歪歪漫画

BEMIDJI 鈥� With a new city manager expected to come on board in the near future, the Bemidji City Council sat down to discuss its top goals and priorities during Monday鈥檚 work session.

Facilitated by Aimee Gourlay of the League of Minnesota Cities, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the biggest challenges facing the city and to provide an idea of direction for a new city manager once they take on the role.

Prior to the meeting each of the councilors filled out a survey to share what they had for their top priorities, which were then collected to find similar themes and goals.

One of the recurring topics in their responses was the need for housing in Bemidji.

鈥淚t struck me that as a council you have this great agreement that housing needs to be addressed,鈥� Gourlay said. 鈥淲hat are you thinking about the policies or recommendations you would make?鈥�

Ward 4 Councilor Emelie Rivera had a list of actions related to housing that she would like to see the city pursue, including seeking Small Cities Development Program grants and commissioning a housing study.

鈥淭here are some (grants) available right now for rental rehabilitation, business rehabilitation鈥� Our city has had those types of grants before,鈥� Rivera said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just building new housing, it鈥檚 refurbishing what we have.鈥�

Looking at zoning and planning policies as they relate to housing was another strategy Rivera suggested, especially as a way to promote the development of affordable and subsidized units.

Other councilors believed that as important as the issue of housing is, it can only be addressed alongside other topics like growing the city鈥檚 tax base and improving public safety.

鈥淭o me, you can鈥檛 have housing unless you have a tax base, and you aren鈥檛 going to have development unless you have a more pro-business, lower tax community,鈥� said Ward 2 Councilor Josh Peterson.

Ward 3 Councilor Ron Johnson shared conversations he had with neighbors who planned to move out of the community due to not feeling safe, connecting the issue of housing to public safety.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e not going to improve housing stock if people don't want to live in the neighborhood anymore,鈥� Johnson said.

Ultimately the general consensus on housing was to seek existing grants, consider a housing study and examine what the city鈥檚 role could be in tackling the community鈥檚 housing needs.

Public safety was one of the next priorities discussed, with many of the councilors bringing up the need to improve recruitment and retention at the Bemidji Police Department.

By improving retention, councilors noted that police officers would have stronger ties to the community and more experience as members of law enforcement. One idea of how to achieve this included incentives for staying with the department for a number of years.

Rivera and At-large Councilor Audrey Thayer pointed out the broad scope of what public safety can include and broadened the conversation beyond policing to community approaches.

鈥淟aw enforcement is responding to calls, they aren鈥檛 necessarily preventing crimes,鈥� Rivera said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 police your way out of chemical dependency, so what are we going to look toward? There鈥檚 a lot of nontraditional approaches to public safety.鈥�

These approaches included efforts to build community engagement and finding ways to help people feel invested in the community they live in. By combining these efforts with law enforcement, the hope would be to improve public safety from multiple directions.

The council also discussed economic development as a priority, with a particular focus on improving the city鈥檚 tax base.

Diversifying the city鈥檚 industries and promoting and attracting jobs that pay living wages were discussed, alongside investing in partnerships with neighboring government agencies and organizations.

鈥淚t all comes back to relationship building,鈥� said Mayor Jorge Prince. 鈥淭he city is going to be doing very few of these things by ourselves.鈥�

Economic development tied back to other priorities from the council, as attracting workforce means providing adequate housing and other basic needs residents require.

鈥淪ome of being an attractive place to live is that package deal 鈥� having a place to live, having good schools and access to child care,鈥� Rivera said.

After the discussion had continued for two hours, the meeting was adjourned. Gourlay will provide the council with a summary of its priorities to help guide its future work.