Red Wing City Council Meeting, August 24

All members present
Several Fire Department employees were recognized for their accomplishments. The
Pier 55 director gave a presentation on the new Red Wing Legacy Choir, a dementia-
friendly choir.
There were lots of non-agenda item public comments. (I apologize if I spell people’s
names wrong!)
Stephanie Rogers from the Anderson Center spoke about the proposed art installation
at Colvill Park, which is being paid for by grants, no city funds. It’s called “Mississippi
Dialogues” and the artist is Margaret Pearce. Margaret also appeared via online to
discuss the installation, which they hope will happen October 1. There will be a series of
large panels with words of Natives who lived alongside the river.
Denny (missed his last name) spoke on organizations getting funds from the city, and
how years ago organizations were able to put on lots of great events without city
funding.
Alex Colley spoke about the ‘flock’ cameras now in the city, and spoke of the camera
system’s high failure rate, and their being used to track innocent citizens or stalk them.
Amma Plank gave a short, sweet presentation hoping that the city council members had
a nice summer and that she hoped they all know they are important. (Observer Opinion:
What a courageous and generous child, to come before a city council that has
repeatedly ignored the racist bullying she’s been subject to at school, and wish them
well. Wouldn’t that be great if more of the council members could be as gracious?)
Mathias Plank spoke out against the council’s decision to ban moments of silence, then
suggested that the Council reach out to younger citizens because so few of them ever
come to council meetings. He felt greater participation of young people would be good
for the city.
Amber Plank spoke about the immigration situation, and how it’s not political to care
about people experiencing difficulties—it’s about humanity.
Ron Tisdahl said the city needed a plan to improve the city’s educational system, which
he believes has deteriorated.
Alan Muller spoke out against the “Flock” cameras, and believes RW residents should
have been consulted.

Beth Breeden spoke on the decline in accountability expected from organizations that
receive city funds. She believes the city needs policies in place to better track city funds
that are given to organizations.
Toward the meeting’s end, Police Chief Nick Sather answered council questions about
the “Flock” cameras. Red Wing doesn’t have this brand, but uses Axon as its provider.
He explained that all the data collected from the cameras stays in Red Wing and is not
shared with anyone. He said that while he can’t guarantee that no one would ever
abuse the data, he said that all searches of the data are logged, cannot be deleted, and
are audited to make sure the data is not being misused.
Pierce County in WI is interested in a data-sharing arrangement, but they currently don’t
have the cameras. If they get the cameras and the council approves a data-sharing
arrangement, it would include an agreement that Pierce County would not use Red
Wing data for immigration purposes. Red Wing does not allow any federal organization
to access city data, so Pierce County would have to agree to not share Red Wing data.