City of Woodbury Council Meeting

Yes, the programing. Good evening. Welcome to our city council meeting. Uh we're meeting today in council chambers. This meeting is also taking place virtually. Uh it is June the 10th, 2026. It is 7:30 p.m. Uh meetings are recorded by True Lens Media. Um they're also broadcast live and they're are also replayed on channel 799. You can also find the meetings on the city of Woodberry's YouTube channel. Um and uh with that, please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um, Angela is here uh as our deputy city administrator. Please do the roll call. Here we are all here tonight so we're able to conduct tonight's business. This is a fairly short meeting because really all we have is a consent agenda plus open forum.

Um so let me review the open forum um rules. I have green sheets here. So, we should be full for that. Um, some of you have been here before. You know how this goes. Some of you may be new. Uh, let me just review. This is a portion of the meeting where a maximum of three persons will be allowed to address the council on subjects which are not part of the meeting agenda. So, I have those here and as we've done in the past, we're trying to be fair. We've got three for one category and two for another. So, because they're slightly different, we'll take the three and we'll take the two. Um when you come forward, please come forward. Um state your name and your city of residence. We don't need your address. Um you are allowed to speak for three minutes. This is how the system works. We we will have a timer going on over here.

So you can keep an eye on that. Three minutes. We do a countdown. There's uh colored lights that are present over there. A green, a yellow, and a red. The green will last for two minutes. The yellow comes on with one minute left. And then when it's read, please uh be be finished. Um 3 minutes each. Um I think that's it. Am I missing anything? No. So I I take these in order that they came. Uh so first is Andrew Murray.

Murray. Welcome. Thanks, Mayor Bert. Um, Mayor Burke, city council members and city staff, thank you for um having this open time tonight. Um, I'm here tonight to ask the council Oh, the name and everything. Uh, my name is Andrew Murray. I am a Woodbury resident. Um, have been here for about 11 years with my family. [snorts] [snorts] Um, I'm here tonight to ask the council for transparency around public safety facility funding and whether any such funding could create obligations to accommodate federal law enforcement agencies like ICE, as well as urge this council to adopt a resolution opposing the construction of an ICE detention facility in our city and prohibit um ICE agents from staging on city property. And I want to explain why this moment in particular demands local action. It's been well documented that ICE has operated outside of their constitutional bounds. What makes this especially dangerous is the simultaneous removal of accountability for these agencies.

To date, there's been no accountability for the two agents uh for the agents who murdered two motans. Um, I want to respectfully push back on recent statements by the council suggesting that immigration enforcement in Minnesota is winding down or is altogether over. Uh, tactics certainly have shifted and operations are simply receiving less media coverage, but enforcement activity continues. It's easy for those of us who are not directly targeted to settle back into our routines. And I'd ask that collectively we resist that comfort and pay attention to the broader context. What we are witnessing at the federal level is part of a wellocumented pattern of democratic backsliding. Uh this is seen globally across multiple countries. Political scientists would refer to this as competitive authoritarianism. It's a strategy employed by right-wing movements globally that involves consolidating media control, redistributing redistributing um governmental power to political allies, manipulating electoral systems, and weakening judicial independence. I can't even talk about the 75 billion that was given to these agencies last year and the 70 billion given to them yesterday. um which is multiple times what their annual operating budget is.

I have to squ quick quickly skip to um my asks of you. Um please be transparent and forthcoming with residents about agreements involving federal law enforcement going forward. Include the following in city update uh newsletter and immigration FAQ websites. Uh specifically, what's the current status of contracts with DHS ICE CBP at the Hero Center and the details around federal funding or state funding for the Woodbury public safety campus project? There's a deficit that's not made up by um the tax levy appropriations. Uh and we need to know if those uh funds coming from grants are going to force us to accommodate ICE in our public safety center. Thank you. Next we have Lori Pelerite. Thank you. Uh Lori Pelarite, I've been a Woodbury resident for 40ome years, which

Is crazy. Uh to piggyback off of what Andrew said because there's no point in repeating that. Just so you all know why this topic keeps coming up and why we're so passionate about it, I did a little looking around. These are Brookings Institutes of Stats. Between January of 25 and April of uh 2026, approximately 400,000 people were uh detained by ICE. Of those, 205,000 children were impacted. 36% of those are under six years old and 22,000 are have been left with no parent in the home. Now, there's no system in place. If you think somebody's keeping track of these kids, you have not been paying attention to what's going on. And this is not the kind of activity that gets Woodbury on the front page of the Star Tribune as an ideal place to live. This is not what we want going on in our community. And what we really want is a resolution that you guys put yourselves on the record and say, "We are with you in Woodbury.

We know what a great place this is to live and we are going to watch to make sure legal rules are followed and people are held accountable." Thank you. And Julie Miller Hayes. [applause and cheering] Good evening. I'm not by any means going to have a lot of data or be as eloquent. I'm just going to get to the point. Um, my name is Julie Miller Hayes. I have lived in Woodbury now 12 years. Um, I am just very passionate about this subject as an educator as well. But bottom line, in talking with lots of people that live here, I' I've been an educator here in this district as well, we really want to know where you stand as a city council as far as using our facilities for ICE. We haven't seen you make a basic statement. We want to know if you're okay renting our buildings and we want you to have a resolution on the record to know if you are willing to adopt and know that you're okay with this. and also to have them pay for it if you are okay with this and have a resolution.

As citizens, we want to be able to have a vote on this. As citizens, there are so many people that didn't even know where you stood with this. We just know that you haven't had something or a resolution to know where you stood with it with ICE. I know that ICE has been in our community because when I came home and ICE was here, I saw them and I had anxiety I never had before when I came home from Nevada. We want to know, we want you to create a policy about letting the citizens have a vote about having ICE be and rent our facilities. Please make a resolution. We as citizens deserve it from you. Thank you for listening and please hear us out as citizens. Thank you. NEXT I HAVE UH Kelly Teima and I think this is just a slightly different topic. Kelly Teima. Good evening Mayor and city council staff. Appreciate your time. Um, I have heard the controversy over Did you state your name and your Oh, yeah. Sorry. My name is Kelly Teima. I live in Woodbury, have been a longterm uh resident here. Um, have heard the

Controversy on IA on both sides and just want you to know that there are people that are pro having them have access to facilities in Woodbury. Um, I am very pro law enforcement and military. ICE is part of law enforcement. We need them for safety. And you need to I mean there are citizens in this city that feel the same way. Not just and I don't have all the statistics. I'm I don't have all the paperwork that's been passed on from professionals, but I'm just telling you people are there are people that feel that they are needed here too. Thank you. Next I have um Tom Schmidt. Good, good [clears throat] evening, Mayor Bird and city council members. Uh, it's good to see a lot of you know you well. I've [clears throat] been in Woodbury a long time. And can you just state your name? I'm sorry. Tom, Dr. Tom Schmidt. Been in Woodbury a long time.

I have a son-in-law that's in the military. My family is all military. I've got nephews in the military. um they have signed up and worked with ICE, not in Minnesota. But um I'm for law and order. I've been all my life. And stop means stop. Doesn't mean run. Cop [clears throat] says something, you do it. And law and order and righteousness and justice is what we need to get back to. So anyway, I have a lot of people that I talked to in Woodbury. I've been here a long time.

Nobody's stepping up. I didn't realize I would be stepping [clears throat] up here without a paperwork to read or anything like that and claps and all that, but I I can tell you I got neighbors, I got people all around business people um that want right law and order and if they want to come in and train on my tax dollars, that's fine. And um [clears throat] I guess that's all I would say is thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Um, I'm going to turn to city administrator Dah now to I think if you could clarify a couple things. One is we have statements and two is could you just clarify about usage of facilities and public safety building and that kind of thing. Yes, thank you mayor uh Bert. Happy to. Uh so at the last uh council meeting there was an open forum item where a resident asked about specifically about the city's involvement or if there was involvement with a 287G agreement.

Uh and then uh as it relates to that, was there any space being programmed in the new public safety building for cooperation with law enforcement parties like ICE for example? Are you going to tell us what a 287G agreement is for those that Okay. Telling you what I'm telling you. Tell me what I'm telling. Okay. Thank you. So, [snorts] uh and that was the next thing. So, just to be So, I'll just recap kind of what we told that resident and I think uh for the sake of of having the public hear it. Um it's good to to reiterate that tonight for the public and then I think it's also good that we put it on our our website in our FAQs to to ensure that that message is consistent. So just real quick quick in terms of what a 287 agreement is. A 287g agreement is a formal partnership between local law enforcement agencies and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE authorized under section 287G.

It's where they get the name of the Immigration and Nationality Act. These agreements allow specially trained local officers, so you know, from local governments um or deputies and counties to perform certain federal immigration enforcement functions under ICE supervision. Uh so that's what it is. And I want to be very clear uh and this is direct from the chief who ultimately is uh supervised by me and I'm supervised by the council. Uh, Woodbury Public Safety does not have nor has ever had and is not interested in pursuing any type of 287g agreement with ICE. And in terms of uh if any space is being programmed in the new public safety building for ICE, no space in the new facility is being programmed for ICE or any other law enforcement agency. We will have dedicated workspace of course uh in the building for our two Washington County social workers assigned and embedded with our community support team.

This team focuses on supporting the individuals experiencing mental health challenges, substance abuse issues, and homelessness. And I'd imagine that team will be unfortunately uh getting bigger due to all of societal problems. But um we're happy to have them and I look forward to that service expanding in the future. AND THAT IS IT. GREAT. Thank you. Well, thank you again. Um, always good to hear from everybody that uh, chooses to come. Um, again, like I said, this meeting is going to be fairly short because all we have next is a consent agenda. So, all items listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the city council and will be enacted by one motion and an affirmative vote by roll call of the majority of the members present. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member or a citizen to request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered a separate subject of discussion by the council.

So I do always turn to people that are here live. If you've read through [clears throat] it and you want something removed to talk about, let me know. Now is your time. No, then I always turn because we monitor online as well. So Angela will take a peek and see if there's anything online. There is not. Council members, does any any of you want to have anything removed for discussion? Well, hearing none, would someone like to put forth a motion, then? I'll make a motion. Let's let everybody hear what Yeah. I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda items 6A through 6G as presented in our agenda packet. Second.

Motion second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, the roll call, please. Council Council member Wilson. I. Council member Stafford. I member Morris. Hi. Council member Santini. Hi. Mayor Burke. I u those consent agenda items pass. Now we always just wrap up with the city administrator's update. Do you have something, Jeff, for us? I do have a few items, uh, Mayor Bert. Uh, five actually. I'll try to go through them pretty quickly. Uh, it's it's the start of summer, of course, and that means a fun and busy time of year in parks, uh, summer recreation programs from Camp Carver, Puppet Way, and my favorite, youth and adult tennis lessons, and a host of other programs and events kicked off this week. So, busy week uh for our parks and recck staff. many opportunities for all community members are still available. So, I I I encourage everybody uh to check those out if um if you're interested. There's still space is open for uh this summer.

Check out on our website. Uh you can see all the information there. Tomorrow, uh Destination Woodbury will be launching its new know and go e newswsletter uh starting in the morning. The newsletter will be featuring seasonal activities, local deals and discounts, uh business spotlights, and upcoming community events. So, if anybody's interested in getting all the the latest and greatest of what's going on, sign up. Go to our award-winning website. All the information information is right there. Um, hang on, It's an award-winning website. He did not. Yes. Did I miss that? You were probably absent that meeting. Um, Um, it got the award for the best new website.

Best visitors and convention bureau website essentially. Oh, not our city website. No, DMO website. Dad, I understood. Okay. I mean, I do love our website. It's okay. Next item. Another another positive news. Uh, our finance team recently had our our AAA bond rating reaffirmed uh in a recent rating call. A local government with a AAA bond rating is the highest rating possible. It's viewed by investors as exceptionally reliable and financially well-managed, which creates several important benefits to the community. I think it bears, you know, saying publicly because it really is important and it speaks to the hard fiduciary uh and fiscal responsibility that staff and council has had over the years. Uh because lenders see the AAA bonding as uh low risk. They see the government as low risk. We are able to borrow money at much lower interest rates than most governments when we're financing major infrastructure projects. Uh the borrowing costs then ultimately save taxpayers money over time and we have to levy less uh which it really ends up more money in the in people's pocketbooks.

Um meaning that taxes go for essential services rather than debt payments. Um it also signals uh as I alluded to it before strong budgeting practices, healthy reserves, stable revenue sources, and responsible long-term planning by council and staff. uh and also can increase public confidence and attract businesses and economic development. So, way to go Angela Gorl and her team and the uh uh city council as well. Great job. Hey, thank you for that. Um uh July 8th meeting uh the city council will be uh in in addition to um swearing in our newest police officer um the police chief from Oak Park Heights, Chief Hansen, will be recognizing the re the first responders uh that were Woodbury uh based that were involved in a recent incident on St. Croy Bridge. Uh we'll wait to share some of the details later, but a pretty uh traumatic experience and um really proud of how our team members uh provided value there and saved lives. Yeah.

Uh lastly, uh residents, council, staff, don't forget about the Lions Golf Tournament. As a new Lions member, uh I'm soliciting uh golfers. Uh but the six 16th annual Dick Stafford charity golf tournament by the Woodbury Lions on Monday, August 10th, uh is going to happen, rain or shine. Uh, go to the Wood Woodbury Lions website to learn more and get signed up now. Spots are filling up. Great. Thank you. Well, I have a public service announcement I want to share because I realize this just ended up on my desk. Many of you get information and news from the city of Woodbury and sometimes you click on and you find out. Um, [clears throat] my husband and I have signed up for the um, adopt a drain program. All of you can do this. You probably live on a street. There's drains in front of you. We need to keep those drains clear of all kinds of clutter and debris and things.

So, um, I'm going to be posting this in our yard. Um, it says, "We protect Minnesota lakes, rivers, and wetlands. Sweep up, rake up, pick up." Um, occasionally we'll just take a picture of the drain and send it into the people who organize that. But, um, we're going to do our part to be environmental stewards of our local street and our community. So, consider that. Um, your everyone else out there listening and council members, you name your drain. No, but I might. People have been Okay. Well, we might might have to come up with that. Yeah. So, um, that's that. All right, that wraps up our meeting. Just uh for everyone, we are um you know, we have have workshop before this meeting. Today's workshop topic is the capital improvement plan. It's a very detailed financial plan that we go through on all the assets. We began the meeting uh you know started at 5:30.

We break for this. We're going back downstairs to continue that discussion about capital improvement plan and uh and the finances of that. So with that, I make a motion that we adjourn this meeting. Second motion and second hearing. Any objection? All in favor? I Okay, we are adjourned.