By Teri Knight, News Director
In April 2020 the Northfield Police Department contracted with Lexipol to begin updating their policy manual. Shortly after was the death of George Floyd, leading to civil unrest and calls for police reforms. The Northfield City Council voted on a resolution to establish a Citizen task force. Chief Elliott told council, “we’re doing so through an equity lens and focusing on alignment with newly passed police reform and legislation. This police department policy review task force is a diverse group of members representing a wide range of community members”. They’ll review, “use of force, immigration, bias based policing, standards of conduct, hate or prejudice crime reporting and investigation”. The recent police reform laws will be examined and the policies explored to determine what changes they might include to align with community expectations. Elliott explained, “the task force of 12 members is about the
maximum to allow a deep dive into these policies and manage the work of the group in a timely manner”. C. Zweifel wanted to add three more including a youth representative for St. Olaf, Carleton and a high school aged member. Based on her conversations with staff, Zweifel amended her motion to add one college age youth member. That passed 6 to 1. C. DeLong felt senior citizens were left out so voted no. The task force will meet about 5 times from October to January to review policies, ask questions, and provide feedback. Following the review, Chief Elliott said, “the work of the task force will be presented to the council at a public meeting and final policies will be posted on the city website”. Elliott added that the policy manual is a living document that they will continually update as appropriate. Within this supplement is the list of who those task force members are with the exception of the college aged youth. City Council Supplemental Agenda Background Memo No2 for Septemeber 15 2020 final
Rice County looks at how to spend CARES $
“We’ve seen a lot of payroll dollars add up fast because of the overtime that had to be put in”, that’s Commissioner Malecha speaking of all the Department heads and personnel working on figuring out how to handle the pandemic safely and make appropriate decisions. There’s been a lot of spending on PPE’s for all the departments including Rice County Public Health and the Sheriff’s department as they have the most contact with the public. County Administrator Sara Folsted will join their next work session to discuss where to spend those CARES Act dollars from the Federal government. Malecha said that will include nonprofits and small businesses wherein grants are available, adding, “they can certainly talk to our Economic Development Department if they want to apply for some funding”. Rice County received $8 million while Dakota County received $80 million, again based on population.
Dundas to use CARES $ to redesign website
The City of Dundas received $118,000 in CARES Act funding. Administrator Teppen said they purchased additional picnic tables that they will place by the Mill Towns trailhead and further down the river where public works has cleared an area nearer the river. The Council discussed a social media policy which they chose to table and instead will focus on redesigning their website using some of the CARES funding. Once that’s up and running well, they’ll revisit getting on social media. The Dundas Police Department does have a facebook page.
Nfld School Board using re-fi to save $
The Northfield School District is on track to save nearly $280,000 over the next few years with some refinancing approved by the School Board. Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann that the savings go back to the taxpayers. Their key is taking advantage of the interest rates when they’re low like they have been. Ehlers and Associates is their public finance advisor firm. They also advise the City of Northfield.
