Here is the transcribed townhall with the speaker names added based on the context provided. [0:02] [Music] [0:56] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Good evening. I'd like to welcome you to the City Council regular meeting for Tuesday, whoops, September 3rd, 2024. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everyone. Is there any additions or corrections to the agenda? No sir. Seeing none, I'll move the agenda. All in favor signify by saying aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? We have the agenda. First item up this evening under presentations, proclamations, and acknowledgements is a police officer oath of office. Chief Thomas. [1:44] **Police Chief Carson Thomas:** Thank you Mayor and members of the Council. I too wish it was still August because it wouldn't be the end of summer, but here we are. So tonight we have another exciting night for our department. We have another officer that has completed his probationary period and this one's a special one because Alex Zabo has kind of come full circle. Grew up in Rosemount, born and raised, was one of the founders for our Explorer Program, went away for a few years and came on back home. So I'm going to go ahead and read the executive summary that I prepared and we'll go through the oath of office and I believe his mother's going to pin on his badge. In Spring of 2023, the police initiated a hiring process and we're fortunate to see Alex Zabo as an applicant. Over the past year, Alex has worked hard on patrol and recently passed his one-year probationary period. He was born and raised in the city of Rosemount and always dreamed of being a police officer for the city. As his interest in law enforcement grew as a teen, he joined the Rosemount police Explorer program as one of our founding members. He served as the treasurer and eventually as the president of the program. Alex graduated from Rosemount High School in 2016 and officially started working for the city in the public works department. He attended St. Cloud State University where he received his bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 2019 and he also spent time in the United Kingdom where he helped him earn a minor in British studies. Prior to returning to Rosemount, Alex worked as a patrol officer for the city of Waite Park for three years. While in Waite Park, he served as a field training officer and also found special interest with the K9 program. He helped them train quite a bit and someday he hopes to have a K9 here in Rosemount as one of his goals. Alex loves being back in his hometown and serving his community. In the last year he attended an intense bike patrol course that's put on by IPMBA and he enjoys using that platform to better patrol the community. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family, friends, and dogs. He loves to ride his motorcycle and work on his lawn all while listening to classic rock. So, I almost said it—I'm not going to say it. All right, I want to, as I've done it before, take a few little snippets from the type of work that he does to give the impression of the type of patrol officer and the person that he is, because I think hearing it from other people's words means more. So what you'll see with this is teamwork—that is kind of what I saw the theme as I went through some of his digital reviews that come in from his peers as well as his supervisors—that he's a big team player. He's not about himself, he's truly about other people. Something from one of his peers: "Alex took it upon himself to spend time in the mornings at RHS and the elementary schools. On this specific morning, Alex staged his car outside of Rosemount High School at morning arrival, which was appreciated due to a social media threat which raised concern amongst the community." So he doesn't have to be down there. He's not assigned as the SRO, he wasn't directed by a supervisor, he takes it upon himself to go help out Officer Larson. Another one: Car fire at Cameo. He was dispatched to an explosion at the Cameo Place Apartments. Officer Hakenson and Officer Zabo responded code 3 and determined it was not an explosion but a car fire in the parking garage. The garage was quickly filling up with smoke as the car had visible flames underneath the hood of the vehicle. Tasks were divided up and he helped evacuate the entire building once we determined the smoke was moving from the garage up into the apartment complex. He remained calm, he was very patient with the elderly, and he was even seen escorting the occupants down the stairs as the elevators were no longer working. Another example: He offered to take one of his partner's calls, which might seem small, but one of our newer officers, Officer Morgel, had a lot of different reports to complete and one of his peers recognized that. He volunteered to take the rest of Officer Morgel's calls throughout his shift so he could get his paperwork done. He cleaned out the fridge as well as the garage—so again, seems mundane, but no one else did it until Officer Hakenson and Zabo took charge with that and cleaned up the garage and the fridge. These last two are a little bit... this one I appreciate, comes in from a citizen after a traffic stop. She explained how nervous and anxious she was during the stop but she was extremely complimentary on the conduct of the officers, specifically Officers Zabo and Murphy. She said they were kind, patient, and polite even though she was very nervous and flustered. They took their time and explained everything step by step what was happening and she was very appreciative and wanted their supervisors to be aware of how great they are. So that's pretty powerful coming in randomly from a citizen. And the last one, as many of you heard about, was the apprehension of a homicide suspect that we had here back in May. A very dynamic call came out late, almost early morning hours, I think just before midnight. Alex had a big part in that. Specifically, his supervisor that night wrote that "the eagerness of Officer Zabo to find work and help where he could proved to be essential." I tasked Officer Zabo to ensure that the suspect had not entered or made it into the home. Officer Zabo discovered a blood trail which led to a nearby residence. He notified the K9 team of his findings and they started with K9 commands in the backyard. The suspect emerged from behind the shed and was taken into custody. Officer Zabo placed the handcuffs on the suspect. He also rendered aid to the suspect by applying pressure to his neck and he continued to monitor and render aid even though the suspect was wanted for a horrific crime. Alex was then tasked with maintaining the crime scene perimeter in the rear of the residence. This is an essential task as it maintains the integrity of the crime scene and cannot be overlooked. So all in all, Alex has been just a pleasure. He comes in with a smile every day and I think that's just a big win these days is when you find somebody with an attitude like Alex. He's always pleasant to talk to, he'll come up front even into my office and just check in, see how I'm doing, which I appreciate. It's been a pleasure having him back in the city of Rosemount. So with that being said, Mayor, would you like to administer the oath? All right, come on up Alex. [8:10] **Officer Alex Zabo:** (Repeats oath after the Mayor) I, Alex Zabo, do solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and to faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Police Officer in the City of Rosemount, in the County of Dakota, and State of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability, so help me God. [8:38] [Applause] [9:18] **Officer Alex Zabo:** I’ll keep it simple. It's kind of been a full circle for me. Like Chief said, born and raised here. I had great mentors, Sergeant Ranke, the Chief, and all that have been there for me from the beginning with Police Explorers. That's really when my interest in law enforcement grew. My best friends are here, my family, and the best partners in the world. So thank you to the City and thanks for the Department. [Applause] [10:05] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Congratulations, welcome officer. I heard "PWPD" camp there; I'm going to remind them that give him another... wait, what's another action? Oh yeah, good. Am I right or am I right? All right, as the audience leaves—unfortunately for the rest of the meeting—but all right, we'll move forward here completing item three with the presentations. Item four, response to public comment; I don't believe we have anything this evening. Public comment is open. I do not see any residents here, so we will proceed to go through on to the consent agenda. We have items A through J this evening with Bill listings, minutes of our August 20th regular meeting, tort liability insurance limits, ISD 196 ice rental agreement, RAHA concessions agreement, ISD 196 parking lot joint powers agreement, 2024 to 26 school resource officer liaison agreement with the school district, request for the approval of an encroachment agreement, negotiated Lifetime facility change order number 10, and approval of a separation agreement. Council, anyone wishing to pull any items for further discussion? [11:39] **Councilmembers:** No. No. [11:50] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Seeing none, I'll accept a consent agenda approval in the affirmative. [11:58] **Councilmember Paul Essler:** So moved. [11:59] **Councilmember Heidi Freske:** I'll second. [12:07] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** I have a motion and second. Motion by Essler, second by Freske to approve the consent agenda A through J as written. Roll please. **Essler:** Aye. **Klimpel:** Aye. **Weisensel:** Aye. **Theisen:** Aye. **Freske:** Aye. The consent agenda is approved 5-0. We do not have any public hearings this evening. Unfinished business, we'll move to item nine: New Business, PD/PW Campus project update. Logan? [12:26] **City Administrator Logan Martin:** Yep, thank you Mayor. Thanks Mayor, members of the Council. I appreciate that. No action requested of Council here for this agenda item, but I wanted to provide the September update for the PD/PW Campus. Nick is going to bring up the website that folks can visit if they want to learn more, and so we'll talk to that here in a moment. But while he does that, I just wanted to report project is going along very well and encourage folks to drive by and take a peek at it. If you can't, make sure to navigate on our homepage under the "My Community" section of the page, go to the campus update, and we've got some pretty recent photos here inside the campus. What you'll see is heavy-duty interior finishes happening right now. So we are at tile, paint, floor coverings, bathroom fixtures are all happening. The gun range was recently installed and is currently being kind of tweaked. And then up next is things like office furniture—that's probably the next big item that's really exciting and that makes it certainly start to feel like a place that's ready to be occupied. And so middle of October to middle of November we'll be focused on office furniture installation, and then it's frankly systems testing and getting the thing up and running, where we expect to then have folks moving in likely in the middle of December at likely at the latest. So I'm really entering the final couple of stretches here. And that's kind of the exciting stuff. Maybe the less exciting but the critical stuff is just kind of report out on budget and change orders. As you saw attached, the budget is attached again for folks at home just a reminder—so we're talking you know just about a $58 million project at this point. With approved and pending change orders yet to be approved, we are at about a remaining construction contingency of $1,047,000. So that number expects us to spend the approved change orders which of course we will and already have, and any pending ones that you saw in the attached change order summary. All of those would then still leave $1,047,000. And then the bottom line number in the budget, that yellow number, the very final cell there on the spreadsheet shows a savings or a budget surplus of $617,000. That assumes a full spend of the $1,047,000 in contingency in the next couple of months here, which we certainly—I don't want to promise anything—but would not expect to spend a million in contingency in the next month. We will spend more, there are more changes coming and it's happening kind of all the time, but we're through the weeds on some of the biggest stuff. As you've noticed, we have no change orders over $50,000 which would require Council approval. These are still real dollars: $10,000 and $20,000 of data cabling and power changes as we work through the building. But again, we expect to be able to report here at the end of the project certainly a project that is in the black. So I'm really excited to hear that and to be able to report that soon as the project wraps up. Like I said, Nick or I can handle any questions that the council would have. Otherwise, just from a public perception or transparency standpoint, we're really excited to get the public in there. Likely we will do a ribbon-cutting type project opportunity here with the project team and key players, but then a big community engagement open house—kind of picture a full Saturday or something like that—likely in the spring when the weather is nice. The guys and gals can get in there, get situated, get the place cleaned up and ready to show it off for the community this spring. So folks could kind of plan to get in there sometime hopefully as the weather turns in the spring and we can't wait to show it off. It's really going to be a gem, and it already is a gem in the community. So with that, happy to stand for any questions. [16:18] **Councilmember Paul Theisen:** Looks great. **Councilmember Heidi Freske:** Looks good. **Councilmember Paul Essler:** That looks great, really good, really coming along. I drive by it at least once a week. **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Yeah, you know, recognizing staff for the great job taking on this huge project amongst all the other duties that they do. So it's great to see this moving along as successfully as it is. Anything, Nick, that you want to add? You're at the mic, you might as well. [16:54] **Public Works Director Nick Egger:** Sure. No, you knocked it out of the park, Logan, with the rundown on all the activities that are happening. I will just make a quick plug for the official project website. You can see I've highlighted it on the screen, though it's kind of a short and condensed version of a lot of the gobbledygook you can see in URL addresses, but it's rosemountmn.gov/pdpw. You can get directly to that and that's updated at least monthly, sometimes a little more frequently, but lots of photos and backstory on the project are all there. [17:35] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** I thought maybe you're going to make a plug for the bigger office. [17:38] **Nick Egger:** No comment! [17:40] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** No, I do appreciate that though, actually a site with internal photos because we get a lot of questions. From the outside, like you said Paul, we drive by it weekly. I drive by and now that that Kraus-Anderson building has gone in front, all of a sudden it's like the parking lots and the gutters... everything's there. And so to see these pictures inside, I think, will really be a great thing for the community to see—like this is all your and your staff's hard work coming together and it's pretty impressive. So yeah, please go and check out the website. Thank you. All right, the action here is basically to acknowledge that we received the report so we don't have to vote on that, but consider it received and acknowledged. So that'll complete item nine, New Business. We'll move on to announcements. 10A, City Staff updates. [18:36] **City Administrator Logan Martin:** Mayor, I can just give a quick update to again thank the Council for a quick meeting here tonight. We're at two in a row; it's certainly not our norm to be this brief, but just the way that the agendas have kind of fallen into place. But looking forward to a September 17th Council meeting where we're going to earn your keep—that'll be a bigger one. We'll do the 2025 budget here at the next council meeting along with all the items that came off of the Planning Commission from last week's meeting. If folks at home check that out, or I would encourage that they check out that YouTube link—those are things like the new Rosemount Middle School, the new Kwik Trip at Akron and 42, a daycare facility, and I'm probably even missing one more. So a lot of items coming in September 17th along with the 2025 budget. Otherwise, nothing more to add, Mayor. [19:22] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Okay. Any announcements from Council as we move to 10B? No? Otherwise I'll move on to our upcoming community calendar. The next Port Authority meeting is September 17th from 6:00 to 7:00 here at City Hall, and the next Council meeting is September 17th following at 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. And even though we're having short meetings, we will be reconvening in our work session following this to continue our discussion and other work items. So with that, I will move to adjourn with reconvening to follow. Is there a second? [20:00] **Councilmember Paul Essler:** Second. [20:02] **Mayor Jeff Weisensel:** Motion been made and seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you. [20:08] [Music]