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City Services

The City of Richfield has approximately 200 full-time and 30 part-time employees dedicated to serving the city’s 35,000 residents. The staff is responsible for providing the day-to-day services such as police and fire services, street and parks maintenance, and planning and redevelopment.

Most city employees are housed at the police, fire and City Hall facility at 6700 Portland Avenue In 2008, the Richfield City Council approved plans to build a new facility on the same site. The new facility will be much larger and more accommodating for staff and residents. Construction could start as soon as 2010.

City Council

Richfield residents are represented by a city council, which consists of a mayor and four council members. Three of the council members are elected from the wards where they live and the fourth is elected at-large. The council employs a city manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of city government. At the state level, Richfield residents are represented by a state senator and two members of the House of Representatives.

The council sets the direction and policy for the city. Contributing to this process is input from city staff and, of course, the public. Besides having the opportunity to contact elected officials, the public is always encouraged to attend council meetings and open houses. Public input is also sought for long-term plans like the city’s comprehensive plan.

Together, the City Council, city staff and residents help Richfield achieve its vision to be the best place to live, work, learn and do business.

Public Safety Department

Richfield’s Public Safety Department consists of four main divisions: police, emergency services, inspections and support services.

The Police Division is responsible for ensuring the safety of the community by enforcing criminal and traffic laws. The division consists of 44 sworn officers, including two canine handlers and their two canines that are trained in general criminal apprehension and narcotics detection. A school liaison officer works with the high school and the middle school in Richfield to help ensure the safety of students and staff. Every year, the crime prevention staff coordinates neighborhood National Night Out block parties, citizen police academy and Police and Fire Safety Day for fourth graders.

The Emergency Services Division is responsible for developing an emergency preparedness plan for natural disasters, plane crashes, explosions, acts of terrorism, pandemic flu and other potential threats to the health and safety of Richfield citizens. To assist with this effort, the division has trained police reserves and police explorer scouts who also assist in police-related activities and several civic events.

The Inspections Division is responsible for providing inspection services to safeguard life, health, property and public welfare by enforcing the requirements of the Richfield City Code (e.g., point of sale inspections, rental licensing) and the Minnesota State Building Code. The division issues around 4,000 permits and performs around 6,500 inspections annually.

The Support Services Division is responsible for performing four major functions for the city in the areas of environmental health code enforcement, animal control, business licensing and providing health services to the community.

Fire Department

Richfield residents can be comforted to know that the Richfield Fire Department responds to fire and medical emergency calls in approximately three minutes. That’s faster than most departments in the region. They operate from two firehouses; one on Penn Avenue to better serve the west side of the city and one on Portland Avenue next to City Hall to serve the eastern portion of the city.

The department has 24 full-time firefighters who are all trained as emergency medical technicians. The department responds to over 3,800 calls for emergency service each year.Besides providing emergency fire and medical response, the department also provides hazardous material and technical rescue response, fire prevention, fire code and public education programs, and car seat checks. The department also receives requests and responds to many calls for nontraditional fire department services.

It also participates in Auto-Aid, where neighboring departments partner in responding to calls to provide more in-depth coverage and efficiently utilize shared resources.

Public Works Department

The city’s Public Works Department is responsible for overseeing the design and maintenance of city buildings and infrastructure. The city’s Utility Division staff helps provide and maintain a safe water supply and responsible disposal of waste water to the city’s 34,000 residents every day. They test the water to make sure it’s safe, monitor the city’s seven wells, provide routine cleaning and maintenance to the city’s 120 miles of utility pipes and handle billing. The department recently installed means to read water meters electronically from a vehicle while driving its streets, and it can do the entire city in four hours!

Richfield’s Streets, Parks and Building Maintenance Division sealcoats and resurfaces Richfield streets every year. In addition, staff provides regular cleaning of city streets. Richfield has more than 20 parks and the staff is responsible for the upkeep by mowing, trimming or removing trees, cleaning up trash and maintaining outdoor ice rinks in the winter months. The staff is also responsible for maintaining city facilities like City Hall, city garage, community center, municipal liquor store buildings, Wood Lake Nature Center and other park buildings.

In 2008, a new public works maintenance facility opened on the eastern edge of the city. The new garage has many green features, such as large skylights in the vehicle storage area, permeable pavement in the parking lot, geothermal heating and rain gardens around the entire facility. These features are all designed to save on energy costs as well as minimize the environmental impacts on the compact site. What’s most important is that the new building is safer and provides enough storage for city equipment and vehicles.

Community Development Department

The city’s Community Development Department is responsible for overseeing land use regulation, commercial redevelopment and housing. Helping guide the department in these areas is the City Council, Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) and Planning Commission.

The Community Development Department has seen many redevelopment and housing accomplishments in recent years. Included is the construction of Cedar Point Commons, the first phase of redevelopment along Highway 77. City Bella, a retail and residential building at the corner of Lyndale Avenue and 66th Street, Kensington Park (Lyndale and 77th) and Woodlake Centre (66th and Lyndale).

In addition to the many new townhomes and condominiums, the department has focused on improving the city’s stock of older single-family homes. The city has encouraged home remodeling by coordinating what has become one of the most successful remodeling fairs in the Twin Cities. There are also financing options through the HRA to those looking to improve or remodel.