to begin the repair work after this contract is approved? After maybe, this is a public works and infrastructure question.

B

Director Johnson, would you like her to ask if.

H

If she can I'd be happy to oh, it looks like she okay, I'll check in with Public Works, just wondering on timeline, because we have this week to approve this through Council, and if this is any delay in the work that we need in our respective Wards done for this water main. Thank.

B

F

B

I see councilmember Johnson thank.

F

You, madam chair and I, just want to respond to the comments around the oversight and the activities of vendors.

F

Certainly I think the Keystone Pipeline is an important issue to raise I guess where my concern really is is around not the activities of vendors, but the activities of an individual were brought up, because it's the individual who owns that company Who as a private citizen, is choosing to take political positions that I vehemently disagree with, but then their positions are being brought up in committee when talking about a company and whether and frankly, this contract, that's before us for approval and I think we just need to be really careful when having conversations like this I mean this has already been on the record.

F

This is something people can pull up online now after this committee and, frankly, I think we're opening the city up to a lawsuit and that's a real concern here.

B

That's it for discussion, I see so The Proposal on the table was to take a separate vote on this item. Clerks can I. Have you do a roll call.

C

Councilmember Vita aye councilman Chavez, no councilmankowski, councilman, Johnson, aye, Vice, chair wansley.

B

C

Chair Ellison, aye I have four eyes and two nates.

B

That item carries um the next uh item that we have on. Our agenda is for discussion, um considering the recent uh bargaining contract for uh the Building Trades inspectors uh unit for 2022 through 2024. This is authorizing the collective bargaining agreement with those inspectors. So we have a presentation and discussion related to the authorization of that contract.

B

um I'll now invite uh Rashida the links to give that presentation for us foreign.

I

Chair Wamsley, that is correct. We did reach an agreement through mediation with the Building Trades inspectors on December, 19th, I believe for a three-year term included in that term. I just want to highlight the demographics of 29 members in this unit, as well as their bypoc demographics of 20 percent of people of color and 17 percent female.

I

um The specifics of this agreement are as follows: effective January, 1 of 22. We were at two and a half percent January of effective January, 23, two and a half percent, and then four and a half percent in 2024..

I

um In order for us to reach an agreement. Obviously economics was a major factor. What the city did in conjunction with the Union, was agreed to a class maintenance study and Market adjustment to study the classifications in this unit, in which is actually active right now and has begun upon conclusion of that study and adjustment. If that yields an increase, this unit will receive that increase per the findings and they're actually brought in transparently through this process.

I

um In addition to the market and class study, this group will also receive the one thousand dollar retention incentive. We've reached this agreement in the same terms as we did with the other units.

I

Some of the non-economic highlights that I want to flag is that we are we've added Juneteenth to this bargaining agreement. Obviously it's gone into effect, I! Think back in 2021.. In addition to that, we reached a letter of agreement to allow this group to um move through classifications from a building inspector to a senior building inspector without a competitive examination, as well as some other flexibility in pay dates and pay. Progressions consistent with contract terms, and so this is a part of the total agreement that we reach through mediation, with the building inspectors.

B

Thank you so much director, Maloney, um I'm, really I, don't see anyone for questions. I just want to commend your leadership in in getting this contract. To this point, um I requested this presentation because I know Council saw for many times. We had our building trade inspectors uh come to the chambers, speak to committees and ask for their Firm support and making sure we have the strongest contract for our city employees. So I want to thank you and making sure you know.

B

We honored that agreement on the city, Side um and I will wait to see if there's any questions, all right. Councilmember Ellison.

A

Just wanted to Echo your thanks. I know that on one hand we have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers on the other and on the other hand, we know that we want to provide the best possible environment for our workers and so you've gotta.

A

You know you're kind of on the front lines of creating that balance, and so I know that this is really difficult and so I'm glad that we're we've got something before us here that we're going to be able to vote on as a council uh and just want to thank you for your work and for the presentation, because, uh as Vice chair said, it was really um you know we had.

A

We had our workers in the in in chamber, uh letting us know what their needs were, so um uh so I think it's appropriate that we get an update on on the status of that. So thank you so much thank.

I

You chair Ellison, thank you.

B

Seeing no further discussion, I'll, move approval for this item and and do a Voice vote. So all those in favor say aye aye, although it's not in favor, say nay, all right. That motion carries, um and that also means the cassette agenda is proved with that. We have concluded all business that has come before us today and if there's no objections we can get up out of here, call us adorned.