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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,November 17,2014 Page 26 Mayor Roe invited audience members to speak, briefly reviewing public com- ment protocol. Sue VanSanden,Belmont Lane West Block Captain Ms. VanSanden stated that, over the last ten plus years, she had seen families ad- jacent to this home having their quality of life totally eroded at times. As block captain and spokesperson, Ms. VanSanden opined that little success or positive changes had been accomplished during that time and over the long-term with Metropolitan Council staff, continuing neighborhood frustrations. Ms. Van- Sanden noted that there were young children involved and expressed the neigh- bors' empathy to the person living in the unit, and their interest in welcoming them into the neighborhood; however, she expressed frustration that things seemed to continue at an impasse. Ms. VanSanden opined that the Metropolitan Council was not preparing their cli- ents well before placing them in the units and in a totally different environment, value and behavior system than they were used to, with those residents not know- ing how to "live in Rome, when in Rome." Ms. VanSanden expressed her disap- proval of the current orientation video used by the Metropolitan Council, which she had viewed online, opining that it was done by a graduate student, and should be viewed by the Council as an embarrassment. Ms. VanSanden questioned why such a fairly funded program didn't have any social services available beyond those offered by Ramsey County and their already-overloaded social workers. Ms. VanSanden expressed her interest in the Metropolitan Council making some changes accordingly. Jules Jackson, 1358 Belmont Lane Ms. Jackson supported the comments of Ms. VanSanden in capturing a lot of the frustrations of the neighborhood and ongoing issues with this Metropolitan Coun- cil-owned home. Ms. Jackson noted one important thing that came from the meeting held a few weeks ago, was that this was not exclusive to this one tenant or one past tenant, but was repeated behavior of whomever happened to reside in that unit. With so many repeat problem observed, Ms. Jackson noted their frustra- tion with the program and residents housed in that unit; opining that the problem was not being fixed,but it appeared the Metropolitan Council was simply just fill- ing up the house without regard to resolving any issues or future ramifications. With no one else coming forward to speak on this issue, Mayor Roe closed public comments and thanked residents for attending and providing their comments to staff and the City Council. Mayor Roe noted that their frustration was shared by individual Councilmembers. Follow-up questions for staff