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Home My WebLink About20140423 YCRM MinutesROSEMOUNT YOUTH COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING PROCEEDINGS April 23, 2014 CALL TO ORDER Pursuant to due call and notice thereof a regular meeting of the Rosemount Youth Commission was held on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 at 3:45 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 2875 1451h Street West, Rosemount. Vice Chair Eichten called the meeting to order with Youth Commissioners Dennis, Mohamed, Munson, Simmering, and Wick attending. City Council Member Shoe -Corrigan, Staff Liaison Foster, Police Chief Eric Werner and Recording Secretary Kladar were also present. Youth Commissioners Alex, Corrigan, Narloch, Nelson, Neuens, Oliphant, and Schalliol were absent. Commissioners Norder and Wuellner arrived at 3:47 p.m. City Council Member Weisensel arrived at 4:00 p.m. ADDITIONS OR CORRECTIONS TO AGENDA Item 6a — Rosemount Area Arts Council update was removed from the Agenda as Jeanne Schwartz was unable to attend the meeting. Motion by Eichten. Second by Dennis. Motion to Adopt the corrected Agenda. Ayes: 6 Nays: 0. Absent: 9. Motion carried. AUDIENCE INPUT None CONSENT AGENDA Motion by Eichten. Second by Dennis. Motion to approve the Consent Agenda. a. Minutes of March 19, 2014 Youth Commission Meeting Ayes: 6 Nays: 0. Absent: 9. Motion carried. OLD BUSINESS None NEW BUSINESS 6.a. Rosemount Area Arts Council (RAAC) Updates Removed from agenda. 6.b. Police Department Update - Chief Eric Werner Police Chief Werner presented information about the Rosemount Police Citizens Academy. The Academy is three hours per week for seven weeks where citizens learn about specific functions of the Police Department. Chief Werner proposed having a shortened academy for teens and was seeking input from the commissioners about what topics they would be interested in. The group discussed the length of time required for the academy and suggested smaller segments of time. Eichten suggested marketing this with an event such as Leprechaun Days and include some type of interactive activity which would attract attendees. Commissioners expressed interest in squad car and simulation presentations. Dennis said there is a conception that police are just trying to catch kids and not protect them. Eichten stated that the Youth Commissioners may not be the best cross section for the local youth but Werner pointed out that their views are important. Foster inquired whether the social media messages about the police are generally positive or negative. Eichten said it is noticed by teens when there are a lot of officers around and kids then would go somewhere else. Shoe -Corrigan inquired whether any of the Youth Commissioners had any positive or negative interactions with the police. There was discussion about experiences involving medical instances where the police had been involved. Werner asked the commissioners to pass on the information to their successors about the teen academy. Werner next provided information about medical marijuana legislation. Werner stated there really isn't anything called medical marijuana and this is a political term and could be a gateway to legalize marijuana. Werner reported that millions of dollars have been spent on showing how harmful tobacco is to users and now millions of dollars is being spent to legalize another drug to smoke. Current legislation would allow 12 plants and each plant produces one pound per year which is a very large amount of marijuana. Werner stated that marijuana is a gateway drug and leads to other drugs such as heroine. Drug cartels make the drugs cheap to get people addicted. Werner advised there was a near overdose last week involving a Rosemount teen and another one in Lakeville. Discussion ensued regarding potential impacts on work rules, for example, how will employers handle safety situations where employees have a prescription for medical marijuana? Werner stated that for every revenue dollar marijuana brings in, there is increased cost due to effects of its use. Wick inquired about the data from Europe where marijuana has been legal for a long time and Werner reported that the data shows the brain is negatively impacted. 6c. Roundtable Discussion Eichten inquired about the status of the pothole repairs on Shannon Parkway. There was discussion about pothole repairs and the June improvement project which includes Shannon Parkway. Dennis stated he is participating in a research fair tomorrow at Inver Hills and part of his research included interviewing Chief Werner. Shoe -Corrigan stated that she believed that RAAC is proceeding with the swing dance in April. She advised the group that the National League of Cities conference is in Texas this fall and inquired whether any commissioners were interested in attending. Shoe -Corrigan will bring the conference information to the next meeting. Mohamed advised of leadership conferences at Stanford, Harvard and Chicago. Also, the Relay for Life event is in June and Mohamed would like others to join in the event and this could be a potential future Youth Commission opportunity. Mohamed also suggested dosomething.org for fundraising and volunteering. Specifically, the Youth Commission could consider using those resources next year to have a clothing drive. 2 Weisensel advised that the work on the splash pad has begun and the tennis courts will be started soon. Foster distributed a thank you card for the DCC tour for the commissioners to sign. Foster advised that 14 people applied for next year's Youth Commission with 6 returning commissioners. There will be a meet and greet interview for the incoming commissioners on May 6 at 5:30 at the Fire Station #2 and the exiting commissioners were invited to attend. There is a tentative alternate interview date of April 29 following the volunteer recognition event. Foster received a call from a journalist writing an article about youth leadership and Eichten said he'd be happy to talk to him. Foster advised that the meeting in May will be a joint meeting with the incoming commissioners. Lastly, Foster reported that a selection should be made shortly for the joint volunteer coordinator position shared between the cities of Rosemount, Apple Valley, West St. Paul and Inver Grove Heights. Foster suggested having the coordinator come to a Youth Commission meeting in the fall to provide more information about the use of volunteers. Norder suggested a sidewalk on Diamond Path and Pilot Knob. Weisensel suggested writing the Dakota County Commissioners as this is a County road. Weisensel reported that Commissioner Alex did a good job in his Youth Commission report to City Council last week and City Council appreciates the work of the commissioners. REPORTS 7.a. Commission Member Reports Wick reported on the attendance issue. Wick had talked to Mohamed about her attendance and let Mohamed summarize their conversation. Mohamed reported that she'd missed several meetings due to family issues. Shoe -Corrigan reminded the group that communication is important and the commissioners should advise the group of absences before the meeting if possible. As a group they should decide whether they need to take action. Motion by Eichten. Second by Dennis. Motion recommending that Mohamed remain in good standing with the Youth Commission. Ayes: 8 Nays: 0. Absent: 7. Motion carried. (Commissioner Munson left after this vote). Discussion ensued regarding the members who are not present today but have multiple absences. Weisensel wants to know if members are in good standing when interviewing for next year. Foster provided an update regarding absences at 3 or above: Narloch: 6; Nelson: 5 and Oliphant: 3. Weisensel advised the commissioners that there are various options the group can take including no action. Shoe -Corrigan suggested that next year the commission could do a mid -year evaluation to avoid this issue at the end of the term. Motion by Eichten. Second by Wick. Motion recommending that no action be taken regarding the absences of Narloch and Nelson. Ayes: 7 Nays: 0. Absent: 8. Motion carried.7.b. Next Meeting Date The next meeting of the Youth Commission is scheduled for May 28, 2014 at 3:45 p.m. at City Hall. This will be a joint meeting with new and current members. On the agenda for next month's meeting is an update of the One Tile One Rosemount project by Jeanne Schwartz of RAAC. 3 ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to discuss, it was moved by Eichten and seconded by Dennis that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried unanimously and the meeting was adjourned at 4:58 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Karin Kladar Recording Secretary 4